[Tom Otley]

Heathrow – Gatwick
Approximate distance by road: 42 miles / 68km

Coach

National Express coaches run direct between Heathrow and Gatwick up to six times an hour; 78 services a day.
Journey time: 75 minutes
Cost: £12 one-way; £24 return
Tickets and information: 0871 781 8181 or NationalExpress.com

Train

Alternatively you can travel from Heathrow into London and then back out again to Gatwick.

Gatwick Express trains run non-stop between London Victoria and Gatwick Airport. The journey takes 30 minutes and a standard-class single costs £17.70. All rail services operate from Gatwick’s South Terminal. There is a shuttle service at Gatwick between North and South Terminal which takes only two minutes.

To make the link with Heathrow your options include:

Heathrow Express between Heathrow and London Paddington,
Underground between Paddington and Victoria (45min, £27)
London Underground between Victoria and Heathrow (50min, £4.80)

An alternative route is via Clapham Junction and Feltham (linked to Heathrow by bus route 285). This is only really viable if you have an Oyster card or UK contactless bank card for the bus leg (no cash fares).
Journey time: 90min–2hr. Cost (with Oyster): £27.
Travel Between Airports

Gatwick Airport has the following map of travel options

Airport transport links

Car / taxi

Heathrow has an arrangement with Tristar for travel between the airports (and into London and other destinations).

Heathrow chauffeur service

[CathayLoyalist2]

…another option albeit more expensive is a car transfer. I have used the meet greet and drop off in both directions for GBP55.00 one way and found the drivers/companies to date punctual, polite and good drivers.

[Tom Otley]

That’s interesting.
So you drove to one airport, dropped off your car, and then flew into the other and your car was waiting for you?
Was it this company?
http://www.vipheathrow.co.uk

[FaroFlyer]

Hi Tom, I use this company http://www.batransfer.com/ Cost less than £60. Cars seem to be people carrier type.

I have no connection with them, but have always found them to be on time and courteous. Cars are not the most modern, but if you pay more then you can get a better / bigger car.

[CathayLoyalist2]

Tom, it is a simple car and driver transfer. Met at LHR T3, down the M25/M23 to LGW and dropped off. Door to door very convenient but more expensive. For me good value. Your interpretation would indeed be interesting!!

[capetonianm]

A slightly cumbersome option but not a bad one if you have time :
Railair Link Heathrow – Woking (hourly, takes about an hour)
Train Woking – Guildford (frequent, about 10 minutes)
Train Guildford – Gatwick (direct train hourly, about 40 minutes).
The scenery from the Guildford – Gatwick train is pleasant.

You could also do :
Railair Link Heathrow – Reading (2 or 3 per hour, takes about 45 minutes)
Train Reading – Gatwick (direct train hourly, takes about 75 minutes)

Just a warning, although the GWR services between Reading/Guildford and Gatwick show First class, and the websites will sell you a First class ticket, some of the trains don’t have First, or it’s declassified, ether way buying First can be a waste of money. GWR will refund the difference but it’s a hassle.

[AMcWhirter]

I wonder how many of you can remember the days when this airport-to-airport transfer was so fast and efficient ?

In the days of B.Cal there used to be a scheduled Airlink service by helicopter and this took a matter of mins. But it ceased operations in 1986.

However you can still charter your helicopter today (to nearby landing sites) but at a cost of £1,650 (plus VAT) although up to four people can be carried.

http://www.helicoptertransferslondon.com/helicopter-transfers-heathrow-to-gatwick/

[canucklad]

If only we could have something like this……….

http://www.british-caledonian.com/BCal_LGW-LHR_Airlink_P1.html

Edit to add…great minds Alex : )

[Tom Otley]

[quote quote=817411]Tom, it is a simple car and driver transfer. Met at LHR T3, down the M25/M23 to LGW and dropped off. Door to door very convenient but more expensive. For me good value. Your interpretation would indeed be interesting!!

[/quote]

Ha Ha! Sorry, I was completely confused there!

[travelsforfun]

Tom, looks good again. I’m impressed you included the Feltham/Clapham Junction option, a good mix of price and convenience (90 minutes is the scheduled time, you’d have to be quite unlucky with connections for it to take 2 hours) and my usual option.

I just wanted to query a couple of the fares:

Bus+Rail via Feltham and Clapham Junction
£1.50 for the bus Heathrow-Feltham (with Oyster or contactless bank card)
then for the train Feltham-Gatwick:
£11.60 with Oyster/bank card in the am/pm peak
£8.10 with Oyster/bank card at other times
£16.30 with a paper ticket

So, the most expensive total fare would be £17.80 – but if you have an Oyster/contactless bank card for the bus anyway, use that for the train and it’ll be either £9.60 or £13.10.

It’s also worth noting it doesn’t have to be a UK bank card – I had a Norwegian friend use his bank card around London last week – but obviously this only makes sense if your card does not incur prohibitive foreign transaction charges.

Coach
The £12 fare is a limited availability advance fare, fixed to a particular coach – it is amendable but this incurs a fee and also requires paying the difference with the next available fare. I don’t know if that’s a particularly attractive proposition for someone flying in. The walk-up fare is £25 and is probably a more sensible one to quote?

[Tom Otley]

Thank you for that – I will digest and then incorporate – very grateful for the expert calculations!
Tom

[AMcWhirter]

Thanks for providing the link, canucklad.

I remember it well. If it were still to exist today one can only imagine how busy that helicopter link would be.

Back in 2015, London’s present Mayor Sadiq Khan mooted the idea of a high-speed rail link between the two airports so that LHR’s third runway would not be needed (if a second runway at LGW were to be built).

But one can just imagine the outcry from residents affected were this rail line (which would have to be routed through prime land) to be built.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor/labour-mayor-contender-sadiq-khan-rejects-building-third-runway-at-heathrow-10323138.html

[FrDougal]

Iv managed an uber between LGW & LHR for £40!

[openfly]

Some South African friends recently found Megabus operating twixt LHR and LGW…impressed with the fare compared to NatEx and perfect time-keeping, they say.

[AMcWhirter]

openfly – Thanks for the info. Megabus started serving LGW/LHR in May.

https://uk.megabus.com/MEGABUSCOM%20LAUNCHES%20SERVICES%20TO%20HEATHROW%20AND%20GATWICK%20AIRPORTS.aspx?utm_expid=.yJIgSkt4SeqhU5-d8WG3SQ.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.co.uk%2F

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