UKC

Whats the best way to get from heathrow to kings cross, or even better from heathrow to edinburgh.
I am working as a technician at the edinburgh fringe festival, and need to get from arriving at 1:30pm at heathrow airport (family holiday to jamaica) up to edinburgh the same day.

I was thinking of flying, which would be cheaper, but I would have to get to stanstead to get on an easy jet flight, and would then have to get from edingburg airport (wherever that is) into central edinburgh when I got there, so im guessing a train would be easier.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Also, does heathrow do left luggage, and if so, does anyone know how much it is?

In reply to pottsworth: http://ojp2.nationalrail.co.uk/en/pj/tt

The last hour of the train journey to Edinburgh is bonny, but I'd still prefer to fly.

In reply to pottsworth:

You would get the tube from Heathrow to Kings Cross. You'd probably need to allow about 2 1/2 hours between your flight touching down and your train leaving so you'd arrive in Embra pretty late.

In reply to pottsworth:
Alternativly does anyone know of an easy way to get from heathrow to stanstead?

In reply to pottsworth:
Or luton, I can fly from either

In reply to pottsworth:

there is a jet link bus service that runs between heathrow-->luton-->stansted

In reply to pottsworth:
Do you know what it's called / how much it costs?

In reply to pottsworth: why not just fly Heathrow to Edinburgh and save yourself the hassle of trying to switch between London airports. Its a quick hop from Edinburgh airport into the city and costs £5 on the bus that leaves a few times an hour at least. It might appear to cost more but once you factor in hassle+transfers it will be worth it.

In reply to elsiem: oh...and heathrow does have left luggage facilities in all four terminals.

http://www.airwise.com/airports/europe/LHR/LHR_08.html

In reply to pottsworth:
easyjet don't do a heathrow - glasgow service, do you know of anyone who does?

In reply to pottsworth: glasgow? I thought you wanted Edinburgh...

In reply to elsiem:
BMI and BA both do Heathrow - Edinburgh for about £60...and they also do Heathrow - Glasgow if you wanted but seems easier to fly to Edinburgh since the Fringe is there

In reply to elsiem: Edinburgh airport is 8 miles out of the city centre. The city centre is really easy to get to by bus as I mentioned.
Travelling from Edinburgh Airport into Edinburgh

If you are flying in to Edinburgh International Airport there are various transfer options to Central Edinburgh:

By Bus

Public bus services stop outside the UK Arrivals door on the terminal forecourt. There is an express bus service to Edinburgh city centre (No. 100). Buses into the city depart from stand 18, and operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The frequency of the service is from every 10 minutes at peak times through the day, to every 30 minutes at night. The ticket cost is £3 single or £5 return and can be bought from the information desk at International arrivals, from a desk at the bus stop or on the bus itself. The journey takes approximately 25 minutes and stops at Waverly Bridge, near the main railway station and bus station which are just off the city's main street, Princes Street.

Timetables are also available from the onward travel desk in the UK arrivals hall and the information desk in the international arrivals area.

Want me to book your tickets Good luck on your travels.

In reply to Removed User:

Two and a half hours sounds a little pessimistic. Depends if OP will have hold bags to pick up? You can do it a bit faster (but more expensive) by getting hte Heathrow Express to Paddington and Circle/H&C line from there to King's Cross.

In reply to pottsworth:
I'm going to have to collect my hold bag, remove all underware, and then collect my bag of stuff for the festival (might end up taking it to JA, as air jamaica are very casual on baggage limits) from wherever it is (possibly from taxi taking family home, alternativly left luggage)

I need to be in edinburgh first thing next day, so alternatives are travel from london, and stay in edinburgh (C venues are providing my accomodation, so no extra cost here) or get a train at 4am from stafford to birmingham, and get a 7am flight

In reply to tmh:

10 minute delay in landing
30 minutes to clear passport control, baggage reclaim and customs
10 minutes to get to the tube and buy ticket
10 minutes to wait on train
70 minutes by tube to King's X (there's one change isn't there?)
10 minutes to get out of tube, find platform and get onto train.

That makes 2 hours 10 minutes.

In reply to pottsworth:
Just tryed to find info about the jetlink, but google didnt have naything.
Does anyone know how much it costs / how long it takes to get to either luton on stansted?

In reply to pottsworth:

Heathrow-Stanstead:
http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/heathrow_luton_transfer.htm

Heathrow-Luton:
http://www.londontoolkit.com/travel/heathrow_stansted_bus_transfer.htm

In reply to pottsworth:

When are you going? Have a look on the BA/BMI website, you can get tickets from Heathrow to Edinburgh for around £40 which must be cheaper than a train or a bus/flight combo (I used August 1st as a gauge on dates)? It may be easier to pay a few quid more for a direct flight and save yourself the hassle of dragging luggage around London.

Rob

In reply to pottsworth:

Easyjet fly Gatwick-Edinburgh. You can get a bus between Heathrow and Gatwick for about £15. It takes about an hour.

However, you can often fly BA or BMI from Heathrow for about £25 or £30.

In reply to pottsworth:
Thanks for all the advice.
Decided in the end to just fork out 40 quid and fly direct. Now just need to sort out luggage! (im not paying £70 odd just to store a bag!)

In reply to pottsworth:
<snip>

In public? I hope not! Why?

<snip>

In reply to pottsworth:

Flying LHR-EDI is the easiest option by a long chalk. There is an excellent fast direct bus service:

http://www.flybybus.com/

In reply to Removed User:

TFL website reckons 55 mins average journey time from Heathrow to KX on the Piccadilly line (no changes). Assume 'average journey time' includes average time to wait for the next train. So your total should be a bit under 2 h making two and a half a little pessimistic

But it never hurts to assume both flights and tubes are going to be delayed

In reply to tmh:

Stupid website timings, 55mins.

Even in 1977 they said that, we allowed 2 hours from Kings Cross, and only just made the flight, with a 20 minute check-in time then. We actually carried our cases on board due to being too late to check them in. Now we would have missed the flight, then we were told we would just have been put on the next one two hours later.
Flying is a lot less civilised now.

In reply to pottsworth:

Hey

Get the Heathrow Express Train to Paddington then change for the circle or hammersmith and city to King's Cross then get the King's Cross Thames link to Luton. The tube from Heathrow to King's Cross takes a lot longer than the train and the train is less painful than the tube with gear.

Em

In reply to tmh: Even quicker would be to go on the Heathrow Express to Paddington and change onto Met/Circle line to Kings Cross.

In reply to pottsworth:

tube to totenham hale or liverpool street then stansted express to stanstead probably take 1.5 hours

In reply to Emac601:

Utterly pointless to continue this now the OP has said he's flying, but surely once you've got your gear on to the tube at Heathrow (where the train should be either completely empty, or only contain the people who got on at T4) all you have to do is sit there until KX - if you get the train to Paddington you have to lug said gear off the train, down to the tube, and on to a probably packed Circle train (H&C likely to be emptier but trains not so often, blowing the time saving - which the TFL website says is only 10 minutes anyway)?

Plus the train is outrageously expensive last time I looked...