Arriving at London Heathrow Airport: What to do next

London Heathrow Airport aka LHR aka Heathrow is the daddy of all European airports, serving up to 80 million passengers every year. The airport, located around 14 miles west of Central London, acts as a major international hub, with New York, Spain, Singapore, India and the Middle East among its most popular routes.

There has been an airfield in this location – formerly a quaint ye olde English village called Heath Row – since 1926. But it wasn’t until after the war, amid rapid expansion of the site, that the first passenger service took flight: a converted Lancaster bomber called Starlight which took off for the then-impossibly-exotic shores of Buenos Aires on New Year’s Day, 1946.

Ok, we get it: your feet are already itching to get to the big London attractions. So, having arrived at London Heathrow Airport, what happens next?

Given it’s the UK’s biggest international hub by far, it should come as little surprise that there’s a mind-boggling variety of ways to get to the heart of the capital. We break down the most popular methods below…

• Fastest: the Heathrow Express is a non-stop service that connects the airport with London Paddington station in as little as 15 minutes. You’ll pay for the privilege though: tickets cost £25 one-way. Paddington is well-connected to the rest of the city via London Underground (Tube) services.
• Cheapest: old-fashioned but generally reliable, the Tube takes up to an hour depending on your destination. On the plus side, a one-way ticket costs less than £6. 
• The third way: a relative newbie on the scene, the Elizabeth Line connects Heathrow with several stops in Central London and beyond. It takes about half as long as the Tube and costs around twice the amount for a one-way ticket.
• And finally: you could also opt to travel by road, but would then be at the mercy of London’s notorious traffic. And there’s surely no less satisfying way to start a vacation than stuck in a jam in the middle of nowhere watching powerlessly as your cab meter ticks up into triple figures. Coaches and local bus services are cheap (but very slow) alternative options. Car hire is of course also available at the airport: a rather awkward and costly way of getting around London, but certainly convenient if your onward journey from Heathrow is into the bucolic British countryside.

We’d hope that by the time you touch down at Heathrow you’ll already have selected and booked your accommodation. But, if not, you could do worse than checking out our guide to some of the most attraction-friendly places to stay in London. 

But what if your flight into Heathrow arrives at an unsociable hour, i.e. late in the evening or early in the morning? There are of course plenty of airport hotels in which late arrivals can rest weary heads, among them Hiltons, Sofitels, Holiday Inns, Mercures, Sheratons and Premier Inns. Many offer shuttle services from your terminal to the hotel.

If, on the other hand, you're flying in on the red eye and have a few hours to kill before check-in, well, there are options for you too. As you’re in no particular rush, you could for example take the Tube’s dark-blue Piccadilly line into town and hop off for a spot of sightseeing somewhere like Hammersmith, Hyde Park Corner or Piccadilly Circus, all of which are well-equipped locally with left-luggage facilities either in or around the stations. 

The same is true of Victoria Station, which is reachable by coach and lies a short, cap-doffing stumble from Buckingham Palace, St James’s Park and Westminster. Hit the links below for more on what to do in these locations…

• Things to do in Hammersmith, including historic pubs, Thames Path strolls and shopping at nearby Westfield.
• Things to do in Hyde Park, including the Rose Garden, Princess Diana Memorial Fountain and boating on the Serpentine.
• Things to do in and around Piccadilly Circus, including the Eros statue, Chinatown and Regent Street shopping.

So you’ve successfully negotiated your way from Heathrow Airport to your London digs, sunk a reviving glass of bubbles at the bar and had a long soak in the tub. What’s next? Why sightseeing, silly! Did you know you can save £££s on entry to more than 100 London attractions, tours and activities with The London Pass®? Well, now you do. Click to find out more and bag yours here.

You’ll likely already have a good idea of which attractions you want to visit – the London Eye, St Paul’s Cathedral and Tower of London, right? – but we also have a few others up our sleeves that we’d recommend regardless of whether you’re a first-timer or an old hand at London.

And here they are:

• Historic London pub tour. Expect crooked beams, timeworn wooden floors, cozy nooks and frothing pints of nut-brown ale in this tour that takes in former haunts of Dickens, Conan Doyle and others.
• The King’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace. Ogle exhibits from the largest private art collection in the world, including masterpieces from Rembrandt, Hogarth, da Vinci and others.
• Shakespeare’s Globe. This pin-perfect reconstruction of the Bard’s original 17th-century playhouse is worth a visit for the selfie opportunities alone. But the guided tour, which peeks behind the curtain (and under the carpet) of Elizabethan theatre, is also too good to miss.

Hit the buttons below to find out how much you could save with The London Pass®…