GREAT BRITAIN - Best of Europe 2014 - page 877

about £30-40. For the cheapest taxi to the airport, don't order one from your hotel. Simply
flag down a few and ask for their best “off-meter” rate. Locals refer to hired cars that do the
tripoff-meter as“mini-cabs.” Thesearereliable andgenerally costwhatyou'dpayforataxi
in good traffic, but—with a fixed price—they can save you money when taxis are snarled in
congestion with the meter running.
Gatwick Airport
More and more flights land at Gatwick Airport, which is halfway between London and the
South Coast (airport code: LGW, tel. [phone], www.gatwickairport.com ) . Gatwick
has two terminals, North and South, which are easily connected by a free monorail (two-
minutetrip,runs24hoursdaily).Notethatboardingpassessay“GatwickN”or“GatwickS”
toindicate yourterminal. BritishAirwaysflightsgenerally useGatwickNorth.TheGatwick
Expresstrains(describednext)stoponlyatGatwickSouth.Schedulesineachterminalshow
only arrivals and departures from that terminal.
GettingtoLondon:GatwickExpresstrains areclearly thebestwayintoLondonfrom
this airport. They shuttle conveniently between Gatwick South and London's Victoria Sta-
tion, with many of my recommended hotels close by (£19 one-way, £33 round-trip, 10 per-
cent discount if purchased online, 4/hour, 30 minutes, runs 5:00-24:00 daily, a few trains as
early as 3:30, tel. [phone], www.gatwickexpress.com ) . If you buy your tickets at the
station before boarding, ask about their deal where three or four adults travel for the price of
two. (If you see others in the ticket line, suggest buying your tickets together—you'll save
up to 50 percent.) When going to the airport, at Victoria Station note that Gatwick Express
has its own ticket windows right by the platform (tracks 13 and 14).
You can save a few pounds by taking Southern Railway's slower and less frequent
shuttletrain betweenGatwickSouthandVictoriaStation(£13.30,upto4/hour,45minutes,
tel. [phone], www.southernrailway.com ).
A train also runs between Gatwick South and St. Pancras International Station (£9,
8/hour,1hour, www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk ) —usefulfortravelerstakingtheEurostartrain
(to Paris or Brussels) or staying in the St. Pancras/King's Cross neighborhood.
Even slower, but cheap and handy to the Victoria Station neighborhood, you can take
the bus (1.25 hours). National Express runs a bus from Gatwick direct to Victoria Station
(£8, hourly, tel. [phone], www.nationalexpress.com ) ; easyBus has one going to
near the Earls Court Tube stop (£2-9 depending on how far ahead you book, 2-3/hour,
www.easybus.co.uk ) .
London's Other Airports
Stansted Airport: If you're using Stansted (airport code: STN, tel. [phone],
www.stanstedairport.com ) , you have several options for getting into or out of London.