Hilton Gatwick

It does get busy, but hardened lounge users should take their place early.....my 15 year olds found enough to wade-through during the afternoon tea (just us in the lounge) and later with the samosa, chicken wings etc. not enough to feed then instead of a meal of course, but the graze between meals we too often encounter. There was always a table or two free during the 6-9pm stint and plenty to drink and nibble on, both before and after supper.

Exactly! My two would be horrified if I tried to pass off a few snacks as an evening meal.

We always stay at the Hilton, purely because we live too far away (Cornwall) and because I have HH status.

I like the clubrooms and if you travel with teens, it's perfect as they can sit in the lounge and eat the sandwiches and pastries in the afternoon and then tuck into the snacks later while you consume the alcohol. Think of it as a prelude to the clubhouse in the morning!

Hi marshy can anyone use the club rooms at the hilton

Hi ratechaser. Thank you for your comments.
I've experienced the executive lounge at the Hilton Wembley and it had both an indoor and outdoor area and was well furnished and comfortable. It had a great view of the stadium and kept my sanity while I was waiting to take my daughter to see One Direction! Yes, I know...
Hopefully the Gatwick lounge will be sufficient for the purpose of enabling my children to have a few snacks and drinks. I shall partake too, but not too much. After all I won't want to spoil the champagne and food in the clubhouse now will I?

I had the 'pleasure' of taking my 2 daughters to that particular concert. The things we have to do... At least the bars were pretty queue free!

Hi marshy can anyone use the club rooms at the hilton

In most Hiltons there are 3 ways;

- pay for an executive floor room
- have Gold status with Hhonors and get upgraded to an executive floor room
- have Diamond status with Hhonors

LGW Hilton usually also has an 'upgrade to executive floor' offer which Dickydotcom often available himself of...

Hi marshy can anyone use the club rooms at the hilton

In most Hiltons there are 3 ways;

- pay for an executive floor room
- have Gold status with Hhonors and get upgraded to an executive floor room
- have Diamond status with Hhonors

LGW Hilton usually also has an 'upgrade to executive floor' offer which Dickydotcom often available himself of...

Exactly this.

I also used to love the lounge in the Hilton Deansgate in Manchester, until they turned it into an ante room of Cloud 23.

I love this hotel, and the Exec lounge, are you telling me the lounge used to be better than it is now? Which I though was pretty amazing!!

If you are on Twitter you should have a look at @AngryBeetham which is a characterised, hillarious version of the building the hotel is located in!!

I love this hotel, and the Exec lounge, are you telling me the lounge used to be better than it is now? Which I though was pretty amazing!!
!

When we first started using the hotel a few years back, the Exec Lounge was just that, the Lounge. Lots of space, relaxed ambience and a door that should not be opened to Cloud 23. In the past couple of years they refurbished the lounge seating so it reflected Cloud 23 design and started to use it as an overflow for Cloud 23, reducing the space available for we hard working types. Not looking a gift horse in the mouth, Cloud 23 guests also realised that there was a source of free booze at 6pm, which meant that the hotel put on waiter service with 'please may I see you room card?' and all that malarkey, which didn't feel great.

It has to be said though that our most recent stays have been over weekends, and the situation may well be different during the week. We stayed over a Sunday once, and it did seem a lot calmer.

The view from the lounge and the rooms remains one of my favourite hotel views, particularly at night when the lights come on everywhere....

Oh indeed, the first time I stayed there we were on level 21 or 22, and next to (sadly not in) the Presidential Suite, Oh wow I was totally blown away by the view, you could see the planes coming into MAN, the traffic so calm below. I actually only got a few hours sleep as I sat watching it all below me for hours...

Valet parking in the red car park
Overnight at hilton
Dinner at giraffe
Breakfast in the CH

It's the only civilised way to go :-)

Although for £75 for a family room with breakfast, I thought the hilton hampton in the north terminal was worth a try for our next trip in April. Going with BA anyway so much more convenient, even if it means a much poorer lounge experience.

I've always thought of Gatwick VS lounge as not as good an experience as Heathrow. Always reckoned the BA lounge might be a bit closer in quality. Is it?

As for the north hotels, I do tend to book the Hilton on the south end, but lets face it, that trudge up along to the carpark and down and in can't be that much shorter than getting to the monorail and heading that way right? It's not that much further?

I've always thought of Gatwick VS lounge as not as good an experience as Heathrow. Always reckoned the BA lounge might be a bit closer in quality. Is it?

The LGW CH doesn't have as much of the cool quotient as LHR CH, but it can have far more fizzle (as MrsPJH would say). The vast majority of passengers are off on holiday and (in our experience) the staff do all they can to contribute to a sense of excitement.

I've never used the BA Lounge at LGW but have used the Galleries offering at T3, which, though ok, lacked;

- decent food
- table service
- treatments
- any sense of anticipation for your trip

Paul

Like many others here we always stay at the Hilton before taking holiday flights from Gatwick, started many years ago when we had heavy snow the day prior to a February flight to St Lucia, it takes any stress out of a same day journey along M4 & M25 from Bath, our next holiday flight is in April from Heathrow, flight isn't until 5pm & although it is a Sunday & motorways should be quiet I will still have a dilemma as to know how much contingency time to build in to our journey.

AS others have mentioned I have always found the price at the Gatwick Hilton to be reasonable, last visit in March we got a rate of £89 which included a complimentary bottle of wine.


Have a great trip

oldboy

I've never used the BA Lounge at LGW but have used the Galleries offering at T3, which, though ok, lacked;

- decent food
- table service
- treatments
- any sense of anticipation for your trip

Paul

I have- twice in recent months- and you are correct apart from the first point. The food is not as good as the CH, by a long mile, but it is not bad IMO. But then I never have very high expectations!

What I have noticed as a real difference between the VS and BA lounges is that the staff in BA make no attempt (usually) to interact with customers. They mope about cleaning away or re-stocking the refreshments. They look quite miserable and I suspect many of them are. It is as though the Dementors have sucked all the joy out of them. Most customers ignore them completely which maybe does not help whereas in the VS lounge I noted that customers have a laugh, a joke or even a long chat with the lounge staff- which is nice.

But I don't let that stop me enjoying myself in the Galleries lounges

Well it will be my first use of the LGW BA lounges in April. Sadly it will be the GC one for us rather than GF unless they take pity and let us all in to the posh side on my one gold card.

Either way, the information I've gleaned from FT suggests that LGW is the poor cousin in terms of food (only hot option being porridge in GC? No full english in GF?), and you have to think that investment there will be limited given the pending terminal switch. Still, we'll have had a decent breakfast in the hotel, so as long as there is champagne available, I'll be happy enough...

Have to say that GF in T3 is my favourite visited BA lounge to date. Closely followed by the one at Belfast City...

Don't forget, ratechaser, you have to ask for champagne it isn't put out automatically with the other drinks .

Don't forget, ratechaser, you have to ask for champagne it isn't put out automatically with the other drinks .

Oh I know, believe me. It's a mistake that you only make once in a BA lounge, and in my case it happened a long time ago in T5. I remember looking all over for it, and eventually giving up and settling for some Sancerre, which was admittedly pretty good.

Anyway, even if we can't all get into GF, I will take a peek in there, and maybe pour myself a glass just for the hell of it...