I need immediate help here people. One of the roomies wants to celebrate her 19th by going to the West End. Somehow I’m sitting here at ten to midnight playing organiser. Go figure. Anyway, I need your help. I need any advice you can give as to the cheapest, but enjoyable nights which have to include the following:
Train journey from Lincoln to Central London, including tubes.
Tickets to see “We Will Rock You” at the Dominion theatre, Saturday matinee
Meal out
Hotel rooms anywhere in Central London
This will be for around 20 people. Not yet sure on exact figures. It would also be nice, if affordable, to have a limousine ride from the hotel to the show.
I know it’s asking a lot, but if you just have any tips to offer, or know a website I should check out then any help would be appreciated.
The tube in London closes at 11:45. Remember this, as it is very important. Otherwise, you could end up like the me and the group of friends I was with on our one trip to London-tired, lost, and soaked to the skin, wandering around London at 1:30 in the morning and trying to find our hotel.
The Goodge street area has a lot of restaurants of varioius types of cuisine - Indian, greek, french, seafood, various other asian cuisines, and there’s also a really nice Turkish restaurant near there that I could dig out the directions for - but I don’t know any restaurants in the west end itself, I’m afraid.
I’ve stayed at a hotel on gloucester road before now - which was very convenient for the tube, various little restaurants if you don’t want to eat in the hotel, and also for the traditional walk through harrods ;), or even the science museum/V&A. It wasn’t very cheap though…
Oh, I forgot to say - this site has tube timetables (they’re open later than 11.45 on most lines) & a nice big tube map so you can plan trips- and where to stay that is easy to get to other places.
Tickets - we will rock you
Theres loads of decent hotels around Tottenham Court Road/Goodge st area, and the Dominions right outside TCR station. You could try www.bodeansbbq.com, that’s a favourite of most of us Londopers, although for 20, you’ll need to book in advance and don’t even think about being vegetarian. You’ll be a lot better going to pubs a bit off the beaten track round there too, everywhere gets superbusy after 6pm.
You would come into King’s Cross Station, so the convenient place to stay would be Bloomsbury, which lies between the station and the Dominion Theatre (on the edge of Soho). There are lots of small hotels in the area - the ones near the British Museum tend to be nicer and more expensive (eg in Montague Street), the ones near King’s Cross can be pretty ropey. The hotel in the link below is probably in between and I’ve heard it recommended but not stayed there myself. With twenty of you, you’d have it to youselves.
The natural place to eat out would be Soho, I mean the fashionable part that is basically Dean/Wardour/Frith/Greek and Old Compton Streets. It would be a good place to stroll around and find a bar defore dinner. (In Old Compton Street, it’s mainly gay bars). I can’t really recommend a restaurant, but Kettner’s in Romilly Street is a nice big pizza place. Try this guide, lots of customer reviews:
I would advise against going south of Shaftesbury Avenue into Chinatown - on the whole, the Indian and Bangladeshi food is much better in London IMHO. Another possibility is to go to Brick Lane in the East End and have a fantastic and very inexpensive Bangladeshi evening, but it’s less convenient.
When I hired a limo it was about £90 for an hour. But I’m guessing in London it would be a bit more. Oh, and you’re only allowed 7 people in a limo. So if’s there’s 20 of you, I guess some are walking it.
So say £150 max for London. (praying) Some limos can actually hold 8 people according to all the websites which means £18.75 per person. Also not all the people will be staying at the hotel, but rather meeting at the theatre. 2 limos at £20 per is a pretty good deal I think for a nice night out.
Also THANKYOU to everyone. I’ve just got to start organising everything now. Guess that glass of white wine wasn’t helpful.
Be careful. When I was ordering a limo, all the companies said that although the limos can hold 8 people, they were only legally allowed to have 7 passangers in it.
Let me guess, it’s the hotel bill that’s the killer? Get one of your parents to hire and drive a minibus and be your chauffeur (you’re all 19 or so - no hire company is going to touch you). They drive you up, you enjoy yourselves, and they drive you back. No overnight stay. And then you, the designated organiser, treat them to a good meal the next day.
Even if they fit the various requirements for driving the minibus, they’re only allowed up to a 16-passenger one; beyond that it needs a PSV licence. http://www.dvla.gov.uk/drivers/drvmbus.htm
OK, just to update. I think any transportation short of the underground is out now. Every person is going to need at least £150 just for travel, room, meal and show which means we’ve had a few dropouts, which means the price will go up and more people will probably drop out et cetera.
We have no parents that live within 50 miles of London and I don’t think they love us that much. Heck my parents would kill me just for considering spending that much money.
Go on National Express? Shouldn’t be more than £20. It’s £25 when I do London/Leeds return. Day travelcard zones 1-2 in London, £4.40. Where you’re off to though, it’s all in walking distance of each other if you stay in zone 1 for a hotel, and then theres always the buses at a quid a throw.
I keep a room in a B & B in Bedford Place (which is the street adjacent to Montague, near the British Museum), and they are less dear than the ones in Montague, even – there are places in Bedford, and also in Southampton row for between £30-55 per night for a single (so doubling up in rooms would be even less). That time of the season you ought to have plenty of availability for rooms.
There are also youth hostels in Montague & Great Russell St which are inexpensive (I cannot remember the name of the main one – helpful, I know…)
Just be careful of the traffic right there in front of the Dominion! Last time I was there I saw a girl literally knocked out of her shoes by a bicycle courier (he kept on going, leaving an unconcious girl in the middle of a major intersection!) Traffic, taxis, and busses right through there can make it hair raising as you cross Tottenham Court Road into Oxford St.
