Where's my full English breakfast!? (London Gatwick Airport (LGW))

Member Name: stuff10

Product:	London Gatwick Airport (LGW)
Date:	23/06/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Big, lots of flights, good transport links, food and shops before security

Disadvantages: No self-service breakfast. Every airport has a self-service breakfast area!

I'm a Northerner, so have only visited Gatwick once when we flew to Barbados on Honeymoon. We stayed the night before in the Sofitel which is attached to the airport, and were very happy with the hotel.

Gatwick has 2 terminals - North and South, meaning it's pretty big. The terminals are connected by a monorail which runs every 6 minutes and is increased to every 3 minutes in peak periods. The ride itself takes about 2 minutes, so you're never far away from either terminal.

We arrived at Gatwick's own train station via the Gatwick Express from central London, and immediately used Virgin's night before check-in service to get rid of the cases.

As we arrived at tea time we were hungry and made our way upstairs in the South Terminal to look for food. Here you'll find a WH Smith and a few other shops as well as a Wetherspoons and Frankie & Benny's, which was perfect for us as we love Frankie & Benny's! The food was great and the prices were the same as back home - no London inflation and no airport inflation either! :) It's worth nothing that some shops and restaurants are available before going through security, so you can get a bite to eat if you arrive the day before your flight (like we did).

On the morning of our fight we made our way straight through security and after getting confused which queue to go in (nobody really told you), we got through okay. But that's where the fun started... We always take morning flights and are used to finding a self-service restaurant, getting a full English breakfast and sitting down to relax before the flight, however GATWICK HAS NO SELF-SERVICE RESTAURANTS!! Well, none that sold a full English anyway! Our choices were Frankie and Benny's (too early), McDonald's (urgh) or Wetherspoons which had a 25 minute wait for food! Not wanting to risk it we got a sandwich from another stall.

Some may find it a strange complaint, but before a flight I expect a full English breakfast, but because Gatwick didn't have a self-service restaurant, I couldn't have one! :(

The departures lounge did have a large shopping area with the usual stores - Dixons, Boots, WH Smith, JD Sports etc. There was also the chance to go on the Internet at £1 for 10 minutes! However it wasn't long until our plane was called and we made our way to the gate.

Summary: Nice airport, but let down by the lack of self-service restaurants! (Do I sound obsessed?)