Please help! Traveling to Gatwick during Monday Morning rush hour

[CocoCarrie]

I need to travel from Oxford to Gatwick very early on a Monday morning. In an ideal world I would love to get there 3 hours before takeoff to play it safe (anxiety gets the better of me and the airline I am traveling advises to get there three hours early with take off at 10am). I am new to this, never travelled before, sorry if I am being silly, stupid etc.

I'm taking the local coach, one an hour, that goes via the M25 and stops off at Heathrow Airport before Gatwick.

Departing times from Oxford - Arriving at Gatwick
3.30am - 5.56am
4.30am - 7.09am

Is there anyone who can advise on how bad the M25 is at this time in the morning for a Monday ?
Which time would you suggest?

Thank you :)

I guess the flip side of that is why risk an expensive holiday for £100?

I'm sure you'll be fine but I wouldn't risk a coach for a morning flight.

Hideous. Book a premier inn south of Gatwick.

We just booked the travelodge at Crawley (10 mins from airport) for £80 as we have a 06:40 flight. At least don't have to get up quite so early!!

Look at B&B in Horley. The Lawns always looks nice. One of them, think it is The Corner House, has a fantastic Indian restaurant in it Sillet Spice.

Don't stay at an airport hotel, stay at one further up the train line from gatwick. Then just hop on a local train straight into the airport.

Haywards Heath Premier Inn is £55 on Sunday night.

If there have been roadworks on any section of the road you'll be travelling over the weekend, even if they're supposed to have finished by Monday morning, there's no guarantees, things often run over time. I'm with team Book a Hotel

Not The Corner House but Acorn Lodge. You can walk to north terminal from there.

This is proof why cheap early flights are never worth it! 3 hours before is excessive. , I fly from Gatwick a lot and always get through so fast. I’d get a coach that arrives at 8.

I’d get the 4:30 one, M25 will be fine at that time - you can’t allow for a disaster, and they do happen, but you’d have to travel the day before to allow enough time to build that in! I’ve been held on motorways for hours when a serious accident has happened very close to me and they’ve needed to land air ambulance etc but I don’t plan my life around it.

If that’s going to stress you out, take the hotel advice.

M25 ... anything can happen

No need for any catastrophising. You’ll be absolutely fine taking the 0430. In fact more than fine. You could over an hours delay and still not be under any pressure.
Your biggest risk by far is your bedside alarm not going off. Triple check it and put it on the other side of the room so you can’t snooze it indefinitely!

Not as expensive as missing your flights as you're stuck somewhere around South Godstone at the time because somebody forgot red lights = stop at the roundabout.

Just book the Sofitel and have a comfortable start, the entrance is right in the airport.