Harrock n roll:
I think a 5 mile taxi journey should be less than £10 (it’s about £6 for the same distance in London). And you would be wise to book it the night before - I certainly would, and have on similar occasions.
Thanks, Harrock! I imagine that'll probably seal the deal for her, as I was expecting it to be a fair bit more (buses seem to take 20 minutes, but I guess those are also city buses with stops, etc.)
The reason why Luton in particular is such a good alternative is that she's actually going to the Basel-Strasbourg-Freiburg region on my recommendation. i.e. Paris is really just where she'd pick up the TGV, not where she'd be staying. And EasyJet has a very nice, cheap Luton-Basel flight available. (There's one from Stansted too for £10 more, but I figure it's no more convenient). None of the cheapies fly from Heathrow, as far as I know. (Obviously, she's flying
into Heathrow when she arrives in England from Montreal in the first place).
£1 sounds unbelievably cheap for a coach from Exeter to London! I think your girlfriend will have to way up the prices versus whether she prefers more than 6 extra hours of extra travel (Luton), 4 hours (Heathrow) or a few minutes (Exeter!)
It's National Express, and they claim it's £1 ("funfare"), with no apparent other fees... this is why I was so skeptical (or 'sceptical' for you folks), and am wondering if anyone can tell me that there's actually some hidden £30 "booking fee" or something?
Tell me if I'm missing anything here:
http://www.nationalexpress.com/bp/b2.cfm?id=33045936