Heathrow airport hotels

[QueenOfWeeds]

We will be travelling from T3 in a few weeks and I’m all tangled up about the hotel options. Our flight isn’t super early, but would mean travelling during rush hour so we’ve decided to get a hotel to avoid the faff. The aerotel in T3 looks a bit grim - we would ideally like a window - but I can’t work out which of the other hotels are based in the terminals rather than a shuttle bus away. We don’t need parking and are happy to get a Deliveroo or something to the room if the hotel restaurant is a bit pants. Not fussed about breakfast options - can get that after security.

I know some of the other terminals (all of them?) would require transport to get to T3 but I’m happier doing a loop on the tube, for example, than relying on a hotel shuttle bus.

TLDR: which of the hotels based at the airport, instead of down the road, is best?

I would stay at one of the hotels linked to one of the terminals like the Sofitel at T5 or the Hilton at T4. Then you can just walk to the station and get a free transfer ticket and use it either on the Heathrow Express or Lizzie Line to your terminal. Then you’re more in control and not faffing about with shuttles.

Thanks @MrsSchadenfreude , that’s exactly what we want to do. I’m just not sure if there are any major advantages to any one particular hotel over the others.

I swear whichever terminal we fly from, the better lounge/hotel/whatever options change to a different one 😂.

There’s a Hilton Garden Inn at T3, which iirc is connected to T3 by a covered walkway. Or a Sofitel Hotel at T5. We’ve stayed at both, so can recommend. I’m pretty sure that the Hilton restaurant has amazing reviews, but we didn’t think it was all that great, and the service was painfully slow.

We stayed at the Moxy recently and used Uber to get to/from the terminal (we had a lot of luggage). I think there's a bookable bus too.

The rooms are good and there's a bar & restaurant downstairs (or a Tesco Express in walking distance). Best thing is that the parking is only £12.50/day.

I've stayed at the Sofitel a couple of times and it's worked well. Comfy and has windows! Sometimes does great deals on parking which is just underneath it, so very convenient.

Thanks. The Hilton Garden Inn is the one I keep coming back to, so that’s useful to know.

Trying to avoid any road based transport because we’ll have a car seat and it’s just an extra level of faff that I can’t be dealing with if we can avoid it.

Stayed at the T4 Premier Inn a few times and it’s worked well. Once I was actually flying from T4 so it was ideal; another time we were going from T5, but we just walked into T4, down to the tube station, free transfer ticket & quick ride to T5. The hotel itself is fine: a good thing about Premier Inns is you know exactly what you’re getting! And I hate the idea of relying on a shuttle or bus to get to the airport, versus the tube every 2-3 minutes.

I should say too, the Premier Inn is connected to T4 by a covered walkway. There’s one or two other hotels there as well (Hilton has been mentioned, there may be another as well).

That’s useful to know, thanks.

It’s so confusing! I just want a big interactive map of the airport showing the terminals, the hotels, and the transport links. And maybe restaurants. I’ve seen individual terminal ones but nothing showing quite what I want.

We stayed at Sofitel, there's a corridor from the hotel straight into T5. I'm sure you could then get from T5 to T3 easily.

We stayed at one of the Ibis on the T3 perimeter road last year. It was nice enough and restaurant was ok. There was also a garage next door so we could get drinks for the room. DS3 enjoyed watching the planes landing and taking off from the bedroom window. We were driving so we left our car at long stay the morning of the flight so I don't know about transport to the terminal.

I really like the Sofitel at T5 and always stay there whichever terminal I'm flying from.

Hilton Garden inn sounds like it'll be awful - it's basically in the middle of the carpark, and TBH, the reception made me think I'd made a mistake - but the rooms were fantastic and totally silent - I'd book again with no hesitation (and definitely in favour of any of the ones that need a bus. Never doing that again)

I agree an interactive map of the whole of Heathrow airport would be a great idea. From our experience of staying, most of the restaurants airside are in the hotels. There’s very little airside in the terminals apart from coffee shops, and way too many WHSmiths!

Hilton Garden Inn is literally a 3 min walk to T3, you can even walk along the pavement outside.
Term 3 and 2 also have a small Marks and Spencer in arrivals , if you don't want
to use pricey airport food outlets.
Not sure why people suggest any hotel connected to other Terminals, getting on Heathrow Express with luggage surely much more hassle and takes at least 20 mins door to door inc walking through underground / waiting for train.

I've stayed in the Premier Inn and its fine and a short walk to terminal. Dh has stayed in the Yotel, if that's still there. It's gimmicky and fun.