Heathrow airport is in the top 5 busiest airports in the world. A lot of the traffic is people transferring through the airport, with BA having its hub there and lots of other airlines connecting through it, there’s a lot of people who pass through the airport on their way to somewhere else. As for the rest, well they’re going to need to leave or arrive at the airport at some point. Despite being such a busy airport, in my opinion, Heathrow has pretty bad connections to the rest of the UK, unless you happen to live right by one of the stations that are on a direct line to the airport. In this article I’ve collected my experiences of getting to the airport through different methods.
Train/Tube
There are two trains and one underground line (tube) that run to Heathrow, all coming out from central London.
The first train everyone jumps to is the Heathrow Express, the biggest con in train history. Until recently it was officially the most expensive train, per mile, in the UK. It costs £25 one way and £40 return, prices as of June 2025. Note they do say they offer £10 tickets, these must be booked 45 days in advance, which for holiday makers, who maybe book flights several months in advance, this is a good option. For that you get a dedicated non-stop train from London Paddington station to the airport, leaving every 15minutes for most the day. Journey time 15 mins (for Heathrow central , terminals 2 and 3). You can pay even more for business first class if you want, which is a bigger seat, table, power and free newspapers and magazines. You might have guessed that I’m not so impressed with this service, well that’s because there is another train.
The Elizabeth line. Running right through the centre of London, you can board from a station more convenient than Paddington if you need to. Yes, it stops rather than going fast, but guess how much longer it takes from Paddington to Heathrow compared to the Express? The answer is 9-12 minutes. And for those few minutes you can save £12.70 on the fare, that’s right, this line is less than half the price of the Express! And it still goes every 15 minutes during the day.
The other option is of course the Piccadilly line on the underground. This is another easy way to get from many central London locations to the airport, however it is slower at about 35 minutes from Earl’s Court, which is about level with Paddington. Also, at the time of writing, the trains are old, bumpy and noisy, there are new trains coming this year I’m told. It is of course cheaper, but if you use my hack below it can be even cheaper!
The Heathrow Free transport hack!
Did you know that all public transport inside the Heathrow boundary is free? This includes trains, tubes and buses. The boundary starts at Hatton Cross, so here’s a trick, get out of the tube at Hatton Cross, and make sure you go through the barriers and tap out. You have then completed your journey at normal London prices, without paying any airport surcharges. When you go back in and travel to Heathrow your journey will be free. Thus, you will avoid a Heathrow surcharge that is applied if you travel from London to Heathrow on the tube non-stop!
Buses/coaches
There are a vast number of buses and coaches that travel through and start/finish at Heathrow. You can get a coach to Cornwall, Cardiff or Scotland if you want. For many towns outside London they have specific airport coaches running, including: Guildford, Oxford, Reading, Watford, Woking etc. As for local buses, there’s a huge number of London routes you can use to get to more local areas.
There are a few express London bus routes available, now called the Superloop. This is a bus I’ve used before, for my route it runs from Croydon to Heathrow, only stopping in 3 places, one of those being Worcester Park, which is near me. There’s also a Superloop route going north to Harrow. The buses are of course vastly more affordable, but the express bus is not as fast as the trains.
Bus tip
If your bus stops at Hatton Cross before getting into the Heathrow area, get off!
You can then travel for free the rest of the way on the underground, it’s much quicker from there and you can catch the train to your correct terminal. (Most buses go to Heathrow central for terminals 2&3)
Driving
If someone is dropping you off, you have 3 choices:
- Go to the drop off zone for the terminal, but there’s no waiting here. Remember to pay the drop-off fee!
- Go to short stay car park and pay to park, this will give you a lot longer, good for those who need help with bags etc. But this is the most expensive option.
- Go to long stay car park and drop there, it’s then free to ride the bus into the terminal and there’s no drop off fee. This isn’t even a hack, it’s actively encouraged by the airport.
If you are planning to park, well there’s lots of choices, depending on your budget. The Heathrow airport website is pretty good and giving all the options. Essentially you will pay more the more convenient it is. The multi-story by the terminal will always be the most expensive and the long stay furthest away will always be cheaper. You have things like business parking nearer to the terminal, which is in the middle. And you pay more for the pod parking option at T5, where an automated pod on a track takes you into the terminal. They have valet parking and meet&greet parking, all with extra costs for convenience. On top of all that, there are external parking providers where you can park off-site and get a shuttle into the airport, they tend to be cheap, but of course further away.
Geek tip – if you want to ride the pods without paying for parking, you can!
Just get yourself to T5, look for pod parking and go for a ride. When you reach the car park, just take another pod back. You don’t need to have a car or a parking ticket. In fact, they like people trying it out as it might encourage people to use it for parking.
Taxis
London black cabs of course run to and from Heathrow, but they are often pricey, especially with the surcharge they charge for the privilege. You can jump on the tube for free between Hatton Cross and Heathrow, and there are black cabs at Hatton Cross station.
Other taxi firms will of course take you to Heathrow or pick you up there, but make sure you know what you’re booking. Taxi firms will charge a premium if you want a driver waiting for you inside the terminal. They have to pay to drop off and collect, so you will get a charge for this on your bill.
One trick I’ve had taxi drivers try on me is picking me up from the drop-off zone. The airport authorities are pretty clear that this is not allowed. Whilst the taxis still have to pay the drop-off charge, if they’ve had a fare to drop someone off, they can pocket the money they made off you paying for a pickup charge if they don’t go to the arrivals zone in the car parks. Don’t stand for this, insist they pick you up from designated zones.
Lastly there’s companies like Uber, they regularly pick up from airports and use the official pick up zones in the car parks. The one time I tried something with Uber and it went wrong, was when I decided to get the tube out to Hatton Cross, then try and get an Uber from there. The issue is, there’s nowhere for them to pick you up. The large area out the front of the station is designated for buses and black cabs only, Uber is not allowed in. Whilst it might save some money, getting a pick up was a lot harder. However, I did come up with a slightly better idea. I took the tube slightly further away from Heathrow, to Hounslow. From there I got an Uber home for much less than it would have been from the airport, and it worked out quicker. This only works well when the airport is super busy and there’s a long delay for Uber’s at the airport.
Flying
There are many options to fly to Heathrow, even if it’s not a connecting flight. BA operates from Manchester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dublin and Belfast for example. Also, there are other airlines, such as Logan Air who operate flights to Heathrow.
There are also budget flights to Gatwick, London City and other “London” airports such as Luton, Stansted, Southend etc. From Gatwick, Luton and Stansted there are direct coaches that go to Heathrow. And for all other airports you can always catch a train into London and back out to Heathrow again.
At the airport
Terminals 2&3
First of all be aware, the central bus, train and tube station for Heathrow Terminal 2&3 is in the middle of the old terminal buildings. There is a little walk from this station to either terminal, so don’t leave it too late to get there.
It’s also quite old and a bit of a maze. Especially for finding buses as there are so many buses and coaches that leave from there.
Tip – Flying Virgin Upper Class?
Virgin have a dedicated check in area for Upper Class Passengers accessible only by car. If you’re flying Upper, I’d get a taxi and have them drop me there. There’s a sign just outside Terminal 3 for Virgin Upper, you pull up to a gate where you have to tell them your name and they let you up, it’s a lovely way to arrive. Even if arriving by public transport, I’d get out early and take a taxi the final bit, you can’t access the special upper entry easily by any other means.
Terminal 4
There are some buses that run through T4, so you can get them. Remember any bus, train or tube running to Heathrow Central is free, so if you need better connections head there.
The tube has a loop line that comes off the line and loops around T4 before heading back to T2&3 and then into central London.
The trains have a branch off to T4, only occasional trains run to T4.
Terminal 5
Like T4, some buses run to T5, but most are for the central station.
Both tubes and trains run and terminate at T5, and as with everything else, all a free from here to the central station or Hatton Cross.
A common route home for me is to take the free tube from T5 to Hatton Cross, then jump out and get the Superloop bus home.
Flying Business or have Silver status (One World Sapphire)?
If you’re arriving by car, get them to drop you by the very first door, then you walk straight into the Club check in area.
Flying First or have Gold status (One World Emerald)?
If you’re arriving by car, get them to drop you by the very last door (number 4), then you walk straight into the First check in area, called the First Wing.
Getting between terminals
If you are on a connecting flight, i.e. both flights are on the same booking, then you will be able to connect without going through passport control and therefor avoiding landside. The airport run airside shuttle buses for people connecting through different terminals. These run regularly and are generally easy to find, just follow the purple connection signs when you get off your flight. Note that Heathrow does do security checks before allowing you back into the departure area, so be prepared for that. One other tip I’ve got here, if you land at the C gates terminal at T5, they pick up from there directly, so you don’t have to go all the way over to the main building to get a bus.
If you’re arriving on a flight, then leaving on another flight that is not connected, then most likely you will have to enter the country and transfer on the landside. I’ve never tried this without luggage before, so maybe I will try and see what happens if you don’t have luggage but do have a boarding pass for another flight. Maybe it’s possible not to go landside? But if you have checked luggage then you certainly have to go landside to collect it and recheck it.
In this case, connecting between terminals will require you using public transport, it’s all free, but there is one route that isn’t always straight forward. Connecting between Central (T2&3) and the other terminals is easy, take your pick of mode of transport. But connecting between T4 and T5, which I have done, is not always easy. Some of the local buses run from T4, round past the cargo terminals and into T5. Otherwise, you have to head to central and back out again, which can be slow if the trains/tubes don’t line up nicely.
Bottom line
You get what you pay for. If you pick a premium taxi company, you will get all the things like someone waiting for you in the airport with a sign and your name on it etc. Lower cost taxi firms, in my experience, try to cut corners by using tricks like picking you up in the drop off zone.
Heathrow does not have trains going everywhere, they all go to central London, where you can connect to anywhere else, making the train annoying if you are not living on one of those few lines.
Buses and coaches are cheaper, but can be slow or simply uncomfortable compared to taxis and trains.
My best route?
I change all the time, depending on timing and the amount of luggage I have, so, sorry, no real great answer here. However, my recent trip of taking the Superloop bus to Hatton Cross, then the tube to T5, whilst sending my luggage the day before was both affordable and efficient. My suggestion is do your homework and leave plenty of time for things to go wrong, because on UK public transport, and roads, they often do.
