Pre-flight hotel stay or morning drive?

[duchy]

Originally Posted by oeamon

We used to do it because of the traffic risks . We now do it as we see it as start of our holiday. Dinner and a glass of something chilled in the hotel really marks holiday time. We are 40mins from LHR and an hour from LGW and only if we have a afternoon flight would we skip the hotel bit now

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We are a similar distance from Gatwick and husband always wants to add on so much delay time "just in case" that we now stay over after he suggested we leave at midnight for an 11am flight !
We've paid £28 for travelodge this year , at that price it's hard to find a reason not to !

[colin39]

Hotel stay, my biggest fear is parking on the m25 and watching my flight leave.

[Bellesdream]

We're 2 hours from Gatwick and will be staying at the hotel the night before... Builds on excitement, holiday begins an extra day, no stress about timings etc.

[Tinkerbell]

45 mins from LGW ( when in U.K.) always stay overnight, I prefer the relaxing shower and change In the morning rather than the have we got everything panic day of travel

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by colin39

Hotel stay, my biggest fear is parking on the m25 and watching my flight leave.

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That happened maybe 6 years ago on a flight we were on.

We did the M25 circa 3.30pm. An hour later there was a double fatal and the road was still closed at 10.00am the next morning.

The VS27 we were on had 1 whole cabin empty and this was an August flight! As we climbed to altitude we could see miles of stuck traffic on the M25.

[macy]

We are a couple of hours away from Manchester, done both but now we tend to take the hotel option. Makes a nice relaxing morning rather than worrying about road closures and traffic. Premier Inn at Runger Lane is a good deal.

[NewtoOrlando]

We're staying overnight at the PI Gatwick North before our flight in October, we've never done this before as usually when flying to the states we fly from Heathrow which is 15/20 mins away from home so never had to bother with a hotel. I'm flying Heathrow to Budapest in 2 weeks and our flight is at 8.10am, I am dreading getting up at 5am, but no point with a hotel when only up the road!

[dadachu]

Always overnight for us. Especially from Manchester the M6 from Birmingham is nightmare whatever time you travel.
Only time we don't overnight is when travelling from Birmingham, our local airport which only 30/40 mins away. This, however, can be stressful in morning rush hour on the carpark that is the M42. Once had to get off and detour through Solihull so my daughter could catch her flight.
We've stayed at Runger Lane & Wilmslow PI's plus Adlington Travelodge for Manchester and a PI near Beaconsfield for Heathrow. All ok if all you're looking for is a bed and a shower. I don't think i've paid more than £35 ish for any of the rooms. To me that's cheap stress relief !

[Melvin Pearce]

We live about an hour and a half from Gatwick and always go on the day as one of our two kids drops us off.

This last trip 1st Feb, we stayed with our daughter the night before at Farnham, to wake up to at least two inches of snow all over the car. We left early and other than the roads being bad in Farnham the M25 was ok.

But as Tom Morrow said the M25 is always a risk.

Melvin and Lesley

[mick]

Originally Posted by Melvin Pearce

We live about an hour and a half from Gatwick and always go on the day as one of our two kids drops us off.

This last trip 1st Feb, we stayed with our daughter the night before at Farnham, to wake up to at least two inches of snow all over the car. We left early and other than the roads being bad in Farnham the M25 was ok.

But as Tom Morrow said the M25 is always a risk.

Melvin and Lesley

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Reminds us of our return to LGW in Dec 2017. We'd normally do M25, M40 home. By the time we'd reached the M40 there were horror matrix warning signs. We could then change our mind and use the M1 - but very soon horrid matrix signs again. So we aborted and decided to "invite" ourselves to our daughters in Essex for the night. 7 hours from LGW to Essex - admittedly the long way round. Never seen so many jack-knifed lorries straddling three lanes.

Last year we pre-empted any problems and went home via the tunnel and Essex.

Mick