Last visited Dec 2022
Gatwick airport is easy to reach from Victoria with the Gatwick Express train or the only slightly cheaper national rail trains, and it is possible to use contactless payment rather than buying a ticket. Gatwick train station to the airport is step free, however the lift is not easy to find as it’s at one end of the platforms, while there is another lift that only takes you outside the station, but not to the airport. This is not very well signalled. There are also escalators.
There are also cheaper busses from London Victoria.
Terminal South has a family lane for security checks, however they have not streamlined any of the procedures to do with kids. Everything needs to be taken out: milk, water, baby food pouches. The pouches’ volumes were all checked and the pouches were put in a plastic bag. The formula milk bottles were checked. For the first time in my many travels with kids, I was told I couldn’t bring tap water through (I was asked if it was boiled water, so perhaps that would have been fine). So both kids’ bottles were emptied and I was told I could fill them back up at a drinking fountain just on the other side of security. The fountain didn’t work. I had to empty the pushchair and take baby out. There isn’t much space for repacking on the other side.
Baby changing facilities are pretty standard, with a changing table and a sink. No kids toilets or sinks available, and as usual getting a toddler to wash their hands in the tall sinks is a pain. Everything was clean. Gatwick is quite big, so the walk to the gates can be longish (around 15min to the furthest gates).
Access to the planes is usually via finger, and the drop off point for the pushchair is at the gate, before entering the finger.
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