Kensington Tube Stations- Help Needed

[Doeymeister]

I just booked a hotel through Priceline. I was hoping for the Olympia Hilton, but got the Copthorne Tara. We'll be flying into Gatwick and are planning on taking the Gatwick Express to Kensington Olympia.

 

Question 1: It looks like it would be quite a hike to walk from the Kensington Olympia station to the Copthorne Tara. True?

 

Question 2: Can we transfer to the green line at Kensington Olympia and take the tube to High Street station? Since the green line appears to split in different directions at Earl's Court, how would this particular route be labeled? Also, I've read somewhere that there is limited service to Olympia. Any idea how often the green line train comes?

 

Thanks for your assistance.

[elphin]

If you have much luggage go to either London Victoria or Kensington Olympia by train and take a cab. Priceline did you well with the hotel; nice one!

[GACRUISER456]

I'm not sure where the Tara hotel is, but we got the Hilton Olympia through priceline in May. I'll share my experience with trying to get to the hotel with 3 rolling bags and a carry on. At Gatwick, we purchased the train tickets (I think the Gatwick Express only goes to Victoria, but I could be mistaken). We bought regular train tickets to Kensington Olympia. The trains are not very good for a lot of luggage. You have to keep it in the doorway area, so we stood with it most of the time. We had to change trains at Clapham Junction. This was awful! We had to go down a flight of stairs, over 9 tracks and then up about 3 flights (or landing areas). Finally we got on the train to Kensington. When we got off, I was expecting a busy street and to see the Hilton right there. Well, we were on a cobblestone side street (not good with rolling bags) with no sign of the Hilton. We were exhausted and just ready to be at the hotel, so we grabbed a taxi who literally took us around the block to the Hilton.

 

If you have lots of luggage, you might want to look in to one of those airport / hotel vans or something like that. Not many of the tube stations have escalators that we came across and after flying all night we were exhausted. We learned a valuable lesson to pay someone to get us to the hotel / ship to get rid of the luggage, then start doing the trains / walking on your own.

[haggis]

This hotel is shown in Scarsdale Place W8. (off Kensington High Street)

My best advice would be to get the Gatwick Express from Gatwick to Victoria mainline station and pick up the underground from there.

Scarsdale Place is just around the corner from High Street Kensington down the bottom of Wrights Lane so it isnt far to walk.

From Victoria station, get the Circle Line (shown yellow on map) Westbound to High Street Kensington. I believe its only four stops.

This is in my opinion, a much better located hotel than the Hilton and is in a very good area for shops restaurants and easy access to the West End by bus and Underground.

Enjoy your stay. \\\\\\\\jimmy

[haggis]

Sorry, I should have included a map of the area in my previous message.

You'll find it on www.streetmap.co.uk and once into the site put W8 in the box as a postal code.

Jimmy

[handfordr]

As stated above you are much better off at the Copthorne Tara than the Hilton Olympia in nearly all respects.

Much better location, hotel and local amenities.

[Globaliser]

My best advice would be to get the Gatwick Express from Gatwick to Victoria mainline station and pick up the underground from there.

...

From Victoria station, get the Circle Line (shown yellow on map) Westbound to High Street Kensington. I believe its only four stops.

I agree with this. In the light of another question asked by the OP, it might be worth adding this: At Victoria station, the same westbound platform is served by both District Line and Circle Line trains. Make sure that you get on a Circle Line train to avoid inadvertently having to change trains. There are train describer indicators on the platform, and the front of the train will say what flavour of train it is. Most District Line trains also have indicators on the sides of the carriages. And District Line trains have green poles inside the carriages; Circle Line trains have yellow poles. (Unusually clever, whoever thought of that one at London Underground.)

[Doeymeister]

Thanks to everyone for the assistance.