Our hotel is 3.7km from the Central Bus Station outside Terminal 2 Heathrow Airport. You can get from the terminal to the hotel by car, taxi, shuttle (Hoppa Bus) or the local double decker red suburban buses. It is not possible to walk as the terminal and bus station are in the centre of the airport between the two parallel runways. You can see the airport layout and the location of the central bus station and our hotel on the plan below. The blue hexagons are the Central Bus Station and our hotel. Cars, buses, trains, everything except the planes, have to go underground through tunnels to leave the airport. There is no pedestrian access through the tunnels.

A taxi costs about £15 for the trip, the Hoppa Bus costs £6.80 per trip and the red buses cost £1.75 per trip. The taxi will go whenever you want and deliver you to the hotel. The Hoppa Bus is a shuttle service run jointly by about 25 hotels. It runs about every 20 minutes and will deliver you to your hotel on a circuit of all the hotels it services. The red buses are regular suburban buses (routes 111 and 105) that run every 10 minutes and will drop you at the regular bus stop nearest your hotel. The route of the red buses is the perimeter ring road that runs all the way round Heathrow Airport.

We have to do this trip four times each. Airport to hotel and return before our walk and the same after our walk. So the total for 8 trips in a taxi is £120 ($288), the Hoppa £54.40 ($131) and the red bus £14 ($33.60). Being the tight arses that we can be, of course we used the red bus. All London red buses are now cashless so you need an Oyster Card or a debit or credit card or your smart watch or phone to swipe on. You don’t swipe off. This bus has just one fare no matter how far you are going. During covid this bus was free. It was all very easy. We walked out of Terminal 2, a bus was waiting for us and 10 minutes later we were in our hotel. Probably not so good if you are travelling with 4 pieces of luggage.

The ibis Heathrow London Airport Hotel is just your regular 3 star hotel. Not at all fancy but does all the basic things well enough. No swimming pool, no gym, no spa, no valet parking etc., but great shower, very comfy bed and absolutely quiet despite being 200 metres from one of Heathrow’s runways. The decor is quite kinky and it has a nice bar and cafe/restaurant. Meals all day. Breakfast starts at 4.30 in the morning!

This was a quiet day for us adjusting to the 11 hour time difference between NZ and UK. We just lazed around in the morning and had lunch in the hotel. Fighting to stay awake in the afternoon we went out into the sunshine for a walk. This is supposed to help your body adjust. About a 15 minute walk from the hotel is a co-op superette and about a 45 minute walk to a ginormous Asda Superstore supermarket. Yesterday afternoon we went to the superette so today we went to the supermarket to stock up on a few things for breakfast and lunch etc.

Our hotel is one street away from one of the Heathrow runways although our room window faces away from the airport. In the afternoon I walked over to the runway perimeter fence to watch a few planes coming in. There is a continuous flow of a planes slightly less then one minute apart. Looking into the sky in the distance you can see them lined up with lights on as they come in. On the other runway they were lined up on the ground waiting to take off, also about every minute.

Tomorrow we are on the move again. A red bus back to the Central Bus Station inside Heathrow then a National Express Coach to Taunton and a local bus from there to Minehead. We can’t wait to get away to the seaside.