Is it best to get public transport to the airport?

la531983

RAS said:

I didn't spot the reference to Sunday, possibly because it was at the end of the post.

If you are travelling from anywhere on the Transpennine Route Upgrade, or north of it, I'd suggest you travel on Saturday. The majority of trains now require a change at Manchester Piccadilly, often with other transfers en route. There's a very high chance of at least one diversion or bus replacement and often the precise information is only made public a fortnight ahead. 

If your flight is before midday, I'd definitely consider travelling on the Saturday. There are a half dozen hotels within walking distance of the terminals. Although none are cheap, they are closer than the Meet and Greet or the Free Drop Off point. There are several others on other sides of the airport that require a longer walk or a cab.

Since the train from Manchester Piccadilly only takes 15 minutes I've also stayed in the city itself as there's a good range of options at different price points. The obvious issue being that Friday and Saturday night prices are higher.

I've not used Manchester since Covid but have stayed in a local hotel for a flight after 8am. Arriving at T2 before 7am, it was rammed and I became quite anxious about getting to the gate on time. Herded like cattle wasn't far off. The queue managers were very effective but they weren't exactly gentle. There was no time to try and get refreshments en route. 

I've also had better experiences.

Hes going to tell you off now because hes stated what time his flight is at.

Rich1976

We last used Manchester in 2023 and the amount of time it took to get through everything was ridiculous. We stayed at a hotel a few miles from the airport and the shuttle bus took about 40 minutes in total with the amount of people having to get on. We should have been at the airport around 4.30am for a 7.45am flight but was more like 5.10am when we arrived .

we always get to the airports early as like a coffee and something to eat before the flight but by the time we’d got through check in, security etc there was only about 45 minutes to go before take off .

no idea why and it wasn’t even school holidays . 

soolin

B0bbyEwing said:

I don't know the location of everything in relation to where we need to be etc but if we go down the route of staying in a hotel the night before to be extra sure then what is the best one to stay in? 

I'm told from someone else today that we'll be flying out of terminal 1 apparently. But they've only based that on who we're using & the fact that they're using the same airline next week and will be flying out of terminal 1.

I don't know if that's how it works but is there a hotel that's best placed to be stopping in if we decide to do that? 

If you booked a package holiday then our itinerary should show the terminal you are travelling from, or if you booked flights direct- then the airline booking confirmation. 

I merely suggested Premier Inn as that's what my relative use for Manchester airport- and I tend to use Pi when I travel from Gatwick regardless of which terminal I fly from. You can actually look on Booking.com or similar, perhaps even an airport guide to see what other hotels are available and what the transfer time is like to the terminal I prefer to be able to walk to the terminal - but again that's a personal preference and others I'm sure will have different views. 

vacheron

la531983 said:

vacheron said:

We've done manchester a couple of times, (about a 2.5 hour drive for us though, but I would certainly leave plenty of time, even just for waiting in the queue for those bizarre lifts up to the departure hall!

Not sure what lifts you are on about here. I am a regular user of all three terminals and there are no "bizarre lifts" to the departure hall.  Yes, there is a downstairs security area in T1 (as well as the usual one) but there are stairs, and in T2 there are escalators, although I have not used T2 since the new security section opened a few weeks back.

In any case he wont be "waiting in a queue" for lifts.

Very odd. These must have been a figment of our imagination then, because we (and the hundreds of other travellers in the queue) have had to use them 3 times in the last 10 years... Unless you want to carry 4 x 25kg cases up 5 flights of stairs from the entrance/cafes/shops on floor 0 to departures on Level 5?

I say use "them", but is should be use "it" because there are two side by side, but one is usually always out of order when we have been, hence the 15-20 minute queues to squeeze into the remaining one!

la531983

vacheron said:

la531983 said:

vacheron said:

We've done manchester a couple of times, (about a 2.5 hour drive for us though, but I would certainly leave plenty of time, even just for waiting in the queue for those bizarre lifts up to the departure hall!

Not sure what lifts you are on about here. I am a regular user of all three terminals and there are no "bizarre lifts" to the departure hall.  Yes, there is a downstairs security area in T1 (as well as the usual one) but there are stairs, and in T2 there are escalators, although I have not used T2 since the new security section opened a few weeks back.

In any case he wont be "waiting in a queue" for lifts.

Very odd. These must have been a figment of our imagination then, because we (and the hundreds of other travellers in the queue) have had to use them 3 times in the last 10 years... Unless you want to carry 4 x 25kg cases up 5 flights of stairs from the entrance/cafes/shops on floor 0 to departures on Level 5?

I say use "them", but is should be use "it" because there are two side by side, but one is usually always out of order when we have been, hence the 15-20 minute queues to squeeze into the remaining one!

There are numerous places you can enter T1, that is merely one of them on Arrivals level and realyl depends how you have arrived at the airport in the first place. I have never used those lifts ever. Public transport comes into Departures via the walkway, as does taxi and car drop off.
And as you say, there are stairs anyway. 

And in any case if the OP is flying Easyjet the Easyjet bag drop is now on that level anyway in Departures B. Next to a set of stairs in the event Security B isn't open.

Hes clearly panicking enough without all of this anyway.

B0bbyEwing

RAS said:

I didn't spot the reference to Sunday, possibly because it was at the end of the post.

If you are travelling from anywhere on the Transpennine Route Upgrade, or north of it, I'd suggest you travel on Saturday. The majority of trains now require a change at Manchester Piccadilly, often with other transfers en route. There's a very high chance of at least one diversion or bus replacement and often the precise information is only made public a fortnight ahead. 

If your flight is before midday, I'd definitely consider travelling on the Saturday. There are a half dozen hotels within walking distance of the terminals. Although none are cheap, they are closer than the Meet and Greet or the Free Drop Off point. There are several others on other sides of the airport that require a longer walk or a cab.

Since the train from Manchester Piccadilly only takes 15 minutes I've also stayed in the city itself as there's a good range of options at different price points. The obvious issue being that Friday and Saturday night prices are higher.

I've not used Manchester since Covid but have stayed in a local hotel for a flight after 8am. Arriving at T2 before 7am, it was rammed and I became quite anxious about getting to the gate on time. Herded like cattle wasn't far off. The queue managers were very effective but they weren't exactly gentle. There was no time to try and get refreshments en route. 

I've also had better experiences.

Well if it was you I was short with over the Sunday thing then apologies there. This stems from a simply can't win no matter what you do situation so I'll leave it at that.

Since some seem to want my home address then let's just say Carnforth, Kendal, Skipton so think that area. Anyone who thinks I'm about to give up my post code on a public forum then, well I'll leave that one at that too.


But anyway, thanks for the responses. I'll be seriously considering staying overnight. I'll still be looking at getting a lift because parking charges are silly otherwise I'd drive myself.

B0bbyEwing

la531983 said:

RAS said:

I didn't spot the reference to Sunday, possibly because it was at the end of the post.

If you are travelling from anywhere on the Transpennine Route Upgrade, or north of it, I'd suggest you travel on Saturday. The majority of trains now require a change at Manchester Piccadilly, often with other transfers en route. There's a very high chance of at least one diversion or bus replacement and often the precise information is only made public a fortnight ahead. 

If your flight is before midday, I'd definitely consider travelling on the Saturday. There are a half dozen hotels within walking distance of the terminals. Although none are cheap, they are closer than the Meet and Greet or the Free Drop Off point. There are several others on other sides of the airport that require a longer walk or a cab.

Since the train from Manchester Piccadilly only takes 15 minutes I've also stayed in the city itself as there's a good range of options at different price points. The obvious issue being that Friday and Saturday night prices are higher.

I've not used Manchester since Covid but have stayed in a local hotel for a flight after 8am. Arriving at T2 before 7am, it was rammed and I became quite anxious about getting to the gate on time. Herded like cattle wasn't far off. The queue managers were very effective but they weren't exactly gentle. There was no time to try and get refreshments en route. 

I've also had better experiences.

Hes going to tell you off now because hes stated what time his flight is at.

No I'm not.

What I'm going to do is wonder whether a forum ambassador is going to be balanced & respond to you about inflammatory posting if what I've said so far has been borderline.

B0bbyEwing

soolin said:

B0bbyEwing said:

I don't know the location of everything in relation to where we need to be etc but if we go down the route of staying in a hotel the night before to be extra sure then what is the best one to stay in? 

I'm told from someone else today that we'll be flying out of terminal 1 apparently. But they've only based that on who we're using & the fact that they're using the same airline next week and will be flying out of terminal 1.

I don't know if that's how it works but is there a hotel that's best placed to be stopping in if we decide to do that? 

If you booked a package holiday then our itinerary should show the terminal you are travelling from, or if you booked flights direct- then the airline booking confirmation. 

I merely suggested Premier Inn as that's what my relative use for Manchester airport- and I tend to use Pi when I travel from Gatwick regardless of which terminal I fly from. You can actually look on Booking.com or similar, perhaps even an airport guide to see what other hotels are available and what the transfer time is like to the terminal I prefer to be able to walk to the terminal - but again that's a personal preference and others I'm sure will have different views. 

Yeah we don't mind walking, even if it's walking for a bit. 
As for booking, we booked direct with Disneyland, or so I'm told anyway. My OH did the booking for that, I didn't.

Anyway, I'm good with the responses & it's given me enough to look over this weekend. Thanks to those who helped.

Shimrod

B0bbyEwing said:

soolin said:

B0bbyEwing said:

I don't know the location of everything in relation to where we need to be etc but if we go down the route of staying in a hotel the night before to be extra sure then what is the best one to stay in? 

I'm told from someone else today that we'll be flying out of terminal 1 apparently. But they've only based that on who we're using & the fact that they're using the same airline next week and will be flying out of terminal 1.

I don't know if that's how it works but is there a hotel that's best placed to be stopping in if we decide to do that? 

If you booked a package holiday then our itinerary should show the terminal you are travelling from, or if you booked flights direct- then the airline booking confirmation. 

I merely suggested Premier Inn as that's what my relative use for Manchester airport- and I tend to use Pi when I travel from Gatwick regardless of which terminal I fly from. You can actually look on Booking.com or similar, perhaps even an airport guide to see what other hotels are available and what the transfer time is like to the terminal I prefer to be able to walk to the terminal - but again that's a personal preference and others I'm sure will have different views. 

Yeah we don't mind walking, even if it's walking for a bit. 
As for booking, we booked direct with Disneyland, or so I'm told anyway. My OH did the booking for that, I didn't.

Anyway, I'm good with the responses & it's given me enough to look over this weekend. Thanks to those who helped.

I live a lot closer to Manchester airport than you do, and will stay overnight at the airport even for a mid-afternoon flight - the traffic around the M6/M56 in that area can be very unpredictable. With an early Sunday morning flight, traffic should be a lot lighter but you need to be aware of potential overnight roadworks and diversions. Check https://www.trafficengland.com/ for future roadworks and closures for the day you are travelling.

Car parking at Manchester gets more expensive if you leave it late to book - the last few holidays the meet and greet has been cheaper than other parking options (I use official airport parking only). You can find plenty of discount codes on like which typically give 15-25% off the headline parking price. The convenience of being able to leave the airport and walk to your car and be heading home in a few minutes is worth the payment!

la531983

If I am not using T2 I generally use the Drop and Go at Manchester, a new-ish facility which is very handy for the lower Departures at T1 which Easyjet are currently using, not far to walk.