London Airports

[quint41]

Thought I'd ask you all ... I'm looking at flights from US to London, and some of them are flying into London City Airport. I never even heard of that airport before! Does anyone out there have any experience flying into/out of London City? How does it compare to the large airports?

Where I live (Connecticut), we have a small international airport (Bradley), and it is a cinch to get in and out of there. Wondering if it would be better to use that airport as opposed to Heathrow or Gatwick.

Thanks!

Louise

[Bron]

London City airport is in the docklands area of London and only 3 miles from Canary Wharf (main finance area). I've never flown in or out of it but it looks quite good if you actually want to be in the centre London. It's on the Docklands Light Railway, so well connected.

I find Heathrow horrible, but maybe that's just Terminal 2 (grotty, overcrowded and disorganised in my personal opinion). If you are travelling to the West of England or Wales though, it would make more sense to fly there. Connections to London are via the tube - takes quite a while or the Heathrow Express train - expensive.

Haven't flown from Gatwick for years but I used to live under the flighpath which was rather noisy. I always thought the airport was ok but that was years ago. It has the Gatwick Express train to get into London (35 minutes, I think).

My favourite British airport is Cardiff because it's small and it's the closest to home.

[quint41]

Actually, I am probably just flying through London ... from US into London, one night layover, then on to Mallorca for a week of biking!!!

Flying through London seems to be my cheapest route. So, it sounds like City Airport may be a very good choice!

[Thorn]

...then on to Mallorca for a week of biking!!!

oooh....biking Mallorca....I'm jealous. Mallorca has such a bad reputation as the "plumber's holiday" for its summertime sleasiness that many don't realize that it is a cyclist's paradise in the winter. Enjoy your trip! What time of year? We did January one year (cold, but the teams were training) and March (warmer and JQPublic cyclists all over the island).

Sorry, nothing much to add to the airports--we tended to fly through Heathrow and I second the "grotty, overcrowded and disorganized". Mallorca took us through Munich or Madrid.

[quint41]

Thanks, Thorn! Actually, you will LOVE this ... I am blessed to work with a great guy who purchased a brand new HUGE condo on Mallorca in 2005. He has a big family, so the condo sleeps 8. He offered me the condo for nothing! I'm taking my biking buddies in April! We are going to have a blast!

When you've been there, have you taken your bikes with you, or did you rent?

Have any nice routes you'd be interested in sharing??

[Thorn]

Condo? What a coworker! Oh, that's really cool! Where on the island is the condo?

Have you been on Mallorca before? When we arrived in March, almost every passenger had a helmet strapped to their backpacks. So many bikes come airport through that they have special luggage carts just for bike boxes. We've always rented, but we travel with a local group that gets a group deal. The bikes we get are well-maintained aluminum/carbon Shimano 105 level. Nice enough for me for vacation--I tend to move slower and spend time "smelling the roses".

The absolute must-do ride is the ride from Port de Pollenca (or there abouts) out to the Cap de Fomentor. It is challenging but doable (I think one of the sections is rated as a Cat2) yet you are rewarded almost constantly with views. We had overcast skies and still it was stunning.

Second is the western mountain range (up through LLuc, Deia and further south) and, for your recovery, the roads just east of the western mountains are gorgeous. You ride with the big mountains on one side and hills to the other. Riding the plains is nice, easy riding. It can start to feel like you're all alone and then you pull into a little town and there a 50 brightly clad cyclists at the local cafe. Oh, and the roads near Binnisalem and through Orient are considered awesome (two trips and we still haven't made it there).

For challenging routes look at the Mallorca Challenge web site ( http://www.vueltamallorca.com/ ). Almost any backroad makes a good route. Find some good maps and just go! The Mallorca tourist board has had a slew of road repaved and signed, particularly in the western 1/2 of the island ( http://www.cassandrathorn.com/PhotoRoot/2006/2006Mallorca/0319RideToPortDePollenca/TheHorses.JPG ). The board had a map of all of the marked routes (a .pdf). It was really helpful to plot routes, but impossible to find on-line. You might want to contact them to get a copy.

To keep you motivated for those cold winter rides....
http://www.cassandrathorn.com/PhotoRoot/2006/2006Mallorca/

In case you can't tell, I have a special place in my cycling heart for Mallorca. Our first real cycling trip was to Mallorca and, for a flatlander those mountains (ok, they're only 3000'-ers) were huge. I got hooked.

[Thorn]

I found a bitmap-ish version of that route map:

http://www.illesbalears.es/downloadServlet?id=00005654&table=1

No link off the english-language version of the site, just the spanish version.

In general those roads are low volume and will have signage to help you navigate. But we used the general background network when we travelled from Port de Polleca over to Porto Cristo.

[quint41]

Hey, Thorn! Just got back on TE ... haven't been able to get here in a while. I am SO EXCITED! Check this out: www.ourmallorcaescape.com

It's my coworker's website for the condo.

I would like to send you my home e-mail address to make communication easier. Please PM me. I can't PM to you. Thanks!

Louise