Manchester to Heathrow
 

Hi there, we have a fly drive booked Heathrow to Miami direct next year.

We may book flights to Heathrow but loathe being stuck in the landing queues. The price for 5 adults with a full size SUV was too good to miss, secured deposit only.

Flew from Heathrow 2020 half term to Los Angeles, travelled via train first class family returns, stayed overnight on bath road. Really liked flying from Heathrow, even though we are based 15/20 mins from Manchester Airport and have to pass it driving south!

Children are older now, so how do other dibbers cope with the drive on the return leg? The train was great but the tube with luggage to get to the Heathrow Express a bit meh….

We will stay over the night before, but dread the M25 traffic with jet lag (and the M6 roadworks and delays).

Think it all depends on if you get any sleep on the plane on the way back.
Could you book a hotel room at Heathrow and have a rest/sleep before driving back

Or maybe get an uber to a train station near to where the euston to Manchester train passes through

Ive used the the BA shuttle service around 10 times and have never been caught in the Landing queues?

I did LAS-LGW and drove back to Manchester and after a red eye flight, the drive is the worst thing, you will be kicking yourself for not booking a flight.

You've done very well to avoid the Heathrow landing stacks! In normal times when Heathrow is running at about 98% capacity it's all but impossible not to do at lease one circuit of a stack - often more. My sister lives in Weybridge and I often sit in her garden with Flightradar24 on the phone watching the planes stack.

Fully agree about never driving after an overnight TATL flight. Back in about 2005 I did MCO-LGW, then made the stupid decision to drive back to Derbyshire. Almost fell asleep at the wheel on the M1 - so quick pit-stop at the next services for a snooze & coffee.

I won't drive after an overnight flight, even if I've been in Upper Class so had a flat bed to try and sleep on. Not worth the risk after my 2005 experience. If not driving on arrival you can also enjoy a drink or two during the flight.

Thanks I do keep thinking I might cave and do that or possibly fly via another us point of entry. Another night at Heathrow wouldn’t be the worst option.

Had a horrendous 6 hours on standby Heathrow to JFK years back after missing our connection - stuck queuing to land and another near miss with the same issue but maybe I’m just very unlucky and things are much improved these days. We were out on standby as it was a particularly busy weekend near Christmas. By the time we had the ok and we’re given boarding passes, we had to run with an airport crew escort to the boarding gate and just made it.

Not the relaxing start to the holiday I’d hoped for. I’m never done it myself, but know some book an airport to airport private car transfer, I will look into that as by the time I’ve factored in parking, fuel and airport hotel rooms it might work out somewhere close to my budget. We are all hopeless at sleeping on the plane!

If we win the lottery in the meantime it will be UC return! I should imagine the drive is fine after a rest and we can share the driving between DH and myself. That said, we had a lovely holiday in Brighton for his 50th in July. It took us 7.5 hours to get to the Midlands on the return as the motorways were horrendous with pile ups, roadworks etc. We were towing our touring caravan, as seemed to be half of Britain. Just made it to our overnight stop before the wardens closed up for the night.

Perhaps luck is something in short supply in our house! 🤔

I have done the drive after both a Florida and California flight. If you don't get any sleep on the flight it will be tough. But if you have multiple drivers you could share an hours drive each.

We would never drive the 2.5 hours home from Manchester after a night flight again, too risky in our opinion. We have day rooms booked for our 2 planned holidays.

When we fly from LHR we book a car with Blackberry cars Euston to PI on Bath Road, £30, larger cars are also bookable. Return from LHR to Euston last time cost £35, they meet you in the terminal so have parking fees added on. Always had excellent service from them. I could not be bothered lugging suitcases up/down stairs, on/off tubes etc.

Would this be an option? Other car service companies are also recommended on the DIBB .

Great idea thank you, much better than lugging cases, will look into it.

Just wanted to say thanks very much for the tip re BlackBerry.

I have a quote now which is circa £280 each way Manchester to Heathrow which is an absolute bargain for a 6 seater door to door, I’m thrilled/relieved and more than happy with that price. For 5 adults with luggage, all good.

Needless to say the car will be staying on the drive and we will look forward to a different start to our break!