No dodgy terminal 5 here! (London Gatwick Airport (LGW))

Member Name: lilmissmup

Product:	London Gatwick Airport (LGW)
Date:	17/05/09 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Very easy to get too via train and motorways, lots of shops and eateries.

Disadvantages: None I found

On my recent trip to New York me and my boyfriend used Gatwick for our journal, our usual airport of choice is Luton as we live 30 minutes away but unfortunately thats too small an airport to fly to America from so I picked the second easiest airport for us to get too which is Gatwick as it runs on the Bedford - Brighton train line (we live in Bedford) and takes approx 1hr 50 minutes to get too.

I had never used Gatwick before so wasn't sure how big it would be, I didn't even know it had two terminals until I looked on the website!

As mentioned Gatwick has two terminals, North and South. We were flying from the North terminal and the train station for Gatwick is at the South terminal but it was very easy for us to get to our correct terminal, we just followed the signs to North Terminal and got a free shuttle train which took only a few minutes to speed us across to North Terminal.

I saw that a couple of previous reviews advised it was a pain to get from one terminal to the other but I totally disagree.

Once we got to North Terminal we entered an area they call "The Avenue" which had 14 shops, 3 eateries, a seating area, bureau de change and cash machines as well as toilets. We used the Left Luggage facility as they had a shop for luggage tags which we needed and also had a look in W H Smiths.

We then headed up to the departures area, checked in our baggage and went through security.

You then enter the International Departure Lounge which is very impressive, its very big with lots of seating and with a choice of over 40 shops and 9 restaurants.

We had 2 hours to go until after flight so went to EAT and had a full English breakfast in there, the food was nice although I felt it was a little expensive at nearly £20 for both of us, don't really want to pay more than £15 but we did have a look at some other restaurants and this did seem the best for us.

You can also buy any duty free you want once in here, they did have a vast duty free shop and you can also go to Dixons to buy Tax Free electricals although this may affect your baggage allowance!!

There is also a games arcarde in here to entertain/distract your children with.

To find out which gate you are flying from you need to check the departures board, our was flying from gate 62 which meant a walk down a swirling walkway and then onto our gate to check in with BA.

I would have no qualms flying from Gatwick again, there is lots to do to keep you entertained whilst waiting and all staff I encountered were friendly.

I would rather fly from here than Heathrow just as i fell more comfortable with its size and its so easy for me to get too.

Summary: Would definately fly from Gatwick again.