I'm heading to Stansted for the first time next month, and was wondering if anyone had any tips on the best way to get there? I'll be staying in London the night before (probably IC Park Lane or Crowne Plaza CIty), and the flight isn't until 7pm, so I doubt I'll be in a rush. I know there's the Stansted Express, but that's the limit of my knowledge at the moment. Thanks!
There are four routes from London to Stansted with NX. You can see each route here: http://www.nationalexpress.com/en/airports/stansted-airport.aspx. Now you just have to match up the Easybus search results to these routes. Here's Easybus's info page on Stansted. Apparently Easybus sell tickets on 'Airport Bus Express' services too. http://www.easybus.com/en/london-stansted I hasten to add that I've never done this route, but I have gotten £2 tickets on the Luton and Gatwick ones.
Fantastic advice - much appreciated. I don't suppose you (or anyone else!) has any idea about the best way to get from East Midlands back to Leeds (or Bradford) in the evening? I booked a flight getting in at 20:35 thinking it wouldn't be an issue at all, but getting to Nottingham or Derby before the last trains looked like a bit of a nightmare when I had a quick look last night.
Not, alas, around 9pm. Megabus run a direct service from East Midlands Parkway station to Bradford for £1 - but only in the morning and at midnight. You could wait for the midnight service of course, but I doubt you want to be on a coach for two hours! There's a train at 9pm from East Midlands Parkway with a Derby connection that gets you to Leeds at 11:05pm. Cutting it fine getting to EMP though.
You can also get an NX coach direct from the airport at 10pm, but it's another long journey and you don't get into Bradford until 01:30. The same service gets you into Leeds at 1am.
Cheers, yeah it does look a bit tricky. I suppose I could just get a taxi to derby or nottingham maybe, or get the coach and a taxi home from leeds (not that far really). Actually, I might take the opportunity to tick another night off my IHG Accelerate targets... It does seem slightly unreasonable somehow though that I can't easily travel a mere 80 Miles, after a flight landing at 20:30 on a weekday. It really never crossed my mind when I booked that it would be an issue!
I was going to say, there are plenty of hotels in the area Much easier to have a relaxing evening than a stressful one travelling for so long. You're right about the 80 miles. I get similarly frustrated. Travelling from the west coast to the east coast is a real pain. Northern railways need upgrading.
Seriously, though. If you plug in your details into http://www.traveline.info/ you get some interesting solutions. i.e. bus to Long Eaton, Train to Derby, Train to Leeds.
Yeah, I think I would actually be better off getting a license than doing the walk,bus,walk,train,train,train option it just spat out - only 3.30 hours (average speed, a mighty 24.4 mph!)
