Apart from muggins missing his flight yesterday, there was another thing that got on my nerves… twice in fact. And it’s Heathrow Airport’s Hotel Hoppa.
Now, whilst the Holiday Inn Ariel isn’t that far out of the sticks (for example, from my room I could see the threshold of 27R), getting to T5 can present minor issues – especially when you need to go in the early morning.
Heathrow Hotel Hoppa arriving at the Holiday Inn Ariel – Image GhettoIFE.com…
The route – H56 operates from The Ariel, past the Ibis, down to the DoubleTree, over to the Premier Inn, then around the Eastern Perimeter to the Jurys Inn, and finally towards T4 and T5.
How long do you think this “Shuttle” took.
Have a guess. A good one. If you thought 15 minutes, you’re wrong.
Time to Airport: 35 MINUTES
Time to Hotel: 25 MINUTES.
What’s the term here? That isn’t a shuttle timing… its a joke – and not a funny one at that.
The alternatives are the N9 (which runs to a “timetable”), or a 140 into Central and back out on something to T5 first thing in the morning.
It’s a useful service… but they need to look at those timings . 35 minutes to get to an airport terminal shuttle is a bit TOO long in my book….
There’s also the bus 555.
I find if I have to stay and go from T5 I do the Premier Inn T5, Hilton T5 or the other Heathrow Holiday Inn. The Hoppa’s are a rip-off
Ah yes. The words I knew I forgot to put in this post.
Will correct that later..
The Sofitel Heathrow is kind of a rip off … but it’s right there at T5 and it’s precisely the hotel transport options for other properties that make it ‘worth’ the price to many.
You could have also got the 423 which has a very regular service.
if it’s going to take that long, why not stay in Kensington and take the tube. Virtually the same amount of time, and cheaper too. What a joke that Hopper bus is.
Here’s a map of the free bus routes around LHR:
http://www.heathrowairport.com/static/Heathrow/Downloads/PDF/travel_around_Heathrow.pdf
useful
I missed my flight due to this issue. It is not a hotel shuttle… it is public transit that runs on an off-off peak schedule. Completely misleading.. so.. never again!
We use the 423 every time now, free and regular service 😉