[nickydwuk]

We live about 40 miles from heathrow and are planning to get a taxi to take us all there. The problem being there are 5 of us plus about 8 large suitcases. How did others make the final journey to the airport?

[Kerry and David]

We are travelling in an 8 seater taxi, got the number from the yellow pages. I know some of the larger cars also have trailers for extra luggage!

Good luck!

Kerry

[YouMeAndThree]

Because I'm coming on my own with 3 youngsters (OH is going on his own soon to start work) I am calling on family to help get us to the airport and through till luggage is all checked in. I've also decided to send all the car seats via the container, so will be using spare car seats loaned from friends for the journey, these can then easily be returned by my parents.

Lx

[3littlepikes]

we hopefully will be in same boat - my friend who goes on holiday with a large family and their luggage says they hire very large mini bus with trailer door to door - I guess internet search might find some in your area as we are about 2 hours away ( with my hubbys driving anyway )

[StevieD]

3 cars, 2 of our friends went and my brother and sister in law.

[Mels]

Okay, made it to the airport - landed in Wellington now how do I get to the motel?
Do you hire a large car or taxi? We will be 4 plus 6 suitcase - I hope not 8!!

Mels

[IanW99]

Okay, made it to the airport - landed in Wellington now how do I get to the motel?
Do you hire a large car or taxi? We will be 4 plus 6 suitcase - I hope not 8!!

Mels

When we arrived we used two taxis, mainly because the taxis had LPG bottles in the boot so not as much room for luggage as you may expect.

If you are going to hire a big car anyway, then that would certainly be an option.

Another choice is that there is an 'airport shuttle' which is a minibus with a trailer that you could book.

Ian

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

We were lucky that we had some friendly forumites come meet us and shuttle our weary bones to Hamilton from Auckland airport. We were very grateful to Mr Leachio.

[marcia]

we booked a taxi to airport - five of us plus 8 pieces of luggage when i booked itold them how many of us and how much luggage and they came with a trailer. We didn't want family at the airport to emotional - I had 45 minutes in the car to compose myself after saying bye to mum and dad before i had to sort out at check in.

We were very lucky at this end that lots of our forum friedns, Diny, Julie and steve (zardell), and John came to meet us at the airport so we had plenty of room for all our stuff - also a representative from the council was there with a hire car for us to use, a box of groceries and mobile phone! (we had not been told they would do this - so it waas a lovely surprise)

Good luck and don't worry it will all fall into place eventually! :yes

[peebles16]

Yep we booked big taxi/bus type thing in Scotland mainly cos, like Marcia, couldn't bear airport goodbyes and OH employers picked us up at the airport :yes They had big car and trailer for all our stuff together with groceries, wine and toys for the kids - very nice welcome :)

Karenx

[CJ22]

There's only two of us, but we were planning to taxi from where we will be staying (Colchester, with a friend) to Heathrow. It would cost about £80, which I didn't think was too bad. Look at it this way - it's cheaper than an overnight stay in an airport hotel.

But actually, in the end, my mate has offered to drive us, so just the cost of the petrol for us, and I don't have to talk to some taxi driver for 2 hours :)

[Alan]

I know it's a silly idea but wouldn't you of talked to your good lady???

[nippa&pippa]

My parents took us to birmingham airport, after all they live just 20mins off M42 and we got hold of shuttle bus to take us to motel in CHCH (We didn't have to worry about car seats because we brought it with us)

[Genie]

In the Uk we got a one way hire with Enterprise, to their office just outside the Airport. They then shuttled us in a big bus all to ourselves, direct to the terminal door. I'd recommend it, as we had a fab car and it only cost £140, which was as much as a taxi, only we could take as long as we wanted.

Got picked up by family in three cars at Christchurch. Always worth asking friendly forumites, who have cars and remember the experience so well are happy to help.

[Kate D]

As I'd sold my car, I hired one for about four days. Even including the one way drop off (little car for little old me !) it was a much better deal than a taxi would have worked out at, as I costed both options. I was lucky enough to be collected at this end. The airport shuttle taxi is definitely worth looking into because of the trailer option for lots of luggage, not to mention all that hand luggage...!

Kate

[Mickstim]

We did the car hire thing too - and same when we arrived in Auckland (at 05.30). Cost about the same and saved us a heap of trouble. But then - there are only the 2 of us so much more difficult with a large family and even more luggage.

Bx

[shakyle2906]

Hi

We got a larger taxi and had 6 cases plus us 3. It was a 3hr drive from Wales to Heathrow and i just couldnt have beared the train changes, also no family to see us off!

Good luck

Sharon
x

[benandclare]

Car hire here too and takes away the stress of using relatives to "see you off":exit

[Derv]

We used the free limo with Emirates Business Class at both ends of the journey.

[Steven & Ann]

We hired a mini-bus for two weeks. We spent a few days in Auckland, then drove down to Wellington. The bus gave us room to stretch, the driving was okay. It beat the problem of low national baggage allowance on domestic flights (we came on SingaporeAir to Auckland).

By then we were buying a car from a dealer. We blagged a loan car till the car was ready. The car took much longer to prepare than anyone expected, so that was a cool deal.

We dropped the bus off at Lower Hutt, the dealer picked me up in Lower Hutt after I droped off the hire car, and drove me back to Porirua to pick up the replacement car we had bought !!

[dusk]

I know it's a silly idea but wouldn't you of talked to your good lady???
I will be far too busy constantly checking and rechecking the bags to make sure we have the passports, tickets, my medicine etc etc to make small talk with my husband! :laugh

[nickydwuk]

We wanted to avoid hiring a car as we have never been to Heathrow and the thought of trying to find the right terminal, offload everyone and then find the car hire place to drop the car off is too much hassle for OH. Also don't want family at the airport.

[thewoodies]

What do you do about car seats for the kids - are you allowed to take them on the plane (we are not paying for baby to do this - so go in the hold)(car seat:laugh not baby). Does it count towards luggage allowance.

Another question how do hold all your luggage, car seats, buggy , baby and kids and not get stressed and shout at your OH? !!!!!! laugh:wah:exit

[vixxann]

we are currently deliberating the how to get to airport issue and reckon we have two options.
We have booked from heathrow and we live in Lancashire! when I looked into a transfer flight from Manchester to Heathrow - it worked out cheaper to go by private taxi - plus overall less hassle as we'd still have to get to manchester airport somehow. I got a quote from the airport transfer company that took us to manchester last year and for the five of us with all bags it was MUCH cheaper to do this than fly. (and they have a gorgeous big MPV type vehicle which they'll put a trailer on if needed) ...
BUT... we are also thinking of lead up to last few days and when we sell our cars we might need to hire a car for the last week etc - in which case it may work out better to hire a bigger car (to take all our luggage) and arrange to drop it off at Heathrow.

definately do know that I do not want family involved in our airport journey. the whole family thing is going to be bad enough.. I want to get the goodbyes over with a day or two before preferably. Might actually go and stay in a hotel before we fly out.. thats another option... oh I've got three now :uhoh I better shut up before I think of some more :p

[Georgebulldog]

What do you do about car seats for the kids - are you allowed to take them on the plane (we are not paying for baby to do this - so go in the hold)(car seat:laugh not baby). Does it count towards luggage allowance.

Another question how do hold all your luggage, car seats, buggy , baby and kids and not get stressed and shout at your OH? !!!!!! laugh:wah:exit

Do a search on the forum as there are a few posts on this, not sure how you paste it though!
It does depend on who you fly with & idf your having a stop over I think as we stopped in LA & although they were taken at Heathrow with no problems on the LA bit they just said take them to the door of the plane (otherwise we would be charged) which was OK but in Auckland (on to Wellington) they wanted to charge us extra for car seat & pushchair, negotiated one charge of $20 in the end but not happy so it really does differ in different situations

[Georgebulldog]

Another question how do hold all your luggage, car seats, buggy , baby and kids and not get stressed and shout at your OH? !!!!!! laugh:wah:exit

Impossible sorry, just expect a few aurguments along the way :)
We did manage in the end to get 2 V large, 4 large suitcases & 3 hand luggage onto one trolley, piled high but it was OK

[marcia]

We took the car seat for our youngest (almost 3 at time of flying) we wrapped it in a huge plastic bag, stuck labels on it and it went in the hold (didn't want it onthe plane, much better to be able to all stretch out with the car seat in the way!) I'm almost positive they didn't include it in our luggage allowance, but you are probably best to email the airline and ask them, (then if its a positive response print it off and keep it with your tickets as evidence!) If negative you could always try and blagg it at check in - but you really do need to bring the car seats with you, or its another expense having to hire some till your container arrives!

[gil]

seems ages ago now! We booked a people carrier and trailer for the 6 of us, 6 pieces of hand luggage and 14 cases from Cardiff to Novotel Heathrow :eek:
Worst bit was shuttle bus from Novotel to Terminal, with all that luggage!

Trollies for all inside (and 9 year olds can't control trollies too well, we learned!), nightmare change at LAX with all that stuff, then at Auckland we hired shuttle and trailer (can't remember pirce, but v cheap!)
Contact Name: Graham McHugh
Howick
Phone: +64 9 534 2967
Free phone: 0800 467 48853 (within NZ)
Email: gmchugh@xtra.co.nz (gmchugh@xtra.co.nz)
Web: www.goshuttle.co.nz (http://www.goshuttle.co.nz)

Good luck!

Gil