Landing at London Gatwick Airport

What LGW is like

Gatwick sits south of London and handles mostly medium-haul and low-cost traffic, so travellers from Asia usually meet it on a European connection rather than on the long flight in. It has two clearly separate terminals joined by an automated shuttle rather than a corridor. Compared with Heathrow the scale is immediately smaller and the walk from aircraft to baggage hall shorter. What you give up is choice: getting into London from here is essentially a train decision.

On arrival

Switch the data line on at touchdown, then work out whether you are in the North or the South terminal, because their railway stations are not the same place and getting it wrong means riding the shuttle back. The walk from gate to border is noticeably shorter than at Heathrow, though several aircraft landing together can still build a queue. If you arrive late in the evening, check the last train before you leave the arrivals hall: the night timetable thins out, and switching to a car at that hour changes both the time and the cost of the trip. Once you are through, the signs lead straight to the station, only a few minutes further on.

How far the airport Wi-Fi gets you

The airport Wi-Fi is free once you have cleared a sign-in page, and inside the building it is enough to check a flight or send a message. Where it stops being useful is the platform and the train itself, which are no longer airport territory: the signal is gone before the doors close. The run into London crosses stretches of southern countryside where mobile coverage dips and recovers, so the leg that matters most is the leg Wi-Fi cannot help with. Anyone who has watched a ticket barcode refuse to load while a train pulls in knows the feeling. A line that came up on landing removes the whole problem.

Getting into town

The express train from Gatwick reaches Victoria in about half an hour, while the slightly slower ordinary services run to London Bridge and other stops on the same north-south spine, some of which land closer to where you are sleeping. Choose the terminus by your address, not by the word express. Tickets now mostly live on a phone, so you need data at the barrier to show a code, which is why people worry more about battery than about getting lost. On board the only data you spend is a map, a timetable app and a message saying when you will arrive. If the plan after London is a train under the Channel to the continent, check in advance whether what you are carrying covers the far side or whether that leg needs its own arrangement.

What people ask about this airport

• Know which terminal you are in — North and South have separate station entrances, and walking to the wrong one costs you a shuttle ride back.
• Pick the station, not the brand — A stopping service often leaves you nearer your hotel than the express that only serves one terminus.
• A phone ticket needs data — The barrier scans a code off your screen, and if the connection stalls at that moment you are stuck in front of it with a queue behind you.