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There are 3 ways to get to Stansted. 4 if you are mad enough to drive.
[1] Stansted Express
Train from Liverpool St.
Goes every 30min on the hour & ½hr.
Takes 40min nominally. Since Ryanair absolutely WILL NOT allow checkin less than 40min before the flight, whatever the reason, you must arrive at least 1h before your flight, which means leaving 2h before it. The service is VERY unreliable and I have missed 2 or 3 planes because of delayed trains.
It is NOT an express, despite its name. It always stops at Tottenham Hale & Bishops Stortford. Sometimes it also stops at other suburban Essex stations, basically if they feel like it. Min journey time: 43min. My personal max: 1h30m.
Return is £25, I believe. If you go to the Liverpool St. Currency Exchange places in business hours before you go, on presentation of your Ryanair booking number (the only ticket you get or need on Ryanair, you DO NOT need a printout of your booking form or anything else, just the number - spoken will do - and photo ID) then you can get a discount Ryanair special Stansted Express ticket for £20 return. I have never travelled on full-price, myself, except the 1st ever time I met Kjersti off the plane from Norway.
The last reliable train is 11:30pm. The 11:59 often does not run. Be warned.
If so, you can get a bus to Victoria. Be pushy and they'll honour a Stansted Express ticket, otherwise about £11-12 to £18 depending on the phase of the moon - on months with a "y" in them in 14th Century Basque.
Victoria is, of course, completely useless for 90% of London night buses.
Alternatively, some buses go to somewhere loathsome in Essex or East London, like Chigwell or something. You can sometimes get as far as Tottenham Hale this way and walk to Seven Sisters to get a nightbus into town.
The 11:30 train gets you into Liverpool St at 00:15, thus neatly missing most Tubes.
[2] Taxi it. From SW London it's around £50 by minicab. Haggle! For 3-4 people, this is cheaper than the Express.
[3] National Express has a new bus service. It's £6 from Stratford Station and journey time is 45min. (If you believe the latter, I have a lovely bridge you might like to buy.) Never taken it myself, but I plan to, although Stratford is a PITA to get to for me. It's too new for any anecdotal reports. This will save you a total of £8 over the discount SE ticket. It might be worth it if you don't have to travel to get to Stratford. Many many bad experiences doing this route by train, coach, bus, taxi and motorcycle all urge to to tell you to allow at LEAST *THREE HOURS* before your flight if you wish to travel this way. In my (fairly limited) experience, National Express timetables are not merely works of fiction but of *really bad* fantasy.
HTH. HAND.
- "a Stansted Frequent Flyer"
[1] Stansted Express
Train from Liverpool St.
Goes every 30min on the hour & ½hr.
Takes 40min nominally. Since Ryanair absolutely WILL NOT allow checkin less than 40min before the flight, whatever the reason, you must arrive at least 1h before your flight, which means leaving 2h before it. The service is VERY unreliable and I have missed 2 or 3 planes because of delayed trains.
It is NOT an express, despite its name. It always stops at Tottenham Hale & Bishops Stortford. Sometimes it also stops at other suburban Essex stations, basically if they feel like it. Min journey time: 43min. My personal max: 1h30m.
Return is £25, I believe. If you go to the Liverpool St. Currency Exchange places in business hours before you go, on presentation of your Ryanair booking number (the only ticket you get or need on Ryanair, you DO NOT need a printout of your booking form or anything else, just the number - spoken will do - and photo ID) then you can get a discount Ryanair special Stansted Express ticket for £20 return. I have never travelled on full-price, myself, except the 1st ever time I met Kjersti off the plane from Norway.
The last reliable train is 11:30pm. The 11:59 often does not run. Be warned.
If so, you can get a bus to Victoria. Be pushy and they'll honour a Stansted Express ticket, otherwise about £11-12 to £18 depending on the phase of the moon - on months with a "y" in them in 14th Century Basque.
Victoria is, of course, completely useless for 90% of London night buses.
Alternatively, some buses go to somewhere loathsome in Essex or East London, like Chigwell or something. You can sometimes get as far as Tottenham Hale this way and walk to Seven Sisters to get a nightbus into town.
The 11:30 train gets you into Liverpool St at 00:15, thus neatly missing most Tubes.
[2] Taxi it. From SW London it's around £50 by minicab. Haggle! For 3-4 people, this is cheaper than the Express.
[3] National Express has a new bus service. It's £6 from Stratford Station and journey time is 45min. (If you believe the latter, I have a lovely bridge you might like to buy.) Never taken it myself, but I plan to, although Stratford is a PITA to get to for me. It's too new for any anecdotal reports. This will save you a total of £8 over the discount SE ticket. It might be worth it if you don't have to travel to get to Stratford. Many many bad experiences doing this route by train, coach, bus, taxi and motorcycle all urge to to tell you to allow at LEAST *THREE HOURS* before your flight if you wish to travel this way. In my (fairly limited) experience, National Express timetables are not merely works of fiction but of *really bad* fantasy.
HTH. HAND.
- "a Stansted Frequent Flyer"
