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- If you're visiting London and you're traveling
through Gatwick Airport, here are
some important things to know before you go.
By the way, if you're new here, I'm Jess,
and I help people who are visiting London
to experience the city like a Londoner,
which is me, I am a Londoner.
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Gatwick Airport is located outside of the city.
It's all the way south of London, which means that taxis are
actually really expensive to and from the airport.
There are, however, lots of transportation options
to get you from the airport to the city,
and for the sake of the length of this video,
I won't talk you through all of them,
but you can see all of your options
in my free London 101 Guide, which you can get
by clicking the link in the description of this video.
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There are two terminals, North Terminal and South Terminal.
It's really important for you to know
which one you are flying out of,
otherwise you can waste a ton of time,
and there's a shuttle that will get you
between each of the terminals.
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The train station is in South Terminal,
so if you plan on taking the Gatwick Express
or just the regular train, once you get
out of arrivals, just follow all the signs.
It's really well signed, you'll be able to find it easily.
You can also buy tickets in the station,
and there's always staff members there
to help if you have any questions.
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You can use your Oyster card to get to and from the airport.
If you plan on taking the Gatwick Express,
you can use your Oyster card to pay for your journey,
but I recommend, instead, to book your ticket in advance
online, 'cause you'll save yourself a lot of money.
If you plan to take the regular train to or from
the airport, it will take it a little bit longer, but it is
cheaper, and you can use your Oyster card for that journey.
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Head to your gate early.
Gatwick does this thing where they wait
'til the very last minute to post your gate for your flight,
so as soon as you see that gate posted,
head to your gate, because a lot of the gates
at Gatwick take really long time to get to,
and you don't wanna find yourself running
to make sure you don't miss your flight.
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There are pay-to-use lounges.
If you aren't flying business,
or have one of those lounge passes,
you can still book yourself into one of the
pay-to-use lounges, which are in each of the terminals.
You can go and try to book yourself in
on the day when you get to the airport,
but I'd recommend booking in advance,
because then you can take advantage
of the premium security line, and you can also ensure
you actually get a spot in the lounge,
'cause they do get booked up.
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Make sure you have a pen with you on the plane.
If you're arriving to Gatwick from a non-EU country,
you're gonna have to fill out a landing card,
which they will hand out to you on the plane.
If you have a pen with you, then you can
fill it out on the plane, and you don't
have to delay getting on to the integration line,
which usually gets very long.
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Arrive to the airport two or three hours before your flight.
I've never seen Gatwick have long lines at security,
but it's always best to just get there nice and early
so you can account for if you happen to have any delays
on the train, or if the bag drop line is really long.
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There's lots to do.
If you arrive to Gatwick early,
you have plenty of pretty good food options,
plus there's some shopping that you can do,
so you won't be bored as you wait for your gate to pop up.
And finally, I can't think of anything
for number 10, so enjoy Gatwick.
If this is your first time visiting London,
I have a free London 101 Guide,
which tells you everything you need to know
before you get here, and you can get that
by clicking the card popping up in the corner here.
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Gate early, no, weird thing with my hands there.
Head to your gate early!
(laughing)
Arrive, (laughing) everyone's just like--