Travelling To Gatwick

Hi there

Never flown from Gatwick - But im going to the Audi Cup in Munich - My flight is midweek and depart at 6am in the morning.

How long do you reckon it would take from Barnsley - need to be there 3 hours before the flight -

 

I once flew from Gatwick at 5am, at that time of the night it took me just over 2.5hrs, 90 all the way down apart from the M25. I'd give yourself 3.5 hrs with not much traffic in the middle of the night.

 

Flown a few times from Gatwick. Shortest time just under 3 hours and longest 4.5 hours. Main problem is the M25, as expected.

 

cheers everyone. I Have been told by a few people to watch for the motorways going down to 1 lane during the night thats all.

Any recomend any decent pubs in Munich

 

Fly from Gatwick a lot and although I'm coming from London, for early morning flights the roads are usually very very quiet. Takes about 50 minutes from south east London to Gatwick on roads which aren't geared to driving fast!

I can typically do South London to Barnsley (J37) in 3 hrs without breaking my neck if I'm setting off from London so would say 3.5hrs-4hrs is more than ample to allow plus how far in advance of your flight you're comfortable leaving.

 

Do you really need to be there three hours before the flight?

With online check ins I've been rolling up 30-45 mins prior to take off, a bit risky but definitely feel better for not moping around the airport for hours.

 

i just thought that was the normal time of arrival to be honest. can always have a few drinks before we get into munich city centre.

 

Alright pal, came back from Munchen last month after watching Boss, great place, same weekend as CL final, chaos.

I think the whole 3 hour thing is more applicable at the bigger airports. We have done Hamburg, Munich and Amsterdam in last 5 months and arrived two hours before each time. By time you have cleared security and had some snap you will only have a short time to kill. I personally would never arrive 45mins before a flight, that is far too risky f you are commuting or driving to airport. Leaves you no scope for an accident, delays etc.

In terms of Munich drinking, you won't go thirsty. There are two main Bierkellers one is a touristy place the Hofbrahaus, didn't go in as the boozer opposite the square looked better. However on the first night we went to the Lowenbraukeller, easy to find from Karlplatz metro stop, literally a 10min walk. The bier is gorgeous and the food is absolute knockout, hearty to say the least. Plenty of boozers in City centre, if you take a cab up the Leopoldstrasse to Schwabwing there are bars and restaurants, this is a more younger crowd, but not too young.

Enjoy

 

Usually plenty of hotel/parking deals at Gatwick. Drive down in comfort the night before, sleep in a hotel and park for not much more than parking will cost you anyway. Guaranteed safer and less stressful than driving down in the early hours when you are tired...

 

Out of interest, why fly from Gatwick rather than Manchester or somewhere nearer home? It must be just about the most difficult airport in England to get to from Barnsley.

 

I'd agree with that - we have used Gatick a few times in the last year or two because the flights we wanted are much cheaper from Gatwick than more local. we always travel the night before and leave the car at one of the local hotels on a 'park and stay' deal and you are right - the night in the hotel almost comes free when compared to normal parking charges. This is what we are doing again this year.

Another benefit of doing it this way is that Gatwick has a facility whereby if your flight leaves early doors (think it is before 8am) then you can check your bags in the night before (after 8pm). Not sure if it is all airlines but certainly applies to cheesyjet as that is who we have used from Gatwick. No queues on a night and takes all the stress out of the process in the morning as you turn up and walk past the check in queue straight to security, and on for some brekkie. Nice and relaxing start to the day!

I avoid Manchester these days - their baggage handling is atrotious. We had a severly delayed flight back from Madeira in 2011, arriving back at 1am when we should have been back at 3pm, 10 hours earlier. We then had to wait 2 hours for our bags to come out - I know it is 1am but that is unacceptable at an international airport - it's what you get when you contract out the job to the cheapest bidder with no regard for quality of service. What really riled us was that the explanation we were given as to why a later arrival was baggage processed before us was that they were on time - i.e. we were already pi$$ed off so it didn't matter if they pi$$ed us off some more. I read a story in the paper a couple of weeks ago about the exact same thing happening recently and the police had to be called. I won't use them now unless I had no choice.

 

It was £120 cheaper each to fligh from Gatwick than it was Manchester and better flight times.

With us only being there 2 days we wanted to get there early and fly back late.

4 of us in car so only 20 pound each on petrol

 

I agree about the baggage system in Manchester being crap, although I'm not sure that I would rather have a 4 hour drive to Gatwick rather than a wait for baggage.

The wife and I use Mancheater about 20 times a year as we flit between Hamburg and Barnsley, but we only ever take hand luggage so we don't get affected by the baggage issue. Interestingly, loads of Germans on incoming flights from Hamburg complain about it too.

Mancheater airport itself is fine as long as you don't want a beer or something to eat, or anything else that costs money. It's a right rip off.