London Gatwick is the South East of England's No.2 airport, but it’s down market compared with Heathrow (the No.1 airport) where ‘they’ try to concentrate the business traffic. Gatwick carries mostly tourist traffic and charter flights, and because of this it has three states, busy, busier and chaotic. London Gatwick has two terminals, north and south connected by a transit railway. It’s ‘pot luck’ which terminal you’ll land at, but which ever, it’ll be farthest from immigration, baggage claim and the exits. The exits from the airport are in the South Terminal. 

The Big Secret
Now the airport is named London Gatwick and that implies London is someplace close. Not true! London Gatwick is just the name of the airport. The place, Gatwick, is in the middle of nowhere. It’s 30 miles south of central London and, if you don’t know how, getting away from Gatwick is murder. This is the vital piece of information you need to survive the Gatwick Experience, and it’s the one piece of information that no-one seems to want to volunteer, unless you ask. Can’t think why.

Baggage Claim
This is perhaps the worst part of what is a pretty awful airport. You get through immigration quite quickly as a rule, and you end up in a hall with TV screens supposedly telling you which baggage claim area to go to. But be warned, many airlines subcontract this to a company called Servisair, and as far as I can tell they are a real disservice to the airline industry. To wait here for half an hour with no information is normal. Once, having waited for over an hour on what was a slack day for Gatwick, I went and complained at the Servisair desk, I was told this was caused by 'unavoidable staff shortages' which as we all know, is corporate speak for 'we don't employ enough staff'. I then asked wouldn't an apology or explanation be in order, to be told that they had asked the British Airports Authority to put out an announcement, but that BAA had said we hadn't waited long enough. So I asked how long BAA think we should wait before an announcement, but the Servisair lady was immune to sarcasm. I also suggested they could send someone downstairs to explain to the 250 passengers off my flight, still hanging round, but I guess they couldn't find any volunteers, for fear of them being lynched. So, if you're kept waiting, go up one level and complain. See if you get any farther than I did. At least it gives you something to do. 

An hour after clearing immigration you finally find out which carousel your bags are on - usually mixed up with three or four other flights - and you head upstairs. Don't forget to complain at the Servisair desk as you pass. Once you find your carousel you can easily waste another half hour here. Anyway, your bags turn up - eventually, what next?

So how to get away?

Taxis - don’t. There are taxis to grab, but by the time you get to London, half your spending money will be gone. If you must take a taxi, try and negotiate a price first, it probably won’t get you anywhere as London cabbies don't negotiate, but it might make you realise how much it will actually cost and so save you being completely ripped off. 

Train - Yup, there’s a train station at the South terminal with fast direct trains to London Victoria (now that is central London) and to all sorts of other places. And to be fair, The Gatwick Express takes only about 35 minutes to get to Victoria and runs 3 or 4 times an hour - it's fast, it's comfortable and it's pricey. Only they seem to want to keep it a secret, you can't find it, the signs pointing to the station are lousy. When you do find the station, which is close to the Arrivals in the South Terminal, take time to grab a leaflet and read it - you might find a direct train service to where you want to be, rather than going via London. For instance, if you want to go north of London, there’s a direct train service to Bedford which I only discovered recently. It saves a fortune on fares and is a real time saver if you want to end up someplace like Watford, with the bonus that you don’t have to change trains in London (that’s another drag for the uninitiated). For those saving every penny, don’t take the Gatwick Express, insist on paying for a slow train to Victoria, journey time is about 50 minutes. Make sure you catch the right train. Buy a ‘slow’ ticket and get on the Express and they’ll surcharge you. Either that, or take a bus. 

Shuttle buses for hotels - yes there are, but they’re only for the local Gatwick hotels. Don’t think that as you’re booked into a London hotel, there’s going to be a shuttle bus to take you there - unless it’s part of your travel itinerary and pre-booked.

I've seen some London hotel adverts which perpetuate the myth by saying, '... convenient for Heathrow and Gatwick'. Now by my reckoning, convenient means reasonably close to, but it's 17 miles west from central London to Heathrow, and 30 miles south to Gatwick. This is stretching convenient beyond breaking point. If the hotels were in Victoria, then they could have said, '... convenient for coaches to ...', but, of course, they weren't and they didn't.

Buses and coaches - There’s a bus terminal on the ground floor of the South Terminal. It's better sign posted than the trains, and anyway, if you can't find it, just keep going downwards. It’s a major junction, and there’s buses there to many other major cities as well as just London. You buy tickets at a booking office on that floor. The London buses stop at Victoria Coach Station (just round the corner from London Victoria rail station) and it’s a bit cheaper than train. There are about 4 buses an hour to London and it takes about an hour to get from Gatwick to Victoria.

For those familiar with Heathrow, and want to end up around the west of London, catch an inter-airport shuttle bus to Heathrow coach station (they leave about every 10 minutes), and it will drop you off right in the middle of Heathrow, next to the Underground station. Journey time for the 44 mile trip is about an hour. From there you can find your own way easily. Don't do this if your final destination is central London, or further west than, say, Uxbridge - you may as well go via Victoria. 

By car - Gatwick has the usual car rental places, and shuttle buses to the car rental lots run from the South Terminal. Picking up a car is easy, and the M23 motorway is close by. Plain sailing into London, at least until you hit the mobile parking lot called the M25. Take my advice - don’t drive into London at all, particularly if you’re tired. You'll be in a strange car and like as not, you should be driving on the other side of the road. (If there’s lots of traffic approaching you, flashing lights and hooting - boy, you are in trouble.)

If you’re staying in central London don’t even bother to rent a car, as you won’t be able to park it (at least at a reasonable price) and it'll be subject to the 8GBP per day 'Congestion Charge', yet another tax designed to make your stay miserable and expensive. London is a city where the public transport should be good (but is over-crowded much of the day) and there is virtually no parking available. If you’re visiting London for a few days and then moving off elsewhere, pick up your car outside London when you leave. 

So far, I've dealt with arriving at Gatwick. How about catching a flight? No problems really just a lot of hanging about in long queues going nowhere, allow plenty of time. Probably the hardest part is finding your check-in desk. For those thinking of leaving their car at Gatwick to collect later, short term parking is good, but long term is minimal and pricey. If you're away for more than a day, look on the WEB or in the Yellow pages for offsite parking. There’s several around Gatwick, and they’re reasonably priced. Last time I used one, they even valeted the car for free as well.

The Official View
 

By Air For a far less cynical, much more detailed, politically correct look at Gatwick, try AirWise. This site is also good for the ‘official’ details of other European airports.
By Train Railway information is plentiful but hard to pin down. Due to the number of different companies running trains on British tracks these days, it’s a two stage process to find the times and prices of trains. The track is now owned by National Rail. This site lets you make enquiries of train times from anywhere to anywhere, and the site is good. It tells who runs the trains, but it doesn’t tell which station to catch it from (so for Gatwick, you’ve got to know that you’re going from Victoria). What it doesn't tell you is the prices. For that you’ve got to identify who runs the trains and go to their web site.
A good source of links to train companies is UK Railways which then directs you to the relevant site. The sites themselves are variable, some give you everything you need to know, prices, special deals, the lot. Others are very coy, and tell how wonderful it is to ride their trains, but not what it costs. Connex South Central, who run the trains to Gatwick don’t seem to have a web site at all!! The best source of rail info is the Rail Help Desk, dial 0345 484950 when you arrive, it’s a local call but you’ll need small change to use the payphones. These people are very helpful, give you the times, the stations, the train companies, the prices and all the deals as well.

By Bus and Coach The national bus and coach network has got it together much better than the trains. To all intents and purposes this site is a one stop shop - timetable, bookings, the lot. Check out the National Express site, it’ll tell you everything you need to know nationwide.

Page updated: 30/09/08.