dana r.

Google Maps shows that it is 5 miles from windsor castle to get to windsor great park:

https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Windsor+Castle,+Windsor+SL4+1NJ,+UK/Windsor+Great+Park,+Windsor,+UK/@51.4520964,-0.6578866,12.36z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x4876113b36b5e89b:0xce2f4846c5f7e1e5!2m2!1d-0.6044027!2d51.483894!1m5!1m1!1s0x48767bc46977eb5d:0xd6d5a678618f0659!2m2!1d-0.617771!2d51.424085!3e0

But, Rome2rio shows that it is only a 33 minute walk, about 1.5 miles:

https://www.rome2rio.com/s/Windsor-Castle/Windsor-Great-Park

I don' know which one is correct.

The only drawback was that neither Tower or Monument are step-free tube stops and you will need to carry/drag your luggage up and down some steps.

 

Is there any way to know which tube stops have lifts, ie elevators, and which tube stops only have stairs?

I have a follow up question about how to get from heathrow airport to studio 2 lets apartments on north gower street via the tube.

I am looking up directions, and I get two different routes on Rome2rio and the citymapper app.

They both start off by saying to get on the picadilly line.

Rome2rio says to stay on picadilly line until till you get to Russell square underground station and walk 16 minutes to apartment.

But, citymapper says to start off on picadilly line and then transfer to another line like Victoria or northern and then walk 2 to 3 minutes to apartment.

Which route would you recommend?

I heard citymapper was the better choice for public transportation for big cities, but I wonder if luggage changes the recommended route.

I'm trying to minimize my luggage so it all fits on a carry on, but it looks like it will rain in London so i might need to use bigger luggage than a carry on as planned.

 

I think that in many places afternoon tea is overpriced, but lots of people enjoy it, so if they are prepared to pay the prices that is up to the individual.

With prices that high, is it just tourists who are doing these afternoon teas?

And where can you go to get afternoon tea that's not overpriced?

What's the best bang-for-the-buck place to go to in London for afternoon tea?

We had afternoon tea at the Ritz, I don't think it was worth the price and wouldn't recommend it.

Isn't that true for most afternoon teas in London- that they're very expensive and therefore not worth the price you paid?

I was looking at afternoon tea cause that seems like a touristy London experience and I thought I was misreading the prices. I thought it couldn't be that expensive- that must be the price for tea for two or something.

For some of those prices, you could get order lunch or dinner at a really nice restaurant.

 

Dana how goes the search, have you decided on anything yet? Is the trip a go? Hope you found something that fits your budget! :)

I ended up getting a self service apartment on North Gower Street. It was the closest, cheapest thing place with its own bathroom I could find that didn't have cringe worthy reviews.

In my search, I could only pick two, not all three, for other places I looked at. If a place was close and cheap, then it had terrible reviews. Or, if a place was cheap with good reviews, then it wasn't close. And, if a place was close and had good reviews, then it was more expensive.

I'm paying $110 total per night in May including Friday and Saturday nights. So, I booked it without waiting for feedback from this forum about the neighborhood because I didn't how long it would still be available at that price.

Although, maybe the price was too good to be true.

This is how Wikipedia describes North Gower street:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gower_Street,_London#North_Gower_Street

"North Gower Street, the northern continuation of Gower Street beyond Euston Road, is not accessible from Gower Street at street level for vehicles or pedestrians. For pedestrians, the most direct access is via a subway along the concourse of Euston Square station."

You can pick 'em, Dana. ;)

Bath is up-market, and popular with tourists.

Bath seems doable as a daytrip with a train ride from London, but one of the reasons I was interested in staying in Bath is because the tours that originate from Bath are better than similar tours that start in London.

Bath is closer to Stonehenge, Cotswolds, etc.. so those tours don't waste as much time travelling to those sites and you can therefore see more sights.

If those tours started off in Bristol, then I'd stay in Bristol despite what seems like its limited tourist attractions.

Bath is one of the most popular tourist cities in the world, and priced accordingly. Book a hotel in Swindon ( not in the world's top 100 cities!) and get a train to Bath.

 

Sent from my XT1032 using Forums mobile app

I didn't know Bath was so popular, and therefor priced accordingly. Before this cruise, I'd never heard of Bath or Cotswolds and only discovered them because I was looking for a daytrip from London.

That's an interesting idea about staying in a cheaper adjacent city and taking the train into the more expensive tourist destination. But, I have two follow up questions:

1) Why stay in a hotel in Swindon?

Looking at the map, Bristol seems like it'd be closer than Swindon to Bath.

And, there seems like there's a bunch of smaller towns or cities that are even closer to Bath than Bristol and Swindon.

2) Would you also recommend staying in a city outside London and taking the train into London?

Is it just London that's expensive or is it all of England that's pretty expensive to travel?

I thought I'd be a bit clever and avoid the dynamic pricing where London hotels hike up prices for Fridays and Saturdays by staying in Bath on those two days to see Bath and Cotswolds. With all those days in England, seeing Bath and Cotswolds seemed like a way to see a different, more quaint side of England.

But, the prices for Bath hotels were what you'd expect to see in London. In London, at least, you could find cheaper hotels further away knowing that you could take the subway to take you to the sights. But, Bath doesn't have a similar public transportation system to do that?

When the British take their holidays in Spain and Greece, I thought they did that for their sunnier weather. But, now I wonder if its cheaper for the British to travel overseas to those countries than it is to stay in England and travel somewhere more local.

DSLibrarian ~

 

 

Most large hotel chains use "dynamic pricing," in which prices are set by computer algorithms and can vary from day to day based on supply and demand--pretty much the same pricing model used by airlines and cruise lines. So, shop around. By contrast, independent hotels generally charge a set price for their rooms, which usually varies according to the season.

 

I got hit by this dynamic pricing, where I was looking at a hotel but the price spiked up by almost $40 each night the next day when I was ready to book.

With dynamic pricing, is there a possibility the price will drop back down?

How early should you book a hotel room? Are hotel prices like airplane tickets, where you'll pay more if you book too early or at the last minute?

I still have a couple of months before London, but I almost feel that I should book a place since some of the hotels I've looked at already have no available rooms.

 

My limited knowledge of renting a self-catering apartment for about a week is that unless you make good use of the self-catering rather than dining-out they don't offer a saving. And IMHO dining out is all part of the vacation experience

 

JB :)

How expensive is it dine out in London- not the fancy Michelin places, but everyday food? I'm assuming if its so expensive to rent a room, then eating out will be expensive too.

Try Airbnb or Priceline Express Deals or bidding.

I've never tried Airbnb before, but I guess it would like the Studios2Let Serviced Apartments I'm looking at.

But, when John Bull talks about the importance of independent reviews for hotels, how do you sort out the reviews for Airbnbs? I was watching this video:

Around the 7:50 mark, it talks about how 95% of the reviews are 4.5 stars or above on a five star scale which makes their star rating system meaningless.

Is London the most expensive city to rent a room?

I've been looking for budget hotels, especially recommended budget ones, but they still strike me as expensive.

So far, the budget hotels I've found are charging $150 a night for a room and then additional 20% taxes and fees so its really $180 a night. Is this the expected baseline for renting from budget hotel in London?

I wanted to stay in London for about five or six days, but not at those prices unless I can find something less expensive.

I'll probably have to find something further away, but how far will be too far? The budget hotels that I was looking at aren't even in Central London, but in surrounding areas like Kensington and Victoria.

If I'm looking at a map of London's subway stations, what's the cutoff point for something that's too far? Something like East End around the Canary Wharf will be too far?

The only thing I've found that's closer are True Hotel and Studios2Let Serviced Apartments near King's Cross Station that are below $150. But, True Hotel will then charge you for everything- to clean the room, for the TV, for a towel, etc.. Its like the RyanAir Model for hotels.

And, isn't the King's Cross Station area kind of sketchy and dangerous?

Check Travelodge and Premier Inn

.

I checked their prices, and I wouldn't necessarily call them budget hotels.

If you post the ports you are cruising to people can give you more informed answers

The destinations are on the left, and where it docks are in paranthes

Glasgow (Greenock)

Invenress/Lockness (Invergordon)

Kirkwall

Edinburg (South Queensferry)

Belfast

Dublin

Cork(Corb)

Guersney (St Peters Port)

Paris/Normandy (Le Havre)

Which stops/ports for a British Isles cruise can you DIY and which ones do you need to use an excursion?

For other cruises, Rick Steves had useful tables for which ports to DIY and which ones you needed an excursion as well as which ports were docked vs tendered but I can't find anything similar to that for a British Isles cruise.

How far away are the ports from the cities?

It looks like the cruise ships only dock directly at Belfast and Dublin so those should be close. I know Le Havre will be really far from Paris, but I don't know about what it'd be like for the other stops.

Are there any hacks, tricks, or tips about getting off the ship earlier on port days? Or, is it something that's unavoidable where the passengers who signed up with the cruise's shore excursions always get to be the first to leave?

For Helsinki, could I do both in about 4-5 hours if I didn't watch the movie or go inside any of the museums of Suomenlinna?

How long would it take to do each place?

But, if that's not possible, which one would you choose to go to?

If I went to Suomenlinna, it would have to be early in the morning before there were any tours or museum openings. In that situation, wouldn't the Suomenlinna experience be similar to what Seurasaari would be like with the walking and the grass minus the tunnels?

Is there anything to do around the Vasa Museum as you wait for it to open?

Oh - sorry - we just enjoyed walking around Suomenlinna, so I'm not familiar with the museums or tour schedule. It's a pretty park area, and worth a walk if you don't have any other priorities in Helsinki.

I guess its Suomenlinna then... But, what can you do there? Is there anything to see or do besides walking around?

Maybe, the pictures don't do it justice, but the pictures made it just seem a bit underwhelming and I hadn't planned on going there until I realized nothing else is open. I just saw some hills and grass and tunnels in those pictures, although it looks like a pleasant place to take a picnic if you're a local.

What can you do in Helsinki on a Sunday morning?

My cruise ship docks at 7 in the morning, and it seems like everything is still closed- the churches like the Rock Church are doing their church services and won't be open to tourists untill noon, the stores are either closed on Sunday or won't open till later so takes out strolling along the Esplande, etc...

There seems like there's a lot of things that are closed on Sunday. And, its even worse because the things that will be open on Sunday won't be open for another few hours after the ship docks.

I just don't understand the logic of the cruise ships docking in Helsinki so early in the morning when everything's closed. They may have just as well as docked later on after everything had opened and avoided the extra port fees for each hour they're docked. I undertand that they'll dock at less convenient terminals and ports so that you'll be more inclined to take their shore excursion, but I don't see the logic in this at all.

I didn't expect Helsinki to be the favorite port on my cruise, but I thought it was going to be Tallinn where I struggled to find stuff to do to fill out the port day and now it looks like it might be Helsinki.

Is it worth the time and trouble to go out to see Stockholm's City Hall?

Rick Steves said in his book that its a worthwhile site, but he also warned that its location makes it difficult to squeeze into a port day.

And, the City Hall tours sound like there's a large possibility that something could go wrong which would throw off any scheduled plans for the rest of the port day.

It warns that "Due to the large number of events in the City Hall, tours are frequently cancelled."

And, it warns that there's only a limited number of tickets for each tour. You won't know if the tour has been sold out until you go there because you can't pre-order tickets.

Is that something that happens a lot? I think I read somewhere that the tour size is really small so I can see the tour easily being sold out. If one tour at a scheduled time is all filled up, will they open another tour for that same time or do you have to wait until the next hour?

It would be a real shame to go out of the way to tour the city hall only to find out that the tours have already sold out or that the tours have been cancelled without warning because of some special event.

I'm on a Baltic cruise, and there's so much to do in each port city that there doesn't seem enough time despite how long the ship will be docked at the port.

Tallinn, however, seems to be the exception. My ship will be docked in Tallinn from 9 in the morning to 5:30 in the afternoon. But, what else is there to do in Tallinn beside its Old Town?

That's 7 and a half hours, but that seems more than enough time to see Old Town. How long does it take to see and do Old Town? And, what did you do in Tallinn after Old Town?

Growing up as a kid in California, I went to the local amusement parks- Disneyland, Knot's Berry Farm, Magic Mountain, etc..

As an adult, is it worthwhile to go see Tivoli Gardens or is it geard more towards children?

Will Tivoli be more or less the same experience as the amusement parks in America? You don't see those European castles in America, but we already have amusement parks in America.

If I do go to Tivoli, is there a particular can't miss ride or experience? That seems to one difference between Tivoli and Disneyland where you have to pay for the rides separately in Tivoli while the price for the rides in Disneyland is all bundled up in the admssion ticket.

Our Alla tour did stop at the Naval Church.

Did your Alla tour go inside the church or was it just stop and take a photo of the outside?