<p>I know that there is someone at CC who has had every experience known to man, so I’m writing to ask what is the best airport to fly into coming from NYC to Cardiff. London and train/bus? Dublin? Amsterdam?</p>
<p>We used to live near Cardiff. My dad visits Wales quite frequently. He usually flies to London ( more airline options) and takes train from Paddington station .
I think London to Cardiff is almost 2hrs by train.I know that there is also bus service directly from London airports . My younger cousins prefer that option .</p>
<p>I’ve not traveled to Cardiff, but have gone elsewhere in Wales. Don’t know why anyone would fly in to any city other than London.</p>
<p>When I ran a search, KLM goes to Amsterdam and I wondered if there was some great reason that I was ignorant of.</p>
<p>When I’ve gone to Wales, I’ve flown into London and driven in a rental car. (Or just driven there when we were living in the UK or the Netherlands) I’d think that a direct flight to one of the London airports followed by train or bus would be the best thing.</p>
<p>KLM presumably routes most things through Amsterdam because it is a Dutch airline.</p>
<p>We just visited Cardiff (from London) last weekend. You can fly into Heathrow, take Heathrow Express to Paddington (about 15 minutes) and take a train from Paddington to Cardiff Central (between 2 and 3 hrs depending on if its rush hour or not). </p>
<p>To me, that seems the easiest.</p>
<p>Transitting at AMS is actually quite a good idea if you are traveling to a UK regional airport because there aren’t that many internal flights in the UK because the distances are too short. Schipol is quite easy to make changes in and much quicker than CDG or LHR. Plus there are lots of UK flights from there.</p>
<p>I am sure you will be able to get a bus from Heathrow. The major company is called National Express (and long distance buses are called coaches in the UK). The central coach station is between terminals 1 and 2 you can walk there) but some of the coaches stop at terminals 4 and 5 as well. However, the bus may not be very frequent, and will almost certainly be very very slow.</p>
<p>There isn’t a proper train station at LHR. You need to take the tube or Heathrow Connect (or Heathrow express is you wish to experience the most expensive train journey in the world to gain 5 minutes on the connect on the same track) to Paddington station in central London for the train journey to Cardiff. The first stop for this train is at Reading, which is pretty close to LHR! So to shave some time off you can get the bus directly from LHR to Reading (it’s called Reading rail-air coach and will be in central coach station too). However, there is less room on the train by this point, so if you have not reserved a seat you might have to stand. On a Friday you definitely will as everyone is off to the west country for the weekend.</p>
<p>All this will take at least 3 hours if everything works like clockwork (and it might not). Check for works on the line too(the train company is probably first great western. Put in your dates on their website). I am actually going to Cardiff in two weeks and some of my train journey is actually a very slow bus replacement while the track is repaired. ARGH!!!</p>
<p>You might find it quicker and less hassle to fly from AMS. Depends how you feel. Especially if you have not been to the UK before and/or have never used public transport.</p>
<p>If you are traveling from Gatwick I have no idea but it generally has better train connections. Something like a single change at Southampton or Salisbury should do it.</p>
<p>Stansted or Luton generally a bad idea. Poor transport connections from both.</p>
<p>Actually flying to Amsterdam with KLM or Delta might be a better option than the plebeian transfer from a London airport to bus plus train. The same for flying to Dublin with Aer Lingus. </p>
<p>The way fares work, the add-on European flight might not cost more than the direct flight to London. Factoring the price of the transfer and train cost is important. And that does not even address the comfort issue. Schlepping luggage on a bus or train full of regular commuters and navigating a British statiin is not as easy or pleasant as one might make it. </p>
<p>Fly to Cardiff! Unless a visit to London in on the agenda with a sleepover.</p>
<p>Thank you all so very kindly! Such great information. I knew I could count on this group.</p>
<p>I flew Amsterdam -> Cardiff a few years ago and it was a complete ****ing nightmare. Then again I had to switch through Detroit and had long layovers on both sides. Last minute booking. Then again, I’ve booked last minute for London and bus service to Wales and had only a quick switchover in Newark to deal with.</p>
<p>So, if you can book in advance, don’t find yourself with an inconvenient switchover on the US side, and don’t find yourself with a long stopover in Amsterdam’s surprisingly unpleasant airport, it might be worth it. Otherwise, flying to London is as easy as a transatlantic flight can be and you see nice things travelling by ground transport.</p>
<p>Would recommend London + bus or train.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>How many is a “few” years? Your experience might be dated.</p>
<p>First of all, Zoosermom is in New York. Transferring in Schiphol or in Dublin should not be a nightmare. </p>
<p>The beauty is that both options should work, and it becomes an issue of price and comfort. The price of the Heathrow Express plus tge train is not trivial. </p>
<p>The differences might be compared to flying from London to Piitsburgh and the choices being to travel to New York and then choose between flying or taking the train.</p>
<p>Airport to railstation to train versus airport to …airport. YMMV.</p>
<p>If you decide to fly to Cardiff Airport you might like to check their website for the convenience of local connections in to the city. They have recently been much improved, but no-one in the family has had cause to try them out yet.</p>
<p>zoos, who’s going to Cardiff??</p>
<p>VeryHappy, I am hoping and dreaming. Don’t want to jinx anything, but you guys will be on top of the list if it happens.</p>
<p>I am just deeply compulsive and have to know how to do anything long before it is necessary.</p>
<p>There is also another airport, Bristol, which is very close to Cardiff. Could be an option (possibly even large enough for the occasional transatlantic flight).</p>
<p>You can check the current flights servicing Bristol (1 hour from Cardiff) on this site:</p>
<p>[Arrivals</a> & Departures ? Bristol Airport](<a href=“http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/flights-from-bristol/arrivals.aspx]Arrivals”>http://www.bristolairport.co.uk/flights-from-bristol/arrivals.aspx)</p>
<p>From New York, the stopovers are similar to Cardiff’s, namely Aer Lingus via Dublin and KLM via Amsterdam. AFAIK, there are no direct flights to BRS from NYC.</p>
<p>If you are going to hire a car (rent as you would say) make sure you reserve one in advance and specifically request automatic transmission if you need it. Manual (stick shift - though no-one will understand that term here) is the norm here and you will pay a premium for a rare automatic car. If you just show up with no reservation it is unlikely an automatic will be available (especially at a small airport like Cardiff). </p>
<p>I wouldn’t really advise hopping straight off a transatlantic flight and then driving on Europe’s busiest road on the other side to normal though. It won’t be fun.</p>