Brief London Trip report

[gopackgo]

We spent 3.5 days in London in early August on the way to our Baltic cruise on the Radisson Seven Seas Voyager. I would like to share our experiences here in order to pass along any tidbits that might be of interest to others.

 

We used justairports.com on 3 occasions for transfers to and from the airports. They were on time and friendly and they were the least expensive transfer company I found. They are not in uniforms and their cars are not always the cleanest on the outside. They are independent drivers using their own cars. But they worked out well for us!

 

We stayed at the Chesterfield Mayfair Hotel which is located a block or 2 away from Shepherd's Market in the southern half of Mayfair. Only a couple blocks from Buckingham or Hyde Park. We loved this small English hotel. Excellent service all around and we opted for a junior king suite which was very pretty and a nice size. The rooms have everything - ac, robes, tv's, easy chairs, desks, etc. I highly recommend this hotel. Dinner and breakfasts were very good!

 

The head concierge, Ian, arranged for a Blue Badge tour guide from British Tours to take us on a panoramic city tour the first afternoon for 3 hours. We loved this tour in a brand new Jaguar with a super friendly and informative tour guide, Susan. We zoomed around and saw so much. It was well worth the money.

 

We ate at the Red Lion tavern one night. It is a traditional old style tavern where you can eat pub food in the front, or have a nice dinner in the back dining room, which is nice also. Very good.

 

We hit the highlights of London and we absolutely loved it. We ended up taking cabs on the second day to get to the Tower of London and then St. Paul's Cathedral. I was uneasy using the tubes. The cabs are super!

 

We stayed at the Marriott near Heathrow on Bath Road on the night before we flew home. I meant to book the Hilton that is connected to Heathrow but screwed up and booked the Marriott instead. So we had to cab it over there which took only about 10 minutes or so. It was a nice large modern Marriott. The room was a normal size, not super small. Of course, the furniture was a little knocked up and you could tell it needed an update pretty soon. But the sheets were good and it was a comfortable bed. The breakfast buffet was not very good - the pastries were kind of hard - definitely not made there. And the food was just so so. I would not recommend staying there.

 

If anyone has any other questions, please ask.

 

Ginny

[JodiBB]

Ginny...we must've been in London about the same time before our cruise through the Baltics. We stayed nearer to the Thames, but still had a great time, as yourself. Just to let you know...we only took the Tube the whole time we were there and it was perfectly fine, but I'm glad to hear that you didn't let those July events stop you from traveling altogether! Sounds like you found alternate transportation easily.

[CarolC]

Ginny,

Thanks for the helpful report. We will be staying in London for 3 days prior to our cruise next August so all info is appreciated. Although we've been before, I always learn something new from the experience of others on this board.

Carol