Is it possible to walk from Gatwick Airport to Holiday Inn Gatwick? It is only a 1/2 mile but was wondering if there are sidewalks? There is a shuttle service provided by the hotel but since we are 7 people it will cost almost 5.00 USD each (35.00 USD) for just a 1/2 mile! Taxi service is even more. We will only have 4 pieces of luggage and they are on wheels.

This is just a stopover for 1 night as we are heading to Germany/Italy. The train station is 1 mi from the hotel. Again, how do you get there, taxi only? I'm glad we aren't staying long here!

Maybe I should put this in another post but.... it seems the Southern train is cheaper than the Gatwick express into London from Horley. But still it will cost us about 175.00 USD r/t (about 42 min) from our hotel to London and back. Does that sound right for 7 people? Awfully expensive.

You can check the train fares at www.nationalrail.co.uk

Don't forget Gatwick isn't in London, it's hafway between London and the coast. There are three routes from the Airport, depending on where you want to get to, Gatwick Express and Southern to Victoria, Southern to London Bridge, and First Capital Connect to London Bridge and through central London to north London and beyond.

If you play around with the map display options at

http://www.ichotelsgroup.com/h...ansportation?start=1

you can see satellite pictures of the roads. between the hotel and the airport, and between the hotel and the station. But don't forget Gatwick has two terminals connected by an internal railway - you might need to walk further than the nominal half mile.

We took a taxi from Gatwick to the Holiday inn. I don't remember it being that expensive. We did walk to the train station from HI but had no luggaga . We went down to Brighton for the evening. We had taken a bus from Heathrow to Gatwick. Not sure if that helps you

Stephanie dogma to Rosco and Zoey

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WOW!

The days of the courtesy hotel shuttle are really dead! I have to say, that would steam me. I'd be looking for a way out of it too.

Can you call the hotel and ask them to comp it? Or have them throw in a free breakfast (if that's not already included) or free drinks, or reduce the room rate, or otherwise give you SOMETHING to take the sting out of it?

The satellite view suggestion is a good one.

But I have to say, my recollection, and my view is that airports are not set up for pedestrian traffic. It's simply not a consideration. Who walks TO an airport?

Even if there is a sidewalk, you have people from around the world, for the first time or who do this route every quarter hour, who just want to get where they're going, zooming through intersections. And there's no guarantee that sidewalk will be there the whole way. And you can't outrun a bus if you're laden with luggage.

So BE CAREFUL. OK? Think about it. There's such a thing as a foolish economy. If something happened, you'd pay a lot more than $35 to have that choice to make over again.

But it is worth challenging. Who knows, they might even back off.

Good luck!

I drive along the road past Gatwick Airport and the Holiday Inn from time to time and my immediate reaction is that it certainly wouldn't be a very pleasant walk: there are road works at the moment, so even if there is usually a sidewalk it may be obstructed at the moment. I'll try to remember to have a look next time I drive past.

I'm surprised to hear that the taxi fare to the hotel is so expensive. I think a taxi for 4 people for a similar distance from our local station would be around £5 ($8) or so. Taxis from the airport may be more expensive, but are they really so much more expensive?

... In fact, I've just phoned one of the local taxi companies (A1 Cars Ltd in Crawley 01293 404848) who say that if you phone them requesting one of their taxis they would charge £10 ($16) for a normal taxi and about £18 ($29) for a taxi for 7 people. If that's true that would be $4 or so per head. However, perhaps it would be a bit cheaper to pick up a taxi on the taxi rank at the airport.

Yes, it certainly is cheaper to avoid the Gatwick Express, but I'm afraid train fares are expensive in England. However, there are ways of reducing the cost a bit. If you're prepared to wait until after the morning rush hour has ended you can buy a Cheap Day Return (I think they now call it an Off-Peak Return), which generally costs a little more than half of the full fare.

The National Rail website which Patrick mentioned shows £17.60 for the basic return fare, £9.70 for an Off-Peak Day Return. £9.70 times 7 is £67.90 (about $109), which is still expensive but less than the $175 you mentioned.

There's also a Super Off-Peak Day Return for £7.00. I've not met this before so I don't know what restrictions it might involve.

If you're going to be using buses and the Underground in London it's probably worth getting a Travelcard which includes travel on all buses and underground trains within London as well as travel to & from London for only about £2-£3 on top of the fare for the train only.

Station Booking Office staff can be very helpful at explaining all these options.

quote:

I'm glad we aren't staying long here!

That's a shame! Once you get away from the airport area it's a lovely part of the world and well worth staying longer.

This morning I spoke to a couple of taxi drivers outside our local station. One of them said it would cost no more than £4-£5 for a taxi from Gatwick Airport to Horley (up to 4 people), but the other sucked through her teeth and said it could well be more than that, given that it's from the airport. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

You have been SO helpful!!! Thank you for all this information. I hope I didn't insult anyone saying 'I'm glad we aren't staying long here'!! I just meant in terms of money. I really would love to come back and really see London...not just for a day. Again, thank you, thank you!

I think we'll take a taxi....seems reasonable. The shuttle is per person and the taxi would be 4-5 pounds per car load....

I'm sorry if I didn't emphasise sufficiently that the first taxi driver only said he THOUGHT it would cost about £4-£5 and the other driver thought it might be quite a lot more.

Another suggestion: you could take a bus. According to the Metrobus website their bus number 100 runs every 20 minutes during the day, as does number 20. Both buses seem to call at first the South Terminal then the North Terminal before going to Horley. The Metrobus airport services are described on this page. Scroll down to the section which describes specifically how to get to the Holiday Inn. This says that the fare is £1.60 each. AT least this way you should be reasonably certain of the price. (Note: there are two Holiday Inns near Gatwick ... "Holiday Inn Gatwick Airport Hotel" (the one near Horley) and "Express By Holiday Inn Hotel Gatwick."

Have a look at the "Group Save" fares for your journey into London. It covers groups of 3 or 4, so you would count as 2 groups.

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/group-save.aspx

Don't forget to look at the 2 for 1 entry ticket offers on the site.

Thank you everyone.....everyone is so kind with information. That's why I love this site! My husband printed out the bus/train schedule and I think our trip is finally coming together. I will look at that group save fare. Thanks!

Does anyone know when off-peak times are?

quote:

Does anyone know when off-peak times are?

From our station, which is further out from London than Gatwick, we can travel on any train after 9am. There is no restriction on what time we come home.

I expect you'll find it's the same at Horley.

In certain circumstances, for example if we use a Network Railcard to get a reduced fare, we have to wait until 10am.

Thanks again! After 9am will work just fine for us. Our overnight flight is getting in around 7am. Since we can't check in at the hotel until 2pm (just dropping our luggage off there) we'll catch a train into London. We will be feel quite gross since we'll not have had a shower!....but we don't want to miss London even if it is only for the day...