Looking for Recommendation for Hotel in London

We are booked on the London to London (actually Dover to Dover) cruise starting 7/13/09. We are going into London Heathrow a few days early and will need a hotel in London for 3 nights before we can board the ship. This is our first time in London so we'd like something centrally located so that we don't have to get lost more than necessary! Anyone have any suggestions? Also, we hear that food prices are really high in London. Would we be wise to try to find a room rate that includes breakfast? Is such a thing even available?

There was a poster named KCrusin' who posted back in June of 2006 that they had just done a Dover to Dover cruise and it was fabulous. She mentioned using London Country Tours to tour London and then went on a one day tour of Cotswolds and a half day tour of Leeds and Canterbury before going to Dover. Has anyone had experience with this Tour Company and it is worth our time to go into the countryside on this trip or should be spend most of our time in the City of London itself.

We've been to London many times...and have stayed all over town...

A lot depends on what you want...there are so many hotels and areas to choose from...

We really like the Rubens at the Palace:

http://www.rubenshotel.com/

4-star hotel...Very traditionally British...located right across the street from the side of Buckingham Palace, just a couple of blocks from Victoria Station...the hop-on-hop-off buses stop right outside...walking distance to a lot of attractions...

Last visit (well supposed to be...we had a death in the family and had to abort mid-cruise and come home early) we found a great deal at the Park Plaza County Hall...

http://www.parkplazacountyhall.com/

Brand new hotel, right across the bridge from Houses of Parliament/Big Ben...very near the London Wheel...

I would try to stay in that general area...around or between those two hotels...

A few years back, we stayed in Paddington (http://www.paddingtoncourt.com/ --I really didn't like the hotel all that much)...Picked the location to be close to Paddington Station, terminus of the Heathrow Express train--but we ended out having a rental car the way that trip worked out...but left it in a garage the entire time in London...The location really wasn't all that great for tourist sites...

Hope that helps...

Good luck...

We like the Mayfair area, central to most of London, easy walking to many things we like to see. Millenium Mayfair is our favorite. Check out LondonTown.com for great rates in London.

Depending on what you want to spend, there are so many places to choose from. I am leaving next week for 10 days in London, where I have rented a flat with 2 girlfriends. However, we are booked our last 2 nights at the Club Quarters St. Pauls, which is just down the block from St. Pauls Cathedral. I will let you know how it goes. They have units with small kitchenettes, which is great for breakfast and light dinner or lunch. My best suggestion is have your main meal at lunch, which is often the better deal ( You can eat at one of Gordon Ramsays restaurants and have the lunch version of the menu for half the price of dinner!!). A little research goes a long way. As per one of the previous posts, Londontown.com can give you a good hotel at a great price. I would just check their reviews against another site like TripAdvisor.com to get another opinion. Best of Luck.

I would definately take a tour outside of London if you can, or even go on your own - the train to Windsor or Oxford is an easy option.

Whilst you are in town the river cruises are good fun and inexpensive, one place they leave from in the London Eye (which is also worth a visit)

With regard to food in London, there is a massive choice ranging from really expensive to very cheap - you will easily find places that do good inexpensive food. I find it better value that most European cities.

This year there have been a lot of 2 for 1 deals around - nearer the time you are travelling moneysavingexpert.com is a good place to keep an eye out for special offers.

I don't stay in town oftern, but I do like the Hoxton hotel. It can be inexpensive, depending on how full they are. However, it might be a bit far out for you, as it is 10- 15 mins on the tube to the centre. They provide a mini breakfast for free, of a banana, a yoghurt and an OJ.

If you have not been in London before, don't waste your time anywhere else. There is enough to keep one in London for months. We will be there for the 36th time for the month of November and never tire of it. Don't miss the theatres. Enjoy your trip!:)

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at The Royal Horseguards in Whitehall. Rate included a well prepared breakfast buffet in their charming restaurant with table service (tea, coffee, toast, etc.) Very well located right on The Thames across from the London eye, across from a Tube station and 10 minute walk to Trafalgar Square or Leicester Square. We'd definitely return.

If you want to do a day trip consider a trip to Hampton Court Palace very easy to do by train about 35 minutes direct from Waterloo Station. Incredible history back to Henry VIII also William & Mary and impecible grounds. I liked it much better than Versailles in France in fact and we wound up spending a full day there.

Joe

If you have not been in London before, don't waste your time anywhere else.

As usual, Orchestrapal is correct. If you don't have an idea of all that is available to you in this great city, check out:

If you have not been in London before, don't waste your time anywhere else. There is enough to keep one in London for months. We will be there for the 36th time for the month of November and never tire of it. Don't miss the theatres. Enjoy your trip!:)

As a 'local' I have to disagree. Yes, there obviously enough in London to keep you busy for several weeks, but you will miss all the other wonderful places. It's amazing to me anyone would think of the rest of England as a 'waste of time' ;)

I would spend 2 of your 3 days in town, and 1 day somewhere else, such as the Cotswolds, Windsor, Hampton Court, whichever appeals to you personally most, depending on your interests.

We stayed at a decent hotel in South Kensington:

http://www.millenniumhotels.co.uk/millenniumkensington/index.html

This hotel has an incredibly fantastic location!! There's two ATMs across the street, the South Kensington Tube Station is directly across the street, there's a Burger King, a grocery store, and so much more within feet of the hotel. Here's a map of the area:

http://www.mobidays.eu/pdf/South_Kensington_area_map.pdf

Although hotels in London aren't on the same grading standards as in the US, we found that this hotel was comfortable and for the location, could not be beat. Museums are very close by as well as a great Maserati dealership. :D

It's amazing to me anyone would think of the rest of England as a 'waste of time'

debsjc

I think that the trouble is that you ARE thinking as a local. Knowing that you can return to London easily, you cannot appreciate it in the same way that we do.

In Lodon, ones' day is spent viewing one of the original Magna Carta's, or visiting Westminster Abbey, or The London Eye, or The Tate AND the National Galleries (not to mention the British Museum or the Victoria & Albert) and then seeing Sir Ian McEllen AND Patrick Stewart in Waiting for Godot, or a revival of A Little Night Music at the Garrick.

For you, London may be best in small doses, but for those of us who travel thousands of miles, it is a destination in itself.

We are booked on the London to London (actually Dover to Dover) cruise starting 7/13/09. We are going into London Heathrow a few days early and will need a hotel in London for 3 nights before we can board the ship. This is our first time in London so we'd like something centrally located so that we don't have to get lost more than necessary! Anyone have any suggestions? Also, we hear that food prices are really high in London. Would we be wise to try to find a room rate that includes breakfast? Is such a thing even available?

 

There was a poster named KCrusin' who posted back in June of 2006 that they had just done a Dover to Dover cruise and it was fabulous. She mentioned using London Country Tours to tour London and then went on a one day tour of Cotswolds and a half day tour of Leeds and Canterbury before going to Dover. Has anyone had experience with this Tour Company and it is worth our time to go into the countryside on this trip or should be spend most of our time in the City of London itself.

Freckles,

We are going to London this summer and I read your post regarding hotels. Where did you ultimately decide to stay and did you get a breakfast included? Was it worth it? We are doing the Dover to Dover thing just as you did and did you find an easy way to get to Dover? Any suggestions are appreciated!

Samantha94

Dover is about 1 hour ( traffic depending) from Gatewick airport.. not exactly sure of time to Heathrow.

You MUST actually decide what is important to YOU in your first trip to London and based upon that you can then choose the location of your hotel.

If Shopping is your thing then ideally you want to stay either in the Oxford Street area or Knightsbridge. If Museums are your choice then there are far better locations.

In Paris in Decembr Jean wanted to be near Galleries Lafayette so we chose a hotel on Blvd Haussman about 300 yards away....the Radisson was ideal. We were just in Lucerne and as I had Meetings elsewhere we stayed at a Boutique only 3 minutes walk from the train station.

The Riverside Park Plaza is in my opinion a horrible location being on the wrong side of the Thames and not near any subway. Paddington is rather sleazy.

Let me know what you are interested in and I will suggest a couple of places.

London is one of the GREAT cities in the world with a huge history and you will not have enough time even with 3 days.

Come back another time to tour outside.

Brian

debsjc

 

I think that the trouble is that you ARE thinking as a local. Knowing that you can return to London easily, you cannot appreciate it in the same way that we do.

 

In Lodon, ones' day is spent viewing one of the original Magna Carta's, or visiting Westminster Abbey, or The London Eye, or The Tate AND the National Galleries (not to mention the British Museum or the Victoria & Albert) and then seeing Sir Ian McEllen AND Patrick Stewart in Waiting for Godot, or a revival of A Little Night Music at the Garrick.

 

For you, London may be best in small doses, but for those of us who travel thousands of miles, it is a destination in itself.

It depends on what you like to see. We need to travel for 24 hours to reach London but would not miss also visiting a region in the countryside. Last October we did a south of France tour but 1st landed at Heathrow, Spent 3 nights in london and then drove to the lakes district before flying out to Nice. When we took a 1 week trip to New York last April. We only spent 3 days in NY city and drove to Portland over the next 4 days taking in the New England coast. This was by far more enjoyable to me than spending the entire time in the city. We do love London (and New York) but the surrounding location can be more appealing for some people

We all have our favorites in London, and our two are The Stafford and Dukes Hotel, both located in St James's Place near Green Park and Fortnum & Mason.

St James Place is behind The Ritz and a short walk to the stop for the hop on/hop off sightseeing buses on Piccadilly, as well as near the Green Park Tube station.

There are occasionally some great last minute rates on LHW.com for Dukes which include a full English Breakfast.

Or, upon arrival at Heathrow, you could rent a car and drive 1 hr (approx 50 miles) to The Bear in Woodstock, near Oxford. The Bear is a charming 13th century coaching inn, and after checking in you could stroll a few blocks to the back entrance of Blenheim Palace and roam the beautiful grounds before jet lag sets in.

We like the Waldorf on Aldwych St in Covent Garden. It's within walking distance of all the theaters and close to the Temple underground station.

Using Small Luxury Hotels (free to sign up -- slh.com), we found the 22 Jermyn Street Hotel. It is an older hotel, but very small, and the service was wonderful. We arrived at about 8 AM, and our suite was not ready (when you reserve via Small Luxury Hotels you get a room upgrade). They gave us another smaller room for the morning, encouraged us to shower, etc., and then go out and enjoy the day. When we returned, our luggage had been moved to a small suite.

It is small, only about four or six rooms per floor, and only five floors or so. It is older, but very well kept up, very clean, etc. The personnel could not have been nicer or more helpful.

The price was not among the cheapest in London, but only about 200 pounds per night.

It is a short block from Piccadilly Circus, so you are a very quick walk to the Underground, which we quickly mastered and used exclusively. Get an Oyster card, which is their prepaid pass, and it is all easy as pie.

You are also close to the kiosk that sells sameday show tickets -- about three blocks away -- so we got there early that first morning, and saw "Billy Elliott" that night. Half that distance, and you can catch the double-decker bus tours. It's a short walk to the palace for the changing of the guard, and a short walk to Trafalgar Square.

We would not only go back to London in a heartbeat, we would go back to the 22 Jermyn Street Hotel in a heartbeat.

Hotels - The Rubens at the Palace or Hotel 41

If its a summer trip take the train to Windsor for the day to see the town,Windsor Castle and Eton - VERY EASY to do and great fun - also in summer check on ordering from the US tickets to see Buckingham Palace (available on line...) - terrific !

Hi try a website called London town.com they do lots of deals. Get a all day subway ticket good for the bus and tube. You should only need zones 1 and 2 . Heathrow is zone 4 but you can just get one ticket into cental London for that to your Hotel. Lots of free information around. Just jump on the top deck of buses for a good view around. Take a trip on the Thames to Greenwich really nice on a sunny day. (Yes we do get them in uk!!) Food is priced about the same as any major city. Some expensive some cheap.

Have a good time.

I have to retract my earlier recommendation for the 22 Jermyn Street Hotel. Due to "redevelopment" plans for the 2012 Olympics, a street that did not need to be redeveloped will be, and the hotel is no more.

I have to retract my earlier recommendation for the 22 Jermyn Street Hotel. Due to "redevelopment" plans for the 2012 Olympics, a street that did not need to be redeveloped will be, and the hotel is no more.

I hear that the owner was pleased that he had to sell, due to "redevelopment" in these tough times.