Tray Tables and Time Zones

The Ramble: A Review of the Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow Terminal 2

• Josh Bogle

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Ever wondered how to make your airport layovers as smooth as possible? On today's episode of Tray Tables and Time Zones, The Ramble, join me, Josh Bogle, as I share my time exploring the Hilton Garden Inn at Heathrow Terminal 2. Whether you're a frequent flyer or just passing through, learn tips and tricks to enhance your stay and simplify your journey.

We'll break everything down into five essential categories: the unbeatable location, the hassle-free check-in and check-out via the Hilton Honors app, the splendidly modern room with a king-sized bed and stunning runway views, the hotel’s amenities including restaurants and lounges, and finally, my ultimate verdict on this travel gem. Tune in for a quick-fire review that will make your next stay at Heathrow a breeze!

Josh:

🎵outro music plays🎵. Hey everyone and welcome back to Try Tables and Time Zones. I'm your host, josh Bogle, and this is our segment known as the Ramble. This is where we review all those travel essentials and amenities that you use every time you travel travel essentials and amenities that you use every time you travel. So hotels, airport lounges, airlines, airports, electronics, luggage all those things that you use on a daily basis when you're traveling and are usually the parts of your trip that can either make it or break it. So today we're going to step into the world of hotels and, more specifically, airport hotels. The review will be broken into five categories. The first category will be an overview of the hotel, including its location relative to the airport. The second category will be check in and check out and the amount of effort that is needed to accomplish these tasks. The third category will be a review of the room itself. The fourth category will be hotel amenities, including any restaurants or lounges or bars. And fifth will be my final thoughts on the hotel. So let's get this thing started. The Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow Terminal 2, as the name implies, is located at London's Heathrow Airport, connected to Terminal 2, which is also known as the Queen's Terminal and the home to pretty much all of the Star Alliance Airlines.

Josh:

So if you're flying any of those airlines, this hotel really works for you, but it can work for anyone by using the airport's transportation to transfer between the different terminals. Getting to the hotel from Terminal 2 is actually incredibly easy. When you come out of Terminal 2, there is the passenger drop-off and pickup lanes and so you just cross those streets and you're inside of a parking garage. Now there's signage all over the place that will basically say airport, hotel or hotel with an arrow. Just follow those signs. You essentially walk straight through the parking garage on a pedestrian walkway and then you will arrive at a pedestrian covered bridge right that will lead you over the streets below. At the end of that bridge you are in the hotel's lobby. From there the check-in, checkout counters are directly in front of you and there's also a small pantry where you can buy drinks and snacks to take to your room or on the go. And at the check-in counters there's certainly someone always there to help you check in or check out. But if you're a Hilton Honors member, there's certainly no reason for you to have to go to the check-in and check out and wait in a line, because you have the option to check in on your phone, on the app. And that's what I did. While I was waiting on luggage at the airport, I went ahead and checked in to the hotel and then had my digital key issued and Hilton does this I believe Marriott does it as well where you can have a digital key on your phone. So basically, your phone becomes your key right, and so that's what I did. So when I arrived, it was very easy because I basically got in the elevator, went up to the floor of my room, used my digital key and went right in. I didn't even have to talk to anybody. The check-in procedure is very easy and again, the checkout procedure is just as easy, especially if you have you know, have Hilton's app and you're a Hilton Honors member, and that I just checked out on my phone. So then you just walk through the lobby, go across the pedestrian walkway and you're in Terminal 2. So check-in and check-out has become extremely easy at these hotels based on using their app and using those features. So no problems there whatsoever, very easy to do. And using those features. So no problems there whatsoever, very easy to do.

Josh:

As far as the room went. I was really surprised at how clean and modern and just enjoyable the room was. The bed was a big king-sized bed and my room that I had was a king room and I had a view of the runways that Heathrow. So that was actually a really cool little feature was being able to look out the window and see the runways, because I'm a big av geek, I love airplanes and watching them take off and land, so that was a cool little thing to have. So the room has this really nice big king bed. It has a big TV in it I think they were 49 inch TVs has a nice chair in the corner with a little table that you can sit at if you want to have a little something to eat in your room or whatever. It gives you a little place to put some some food down or a drink. Nice desk, small but nice, and then the bathroom with a big shower. It was really really clean, which is always a nice plus. So overall the room is very modern. You know blues and grays, so it feels very modern and contemporary, very well kept, very clean. It was a lovely room to spend some time in and, like I said, the bed was ridiculously comfortable. I really enjoyed the bed. So again, no troubles having a good night's sleep here. Even being this close to the airport, I didn't have any you know airplane sounds or you know the rumble of equipment moving luggage around and stuff at the airport. It was very quiet, very easy to sleep. So A plus there as well.

Josh:

As far as amenities go, the main amenities of the hotel, it is an airport hotel so it doesn't have like a, you know, a huge pool area or anything like that. It has a restaurant called the Apron Restaurant and then the Apron Bar which is kind of across the hall from it, and then it has a rooftop-type bar called the Runway Bar which, as the name implies, looks over to the runways at Heathrow. All of these spaces again were very well done, very modern, very clean lines. I really appreciated the aesthetic. It was just a nice place to be.

Josh:

I tried the restaurant for dinner one night and while I was ordering very light food because my stomach was still trying to get over having food poisoning, what I did eat was very well done for, especially for a hotel restaurant. I was really surprised at how you know, well done the food was. It was tasty, it was fresh. So I really enjoyed that. And the waitress I had she was extremely nice and you know I never had to ask for more water or tea or anything to drink. She always kept that full. She was very friendly and conversational, which I appreciated. You know, I had a couple of questions for and a couple of requests and she didn't even balk at them, right, she was instantly willing to help and do whatever I was asking for, which I really really appreciated. So the restaurant is definitely a perfectly fine place to grab you a meal.

Josh:

If you're at the hotel waiting out for a flight the next day, or if you're coming in early to Heathrow from somewhere else in London or outside of London and you're staying the night, perfectly good place to have dinner. There's no reason to go try to catch a cab or something like that to go somewhere else to eat. I would recommend staying at the hotel and having a meal there because, like I said, it was really enjoyable and uh and very well done. So that's really it. That's the and this is what the ramble is all about. Right, these short reviews.

Josh:

The Hilton Garden Inn at London Heathrow, Terminal 2, is just really, really well done. Like I said, it's everything that you want it to be at an airport hotel, everything that you need and nothing that you don't need. It is clean, it is modern, it's efficient. It's extremely well placed within the airport grounds. That makes it perfect to get to and from Terminal 2. So, especially, this hotel is a major win for United Airlines and other Star Alliance partners that fly in and out of Terminal 2. Because if you're flying on any of those airlines within that Star Alliance group and you're flying out of Terminal 2, this is a great pre-trip hotel or a great post-trip hotel, depending on when you land or leave. And then also if you have a long layover, like I did, but you want to stay close to the airport, this is a great.

Josh:

This is an absolutely great option and I would recommend it to anyone that is transiting through London Heathrow or flying in or out of London Heathrow. It's just a neat place to stay before a flight, at London Heathrow. It's just a fantastic hotel. Can't recommend it enough. So that's my quick in and out review of the Hilton Garden Inn Heathrow, Terminal 2. I hope you guys enjoyed this review.

Josh:

Like I said, the ramble is just about giving you some quick information that, hopefully, that you can use in your travels and make your travels a little bit easier. I really enjoy sharing these places that I stay and sharing a review of them. Good or bad, there's certainly going to be places that I'm not fond of and there's going to be places that I'm really fond of. So that's what's great about this, is it hopefully gives you some insight so when you're out there traveling, you can think back and say, hey, this is a good option or this is not a good option, and it'll help you out in all your travels. So thanks again for listening.

Josh:

Please check us out on social media, on Instagram, tick tock threads. We're on all of those and really pretty active, so try to keep up with putting up relevant content to the shows on those social media platforms. So please check that out and follow us and friend us and all those things. And also please download the show and share the show off the different podcast players. We're on all of them, including Spotify, including Apple, amazon, youtube we're on all those platforms, so please check us out at any one of those that works for you. Please leave us a review. Give the show a rating. It really helps the show grow. We want to get it out there to as many people as we can, to build our little travel community and hopefully keep this thing going for a really long time and that way people can use it as a source of laughter or a source of information or whatever, but enjoy it in some way. So I really appreciate it and please keep listening. Thanks, everybody. We'll see you next time.

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Josh Bogle

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