Which London airport should we fly into from Dublin?
July 13, 2018 11:32 AM   Subscribe

Which airport should we fly into from Dublin?

We're flying from Dublin into London in September. While in London, we'll be staying in the Shoreditch neighborhood. Trying to balance hassle and cost of both the actual airports as well as getting into the city center - what's our best option?

Note: I saw this previously, but it's from over 5 years ago at this point. Wondering if anything's changed since then.
posted by too bad you're not me to Travel & Transportation around London, England (7 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Gatwick and Stansted both have express trains that go straight to Liverpool Street station, which is a stone's throw from Shoreditch. Those would be preferable to Heathrow, whose express train goes to Paddington (in West London).
posted by iamscott at 11:49 AM on July 13, 2018


It can cost more, and the schedules are a little sparser, but if you can afford it and the times work out, definitely go with London City. It's a smaller, quieter, less stressful airport than Heathrow or Gatwick, and it's a much shorter journey to Shoreditch.

For random September days Cityjet will sell you a return to London City for £81.

I would absolutely not fly RyanAir, or to any "London" airport other than Heathrow, Gatwick or City.
posted by caek at 11:49 AM on July 13, 2018 [5 favorites]


Best answer: If you're happy flying Ryanair then fly into Stansted and get the (40 minute, comfortable, regular, £20-ish) train to Liverpool Street, which is a few minutes' walk from Shoreditch. It's true that Ryanair is often a bit unreliable and annoying but the Dublin->Stansted flight seems to be more reliable than some of their other routes, and the Stansted->Liverpool Street train is one of the least annoying ways to get into town from an airport, and will deposit you right where you need to be.

If you'd like to avoid Ryanair, then yeah, look into London City - it's a nice little airport and technically much closer to Shoreditch than Stansted is, but it's usually much more expensive to fly into, and there's not such a direct route to Shoreditch afterwards (though it's technically a lot closer into town, so taxis are not as super-expensive as they would be from Stansted).

My source for this is: my husband is Irish and does this exact journey a lot, we used to live in Shoreditch and now live a mile or so further out.
posted by severalbees at 12:13 PM on July 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


Best answer: Heathrow is the 3rd rung of Hell. We fly into Stansted whenever possible. Second choice is Gatwick. The Liverpool Street connection can't be beat. We fly Ryanair. We are also doing short internal Euro hops only, so we've only got Ryanair-compliant carry on bags and do not care if we sit together for a 40 minute flight because we are not flying with children.

Aer Lingus goes to Gatwick, CityJet goes to London City and is a codeshare with BA.
posted by DarlingBri at 1:26 PM on July 13, 2018


Another regular Shoreditch-Dublin hopper here. I go London City + an Uber if someone else is paying, otherwise it's Stansted + the train hands down.

NB there is also an EasyBus that goes from Stansted to Old Street (with no stops) for around £8 one way. Sometimes I take that when I am feeling organised. You don't have to fly easyJet to book a ticket on it.
posted by teststrip at 2:49 PM on July 13, 2018


Flying with Ryanair is not the hell people seem to think it is. I would definitely go with Stansted.
posted by knapah at 3:31 PM on July 13, 2018


Response by poster: Hi everyone! Looks like the consensus is Stansted. Thanks for all the info!
posted by too bad you're not me at 4:28 PM on July 13, 2018


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