Advice on pre flight stays/journey to Gatwick

[Sapper383]

We are apoximatly 3hours drive away from Gatwick, so it's a bit of a drive....There are 10 of us going on our next trip, if we drive to Gatwick we will need to take 3 cars, so 3 lots of car parking fees.

We also are thinking of staying in an hotel the night before.

The main problem is the drive home, we have done it before but to be honest, it was terrible, we were so tired. Also my dad just doesn't want to drive back the day we land.

.....so.....what are the options.....I was thinking of hireing a minibus to drive up and then one to come back, this way we could all share the driving......but this seems very expensive

aarrgghhh...I just don't know what to do for the best....any advice or information on good offers would be much appriciated

sam

 

[Pooh's-Honey-Pot]

We had the same problem as you on our family Christmas trip, as my dad didn't want to drive back after a flight (we are 2.5 hours away). In the end we hired a mini-bus (plus driver!) with a local taxi company to take us and then pick us up again. It was £175 each way (split between 6 of us) which worked out cheaper than 3 rooms at hotels (we drove down in the morning in the end very early) and three lots of parking costs)

The only other option we could think of was booking hotel rooms for the day we landed, and then driving back after resting a day later. However thats extra hotel and parking costs AND a lot of hotels don't let you check in until 3pm so may have been no good anyway!

 

[Laurafoster]

However thats extra hotel and parking costs AND a lot of hotels don't let you check in until 3pm so may have been no good anyway!

The Hilton do "day rooms" and they are cheaper than the standard rate - not sure how much though.


We always get a taxi to/from Gatwick - saves hassle and we can snooze on the way home


Quite a few firms around here have 16 seaters so we always managed to get a decent price.

 

[Pegasus928]

I know it's not Gatwick but the last couple of times we have been we took the train from our local station straight to Manchester airport. Is there not a train station at Gatwick too??
The cost for 4 of us for a return ticket was only £54 which was a lot lower than I thought it would be I should say that this was bought from a travel agent as a family ticket and was cheaper than the station was offering it for.
Might be worth pricing up just to see how it compares

 

[Sapper383]

I just checked the train prices and can't search for prices for my dates as it is too far in advance but I had a look for prices for other dates and it would be just under £200 for 4 of us return.....seems like alot and we still would have to get a taxi to and from our station

Just had a quote from a mini bus firm and it wasn't as bad as I thought, £560 for the 10 of us ( three families).