I have done a route plan for both routes and that says gatwick will be roughly 2hr 27 min and Manchester 2hr 8 min !!
Personally I would say that the route to manchester is less likely to have heavy traffic and I found that parking at manchester is a lot cheaper than Gatwick.
HTH and hopefully someone from leicester will have experience of both airports and be able to give you advice.
Louisex
Thanks for the reply, DH and I are flying from Manchester with virgin, Son and girlfriend are now joining us, they live in Leicester, so am looking for some cheap flights, our flight has gone up by £200 each so that is not viable, so looked at indirect from Manchester and Virgin from Gatwick dates are 10th May to 24th May if anyone has a good suggestion I will check it out.
Buzz for boys , just checked out the price from Heathrow I get to £661 return prices with tax for 2 fares My best price from Manchester is £700 with US via Philly or £800 with Virgin from Gatwick , hence the question, I am favouring the Philly flight at the moment.
We live near Leicester and so far have flew from Gatwick. Although we have driven down there the day before our flights and stayed at the Gatwick Hilton for one night.
From a purely travel point of view, Manchester would be the easiest to get to - straight up the M6 (from Leicester I find easiest route is via Stoke on the A50 and then join the M6 at J15). Or you could do M69, M6 toll, M6.
For Gatwick we go down the M40, M25. The M25 can be a nightmare depending on time of day.
There are charter options from East Midland and Birmingham. Also indirect scheduled flights from Birmingham (US Airways and Continental).
we live in leicester and we are flying from manchester in may, it should be alot easier to drive there than any london airport, we flew from east midlands 1n 2006 with first choice which is 20 mins to airport but found this time round they were more expensive than virgin but it is worth giving them a try as they were a fantastic company to fly with!! hope this helps
The M25 can be a nightmare depending on time of day. QUOTE]
The M25 is always a nightmare
If they end up travelling from Gatwick-try the train. We've given up driving,
M25 too stressful before a flight. Costs us £60.00 return for 4 - station at Gatwick makes it so easy. They'll have to change at Bedford or Luton though.
I have now booked with US via Philly from Man as the price was good and similar times to ours just a bit of waiting at Orlando on arrival and they will leave earlier in the day to us on the return but arrive about the same time (does this make sense)
I was going to suggest the train as well. Driving to Man or train to Gatwick is easiest imo. I won't be driving down just so I can pay for parking!
I'm going down the night before on the train. It's good on the way back too, I know I'll be miserable enough as it is having to come back, then having to drive hours as well? No thanks! We can kip on the train! lol
We fly from where its cheapest. We are close to East Midlands, but are getting the train to Gatwick. Done it before and its cheap and less stress than the M25 and paying for 15 days in a car park.
You can change at Luton or Bedford or travel to St Pancras and jump on a train to Brighton, which obviously stops at Gatwick en-route.