London Hotel Recommedations?

[2Xayear]

Spending a couple of days touring London, prior to a Baltic cruise out of Rotterdam this July. Interested in fellow CC'ers thoughts on hotel choices. My travel agent has suggested the Royal National but the reviews have been less than good. Not wanting a 5 star property but a solid 3 or 4 star would be good.

 

Also, I hear about these Hop on Hop off tour buses. I will google the term but wondered if anyone had any thoughts on these?

 

Thanks, Bob

[bigwally]

I personally have always liked the area around the Gloucester Rd. tube station in South Ken.

 

Favourite hotel is the Milennium Gloucester, but I've just tried to book for myself and their rates have gone nuts of late. Used to be I could get a great room for about $170 (early June a couple of years ago was my last visit) but they wanted almost $400 a night for a stay in October! :eek:

 

So I'll be going with my second choice, the Holiday Inn Forum, kattty-corner across the street from the Milennium. It's a bit more touristy and in my opinion not quite as nice, but the rate there for the same stay was $240 a night (which seems like a bit of a bargain by comparison).

 

Of course, it could just be that I'm travelling at the wrong time (convention in town maybe?) and you'll find better rates for your visit, though in July I'll hazard a guess possibly not.

 

Edit: Oh, and on travel I personally prefer a one day travel card for a short stay and a 7 day tourist card for a week or longer. I become a mole when in London (and other cities with great subway systems), burrowing my way around the city. Though I have also have been know to use the occasional bus (travel passes vaild for both forms of travel).

[LHT28]

We stayed in the are near the British Museum (high Holborn area)

The HOHO bus stopped right in from of the museum ..easy walking to the river. http://www.city-discovery.com/london_tours/tour.php?id=22

http://www.visitbritain.com

http://www.easy-london-hotels.com/

We did the HOHO in Dublin it was a good way to see the sites

[shoshona2]

Dear 2Xayear,

 

Do you have any points with any hotel chain's, i.e. Hilton, Marriott or American Express? We save our points for use in Europe since the prices are out of sight because the U.S. dollar is worth so little there.

 

Sheila

[aprildream]

I will be staying at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum in May. It is one of the hotels that NCL uses. I looked it up on the web and it evidently is only .8 miles from Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. Also only .8 miles to the Albert and Victoria Museum. Evidently a lot of restaurants and shopping nearby and the tube is right around the corner. I'm hoping to do a lot walking. I also hear it is a little touristy but it sure sounds convenient.:cool:

[sk8teacher]

The wife and I did a three day whirlwind tour of London last summer, and bought day passes on the Big Bus Tour. The pass is good for 24 hours and you can get on and off anytime you want. Around $25 per person as I recall. Well worth the money. The tube is another great way to get around. Buy a day pass and go for it. Well marked and very easy to understand.

 

Cheers,

[bigwally]

I will be staying at the Holiday Inn Kensington Forum in May. It is one of the hotels that NCL uses. I looked it up on the web and it evidently is only .8 miles from Hyde Park and Kensington Palace. Also only .8 miles to the Albert and Victoria Museum. Evidently a lot of restaurants and shopping nearby and the tube is right around the corner. I'm hoping to do a lot walking. I also hear it is a little touristy but it sure sounds convenient.:cool:

 

 

That is a loooooong .8 miles. I don't mind walking in the least, but I would personally do the circle/district line to High Street Kensington and then walk east from there.

 

There is an excellent pub in the Forum, even if I've not been staying there it's been a convenient place for dinner on the first night when you're too tired to make the trek further afield. They closed the restaurant bit a few years back (making it a pub only), which was a real dissapointment, but I'm glad to say it's back again and I'll certainly be making a stop there!

[pcur]

The HOHO bus is great! We took the route all around, went around again and got off at the Tower of London. Well worth the money.

 

I just posted on another thread that I cannot understand taking underground transpo if there is a HOHO bus available. They route you past all the great sites, and are good basic transportation for 24 hours.

 

As far as hotels go, I have done extensive research on them for our trip in April. I suggest running a check on the following sites, and keep another browser window open to do a search on tripadvisor.com for the hotels you are interested in. Tripadvisor reviews are absolutely great, and sometimes as recent as a few days ago!

 

This is the review for the hotel we are staying at in the Victoria area. It's inexpensive and not fancy, but read on:

 

My teenage daughter and I have just returned yesterday from a one night's trip to London. I chose the hotel purely on the reviews given on this site.

 

This hotel was an excellent choice. As said by other reviewers, the Luna Simone does not have big rooms - but who cares - as you only sleep there after a day "doing the sights". The main thing, as far as I am concerned, is the cleanliness. This hotel is really clean and fresh - from the moment you step through the front door. We had room 10 on the front and even had the window open at night. We don't mind traffic noise and had a good night's sleep.

 

We had a nice breakfast in one of the very clean and stylish basement breakfast rooms. It was not the most interesting breakfast we've ever had, but very nicely cooked egg, beans and bacon, having first had cornflakes and toast.

 

This hotel is close to Victoria and Pimlico underground stations and is in a very "select" area of London. I would recommend it to anyone looking for a clean, friendly, budget hotel in a nice part of the city.

 

 

venere.com

wrh-hotels.com

hotelscomparison.com

priceline.co.uk

[TenerifeSharon]

For anyone that still needs information -- the HOHO Big Bus is now priced at 22 pounds for 24 hours. That's almost $44 at the moment - big bucks for the big bus. An off peak one-day travel card (good from 9:30 AM until 4:30 AM is only GBP 5.10 (about $10) and a one-day use of the oyster card caps at GBP 4.60

[ab0si]

HOHO bus: My wife loves it. I prefer to take the Tube and buses (I buy a travel pass).

 

The HOHO bus has the advantage of not having some serious walks in the Tube stations (and the all too frequent breakdowns of equipment -- the system is in need of quite a bit of capital investment). The disadvantage is that it goes where it goes, in its own order (obviously). Surface travel can be very slow in London also.

 

Hotels are hugely expensive in London. I usually save my hotel points for staying in that city. As to where to stay .. it depends. I like the British Museum area but as someone else has mentioned, the Sout Kensington area is very nice (actually nicer unless, like me, you are a British Museum and antiquarian book freak).

 

Paul

[nanelizca]

I personally have always liked the area around the Gloucester Rd. tube station in South Ken.

 

Favourite hotel is the Milennium Gloucester, but I've just tried to book for myself and their rates have gone nuts of late. Used to be I could get a great room for about $170 (early June a couple of years ago was my last visit) but they wanted almost $400 a night for a stay in October! :eek:

 

We stayed at the Millennium Gloucester in January for 3 nights and it was a great location. About a block from a subway station where multiple lines stopped. Restaurants and a small grocery store near-by. Great breakfast too as part of the room rate in a very attractive restaurant. Not too expensive, but it was January so that makes a huge difference. Looked like lots of airlines put their pilots up there too - the lobby was often full of them.

 

Nancy

[bigwally]

Restaurants and a small grocery store near-by

 

Don't suppose you remember an Internet cafe in the neighbourhood? I hear there is at least one, though it must be a new since the last time I was there (or I simply didn't notice it because my laptop wasn't in tow).

[nanelizca]

Don't suppose you remember an Internet cafe in the neighbourhood? I hear there is at least one, though it must be a new since the last time I was there (or I simply didn't notice it because my laptop wasn't in tow).

 

Sorry, I don't remember one. We were there for such a short time and so busy that I didn't look into whether there was one or not.

 

Nancy

[pcur]

Try this web site for internet cafes:

 

http://www.world66.com/europe/unitedkingdom/england/london/cybercafes

 

Also, use multimap.com to look up the location and see where it is in relationship to your hotel. Look at the postal codes. You can also click on "directions" at the top of the page to see how to get from the hotel to the internet cafe.

[Miss Jolly]

Our family of four stayed at the Victoria Thistle Hotel. The price was reosonable for all of us. We found it to be clean and quite spacious for an English Hotel. The staff were very couteous and helpful. There are two options for breakfast. WE found the location to be wonderful. We had Victoria station (trains) literally at the back door and a huge bus terminal out the front. We could go anywhere without much fuss. There are many restauarants in the surrounding area as well as take aways. We did find it quite expensive to eat anywhere in London. We also enjoyed the HOHO bus and its included boat trip on the Thames.Have fun.

Jennie

[Kathie44]

Last year before our Brit. Isles/Nor. Fjords cruise on Jewel we stayed at the City Inn Westminster. It is on the edge of the main sightseeing area and just a couple of blocks away from the HOHO bus stop. On the day we arrived (Fri. 6/16), our British friends from our first cruise met us at the hotel and after lunch, took us on their own walking tour--wonderful. We saw Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament/Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St. James Park, watched the Horse Guards rehearse their matching routine for the queen's parade the next day and much more.

On Sat. toured Leeds Castle, Canterbury and had a photo stop in Dover, booked through Evan-Evans.

On Sun. from the RCI rep in the hotel we bought tickets to the London Eye and "The Original Tour" sightseeing HOHO bus/river cruise. We toured the Tower of London did the river cruise and the London Eye. We stopped off at St. Paul's Cathedral and went all around the circuit again. It was a wonderful weekend. We took the RCI shuttle to Harwich to board the Jewel.

The City Inn is a short walk to tube stations and not far from the river.

[exarche02]

For this July we booked Rubens at the Palace. It has glowing reviews on tripadvisor and on the CC boards. It was only 115GBP per night and includes full English breakfast, and they also give you tickets to your choice of sights (we chose the London Eye). As the name gives away, this hotel is right across the street from Buckingham Palace.

[psklak]

....are ALL pricey. On our last visit. we stayed (and were very happy with) at the Copthorne Tara. I think it in the Milennium family of hotels. It was clean, staff was friendly and helpful, and it was conveniently located. The tube station (Kensington St High) was one block away. Lots on shops and restuarants in the area.

 

Although we always used the tube to get around, I think I would use the bus to get my bearings if I was new to the city. Traffic in London is just like any other major city and surface travel could be a little slower.

 

As mentioned above, check TripAdvisor.com and put in a price range. They'll give you tons of choices with really recent reviews.

 

Have a great trip!

[TenerifeSharon]

I second the Copthorne Tara. Although the reviews on Tripadvisor are very mixed, we really enjoyed our stay there. I got the Tara on Priceline for $76 a night and when we got there, were offered an upgrade to the Executive Club floor for GBP 35 per night. Since the original price was more than reasonable, we took the upgrade which included broadband internet (we had our laptop with us), breakfast in the "club", evening wine or beer (also in the club), and a lovely room on the 11th floor with a wonderful view of the city. The tube is just about a 2-minute walk from the hotel and it's just a couple of minutes from there to Oxford Street etc.

 

We were there for 3 nights following our transatlantic Millennium cruise at the beginning of April - and I'd repeat both (cruise & hotel) in a heartbeat!!

[SaylorGirl]

For anyone that still needs information -- the HOHO Big Bus is now priced at 22 pounds for 24 hours. That's almost $44 at the moment - big bucks for the big bus. An off peak one-day travel card (good from 9:30 AM until 4:30 AM is only GBP 5.10 (about $10) and a one-day use of the oyster card caps at GBP 4.60

 

I also buy the one-day travel pass. I find them cheaper and so much easier to get around, than standing there waiting for a HOHO bus to come by that is packed.