Ramada London Stansted Airport 🛬 An Affordable Prime Location
I always find the word ‘conveniently’ a bit of a conversational tightrope walk. It usually means something is situated near the very thing you need, but absolutely nothing else. In the case of the Ramada hotel – located near Stansted Airport – it hits that definition square on the nose.
We were seeking a roof over our heads before our inevitable cattle-class voyage across the continent, and this place promised a seamless blend of efficiency and location. Seamless. A word I generally reserve for my favourite socks, not an airport stopover.
How did we find this supposed stress-free experience? Well, that depends entirely on your personal tolerance for machinery-induced insomnia and the highly competitive sport of securing a pastry at breakfast.
We’ll get to that.
Highlights
- Don’t Get Fleeced by the Taxis!
- Ramada ✅ No-Nonsense Stopover
- Breakfast Blitz💨Take No Prisoners
- Give Wetherspoons a Whirl 🍴💰
- Transfers via National Express
- London City Stopover 💂
- Things We Carry on the Plane
- All Hotel Options in London
- Rent a Car from Stansted
- Short Breaks & City Stops
Don’t Get Fleeced by the Taxis!
Navigating the area surrounding Stansted Airport, which is essentially north of London but feels like a separate, fog-bound dimension, is a masterclass in reading the small print.
Our goal, initially, was simply to reach our £89 bed, a short distance away. Five minutes, they said.
Now, here’s a tip that could save you a few bob: Do not, under any circumstances, allow the taxi drivers outside the Arrivals hall to catch your eye. We had the brief, sobering idea to take a cab straight to the nearby town of Bishops Stortford, a mere five miles from the airport, and the quoted price was a truly eye-watering £35 (even with an Uber).
Thirty-five quid!
For a journey that barely requires the engine to warm up.
Instead, we decided to embrace the local bus network, a far more civilised and economical choice.
- Airport Taxi Folly: Approximately £35 for a 5-mile trip to Bishops Stortford. Highway robbery in a four-door sedan.
- The Clever Bus Option: A flat £2.50 fare and a pleasant (if slightly indirect) 30-minute ride to the town centre.
We found, however, that the journey back to the airport was significantly less traumatic for the wallet. A taxi from Bishops Stortford to Stansted returned to a sensible realm, typically costing about £10.
Ramada ✈️✅ A No-Nonsense Stopover
At £89 for a single night, including a full English breakfast, the Ramada positions itself as a three-star establishment providing the unvarnished necessities.
It’s a bit like a sturdy, reliable Ford Focus; it gets you there, but nobody is going to stop to admire the upholstery.
Ramada Hotel Lounge Area
The rooms themselves? Basic but comfortable, which is probably the kindest thing one can say about any airport hotel room. We noticed the absence of several modern luxuries, which, frankly, isn’t a deal-beaker.
The list of missing luxuries:
- No Minibar/Fridge: The horror of lukewarm beer! We were left to contemplate the reality of no real milk with our tea.
- No Safe: Apparently, the most valuable thing we brought was the room key.
- No Toiletries (beyond soap): We were clearly expected to have brought our own beauty regime. Self-reliance, that’s the spirit.
Ramada Hotel Basic Room
On the positive side, the staff, who were largely East European, were friendly, efficient, and seemed genuinely keen to ensure things ran smoothly.
We did appreciate the presence of a kettle with coffee and tea, a small beacon of British comfort in an otherwise spartan setting.
Ramada Hotel – No minibar or safe
However, the sleep itself was, shall we say, atmospheric. There was a persistent, low-frequency machinery noise that ran throughout the night. It was the sort of sound that makes you imagine a tireless, solitary engineer upstairs, constantly opening and closing doors.
It was nothing so dramatic, merely the price one pays for being in a building designed around efficiency, not silent repose.
Ramada Hotel Bathroom
The Breakfast Blitz 🏃♀️💨 Take No Prisoners…
If you’re ever forced to write a tactical guide to surviving an airport hotel stay, Chapter One must surely be titled: “The Art of the Early Breakfast Raid.”
We were told the full English breakfast was excellent, and it was. The eggs were suitably yolky, the bacon suitably crisp. But we soon realised that this was a battlefield, not a leisurely meal.
Ramada Hotel Breakfast – Full English! (Don’t be late!)
We arrived at the relatively sociable hour of 9 am, and there was a pleasing abundance of croissants and pastries. Ten minutes later, a veritable surge of guests descended upon the dining room.
It was like watching a natural resource vanish before our eyes. The croissants, the cakes—they were simply gone, swallowed by the morning crowd, and, crucially, they were not replaced.
- Our initial thought: “We got here just in time! Croissants secured!” 🥐
- Our subsequent thought: “Crikey, that was a close call. Ten minutes later and we’d be staring at empty shelves.”
The lesson here is simple: if you enjoy flaky European pastries as a pre-flight indulgence, you must treat the breakfast hour with the competitive focus of a professional athlete.
Punctuality is not a courtesy; it is a survival mechanism.
Local Amenities 🍴💰 Give Wetherspoons a Whirl
The Ramada’s location, in its convenient isolation, does have the obligatory scattering of chain-store comforts nearby, housed in a small ‘Welcome Break’ shopping centre.
We spotted a Waitrose (which shows that even when marooned by an airport, you can still aspire to a decent bottle of wine) and the reliable sight of Burger King and KFC.
If we were to venture further, into the main town of Bishops Stortford, we certainly wouldn’t miss The Port Jackson – J D Wetherspoon. You can get a full meal and a drink there for about nine quid.
It’s the kind of value that makes you weep slightly at the sheer generosity of it all, provided you enjoy classic, unpretentious English food.
Wetherspoons Bishops Stortford – Full meal and drink for 9 quid!
Just a reminder about the bus journey into town: the stop isn’t exactly on the doorstep. We had a brisk, ten-minute constitutional around the back of the hotel to reach it.
A final physical reminder that at the Ramada you are between places.
So, Was it Worth the £89? A Final Verdict
We ended our brief stopover slightly underslept (blame the machinery-door-slider), well-fed (blame the early start), and significantly more informed about local taxi dynamics.
Would we revisit the Ramada (London Stansted) Airport hotel?
For a solitary night or two, purely for the affordability and excellent connections to London and beyond, it’s genuinely hard to beat.
It’s not a destination; it’s a highly efficient launchpad. It provides precisely what it promises: a basic, comfortable bed and an escape route. And sometimes, that’s all a weary traveller truly requires, isn’t it?
Book the Ramada London Stansted Airport Hotel if you value your time and your travel budget more than absolute silence and a miniature bottle of complimentary shower gel.
If you’re planning a trip soon, we’ve also documented our thoughts on London Airport Transfers via National Express and our short but sweet London City Stopover 💂 What to See & Do in just 6 hours.
If you enjoyed Ramada London Stansted Airport, take a look at our other Short Breaks and City Stops. You may also like:
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