The honest answer is that it depends on where you are, and the difference is bigger than most people expect. Our Weybridge office sits 12.2 miles and about 19 minutes from Heathrow Terminal 5. Our Carshalton office is 30.4 miles and about 45 minutes from the same terminal. Same airport, same company, same cars, and two and a half times the distance. Any single price covering both journeys would be wrong for both of them.
So this page does not give you a Heathrow price list. It does something more useful: it explains exactly what moves the cost of a Heathrow taxi up and down, shows you the real measured distances and drive times from each of our offices, and tells you how to get a fixed quote for your own journey in about a minute. Once you know what the meter would have been arguing about, a fixed price is much easier to judge. If you want the service detail rather than the pricing detail, our main Heathrow airport transfers page covers terminals, meet and greet, and flight tracking.
Clocktower Cars is a licensed private hire operator working from eleven offices across Surrey and south London, and Heathrow is the airport we run to most. Everything below comes from journeys we actually drive, with distances and times measured route by route.
Nine things decide what a Heathrow transfer costs. Some are obvious, some are not, and two of them regularly surprise people who have only ever compared headline numbers.
This is the biggest single factor, and it is the one you can check yourself. Across our network the spread runs from 12.2 miles to 30.4 miles for the same destination. A Weybridge pickup and a Godalming pickup are 18 miles apart in terms of road distance to Terminal 5, and the fare reflects that honestly. If you are not sure which office covers you, the branch locator will tell you.
A taxi fare is not just the journey you take. It also includes the car getting to you in the first place. A Heathrow run from Weybridge is a short hop up the M25. The same job from Godalming is a 30-mile drive before the return leg is even considered. This is why two neighbours on opposite sides of a boundary can be quoted differently for what looks like the same trip, and why we work it out per job rather than per postcode band.
The M25 western section between junctions 10 and 15 is one of the busiest stretches of motorway in Britain, and it behaves completely differently at 04:30 and at 08:00. A journey that takes 32 minutes before dawn can take an hour in the Monday morning peak. The distance has not changed; the driver time has nearly doubled. Early departures are often better value as well as less stressful, which is one reason so many of our Heathrow jobs leave before six in the morning.
Going to Heathrow and coming back from Heathrow are not priced identically, and it is worth knowing why. An outbound trip is simple: we collect you at a time you choose and drive you there. An inbound trip depends on a flight, which means the driver may be waiting, the car park may be involved, and the arrival time is a forecast rather than a fact. We cover the inbound leg properly further down this page.
Heathrow has four open passenger terminals, and they are not in the same place. Terminals 2 and 3 sit in the Central Terminal Area in the middle of the airport. Terminal 4 is to the south. Terminal 5 is to the west. Getting from Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 is 3.8 miles and about 12 minutes by road. On a short transfer, twelve minutes is a meaningful share of the journey, so the terminal genuinely matters to the price as well as to your departure time.
Four adults with four large suitcases do not fit in a saloon, however well you pack. If the booking needs an estate, an MPV or an eight-seater, that is a different car and a different price. Tell us the number of passengers and the number of cases when you ask for a quote, because a car that turns up too small is the most expensive mistake in airport travel.
Being met inside the terminal with your name on a board costs more than being collected from the designated pickup area, because the driver parks, walks in, and waits with you. Heathrow charges for that parking and for every vehicle entering its forecourts, and those are real costs that have to sit somewhere. Our meet and greet service page explains what the arrivals-hall option actually involves.
We track the flight number, so a delay does not mean a missed car or a second booking. It can mean additional waiting time once the free period has passed, which is why giving us the flight number rather than a landing time is in your own financial interest. A flight number is a live feed. A time you typed in is a guess.
A wheelchair accessible vehicle, a pet friendly car, a child seat, skis, a cello, a first class executive car for a client arrival. Each of these narrows the pool of suitable vehicles, and that shows up in the price. None of them is a problem if you mention it when you book.
Distance and driver time set the floor. The car you need, the terminal, the hour you travel and whether you want meeting inside the terminal move it from there. Nothing on that list is hidden, and all of it is settled before you book, not after you arrive.
These are real measurements taken route by route to Heathrow Terminal 5, not estimates from a radius map. Where more than one sensible route exists, both are shown, because the choice between them is often the difference between a quick run and a cheap-looking one.
| Our office | Route | Distance | Typical drive | Average speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weybridge | M25 | 12.2 miles | about 19 min | about 39 mph |
| Weybridge | St Peter’s Way | 12.1 miles | about 20 min | about 36 mph |
| Kingston | A308 | 13.1 miles | about 30 min | about 26 mph |
| Kingston | B358 | 11.9 miles | about 34 min | about 21 mph |
| Epsom (head office) | M25 | 24.3 miles | about 32 min | about 46 mph |
| Epsom | B280 and M25 | 23.8 miles | about 35 min | about 41 mph |
| Epsom | A308 | 18.8 miles | about 40 min | about 28 mph |
| Guildford | A3 and M25 | 21.9 miles | about 27 min | about 49 mph |
| Reigate | M25 | 28.5 miles | about 33 min | about 52 mph |
| Carshalton | A3 and M25 | 30.4 miles | about 45 min | about 41 mph |
| Carshalton | direct roads | 22.8 miles | about 48 min | about 29 mph |
| Godalming | A3 and M25 | 30.2 miles | about 47 min | about 39 mph |
Read that table once and the pricing logic becomes obvious. The quickest run on the list is 19 minutes. The slowest is 48. That 29-minute spread is driver time, and driver time is the thing a fare is actually buying.
Here is the part that catches people out. On four of these journeys, the shorter route is the slower one. If you price a Heathrow transfer by looking at the mileage alone, you will reach the wrong conclusion every time.
From Epsom, the A308 route is 18.8 miles and takes about 40 minutes. The M25 route is 24.3 miles and takes about 32. The longer road averages 46 mph; the shorter one averages 28. We take the motorway, and the fare is better for it, even though a mileage calculator would say otherwise.
The same effect, more sharply. From Carshalton the direct roads are 22.8 miles at about 29 mph. The A3 and M25 is 30.4 miles at about 41 mph and still arrives first. Seven and a half miles of apparent saving buys you nothing at all.
From Kingston the B358 is 11.9 miles and about 34 minutes; the A308 is 13.1 miles and about 30. Kingston is also the clearest case on the list of distance being a poor guide: it is the second-closest office to Heathrow by road, and the fourth-quickest, because the roads between it and the airport are urban rather than fast.
Guildford is 21.9 miles out at about 27 minutes, which is quick. Weybridge is 12.2 miles at about 19. If you are between the two, the Weybridge run is the better-value Heathrow job, and that is the kind of thing worth asking about when you ring.
None of this is unique to Heathrow. The same pattern shows up on Gatwick transfers, where a 9.0-mile run and a 15.4-mile run from Reigate both take 22 minutes. It is simply what happens when motorways and market towns share a county.
People do look for a Clocktower Cars price list, and we would rather explain our reasoning than leave the question hanging. A published table of Heathrow fares would have to do one of two things. It could quote a single price for a whole town, in which case it is too high for the people at the near edge and too low for the people at the far edge. Or it could quote the low end and then adjust upwards once a real address is known, which is just a cheap-looking number that does not survive contact with your booking.
We would rather give you a figure that holds. You tell us the pickup address, the terminal, the date, the time and the number of passengers and cases. We give you one price, and that is the price. It takes under a minute and it is a real commitment rather than a starting position.
A fixed quote means the traffic risk sits with us, not with you. If the M25 is slow on the morning you travel, the price you were given does not change. That is the whole point of a quoted fare rather than a meter, and it is the reason we ask you for a departure time that gives the journey room. We would rather build in the margin and get you there calmly than price it tight and have you watching a meter climb on the spur road.
Looking for a cheap taxi to Heathrow is entirely reasonable. It is one of the most searched things about this airport, and anyone who pretends price does not matter is not being straight with you. What is worth separating is a genuinely lower price from a lower number that becomes a normal price later.
We will not always be the cheapest number on a comparison screen, and we are not going to claim otherwise. What we will do is give you a price that is the same when the car arrives as it was when you booked it, from a local firm with an office you can walk into. If you want to see where those offices are, they are on our find us page.
Worth repeating, because it is the most common misunderstanding about airport pricing: on four of our Heathrow routes the shorter road is the slower one. From Carshalton, choosing the 22.8-mile route over the 30.4-mile route adds three minutes to the journey and saves nothing. A fare built on driver time will always prefer the motorway, and so will you once you are in the car.
Plenty of people search for a taxi from Heathrow rather than to it, and the inbound journey has its own economics. The distance is identical. What changes is the uncertainty, because the start time belongs to an airline rather than to you.
Give us the flight number when you book and we watch it. If you land early we know; if you are delayed by two hours we know that too, and the car moves with the flight. You are not paying for a driver sitting in a car park for three hours because a departure board changed in Dubai.
Your free waiting time starts when the aircraft lands, not when you booked. That matters, because immigration and baggage reclaim at Heathrow can take anywhere from fifteen minutes to well over an hour depending on the terminal, the hour and where you have flown in from. Beyond the free period, waiting is charged by the quarter hour, and we will always ring you before the clock starts rather than let it run quietly.
Whichever you choose, tell us the terminal. A driver at Terminal 5 and a passenger at Terminal 2 are 3.8 miles and twelve minutes apart, and that is the one avoidable cost on this whole page.
Slightly, yes. Four passenger terminals are open, in three separate parts of the airport. Terminal 1 closed at the end of June 2015 and has been demolished, so if your paperwork says Terminal 1, something is out of date.
| Terminal | Where it sits | Who flies from it | Opened |
|---|---|---|---|
| Terminal 2 | Central Terminal Area | Star Alliance, SkyTeam and several non-aligned airlines | June 2014 |
| Terminal 3 | Central Terminal Area | Most of Oneworld, Virgin Atlantic and several non-aligned airlines | 1961 |
| Terminal 4 | South side | Most of SkyTeam and most non-aligned airlines | 1986 |
| Terminal 5 | West side | British Airways for most destinations, and Iberia | March 2008 |
Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 by road, via the Western Perimeter Road, is 3.8 miles and about twelve minutes. On the Piccadilly line it is about nine. Either way, if you are dropped at the wrong terminal an hour before a gate closes, those minutes are the most expensive ones of your day. Check the terminal on your booking confirmation, not on last year’s ticket, and tell us when you book.
These words get used interchangeably in conversation, but they describe two different things in law, and the difference is mostly a pricing difference.
Clocktower Cars is a private hire operator, so every Heathrow journey we do is pre-booked and fixed-price. For an airport run that is the structure you want: you are not exposed to the traffic, and you know the number before you leave the house. Most people who ring us asking for a Heathrow taxi are asking for exactly this, whichever word they use. There is more on the distinction on our minicab versus black cab page.
People ask us for a cheap cab to Heathrow, a cheap minicab to Heathrow, the cheapest cabs to Heathrow Terminal 5, a Heathrow cab fare, a Heathrow minicab quote. All of these describe one thing: a pre-booked, fixed-price private hire journey to the airport. We are not going to quote you differently because you said cab instead of minicab, and no honest operator would.
So if you are comparing a cab fare to Heathrow against a minicab price to Heathrow across two companies, make sure you are comparing the same thing: the same pickup address, the same terminal, the same car size, the same waiting allowance, and airport entry charges included in both. Two numbers for a Heathrow cab are only comparable when both cover the whole journey.
Our Heathrow minicab service runs from eleven offices, so the cab that collects you is a local one rather than a car dispatched from the other side of London. That is usually the single biggest difference between a cheap Heathrow cab quote that holds and one that does not: a minicab already near you costs less to send than a cab that has to drive out to you first.
Asking for the cheapest cab to Heathrow Terminal 5 or the cheapest minicab to Terminal 2 is the right instinct, because the terminal is part of the price. Give us the terminal number when you ask for the cab fare and the quote you get is the quote you pay. Ask for a cab to Heathrow with no terminal and you are inviting a correction later.
You can walk out of a Heathrow terminal and take a metered taxi from the rank. For a short hop it is simple enough. For a 30-mile run out to Surrey in the evening peak, a meter and the M25 are not a combination you want to gamble on, and you are starting that journey from the airport rather than from a car that was already heading your way. A quoted private hire fare settles all of it in advance.
The vehicle is the second-biggest line in a Heathrow quote after distance, so it is worth getting right first time.
| Vehicle | Passengers | Realistic luggage | Typical Heathrow use |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saloon | Up to 4 | 2 large cases and 2 cabin bags | Couples, solo business travel |
| Estate | Up to 4 | 3 to 4 large cases | A family of four actually going on holiday |
| MPV | Up to 6 | 4 to 5 large cases | Families, small groups, golf bags |
| Eight-seater | Up to 8 | 8 cases | Group travel, sports teams, big family trips |
| Executive saloon | Up to 3 | 2 large cases | Client collections, corporate arrivals |
| Wheelchair accessible | Varies by vehicle | Varies | Ramped access, wheelchair secured in the vehicle |
The practical point: one larger car is almost always cheaper than two smaller ones. Six people in an MPV is one fare. Six people in two saloons is two fares, two drivers and two cars to keep together on the M25. If there are more than four of you, ask about the MPV and the eight-seater before you book two cars.
If you need a wheelchair accessible vehicle or you are travelling with a pet, say so when you ask for the quote. Both are available and both need the right vehicle allocated rather than found at short notice. Our pet friendly taxis page covers carriers and what we need to know.
Sometimes, and we would rather tell you when it is not. Heathrow has genuinely good rail links. The Heathrow Express runs non-stop to London Paddington every fifteen minutes. The Elizabeth line runs six trains an hour. The Piccadilly line serves the airport from four stations. If you are a single traveller with one bag starting near a fast London terminus, the train will usually beat us on price.
For most of the towns we serve, the honest answer is that the car wins on time and convenience and is competitive on cost once there is more than one of you. For a solo traveller from Waterloo, the train wins. We are not going to pretend otherwise.
If your company sends people to Heathrow regularly, individual bookings are the expensive way to do it, mostly in administration rather than in fares. An account gives you one monthly invoice, named cost centres, bookings placed by a PA or an EA without a card each time, and the same operator every trip.
It also removes the awkward bit of client travel, which is somebody expensing a car journey they did not choose. Our corporate chauffeur service and executive travel pages cover how accounts work. For school and family contracts, the school run service runs on the same account basis.
Every town we cover has its own page with local detail, and every one of them can be quoted for Heathrow. Pick yours, or ring the nearest office and ask directly.
| Town | Nearest office for Heathrow | Notes on the journey |
|---|---|---|
| Epsom | Epsom, 01372 747 747 | 24.3 miles by M25, about 32 min. The A308 looks shorter and is 8 min slower. |
| Ewell | Epsom or Ewell West | Same corridor as Epsom; the M25 route is the quick one. |
| Weybridge | Weybridge, 01932 598 598 | 12.2 miles, about 19 min. The quickest Heathrow run on our network. |
| Kingston | Kingston, 0203 388 9999 | 13.1 miles but about 30 min. Close by road, slow by traffic. |
| Guildford | Guildford, 01483 301 000 | 21.9 miles, about 27 min via the A3 and M25. |
| Godalming | Godalming, 01483 422 222 | 30.2 miles, about 47 min. Heathrow is nearer and quicker than Gatwick from here. |
| Reigate | Reigate, 01737 333 700 | 28.5 miles, about 33 min. Fast motorway miles at about 52 mph. |
| Carshalton | Carshalton, 0208 773 0700 | 30.4 miles, about 45 min. The longest run on the network. |
| Sutton | Sutton, 0208 643 2255 | Similar corridor to Carshalton; allow for the A3 and M25. |
| Chessington | Chessington, 0208 397 4747 | A3 then M25; quicker than the Epsom run in most conditions. |
| Esher | Weybridge or Kingston | Close to the quick Weybridge corridor. |
| Surbiton | Kingston | Urban roads to the airport; allow more time than the mileage suggests. |
| Thames Ditton | Kingston or Weybridge | Ask which office is quoting; it can make a difference here. |
| Tolworth | Chessington | Straight onto the A3 for the M25. |
| Kingswood | Reigate | M25 from junction 8; one of our better-ranked Heathrow routes. |
| Banstead | Reigate | No direct rail to Heathrow, which is why the car is the sensible option. |
| Ashtead | Epsom | Two changes by train; one journey by car. |
| Cheam | Sutton or Epsom | A3 and M25 corridor. |
| North Cheam | Sutton | A3 and M25 corridor. |
| Worcester Park | Sutton or Kingston | Ask about both; the quicker office is not always the nearer one. |
| Morden | Carshalton or Sutton | Allow for the A3 in the peak. |
| Redhill | Reigate | M25 westbound; Gatwick is far closer, so check which airport you need. |
Not listed? We cover considerably more than this, and the branch locator will point you at the right office. The other airports have their own pages: Gatwick, Luton and Stansted, with everything together on the airport transfers page.
You can do all of this online through book now, or by ringing the office nearest you. Both reach the same booking system and the same price.
It depends on where in Surrey, and the range is wide. Our nearest office is 12.2 miles and about 19 minutes from Terminal 5; our furthest is 30.4 miles and about 45 minutes. Rather than quote a figure that is wrong for most people, we price each journey from the actual address. Give us a pickup address and a terminal and you will have a fixed price in under a minute.
Because a single published price covering a whole town is too high for the people nearest the airport and too low for those furthest from it, and the alternative is advertising a low number and then adjusting it upwards once we know the real address. A fixed quote per journey is more honest and it is a figure that holds.
Fixed. Once you have a quote and the booking is made, the traffic risk is ours. If the M25 is slow on the morning you travel, your price does not move. The exceptions are things that change the job itself: extra stops, a change of terminal, a bigger car, or waiting beyond the free period on an arrival.
You can get a better price, and the levers are travelling outside the peak, being collected by the nearest office, taking one correctly sized car instead of two small ones, and sharing the fare. What you should be careful of is a low headline number that excludes airport entry charges or waiting time, because that is not a cheaper journey, it is a later invoice.
About 32 minutes by the M25 route, which is 24.3 miles. There is a shorter route via the A308 at 18.8 miles, but it averages about 28 mph against the motorway’s 46, so it takes about 40 minutes. We take the motorway. In the morning peak, add a comfortable margin to either figure.
The distance is the same as the outbound journey, so the starting point is similar. What can change it is the waiting: the inbound leg depends on your flight, your terminal, immigration and baggage reclaim. Give us the flight number when you book and the free waiting period starts at landing, not at the time you guessed.
Yes. The driver has to park, walk into arrivals and wait with a name board, and Heathrow charges for that parking. If you are happy to walk out to the designated pickup area, that is the lower-cost option and we will tell you exactly where to go.
Yes. Heathrow charges every vehicle entering its forecourts, and that is in the price we give you rather than added at the barrier. If another quote you are comparing does not mention it, ask.
There is a free period that starts when the aircraft lands. Beyond it, waiting is charged by the quarter hour. We will ring you before any charge starts rather than let the clock run quietly. If you know you are likely to be slow through immigration, say so when you book and we will plan for it.
From most of our area, Terminal 4 and Terminal 5 are marginally further than the Central Terminal Area terminals 2 and 3, and the difference is small. The expensive mistake is not the terminal itself but being taken to the wrong one: Terminal 5 to Terminal 2 is 3.8 miles and about twelve minutes.
For one person starting beside a fast London terminus, usually not, and we will say so. For three or four people with luggage starting from a Surrey town with no direct airport service, a single fixed fare split between you is normally the better deal as well as the easier journey.
Unsocial hours are priced into the quote, and so is the fact that the roads are empty. A 04:30 run to Terminal 5 is a quicker journey than the same job at 08:00, which works in your favour. Ask for both times if your flight gives you the choice.
Yes to both. Card payment is available on every booking, and if your company sends people to Heathrow regularly an account gives you one monthly invoice and bookings without a card each time. The corporate service page explains how it works.
Ring the office. We track the flight, so there is a good chance we already know. A cancelled flight is not a cancelled relationship: we would rather move the booking than charge for a journey nobody took.
Tell us where you are starting, which terminal you need, when you are going and how many of you there are. You will get one price, fixed before you book, from a licensed local operator with eleven offices across Surrey and south London.
Get a Heathrow quote and book online — or ring the office nearest you: Epsom 01372 747 747, Weybridge 01932 598 598, Kingston 0203 388 9999, Guildford 01483 301 000, Godalming 01483 422 222, Reigate 01737 333 700, Carshalton 0208 773 0700, Sutton 0208 643 2255, Chessington 0208 397 4747, Bookham 01372 727 727, Ewell West 0208 330 5555.
Looking for the service detail rather than the pricing? The Heathrow airport transfers page covers terminals, meet and greet and flight tracking in full. For every other airport, start at airport transfers.
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