Need to add London! a few questions

[ghady]

hey!

so i'm So... I'm going to London too ;D .. turns out that damien rice has a concert in paris on the 4th of july.. so i decided to start my trip there, spend the 5th, 6th, and 7th in london, and THEN go to berlin and continue...

i've been looking at budget flight sites... and all the transportation i could find is from london luton, gatwick, and stansed. will that be a problem? how should i plan my departure from the hostel accordingly?

i also could only find flights to the shconefeld airport in berlin, not the tegel. will that be a problem too?

if you guys know anything that could help, let me know

thanks!

[pointofnoreturn]

Luton isn't directly in London. It's north of London but there's a shuttle that goes to London operated by easyJet that is very cheap. If you decide to go through Luton, you can take the train into London using Midlands. There might be another rail company that operates out of Luton as well. It's about 20-30 minutes by train and stops at Kings Cross I think.

However, flying from Paris into Gatwick is your best option. So it should be in this order of priority:

Gatwick > Stanstead > Luton

[herrbert]

Almost all the budget airlines will fly from Stansted, Luton or Gatwick. (Only a few will fly from Heathrow or Gatwick). The access is good, so no need for concern there. You can choose all three.

London is big, so it depends on where your hostel is, how long you have to plan for traveling time to the airport. (for Stansted, you need to go to Liverpool street Station (by tube), and transfer to the Stansted express that takes 45 minutes (if you have enough time, you can choose regular trains, or shuttle busses aswell, but they take longer, but are cheaper).

If you choose RyanAir, then keep in mind, that Stansted is a busy airport, and allow yourself at least 30 minutes for the cue. (be glad if you don't have to use that time, but most likely you will be in a cue for 15-20 minutes).

Schönefeld will become Berlin's major airport, replacing the Tempelhof Airport, and expanding the capacity of flights to/from Berlin. I believe you can take the Metro (U-bahn) to get to the city. And I think that easier access as compared to Tegel. (although, there are busses enough to take you to/from Tegel)

P.S.: AirBerlin is flying London-Stansted to Berlin-Tegel (most likely more expensive than Easyjet of Ryanair, but you can always check)

[pointofnoreturn]

Another thing, an advantage regarding Luton is that it's the least busy airport of the three airports you mentioned. I have close friends living outside Luton and we've often stopped at the airport because of the train station and I've noticed that there's not a lot of people inside the airport compared to the others. So it'll likely be a quick run-through and quick bag pick-up.

[ghady]

great, i'll keep all this in mind once i finalize everything (im just hoping ill have enough money to add london).. thanks!