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Which Heathrow Airport hotels are walkable from the terminals?

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Which hotels at Heathrow Airport are walkable from the terminals, and don’t require a bus ride?

Whilst you are virtually guaranteed to be paying more to sleep within Heathrow Airport, you can’t argue that it is the easiest option.

The ability to walk from your room to the check-in desk in a couple of minutes is fantastic – no-one wants to be messing about with buses at 6am. You can even nip out, check in your luggage and then pop back to the hotel for a leisurely breakfast.

Which Heathrow hotels are walkable from the terminals?

Remember that, unlike many big airports, Heathrow has banned dedicated hotel shuttle buses. The only way to your hotel is by a public bus – which is no longer free – or the expensive Hotel Hoppa shuttle service. Each Hoppa route stops at multiple hotels and can be slower than (and is 4x the price of) the local buses.

Don’t think that the taxi drivers will be keen to help you either. Many queue for hours to get a fare from Heathrow to Central London, although there are rules to allow them to re-enter the queue higher up. Because Heathrow is not in Central London, black cabs have no legal obligation to take you.

You could try an Uber or similar but that won’t be cheap due to Heathrow fees. The one time I got an Uber at 5am from the old Crowne Plaza to Terminal 5, it cost me £20. This was before Heathrow started adding its £5 drop-off fee.

What are the onsite hotels at Heathrow?

We have reviewed most of the onsite hotels at Heathrow. You can see all of our London airport hotels reviews – covering Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and, erm, Southend – here.

Let’s run through the options for staying directly at Heathrow airport.

Because transferring between Heathrow terminals can be more painful than getting a bus from a Bath Road hotel, especially with luggage, I recommend staying at a hotel in the terminal you are using.

Heathrow Terminal 5 hotels

There is only one hotel in Terminal 5 – the Sofitel (website here).

This is a five-star hotel, one of the smartest airport hotels in the world. You will pay for the privilege, of course.

I finally got around to reviewing the Sofitel at Heathrow Terminal 5 this year – see here. It was impressive, although the furnishings are looking a bit dated, and I stayed there again a few weeks later when I found myself on an unexpectedly early Terminal 5 flight.

Which Heathrow hotels are walkable from the terminals?

Heathrow Terminal 4 hotels

The great news is that Heathrow Terminal 4 is hotel central with options for all budgets.

Your options are:

  • Premier Inn London Heathrow Airport Terminal 4 – website here, review here. This hotel can offer fantastic value for money.
  • Crowne Plaza London Heathrow T4 – website here, review here. A very impressive and relatively new four star hotel.
  • Holiday Inn Express London Heathrow T4 – website here, review here. This hotel shares the same building as the Crowne Plaza and you can cross-charge. All Holiday Inn Express guests get free breakfast too. If you don’t mind a slightly blander room, the smart money stays here, takes the free breakfast and enjoys the same bar and restaurant as Crowne Plaza guests.

All of these hotels are on the same covered walkway from the terminal, and there is very little in it when it comes to distance.

The YOTEL hotel which used to be in Terminal 4 is closed.

Heathrow Terminal 3 hotels

No hotel offers a quicker walk to your plane than the Aerotel in Terminal 3’s arrivals hall.

We reviewed Aerotel Heathrow here and the website is here.

It is a smart and modern hotel, but most of the bedrooms don’t have windows. You don’t really notice when you’re inside, however, and if you are arriving in darkness it doesn’t make any difference.

Which Heathrow hotels are walkable from the terminals?

Heathrow Terminal 2 / 3

Finally, the newest hotel on this list is the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2/3, reviewed here. The website is here. An image is above.

This hotel is a bit more of a faff to reach, requiring a walk through the short stay car park if you are coming from Terminal 2. Terminal 3 is a little further away. The hotel is decent though, with a rooftop bar.

Note that, if you have Hilton Honors Diamond status, you do not AUTOMATICALLY get free breakfast at a Hilton Garden Inn. HGI is the ONLY Hilton brand where a Diamond has to opt in to get a free breakfast. You must change your ‘MyWay’ benefits option 24 hours before checking in.  The default MyWay option is to refuse the free breakfast and award you 750 bonus points – which I’d value at £3 – instead. Hilton Garden Inn hotels do not offer upgrades to elite members of Hilton Honors.

(Heathrow Terminal 1 has been closed for some years, hence the lack of hotel options there.)

Other options for a bus-free Heathrow hotel

If you are determined to avoid the buses but want other options, try these hotels.

The Hilton Garden Inn London Heathrow Airport at Hatton Cross, review here, is 3-4 minutes walk from Hatton Cross underground station. This is the station before the airport, and the trains will drop you at the terminals within minutes. This trip is now free. Check the time of the first train if you are departing early. The website is here.

Be aware that the walk to the Hilton Garden Inn isn’t the easiest and not recommended with heavy suitcases. Depending on the route you walk, you will encounter a footbridge (EDIT: comments say this is closed for long term repairs) and a spot with no pavement.

The other hotel at Hatton Cross is the Atrium Hotel Heathrow, reviewed here. This a new but slightly bizarre hotel, seemingly aimed at the Indian wedding market. If you don’t know the area, it is easier to find than the Hilton Garden Inn – you can’t miss its bright blue facade as you exit the tube. This hotel is currently unbookable – I don’t know if it went bust or has been taken over by the Home Office.

Note that Hatton Cross underground station does not have an escalator or lift, although there are not many steps.

Readers have previously recommended the Staycity hotel which is directly opposite Hayes & Harlington station. Hayes & Harlington is an Elizabeth Line stop between Paddington and the airport. This is not currently bookable and appears to have been taken over by the Home Office.

A slightly off-beat option is the Thistle Heathrow Terminal 5 hotel which we reviewed here (website here). This is a very dated but cheap hotel. The reasons we mention it is that the POD driverless monorail from the airport car park to Terminal 5 operates from behind the hotel and you can ride it for £7 per person each way.

Finally, consider the Hilton London Paddington hotel – website here. This may be the best of both worlds – you can sleep in the city centre, inside the railway station – but, timed right, you can leave your room and be at Heathrow Airport within 25 minutes via Heathrow Express or within 35 minutes via the Elizabeth Line.

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Comments (108)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Kerry Kenton-Clarke says:
    29 Aug29 August 07:57

    I must have used every option imaginable when flying out of Heathrow, car parks, hotels with parking, hoppa buses etc – something that’s not been mentioned is the private transfer service offered by We Know London – I’ve used this a few times and whilst it’s not that cheap it’s actually a really good option. They have all-electric iPace Jaguars and, I guess, can carry up to 4 passengers. One-way trip from a relatively local hotel (e.g. Radisson Bath Road) to T5 is from £26 – bit more expensive than last time I used the service but between 4 people it’s pretty much the same cost as a Hoppa bus.

    • Tariq says:
      29 Aug29 August 13:58

      I can vouch for this service too. Bit of a pain that you have to wait at the terminal for the driver to be called by the info desk team, but they have always arrived very promptly when I have travelled from hotel to airport.

  • Froggee says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:03

    Reading this just emphasises what a mess Heathrow is. You take a bunch of people not from the area who are tired and likely with luggage and expect them to bumble about on public buses as a superior option to paying £12 for a slower but dedicated bus service.

    I’m spending the night at CDG in October, and despite being unfamiliar with the airport, it is so much easier.

    Oh and “ Whilst you are virtually guaranteed to be paying more to sleep within Heathrow Airport, you can’t argue that it is the easiest option.”

    I’m pretty sure I can argue that sleeping at Heathrow is the easiest option.

  • Tankmc says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:16

    The best option is to get a hotel next to a public bus. Yes it’s a pain but it always works out cheaper. To be honest the hotel situation is one of the reasons why we avoid Heathrow.

    • Travel Strong says:
      29 Aug29 August 12:14

      Yes, I rank the following combo to be absolutely top tier…
      – YourParkingSpace on Bath Road
      – Premier Inn breakfast
      – Pod or public bus

      But I am also:
      – a bargain lover
      – common

      • Dan says:
        29 Aug29 August 14:01

        Sounds like you are simply sensible. Add onto that a McDonald dinner the night before from Bath road!

  • James C says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:23

    Always the Sofitel ahead of a holiday flight. It’s the perfect way to start the trip and you can be into GF or CCR within 15mins of leaving the room most of the time. Otherwise I rate the CP T4 which is often only a slight premium (one time cheaper) on the HI but has a gym and excellent breakfast offer. I also rate the Ibis Styles which is usually very cheap (£60-80) and one bus stop either way from Heathrow Central. You could probably walk it on HBO if the pedestrian tunnels weren’t closed!

  • MPC says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:41

    I feel a lot better now about having paid £30 to get picked up from the Sofitel and dropped off at T3 having read about some of these other similar fees! There were 2 of us with 4 massive bags and 2 cabin bags so no real alternative. We were re-routed from BA at T5 to AA at T3 the next morning due to YVR being closed which is why we were staying at the “wrong” terminal in the first place. I echo the comments about it being tired. I’m glad BA footed the bill and not us, the prices there are truly ridiculous for what you get in return. The service in the restaurant was so bad, we left after 10 minutes having not managed to order anything and got room service + some bits from M&S in T5 arrivals!!

    • jj says:
      29 Aug29 August 09:06

      The Sofitel has two restaurants. Service in the cheaper one is somewhat patchy and the food is little more than tolerable. La Belle Epoque is under different management, though, and offers a truly enjoyable dining experience with exemplary service at a premium price. That’s the one to go for.

      • MPC says:
        29 Aug29 August 17:33

        In hindsight we probably should have done the premium option, but I simply wasn’t in the mood after the day I’d had. M&S has never tasted so good!

  • DevonDiamond says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:53

    Staying at HGI Hatton Cross in 10 days time pre world cup so good to know about the bridge. Is it signed from the tube?

    • Smid says:
      29 Aug29 August 11:01

      It doesn’t need to be signed, it’s right in front of you if you walk out the main (left) entrance from the tube.

      I never used the bridge, it was closed last time, you simply cross the road (with some road sense) to the middle part, then cross again. Then it’s a straight walk with pavements (not sure where the no pavement bit came from) to the hotel.

      It is probably about the same length of walk from T5 departures to Sofitel than it is from Hatton Cross Underground to HGI. All of these “inside the airport” options have significant walks, tube to T4 hotels is a longer one than Hatton Cross.

      Only complaint now about the HGI, is that it’s a lot more expensive and they’ve pretty much doubled the price of drinks at the bar. We bring our own now.

      • DevonDiamond says:
        29 Aug29 August 11:45

        Cheers, maybe I’ll stock up at M&S when I arrive at Heathrow.

      • Travel Strong says:
        29 Aug29 August 12:16

        See the next comments page, exit the other side of the station for the better route!

        • Smid says:
          30 Aug30 August 01:23

          Personally, I think the left way is the best route. I did your way the first time, and rechecking it on google maps, you actually walk halfway past the hotel before being able to get into the road surrounding it.

          Going left, while passing through a few entrances to factories, gets you to the front door quicker.

  • BJ says:
    29 Aug29 August 08:59

    Thanks for this article. It, and associated comments, will be a very useful single source of reference on the topic. Therefore ut would be great if you could keep it up to date with openings, closures and re-flags.

    OT: disappointing that Hilton seems quite heavily invested in HGI these day, I really don’t like this brand. With the exception of one in California my experience has been poor.

  • Gordon says:
    29 Aug29 August 09:06

    When flying from T5 I tend to use Premier inn T2 & T3 Bath road, (very reasonable food and beverage prices) as it has a purple parking next door, a 2 minute drive or walk. From there it’s approximately a 10 to 15 minute transfer to T5. Which really does not bother me with the savings made.
    There’s half a mile difference between Premier inn T5 and Premier inn T2 & T3 to get to T5 terminal. Both properties have onsite parking £15 for 24 hours.

    • yorkieflyer says:
      29 Aug29 August 09:11

      Do you mean using Purple parking bus and not parking there if that’s possible?

      • Gordon says:
        29 Aug29 August 09:18

        Yes, the purple parking transfer bus, after dropping your vehicle off there the next morning, or if it’s cheaper than the £15 hotel parking rate, book your vehicle into purple parking the same night you get there as I have done before, Just take a small bag to the hotel with change of clothes and toiletries for a spruce up in the morning….

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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