LONDON GATWICK CALLING

Advantages: Car Parking, no noise, close to airport, just what was needed
Disadvantages: Bit small

...Well I have already done an opinion on Crete in general, the hotel I stayed in on the island, and now to continue the series another hotel opinion. This time the Thistle Hotel at Gatwick airport was the first place of stop for the holiday. General ******* Well it may not be the most stylish place to begin a great holiday, but it was sort of essential. We had a flight from London Gatwick airport to Crete’s capital Heraklion for 7:35 in the morning. Coming from the Westcounty it would be a long 3-hour drive to Gatwick to make that sort of time in the morning flight, and not liking early mornings anyway a hotel for the previous night looked a good option. Gatwick airport has several hotels from large chains, so there was plenty of choice. For no particular reason we chose the Thistle Hotel. Ok, so we went of a good reputation...

Chris_Padden 20.04.2002 · Read review
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Review of Thistle Hotel Gatwick Airport (London)

Gatwick Hilton

Advantages: Sounds prestigious
Disadvantages: Not good value for money

...Three weeks ago my husband and myself went to Austria on holiday. Now, normally, we would book our flight from Stanstead as it's just down the road, so to speak, but as this holiday was a present from one of our daughters and her husband, we accepted gratefully what she had arranged, which was a flight from Gatwick to Salzburg leaving at 6.05am. I didn't fancy spending all night travelling from Suffolk to Gatwick in time for the check in at 4.00am, so we decided to book a hotel close to the airport and travel down the night before. Well, I surfed the net and discovered the Gatwick Hilton for £139 for a double room. It sounded a lot but this also included 15 days parking, which would have cost around £70-80 on its own, and we didn't require breakfast that early in the morning. So, £139 for the room and parking seemed like a small price...

sylviesinc 26.08.2002 · Read review
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Review of Hilton London Gatwick Airport, London

Hilton Hotel, Gatwick

Advantages: Right on the Airport doorstep and connected via walkways.
Disadvantages: NOT cheap!

...This hotel is connected to Gatwick airport making it a cinch to use. The airport connects to this by way of following the signs along a few coridoors and into the Hotel. If you can get to Gatwick Airport by train, the hotel is quite easy to get to inside, just follow the signs. You stay under the walkways keeping dry and dont have to fiddle about with buses or taxi's. The rooms are quite basic considering the costs but, quite simply, you are paying for the convenience of not having to fiddle about with getting hotel buses to/from the airport. This is the real crunch of using the hotel. Naturally the rooms are ok with the usual facilites like on-suite toilets, TV, charge-able mini-bar, large bed unless you ordered a King-size. The food is pricey, as are drinks, but there is no need to be a captive audiance as its easy to...

martinwi 07.02.2008 (17.02.2008) · Read review
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Review of Hilton London Gatwick Airport, London

Hilton - Gatwick Hotel

Advantages: close to airport, comfortable
Disadvantages: expensive, dark

...I stayed in the Gatwick Hilton for 2 nights; 23rd March and 1st April. As a general overview I wasn't too impressed with the acclaimed Hilton hotel. There was a large group of us (about 30) and we all entered the hotel via the North terminal entrance. This was good as you could walk through a sheltered walkway to the main reception. The reception area itself had about 6 different stations that could have been used for check-in but only 2 of them were in operation (this was at about 6.30 so quite a few people would have been checking in at this time). It took quite a long time to check every one in and our cards were given out. The hotel had only given us 1 key card per room even though 2/3 people were in a room ? as you can imagine this caused problems of people trying to get into their rooms but their room mate not being there. I...

mjrobert 09.04.2005 · Read review
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Review of Hilton London Gatwick Airport, London

Gatwick Airport - A Case of Crisis Mis-Management

Advantages: Good motorway access, reasonable parking and other facilities
Disadvantages: They just cannot cope with above-average numbers of departing passengers

...Gatwick Airport for me is a must to avoid. I last went through there a year ago and it was a disaster. I note that most of the Ciao reviews were written before the current security measures came into place, when they would have been justifyably more favourable. I hope, but doubt, that it has changed much in the last year, I don't know, because I have taken to using alternative more local airports like Southampton and Bristol, where the staff are more local and people-friendly. No doubt I could go through Gatwick tomorrow, and if I was lucky to get the time of day right, I could sail through and wonder what all the fuss was about. My last experience put me in such a bad frame of mind from the outset of my holiday, that I won't take the risk if I can possibly avoid it. However, that said,later in 2008 I am taking a flight from...

webfoot 26.12.2007 · Read review
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Review of London Gatwick (LGW)

London Gatwick - a higher class of flying

Advantages: Easily accessible by road or rail
Disadvantages: does not offer night flights

...on return. Travelling to and from the airport. Gatwick is accessible by road via the M25 and M23 not to mention the A23. It often tends to be less busy than Heathrow which has to be a bonus! You can also get a train to Gatwick. Trains run 24 hours a day from London Victoria ( I know!!!! - I normally use the service on a saturday night after clubbing in london). There are two different train providers running between Gatwick and Victoria alone, not to mention those that operate to Brighton, Luton, Bedford and so on. The gatwick express, the non-stop service from Victoria costs ~ £14 for a return. And is a comfortable and clean ride. Taking roughly 35 mins. Some of the operators trains although cheaper, can be more dirty and so I would advise against them unless you need to stop before reaching london city centre. Parking...

Topazblue69 02.08.2004 · Read review
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Review of London Gatwick (LGW)

Marooned in Gatwick, Florida

Advantages: A breath of fresh air given the circumstances
Disadvantages: Would you really plan to stay at an airport hotel for longer than one night?

.... The corridors were predominantly blue in colour. Our room was quite large by London hotel standards, painted in citrus colours and contained a comfortable queen sized bed. It had an en suite bathroom with the expected furnishings (complementary toiletries, in drawer hair drier, in cupboard coffee maker and trouser press). Vistas from the windows are uninspiring ? giving views of the central car park. EATERIES AND OTHER THINGS The restaurants consisted of the Café Montparnasse (which offered a dinner menu of French and Mediterranean cuisine) and the Gatwick Oriental ? which we chose for our evening meal. Ken Hom is a consulting chef to the latter which specialises in Chinese, Thai, Japanese and Indian dishes. Full English breakfast is served in the Brasserie on a self service basis. The restaurants all look out onto various aspects...

Newfloridian 17.05.2003 · Read review
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Review of Le Meridien Gatwick Airport, London

It?s Hip To Be Square ? Le Méridien Gatwick

Advantages: Peace and tranquility within a busy airport environment. Beautiful atrium!
Disadvantages: Air-conditioning in rooms wasn't great. Building work in progress in the atrium.

...Aficionado Extraordinaire, as ? on reflection - I would appear to be, of staying in bizarre hotel locations, I recently found myself at the Le Méridien Hotel, Gatwick Airport. Not, I?m somewhat embarrassed to admit, that I was actually flying anywhere. Nope! It?s just where (for £40 for the room, against a considerably greater rack-rate) the infamous Priceline decided to send us. And when the hotel is as good as this, at that price, I am certainly not one to complain. In fact, the trip turned out to have several advantages. Let me say from the outset, however, that if you actually are flying to or from Gatwick Airport, south of London, this is a superb airport hotel, with only minor faults. There are two hotels on site ? the Gatwick Hilton is located at the South Terminal (and I?ll confess that I have a real soft spot for Hiltons...

andymcf 07.06.2004 · Read review
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Review of Le Meridien Gatwick Airport, London

Stay and Park

Advantages: Very Convenient for the Terminal
Disadvantages: Quite Expensive

...A flight from Gatwick - the only option for our recent holiday to Bermuda - meant we needed one night's accommodation near to the airport itself, to ensure we had no hold ups on the morning. As we would also need 12 nights parking I scoured the internet for inclusive stay and park deals. This was not really ever going to be a cheap stay because of the parking element. The Sofitel was certainly not the cheapest option but it is attached to North Terminal via a bridge and I felt it was worth paying a little extra for a little bit of indulgence and for the convenience. The actual rate quoted was £160.85 for the Classic room and up to fifteen nights parking. This however excluded the VAT, which is quite an unusual way for UK hotels to quote rates. The rate was room only and did not include breakfast, which was quoted as...

helencbradshaw 01.01.2007 · Read review
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Review of Sofitel London Gatwick, Crawley

A Flying Visit

Advantages: Connected to terminal, comfortable and quiet rooms, good service
Disadvantages: Expensive breakfast, long queue at check in

...I have made a few trips between the UK and my Bermuda base recently. On my most recent flying visit, I decided that rather than run the gauntlet of the M25 first thing on a Monday morning, I would book an airport hotel the night before and start the day at a more leisurely pace. The main reason I chose the Sofitel was its highly convenient location, we were not planning to get to the airport until the evening, had to return our hire car and the last thing I felt I would want to do would be faff around with airport hotel buses. No need to do this with the Sofitel as it is connected to the North Terminal by a covered walkway. We arrived at Gatwick at about 8pm, dropped off the hire car and crossed the road to enter the (North) terminal building. We have stayed at the Sofitel before, so we knew to take the escalator up one floor...

Cat199 26.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Sofitel London Gatwick, Crawley