Airport hotel or early start?

[Gemini157]

Having asked the above question, thinking about it we would probably take the cars to one of the airport parks, so would drive ourselves there from the Premier Inn, then no need to return to P Inn on our return.

[arabella]

the both times i have flown with my sisters family from Glasgow, they live 45 minutes away and booked a taxi as they refused to spend on a hotel at the airport. the taxi arrived at 7am and both times lucky to have no traffic and at the airport for 8am the flight was at 1230 and check in at 0830.

anxious all the way as you can never predict what could happen to delay you.

next year is solo time, and from Manchester, will be booking a hotel and travelling by train the day before. like others here it will feel like a nice add on start to the holiday and less stress, I can think of nothing worse than getting stuck in traffic and missing the flight!
just need to decide which hotel now would like Radisson but looks pricy

[vampiress88]

Originally Posted by Thorpy

It's always a risk and always a balancing act. It's why we used to get there dead early...it would take an absolutely extraordinary traffic jam to have caused us issues. I always think how many bored hours I'd trade to be on time if I were late and sat in traffic... and then it's not so bad being that early.

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How early do you set off?

[love2plan]

I don’t mind getting up and travelling the same day. It’s more stressful but does save a lot of money. We live about the same distance from MAN and that’s what we did last summer for a 10am departure.

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by vampiress88

How early do you set off?

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We used to aim to be leaving home at some point after 6, arriving at the airport at 7ish, knowing that we had 2 hours to spare if we needed it. commuting through some of the same traffic regularly, I know that you're very rarely 2 hours delayed going through it... especially if you're checking for any signs of trouble and proactively diverting around it.

Looking at your earlier post where you'll be arriving at the airport at about half 6ish... that should be plenty of spare time. Your "flight missed", time to be there is an hour before scheduled departure, so just before 9. You are giving yourself 2.5 hours spare, and getting on for treble your expected journey time. One never knows, but you should be fine.

[duchy]

We have this discussion every trip. My husband likes to build in hours and hours of delay time. For me leaving at midnight for an hour drive to Gatwick and an eleven am flight is overkill so we tend to stay the night before . Next trip it was three hundred cheaper to fly out of Gatwick but back into Heathrow on direct flights ... BA are ending the LGW FLL we are actually on the last flight so we are getting a car transfer there and back which is cheaper than train each way plus even a cheapie airport hotel. I always cost all the options each time as they can vary considerably and there's no one answer depending on rates and flight timings.

[sparkyweb]

We are lucky in that we live around 20mins from LGW with multiple routes that we can use if the motorway is shut. So for that reason we stay at home the night before and get a lift with family etc. If we lived more than an hour away (or had the M25 to consider) I'm sure we would think differently.
I travel from LGW at least once a month and a 7am taxi for a 10am flight is my normal plan (and will be when I head to Dubai on Sunday) however when we go on holiday soon I will build in extra time (as it will be in the school holidays, we'll have bags to drop and more people to get through security).

[vampiress88]

Originally Posted by Thorpy

We used to aim to be leaving home at some point after 6, arriving at the airport at 7ish, knowing that we had 2 hours to spare if we needed it. commuting through some of the same traffic regularly, I know that you're very rarely 2 hours delayed going through it... especially if you're checking for any signs of trouble and proactively diverting around it.

Looking at your earlier post where you'll be arriving at the airport at about half 6ish... that should be plenty of spare time. Your "flight missed", time to be there is an hour before scheduled departure, so just before 9. You are giving yourself 2.5 hours spare, and getting on for treble your expected journey time. One never knows, but you should be fine.

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Yes that’s what I thought. 1.5hour drive. Car drop off is meet and greet so didn’t take long. If we set off at 5 then that’s 5hours till the plane actually leaves. We always used to drive up the same day and never even thought twice of it till this year but that was a long time ago so didn’t know if things would have changed. Plus can’t have much traffic between donny and Manchester from 5am-6.30am. There wasn’t much when we drove back last week and that was from 7-8.30am

[Thorpy]

Originally Posted by vampiress88

Yes that’s what I thought. 1.5hour drive. Car drop off is meet and greet so didn’t take long. If we set off at 5 then that’s 5hours till the plane actually leaves. We always used to drive up the same day and never even thought twice of it till this year but that was a long time ago so didn’t know if things would have changed. Plus can’t have much traffic between donny and Manchester from 5am-6.30am. There wasn’t much when we drove back last week and that was from 7-8.30am

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Looking at the map an hour and a half gives you the 62 or Woodhead...so options. If one is blocked and the other is busy, you should still be within 2 hours. You just need to check when you set off and don't go walking into disasters.

[braby]

We're 25 mins from LHR and 50 mins from both STN/LGW, usually try to get the earliest flight possible whenever travelling. We always travel to the airport on the day, I've worked at LHR for 20 odd years now so know quite a few diversions if the M25 has heavy traffic which helps, pklus family normaly drops/pick's us up.
Would much rather spend the money saved on something whilst we're away.