Category: Gatwick South Terminal

Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure, you probably have more important (and fun) things to do than figure out how to get a rental car, where to park, and where you need to go. Airport taxi services give you a lot of benefits and advantages that you can’t get from renting a car or attempting to rely on public transit. Let’s take a look at a few of the top reasons more and more travelers are choosing to hail a cab instead of driving themselves or getting on a bus or train check here now for more information http://www.iparkairportparking.co.uk/blog/

Less Stress Getting to Your Hotel

First, you’ve just spent several hours on an airplane, and before that you had the dubious pleasure of dealing with the security line. Now you have a choice. If you’re not going to get an airport taxi, you can either take a bus or train, or you can go get a rental car @ http://www.iparkairportparking.co.uk/blog/

However, do you really want to deal with the hassle of finding the right shuttle to get to your preferred rental car agency? Then, once you’ve gotten there, are you ready to wait in line and haggle with a rental agent about which model of car you want and/or how much you’re willing to pay? Even if all that doesn’t deter you, what about driving to your destination? After a long flight, the last thing you want to do is try to navigate through an unfamiliar city to find your hotel.

More Comfort, Privacy, and Safety at http://www.iparkairportparking.co.uk/blog/

When you hire an airport taxi, you can avoid all of this stress and all of the delays that go with it. Instead of worrying about traffic, which bus or train you need to take, where you need to turn, and all of the other issues that come with either taking public transit or renting a car, you can relax on the way to your hotel.

Not only that, but with an airport taxi you will also have your car to yourself. You can make calls to your family, friends, and/or coworkers without worrying about anyone listening in. Or you can take a nap on your way to your destination without any concern for your personal safety or the security of your belongings.

The Convenience of a Personal Driver

Finally, with a quality cab service, you know that you’ll be getting an experienced, safe driver who will take you directly to your destination. Then, when you need to leave and head back for your returning flight or to another destination, you can rely on the same convenient service. Airport taxi services offer convenience, security, safety, and peace of mind that you can’t get with other modes of transportation.

Save time and money by booking http://www.iparkairportparking.co.uk/blog/

It’s no secret that London, England is booming and buzzing with tourists. After all, this European city has plenty of attractions, such as the British Museum, National Gallery, Palace of Westminster, the Tower of London, Tate Modern, and the Victoria and Albert Museum. These hot spots draw in more than 14 million tourists each year from all over the globe. Still, getting to and from the Heathrow Airport in London is no simple task. Here are seven travel options to keep in mind CHECK http://www.iparkairportparking.co.uk/blog/

Take a Taxi

Heathrow taxis are one option. Since this bustling airport has more than 600 different taxi services, it’s prudent to book London city airport taxi ahead of time. This way you can get the ride at a fixed rate, and the taxi will be waiting outside of the terminal when you arrive in London.

Ride the Bus

The cheapest route is a city bus. Travelers can purchase a single fare at the travel centre in the Heathrow Central Bus Station for only £2.20. The travel centre is open between 6 a.m. and 10:30 p.m. This travel method is certainly less expensive for groups, as well as those traveling long distances.

Travel in Luxury with the Heathrow Express

For a more luxurious method or travel, the Heathrow Express train is a fast way in and out of the London airport. The cost is £20 to £34 per standard fare. Those at terminal five can board this train from their terminal, while passengers at terminals one and three need to get on at Heathrow Central. As for terminal four, travelers get on the free transfer train, which is headed to Heathrow Central as well.

Try the Heathrow Connect

Heathrow Connect is another transport option. Fares range from £5.60 to £9.50, and it’s about a 25-minute trip to London Paddington Station. Three underground stations are also available at Heathrow Airport, and tourists can reach the airport from central London by taking the Piccadilly Line. The cost is only £5, and the trip is about one hour.

Take a Shuttle

If you’re not up for Heathrow Airport taxis, a shuttle ride can be booked in advance, and at a low cost, which is commonly 70 percent less than London airport taxis. These convenient shuttles take travelers to the airport terminals and hotel locations.

Residents Take Their Own Cars

Those who reside in London can take their own cars to and from the Heathrow Airport. After all, there are several parking options, which include long stay parking at Heathrow, Heathrow meet and greet parking, valet parking, special assistance parking, short stay parking, and Heathrow Hotel and parking packages.

Travel in Style with a Private Car

Lastly, some travelers opt for a private car. This is more comfortable the other ones. Private cars can be booked in advance, and private hire services like A4Cars are available around the clock. The fee is dependent upon how long you book the car for and the distance you need to travel.

FOR THE BEST CAR PARK OFFER, CLICK http://www.iparkairportparking.co.uk/blog/

Lounges:

Airport Lounges are the best way to escape from the bustle of the airport. These lounges are facilitated with Free Wi-Fi, Quiet areas to relax, Children friendly areas, complimentary cuisines and a selection of drinks, business facilities, meeting rooms, magazines and newspapers, entertainment and much more. No.1 Traveller’s north terminal lounge offers spa service and shower facility.

Business Travellers:

Gatwick airport has all facilities for business travellers including executive lounges, conference halls and business centres. Executive lounges for business travellers are available in both the North and South terminal. The No.1 Traveller’s Super Lounge in the North terminal is facilitated with private meeting rooms, internet, scanner, printer and a fax machine. It offers a business center and passengers can also hire a conference room. The BAA conference and business centre in Gatwick’s south terminal and business centre in the north terminal has 16 air conditioned meeting rooms and conference rooms.

Travelling with Children:

Gatwick airport has great facilities for those travelling with children and there are family lounges available in both South and North terminal. The Super lounge in the North Terminal has a mini cinema room, games room, computers and more. Servisair’s Wentworth Lounge in the North and South terminals offer a fun zone with soft play, video games and toys. Well equipped rooms for feeding and changing facilities are available in both of these terminals. Child-friendly restaurants, snack shops, book stores, toy shops and much more are available at Gatwick International airport.

Shopping and Eating:

An extensive range of shops are available in both of the terminals. You can enjoy shopping with retail stores, book stores, electrical outlets, souvenir shops, fashion and accessories, beauty and cosmetics and more after security control, in arrivals and before security. There is an assortment of restaurants, bars and pubs, food outlets, Coffee shops and more available in Gatwick airport.

Gatwick Hotels:

Sofitel London Gatwick is very close to the North Terminal and Hilton London Gatwick is two minutes walk from the south terminal. There are many other hotels in the vicinity of Gatwick Airport which provide comfortable parking facilities. Holiday Inn Gatwick Airport, Days Inn Hotel Gatwick, Courtyard by Marriot, Crowne Plaza, Ibis and Holiday Inn Express are a few of the best hotels in close proximity to Gatwick airport.

Parking:

There is a wide range of parking options available at London Airport including Long stay parking, short stay parking, premium parking, valet parking, Blue badge parking and more. You can also pre book your parking space for a few of these parking options at Gatwick. These car parks are close to the terminals and are facilitated by a regular bus shuttle service from the long stay car parks.

For Booking & Reservation, kindly click http://www.iparkairportparking.co.uk/blog/

The future starts today….

The number of cars used in the U.K. is steadily increasing, and many families now own more than one car. In 2009 for instance, the ownership of cars rose by 30%, while the population increased only by 4%. And this trend will probably continue; on one hand, many new cars are purchased and licensed in Britain every year, and older cars are also more frequent on the roads – as cars become more resistant.

What does this mean for car park planners? They have to develop new technologies, as parking space will become scarcer and scarcer. Especially inside large towns, which were built without the planners having imagined that one day millions of vehicles would cross their roads – and look for a free space to park.

Even where large car parks are still available, and sufficient for today’s requirements, techniques to increase parking space will soon have to be considered.

At busy airports for instance, where many travellers like to park their car as close to the terminal as possible, an extension of the available parking will soon become necessary. Also, the wider spaces around airports – that are taken by car parks today – may be coveted by large hotel chains, companies, malls, banks and convention centres that will need additional car parks for their own purpose as well. So how will the need for more parking spaces be satisfied?

fully automated car parks

In fact, the technology to increase parking space – simultaneously saving surface space – is already in the making, and has been implemented in several towns.

Several companies, like A.P.T., already installed fully automated parking. The principle is simple: you drive up to the garage – whether constructed over the ground or underground – and leave your car on a special surface, as instructed by laser sensors that guide you exactly to the centre of the platform. You close the engine, and leave your car. The car plate is automatically scanned, and a picture of your car is taken. The system also makes sure nobody is left inside the car. After you left the platform, you confirm pressing a button. The platform – also called “pallet” – than starts shifting sideward, upwards or downwards – depending on the closest free space the computer system has attributed to it. A “shuttle” – a flat vehicle loading the pallet with your car – drives it than to the assigned space, which can be on any of the many floors of the parking garage – as the storeys are only half the height of a usual building floor.

During all this procedure, your car is moved smoothly and gently by the robot system – and no human hand ever touches it. Astounding, isn’t it?  Of course, the garage is not completely emptied of human life – at least one technician is always present to fix any problem that may occur to the automated system, and specialists familiar with the system oversee its excellent functioning from their control room. But you will hardly ever see any of them.

When you come back to collect your car, a device scans your ticket, and the computer system calls up the “shuttle” with your car on its pallet, ready to be brought to you – also fully automatically. The pallet with your car is shifted on place, so you can just enter it and drive away – and the whole process doesn’t exceed two to three minutes. Such systems are operational mainly in Germany, built under a famous ancient hotel in Austria, decongesting Copenhagen in Denmark, and a garage able to hold 1100 cars is planned in Dubai.

Similar systems – but built as round towers or underground pits – are also planned and operational in Japan. The system consists of a palleted elevator hold and moved around a huge central iron pole – that shifts the cars into free slots around it on several floors. Such fully automated systems have also been built to store bicycles – which are deposited on the elevator with its gripping mechanism at the entrance and than “parked” into the pit.

Not only do these automated garages liberate precious space in places where many people convene – they also offer the possibility to cover them with ecology-friendly parks, walkways, shopping centres etc. doubling their utility.

Probably within some years from now such automated parking systems may be
found around London, and also next to the terminals of the busiest London airports.

THE PLEASURE OF MEETING A SMILING PERSON

But for the time being, we still have the privilege of being able to choose among a large variety of parking options at any of London’s airports, at prices varying according to the comfort of the offered service. If we opt for the “Meet and Greet” option, we also have the pleasure of meeting a smiling professional driver at the airport entrance who will park our car in a secured parking during our journey. This is certainly a friendlier way of delivering our car to a specialized car park than being just met by a robot saying “stop” and “go”.

Who knows, maybe in future the automated robot parking will also offer a cup of coffee?

How to spend the time you are waiting at the airport

In order to provide organized and secure flights for the millions of travellers passing through the World’s airports every year, passengers are asked to arrive at the airport two or three hours before their flight takes off. Transfers between one flight and the other also may last several hours. If passengers didn’t mentally prepare themselves for this waiting time, it can be quite frustrating to wait for several hours after having checked in and passed security checks..
There are additional challenges if you are travelling with children, as you have to keep them busy.

Fortunately, many airports are prepared for these events, and offer a wide range of services, entertainment, shopping opportunities and cafés or restaurants you can access during your waiting time. Just be careful not to miss your flight….

Visit an art gallery…

Let’s have a look at the many ways Heathrow Airport is offering relaxation and entertainment to their passengers while they are waiting for their flight.

Heathrow Airport displays one of the World’s only on-airport art galleries at Terminal 5. An ideal opportunity to discover the variety of artwork by renowned artists, and also produced by young artists starting their career. At the Art Gallery your time will go by in a fly…

Relaxation and massage!

How about relaxation, massage, make-up and even manicure? At all Heathrow Airport terminals – and in many international airports – you can get a fast or more extensive massage to relax your muscles before flight. And if you want to look like a movie star, you can even have a specialist giving you make-up and manicure. If you are a man, you might prefer to get your shoes shined… a free service is provided. And the best, these astounding services are free of charge….

Some airports even offer a yoga studio, fitness equipment or ping-pong tables – at Singapore Airport you can find a swimming pool and Jacuzzi. While you can go ice-skating at South Korea’s Seoul Airport, Hong Kong’s airport even offers an on-airport golf course! You may use your spare time to get common vaccinations – like flu vaccination; you may even have your teeth whitened.  So get a health shot…

While Dubai Airport impresses through its wonderful inner decoration, if you travel through Kuala Lumpur you can visit the rainforest – right inside the airport!

Have a nap!

Travelling is tiring, especially if you travel through long distances. You may get a solution even to that problem. Many airports now offer comfortable seats, in which you can relax or have a nap. At Heathrow Terminal 3, you can even rent a small Yotel room (for a minimum period of 3 hours), but only during daytime.

Go shopping

You may also like to go shopping in the luxury duty-free shops, or just have a look at the many items around. Think about loved ones, friends and colleagues to whom you could bring a souvenir from your trip… You could even give some to people at the hotels or places you visit! They will be delighted…

Or play games

Why not choose to play a game. If you travel with other people, a card game, board game or guessing game may be fun, even more so if children travel with you. Some airports also offer gaming stations – for free. What about a “flash mob?” These flash assemblies of people at a certain point of the airport – often performing a short theatrical movement and quickly dissolving – is an amusing way to distract the crowds. Why not be delighted by a “flash mob” done – let’s say – by beautiful stewardesses? You may even participate in one… And can you guess what Las Vegas Airport offers to its travellers? A casino with slot machines of course!

Yes, of course, you are at a busy airport. There are several coffee shops at Heathrow giving you a view on the runways. Don’t miss that exceptional opportunity…

Maybe you feel hungry (or thirsty) and planned to fill your waiting time having a good dish or sitting at the bar.

Another entertaining activity is to observe people from all-over the World passing by. Try to guess where they are from, or observe their clothing and behaviour – you may guess something about their culture, or try to imagine their personal story, their profession, and the aim of their travel… This is also a fun activity if you travel with children, and gives you the opportunity to teach them something about other regions of the World.

Entertain your children

As a similar activity, you may look at the departure board and locate the many towns that appear. Did you know all of them? If not, you can look them up through the Internet. This as well is a curious activity to practice with your accompanying children. Similarly, you can take a seat overlooking the airplane traffic and let them guess the various plane types. By the way, there are some excellent books to keep children busy during your journey (but you might have to buy them beforehand). You can order them online through the following link:

http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/book/1~AB~ABHT~4167/50-things-to-spot-at-the-airport.aspx

Some airports also offer a supervised play area for young children.

Are you travelling alone? That may be an opportunity to know new people… If you spot another lonely traveller, you can start a conversation with a friendly “Hello”. You might meet interesting people, and possibly even become friends!

If you still hesitate, you can just use your smart phone or tablet to surf the web – most international airports offer free Wi-Fi connections. Or use your time to read a book or a newspaper, maybe you don’t benefit often from this opportunity.

Take a city tour…

You may have a long transit time until your connecting flight; but don’t be desperate, you may even participate in a city tour! This wonderful idea has been turned into reality by Utah, Istanbul and Singapore airports; they offer a free visit of their city in their own buses for passengers in transit through their place. Singapore even offers a day- and a night-tour… Not only is it an ideal means of entertaining their travellers, they might easily be convinced to come back to their town next time!

Great future!

Singapore’s Changi Airport also stuns its passengers with a 4-storey slide, a cactus garden, a butterfly garden with more than 1000 species, a free cinema as well as free computers and famous TV program displays. A new feature is LG’s “Social Tree”, a large round screen with consoles all around where people can “video chat” in real time. And that’s not all! The airport plans a new glass-covered 134’000 square meter complex, with gardens, shopping and restaurants – but the main attraction will be a 40 meters high water fountain, which will feature laser light illumination and synchronized light and sound shows! This fabulous attraction should open in 2018.

With all these activities you can do at the World’s airports, you will even regret the waiting time until you board your next flight is not longer….