People visiting the UK from overseas almost always want to see London, but then travel beyond London to add another destination to their holiday. By planning in advance, they can take advantage of cheap fares on budget airlines, to turn their London holiday into a European vacation.
European travelers are fully familiar with two of the major budget airlines, easyJet and Ryanair, but if coming to London from outside Europe, those names – and the possibilities for cheap travel that they open up – might mean nothing. Here's what you need to know, including how long it takes to get from London to Gatwick, Luton and Stansted airports, and which major destinations both Ryanair and easyJet fly to from each airport.
easyJet has been in business since 1995 and was the first airline to make a success of the budget travel market. Others had tried before and failed, but easyJet today carries more passengers annually than any other UK-based airline.For traveling on from London, easyJet flies from Gatwick, Luton and Stansted airports, all easily reached by train or bus.
easyJet Cheap Flights from London Gatwick Airport
easyJet flies to numerous destinations from its Gatwick base, which is just 30 minutes by train from London. Destinations from here include Amsterdam, Venice, Barcelona, Athens, several of the Greek islands including Crete and Mykonos, Hamburg, Munich, many French cities (but not Paris) and even as far as North Africa with flights to Agadir in Morocco.
easyJet Cheap Flights from London Luton Airport
Trains to Luton Airport take from about 35-50 minutes, depending on the service. From Luton Airport easyJet flies to Amsterdam, Bordeaux, Hamburg, Inverness (for Loch Ness and the Scottish Highlands), Istanbul, Lisbon, Madrid, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Pisa, Vienna and Zurich.
easyJet Cheap Flights from London Stansted Airport
easyJet also has a large operation from Stansted Airport, which takes 50-60 minutes to reach by train from London. From here you can catch flights to places including Amsterdam, Barcelona, Lyon, Munich, Nice and Prague.
Ryanair is the other major budget airline in the UK and Europe, and is renowned for offering the cheapest fares. Sale prices can be as cheap as a few pounds to fly throughout Europe. But Ryanair is also renowned for two other things, which overseas visitors should take account of before booking.
The first is for adding in extra costs to the basic fare price. All airlines do this to some extent but Ryanair has turned it into a fine art, even talking about charging people to use the toilets during the flight. Always check that the total price is going to be the budget bargain that you think you're getting.
The second thing to double-check with Ryanair is the location of the airport that you're flying to. The airline is well-known for using secondary airports, that are not always convenient for the city center. For example, instead of Venice Marco Polo Airport, just outside Venice, they use Venice-Treviso Airport which is near Treviso, 12 miles from Venice. There are other examples of this where unwary people could easily be confused, so check and double-check the airport, and how you get from there to the city you want to visit.
That said, Ryanair do offer very cheap fares throughout Europe from Gatwick, Stansted and Luton airports.
Ryanair Budget Flights from London Gatwick Airport
From Gatwick Ryanair have cheap flights to Alicante, Cork, Dublin, Faro, Madrid, Milan, Porto, Rome, Seville, Stockholm and several other European destinations.
Ryanair Budget Flights from London Luton Airport
From Luton Airport there are Ryanair bargain flights to destinations including Beziers, Bratislava, Brest, Dublin, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Malta and Marrakesh in Morocco.
Ryanair Budget Flights from London Stansted Airport
Ryanair's largest operation near London is from Stansted Airport, from where it flies to dozens of European and North African destinations including Berlin, Cork, Corsica, Dublin, Fez, Ibiza, Jerez, Lourdes, Madrid, Malaga, Pisa, Riga, Turin and Verona.
So if you plan to visit London but wish to travel beyond, check the route maps of easyJet and Ryanair. Remember that you can book one-way tickets just as easily, so it would be possible to fly from London to Venice, from Venice to Paris or Madrid, and then back to London. Now that would make for a good budget European vacation.
Mike Gerrard - Mike is an award-winning travel writer who has worked for National Geographic, the London Times, and many other clients. ...
