Those of you who remember my previous post about going to Ireland need not worry; that’s still part of the plan. However, after about a week in Ireland, I plan on a week in London, and would like to know from people who are reasonably familiar with the city where I should be staying - that is, what areas should I be looking at, and what areas should I be staying away from.
Radisson Blu Edwardian Sussex Hotel on Granville Place off Oxford Street. Close to EVERYTHING, not terribly expensive and it’s a really cool hotel.
I can’t really provide good recommendations, but those who can will probably want to know a) your budget and b) broadly what you plan to do (i.e. whether lots of trips to other cities, like Bath, Oxford, or even York are on the cards, and you’re just using London as a convenient base, or if you will largely be sightseeing in central London, or something else). In any case, personally I’d consider hotels are better value about a 30-60 minute tube ride away from central London and would look for somewhere in that sort of torus, probably to either the south-west or north of the city as they tend to be nicer areas (and of course priced to match).
Just returned from London. Stayed in Soho. It’s very central. I’d call it the epicenter of nearly everything/anything you’d want to do or see in London. As an alternative, consider Mayfair and Fitzrovia, which are adjacent to Soho and on the major tube lines.
These districts have a very wide selection of great hotels to choose from and while you’ll probably pay less for accommodation if you’re 30 - 60 minutes away (by tube), my feeling is that I’d rather be in the city core and walk everywhere than sit on the metro for 30+ minutes a day in each direction and see the inside of a dark tunnel.
I stayed on Northumberland Avenue, about a block from Trafalgar Square. Within walking distance of lots of things touristy, otherwise around the corner from the Charing Cross Station.
Take pot luck. It’s not the third world. Where ever you end up will be at worst, very okay.
TravelAdvisor and AirBnB are your friends.
I don’t know about that- they won’t want to end up in the Tower Hamlets for example! That is where I lived for 6 months and, as I come from the third world, I can confirm there are places in London that are not too far off third world.
For such a large city, that isn’t the best advice. London isn’t dangerous, but it spreads out a long way and the OP could easily end up in some dead end neighbourhood that lacks decent transport links.
OP, for the easiest, walkable distances to major sites, focus on the central London postcodes (Zip to you) which start WC1, WC2 and W1.
Avoid the central London postcodes that start in ‘E’ as these are in the City, the financial district, which is perfectly great Monday-Friday between 8am-7pm and totally dead otherwise. Seriously, even most of the shops shut here during the weekend. You often find great deals on hotels in the City at the weekends - that’s why. Unless you are happy to take the tube to every restaurant at night, in which case you could get a good deal.
Don’t bother with any hotel outside of ‘Zone 1’ - this is the central zone specified by the London Underground network (the Tube). It will push up your travel expenses and put you out in the burbs. Well, not quite, but certainly making journey times between sites longer. This wiki link shows you the extent of zone 1.
Some people - particularly foreign tourists - like to stay in West or South Kensington, where you’ll find ‘museum row’ - the V&A, Science Museum and Natural History Museum. Personally, I think these areas are a bit out on a limb.
Avoid Earls Court, Shepherd’s Bush, Olympia, Paddington or anywhere around that bit of West London. There’s a lot of cheap accommodation which can suck people in, but also tacky tourist shops, cheap fast food joints and and packs of loud European students.
As others have said, this is bad advice. London is very big, highly variable in nature and (above all) transport linkages are everything. Choose the wrong place and the OP will be a very slow bus or long walk or expensive cab from a tube or train station and spend half his week on travel. Choose the right place (which is basically another way of saying very close to a good tube station) and travel will be a dream.
OP you need ideally to say what you plan to see. London is big. If (if) you have particular sights in mind you may be able to save yourself a lot of time and have a much more pleasant experience by planning your accommodation location around transport links to, or being within walking distance of, what you want to see.
If you don’t have sights in mind then the more general advice above about the best areas is good. But choose your options by looking up the accommodation address on google, and figuring out how long a walk that is from a tube stop on a main line. 5 minutes is good, ten is a drag.
One other point to throw in… the dead centre of London is marked by Charing Cross - a Victorian remake of a medieval stone statue/marker found out the front of Charing Cross Station. So, if you stay anywhere within a mile or so of Charing Cross, you will be right in the thick of things.
Whoa, that makes perfect sense and I might look at City prices next time I come since I’m a brisk walker and I do not mind walking past anywhere I haven’t walked past before. Do you happen to know if it closes down so much that even the public parks are closed in the City on the weekends, because some of them look like they have gates and locks from looking at Google Street View. If they are open but empty, that’s even better (for picture opportunities.)
It’s been a while since I was there, but I had a perfectly good time with a hotel in the docklands, so long as it was close to a DLR station.
I recommend the Fielding Hotel in Covent Garden. Close to two tube stations, historical building, pleasant staff, nice rooms. It doesn’t do breakfast (but is surrounded by places that do) and can be noisy at night. Medium priced.
The one drawback to the Fielding is that there is no lift.
Public parks will be open, but bear in mind some parks are private (if you have ever seen Notting Hill, you will know what I mean). There aren’t actually that many parks in The City proper (it is built on a old medieval street pattern. Medieval man wasn’t too bothered about public parks). Which parks did you have in mind?
Obviously there are some attractions within the City and they will still be busy (St Paul’s and the newish shopping arcade opposite, The Tower of London in the eastern corner, for eg), but generally at the weekend it’s just empty streets lined with smart office blocks. But you can definitely get a deal at a good hotel if you’re prepared to use more of the Tube to get about in the evenings.
+1
Anywhere roughly within the Circle Line on the tube map: plot the places you’re likely to want to visit and estimate your tolerance for travelling to and from by public transport (you’re going to have to do so, but it’s up to you how much time you want to spend on it.
Use the bus map here:
https://tfl.gov.uk/maps/visitors-and-tourists
My favorite place to stay in London is the Lime Tree Hotel – small (20some rooms) B&B with a very good breakfast. Rooms are small and charming in the manner of very old English buildings. It is a 4 story building with narrow stairs; no elevator. Just a few minutes from Victoria Station, in the center of everything.
I stayed at Club Quarters Trafalgar Square. Right by Charing Cross station and walking distance to whole craploads of touristy type things. It’s not quaint and charming, but its clean and modern, the rooms and bathrooms are pretty big (for London), the price is reasonable, and the location can’t be beat IMO.
One example is Postman’s Park. Perhaps not the best example since it doesn’t appear to be much to look at, but it illustrates the kind of places I am unsure about: not definitely private because the gate is open in the daytime, but not definitely open because it seems to be in a relatively “closed” place and has a gate that could be easily closed.
And I emphasize “relatively” because places like St. Paul’s gardens are obviously meant to be used by everyone by their open layout, and some places are obviously private residences even if their gates are open, whereas the park I linked to, and others that look similar, and in sort of a limbo to me. Some of them feel so cozy that even if it were legal to enter, I would still feel like I was intruding.
(With regards to private parks, some of the private parks’ signs designating them as such are readable in Google Maps, which is helpful, and others I’m also unsure of since I can’t find either an open gate or a “private” sign, so I just assume those parks are private as well.)