Sipson UB7: junction four in front, a village two hundred metres behind

The Junction Four hotel on Sipson Road is the village address, seven minutes by road to Terminals 2 and 3 and a little more to Terminal 5. The newer block at the same junction, on the Hayes side, is low key, with a bar that fills up around nine with flight crew.

North of those, on the West Drayton side, are the four-star on Stockley Road, set back from the noise with fields starting where the car park ends, and the house on Cherry Lane, a quiet street of terraces with one hotel standing in it. Both are about fifteen minutes from the central terminals.

The desk has no arrangement with any of them. She comes to the lobby or straight up, whichever you prefer, and the building is not involved beyond holding the door.

West Drayton station is around twenty eight minutes on foot, Hayes and Harlington about thirty two, and Heathrow Terminals 2 and 3 station roughly thirty five. All three are on foot along roads that were not designed for it. Nobody arriving with luggage should attempt any of them.

By road the picture is entirely different and this is the argument for Sipson: seven minutes to the central terminals, four minutes back to the junction, ten to the far end of the Bath Road. It is the best transfer time on this site and the quietest street of the lot, which is an unusual pairing.

Walk north up Sipson Road from the hotel and the motorway noise falls away almost at once. There are old houses the airport built around, a plain local called the King William IV with a garden that fills the moment there is any sun, and by ten at night the village is properly still.

This is the only part of the Heathrow area where leaving the building after dark is a real option rather than a polite suggestion. Forty minutes of wandering covers the village and the road, and it changes the shape of the evening enough that several of the women suggest it before you have taken your coat off.

A lot of Stockley Park meetings. Rooms at junction four are frequently fixed the day before rather than weeks ahead, so short notice is normal here and Hester is used to it. Beyond that, drivers and crew who want the motorway rather than the terminal, and guests who tried the strip once and preferred somewhere with houses in it.

Three hours is the usual length, often starting earlier than a town booking because the roads out here are empty before four and there is no reason to wait for eight o'clock.

Laura will ask first whether you want to leave the hotel at all and is entirely relaxed if the answer is no. If it is yes she walks fast, knows which perimeter paths are worth the trouble, and drops the pace without comment when a long haul catches up with you. Rosa has been meeting guests in the junction four lobby long enough to be greeted by name and arrives laughing at the traffic.

Everyone else in the hall comes here at the same rate. Send Hester the hotel, a start time and your terminal for the morning.

West through the lanes is Harmondsworth and its barn. North past the golf course, West Drayton has the station and the high street. South across the motorway the hotels line up along the Bath Road, and Harlington sits between the two roads with nothing much on it. For the full set of transfer times, the perimeter page has them by terminal.