Well, yes. I typically stay in 4 or 5 star hotels there. And since a typical 4-star London hotel is like a badly-run Econo-Lodge in the US, so I try not to go any worse than that.
How is the Picadilly line less reliable than any other tube line? Is that a subjective statement, or do you have statistics? My subjective experience (that is, if I actually was on it) is that it is the most reliable line in the Tube system. My point is I could get decent lodging there for a whole lot less money - and get the same quality as the typical 4-star hotel I stay at in central London - in exchange for an extra 30 minute trip.
Then again, maybe I’ve never actually been to London 20 or more times, maybe I made the whole thing up, huh? It’s a different perspective I guess, being a business traveller.
Well when I did it, it was on a Thursday and a Friday on ScotRail. I was advised to do this by the couple in Edinburgh I was staying with, and had great luck.
Somehow, a little voice told me I shouldn’t have posted to this. It was correct.
Anthracite, nobody was having a go at you, please believe that. You’re absolutely right that hotels in Central London are, by and large (and based on my own subjective experience) a bit of a scam, and that looking beyond the centre is a wise move.
As for tube statistics, here’s all I could find:
(from The Evening Standard’s website at ThisIsLondon.com)
I thought it read Opal Cat and IUD Flee the Country.
I have never been to Europe myself but I am planning a trip now myself. Books recomended to me are the Europe through the Back Door series by Rick Steves. He concentrates on inexpensive, and not too touristy things to do and see and he seems very knowlegable.
No mattk, I don’t feel that way at all. Maybe I just feel stupid is all. For several reasons.
- Go see London.
- Go see France.
- Bye, Opal!
and udd.
Have fun!
Hey, don’t blow a gasket there Anth! We respect your experience as a business traveller in London an’ all - and I suspect that you know a great deal more about tourism in London than I do. Nonethess, matt, London_Calling, TomH and I do actually live here and have the experience of living here day to day, year round. Tom, for instance, is right about the tube - personally I too try to avoid the Picadilly line if I can.
And it strikes me that Opal wants the other side of England - the non-4-star non-rich-businesswoman side of it, that is!
As London is being covered quite well already and to me the TRUE Britain isn’t found anywhere near London, this is my advice to Opal:
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Opal, are you planning to hire a car? My girlfriend and I frequently get in our car on a Friday night and then just choose a direction to drive in. (Admittedly, if you don’t know what roads are going to be the busy ones around London on a Friday night, you may be best advised not going at that particular time!)
My point is that we never book in advance. Wherever we’ve reached by 11pm, we find a B&B. There’s always a room somewhere. Spirit of adventur, dude!
Nobody’s suggested it so far, so I will: our favorite destination in the coast in Wales. In particular the North-West coast. Head for the area around Dolgellau (pronounced “DogEFFlee”). I can even give you a recommendation - “Aber Cottage”, run by a fascinating middle-aged lady called Gillan, who used to be a trader in the City, changed to giving alternative therapy and now runs the B&B as if she’s welcoming family members. It’s in Smithfield Street.
From Dolgellau, you can easily get to the coastal villages - in particular for various reasons (some of them personal), I think that Llwyngwril (“ClinGWILLal”) is the most beautiful place in the world, but that whole area is nice.
On the other hand, that does tend to be a winter destination for us, when there are no tourists there and the air blowing in from the Atlantic is so pure that you just want to drink it.
The coast of Wales is about a 5 hour drive from London.
On the way there, you pass the Cotswolds. This is the region that covers Cheltenham and Gloucester. You can rent a cottage there for the weekend if you like quite easily and many are very beautiful indeed. this Yahoo page is one place to start. I’m not sure what you enjoy doing though - since you can’t walk very much, this may be a bad idea. On the other hand, if you can ride this is is a fantastic place for a pony trek. It’s also not too far from Bath - an old Roman city that is rather fun. You can also then enter the South of Wales and head toward Tenby, before driving up the Welsh coast.
To help you with your orientation - note that Dolgellau is about 1 to 2 hours drive west of Liverpool.
If you’re driving down from Scotland, come down the M6 and A66 and visit the Lake District. At this time of year, it may be more difficult to find a B&B there, 'cos it’s quite popular, but it’s one of the more beautiful areas of the country and has some fantastic little shops and pubs. I particularly like the area around Keswick.
The Lake District is probably about a 6 hour drive from London.
If you’re interested in a grand tour, try this: one weekend my gf and I drove from London to Northumberland (where Hadrian’s Wall is, amongst other quaint stuff) on Friday night (about a 5 - 6 hour drive). We then, on Sunday night, drove to the South-West coast of Scotland (very pretty), via Gretna Green, which is traditionally the place English couples elope to (no, we didn’t!) and has built a little tourist trade out of this. I actually quite recommend it as a half-hour break in your driving - and you might be co-opted to be a witness at a wedding too! On Monday night we then drove down to the Lake District, before completing the journey back to London on the Wednesday night. A lot of driving, but if you do it right you end up driving through some of the prettiest countryside you’ll ever see. And eat at some of the finest pubs Britain has to offer.
Well, that’s it for now. Let me know if you don’t want to drive, and I’ll suggest something else instead!
pan
Oh and Opal - check out the UK Streetmap website if you’re planning to do any driving or want to check the location of a B&B. It’s pretty useful.
pan
THat’s odd, I’ll be going to Ireland too from the 23-30th. I’m staying at the conrad. Look me up.
We definitely want to go where the wind takes us, rather than planning ahead. We’d also love to rent a car for SOME of the time but probably can’t afford to rent one for the whole time.
Does anyone know anywhere close enough to Heathrow to take a taxi easily that would have a nice but inexpensive room for Monday night?
If you mean you want to spend one night close to the airport, then choose the Travelodge at Heathrow (www.travelodge.co.uk). Take the Hotel Hoppa bus from whichever Terminal, and ride about 3-5 minutes there (cost of about 1.5 Pounds per person). The bus travels on about a 10-15 minute circuit. It’s about Best Western quality, except it has a decent little restaurant for dinner and breakfast. Their chicken tikka is good - ask Fierra. Room is about $80-$100 a night for 2 people. If you want to rent a car the next day, take another quick trip by bus back to the Terminal and rent it there.
If this isn’t what you are asking, then ignore me.
I guess I’d go to the central bus stand at Heathrow (there are signs everywhere – it’s right in the middle of Terminals One, Two and Three) and take a bus to Windsor (very frequent and about 20 minutes away. Costs next to nothing).
That would kill a few birds at once (see the Castle, Legoland for the kids, away from Heathrow and into the holiday) and possibly a better deal than around Heathrow.
This page offers a range of accommodation options:
http://www.windsor-gb.co.uk/thirdlevel.cfm?category=75
- you may need to phone them from the US to get a price and a booking but that’s all a part of doing ya own thing. Get into it, I say !
We’re vegetarians. Do they have soy tikka? Hehehe!
It isn’t so much that we need to be near the airport as it is that we will be taking our luggage with us and don’t want to be wandering around trying to find a place to stay on our very first day. Easy to find + cheap is the main thing.
I’ll keep the travelodge in mind, thanks!
London_Calling:
Ooooh Windsor! I remember that I LOVED it when I was there before (I was only 13 then, so I don’t remember too much)… Legoland? Whassat? (btw we aren’t taking the kid with us. Woohoo! Hooray for grandparents!)
If you’re going to travel around Britain, another thing you might want to look into is the Flexi-Pass which is sold at Council Travel.
disclaimer - it’s been a few years since I’ve done this.
But the way it worked then is, you by a Flexi-Pass for x number of days and it allows you x number of trips on those days (the higher the x, the more the $ the Pass costs). Buy the cheapest one. The idea is that every time you take the train, you write the date on the pass and theoretically, you use up all your trips within those days. Realistically, most of the ticket checkers don’t insist that you actually write the date in … and if they do, eraseable ink works wonders …
Not that I would condone this or anything cough
I second Windsor. It’s also on the way to the Cotswolds, so if you do intend to follow any of my advice, you’ve already begun.
(The first thing that sprung to my mind was Watford, which is about 40 mins away by bus from Heathrow. But that’s just 'cos I live there - there ain’t much to actually do in Watford. OTOH it is on the main train line that runs from London to Manchester and Liverpool and Glasgow - so maybe the idea isn’t entirely without merit).
Legoland is much as it suggests - a theme park created around lego. They’ve always had one somewhere in Europe (Denmark? Where is Lego from anyway?) and I really wanted to go as a kid. But by the time they built one in Windsor I was all growed up, so have never been. People at work have taken their kids though, and they* really enjoyed it.
Windsor’s very pretty, so like I say I second L_C’s suggestion.
P
*the kids, that is. Though I suspect the parents did too!
Just realised that I forgot to mention my old university town - Cambridge. It has the most stunning old architecture that I’ve ever seen and is well worth it, if you’re into that kind of thing. May Week - the week with the May Balls and garden parties and that kind of thing, in which students celebrate the end of the exams finishes today (yes I know it’s June), so next week they’ll be gearing up for the graduation ceremonies. This involves students proceeding slowly through the town, holding up traffic as they do so, as they march to the Senate House in the middle of Cambridge. American tourists always enjoy this kind of thing 
(<-- cheap generalisation).
Cambridge is almost exactly one hour by train from Kings Cross station in London. However the train station in Cambridge is nowhere near the town centre, so you’ll have to take a taxi, which should cost you about £3 - £4 (unless the bastard cabbies add a “Yank surcharge” - I wouldn’t put theis past them 'cos they’ve been known to add a “student surcharge” if you let on that you’re a student). The fare from Kings Cross to Cambridge is about £18 - £20, if memory serves.
Other things to consider: I’m not sure I’d recommend it for a short stay, due to the time involved, but you might want to consider a trip to Dorset on the south coast. Near Weymouth is Monkey World - the largest ape sanctuary in the western world. I absolutely loved it and it gives you a warm glow that these apes that were once so mistreated now have the time of their lives. The area around Weymouth is also really beautiful - try The Smugglers Inn on the coast for some good food in a great setting.
pan
Windsor’s just down the road from Heathrow (10 minutes) so I think it makes sense as a jumping off point – as I say, taking a bus there from Heathrow is easy peasy pudding and pie. You might even think about Oxford as the busses are also good from the airport (it’s an hour from Heathrow if it’s not the rush hour).
LegoLand – well, if you’re without kids it might not be quite the attraction it could have been. As kabbes says, It’s a tourist ‘attraction’ of a miniture town built of…Da Daaaa!!!..Lego (type Legoland in any search engine if it still tickles your fancy). I’d stick with the Castle if I were you.
Also, Windsor’s a cutie of a town where accommodation above a pub isn’t entirely unknown and the Thames wends it’s gentle way between London and the heart of merry ol’ England. Only problem is you’ll find more Americans (and others) there than at home - it’s a little busy just now.
You don’t need to book the bus (they are also designed for the luggage carrying customer) but I would recommend making a phone call or two to sort the accommodation (or you could take a tent).
Only other thing I’d suggest is thinking about checking out the summer music festival scene – that might blow you away a little. Yep, it’s music but it’s also lifestyle and lots and lots of very interesting mad stuff and madder people (festivals might also be another reason for bringing a tent if you can cope with that).
We’d really love to see a play while we’re over there. Anyone care to make recommendations?
Nah, we don’t do theatre :eek:
Probably more a question of your taste and what isn’t sold out. Regional theatre is strong and, rumour has it, there are one or two theatres scattered around London. Any Guide Book (Lonely Planet, Fodors, etc.) covers the ground and I’m sure they all mention the half-priced ticket booth in Leicester Square – take a hamper, you’ll have time to make life-long friends while queuing.
A lesser known option is the cheap seats at the National Theatre – actually three theatres on the same central-ish site - that go on sale in the morning for that days performances - they keep a small percentage back for that purpose.
You could take a chance at Shakespeare’s Globe as the daytime performances might not be sold out and around the corner from that is the essential sight and visit in London, IMHO: Tate Modern - if you only do one thing in London, visit this
Europe… <sigh> …I want to go back.
I’f you’re really on a budget for accomodation, you may want to try Pasparta Servo. It’s a lodging service: nothing else, just a place to sleep. Then again, it’s free! I stayed for three days in Copenhagen using it, and I’m sure there are hosts in the UK and Ireland.
Warning: you may have to do some advance preparation, so it might not do for this trip. (Read the web site carefully.) On the other hand, this fall I’m joining it as a host. Travel next year to Toronto and you can stay at my place.