Short Break to London

Lip_Stick

Hello all

I'm planning on going to London for 3 to 4 nights at the beginning of October with my oh. We'd like to do things fairly cheaply, barring a few things, so am wondering if anyone has any tips for our stay. I'm also looking for good hotels, probably up to a max of £60 a night that wouldn't take a lot of travel to get to the main areas of London.

Things we'd like to do that cost money are: See Chicago, Madam Tussauds, London Dungeon, the odd meal out.

We'd like to do a few freebie things too, like wander around Camden Market (although I've a feeling that might turn out expensive, lol).

So does anyone have any favourite free museums and attractions, or even paid for ones, that are good value for money. Any advice on how to plan our trip would be greatly appreciated. We'd be going on a Tuesday and leaving on a Saturday, around 4ish.

Thanks in advance for any advice. x

tazzy2010_2

Hi there, I'm doing a similar thing in Feb. We just booked our hotel (travelodge) and as we booked in advance was only about 40/night. Maybe check out there website its quite easy to use. I would advise getting a fairly central hotel as we made the mistake of getting one further away and ended up spending ages on the tube everyday. We are going to get to London via coach (prob National express) as they have some trips as low as 4 pounds Been to Camden market and it was great so definately advise that one! There are loads of offers in the internet for various BOGOFF deals for London attractions so have a good mooch. We are also planning to save up all our tesco points so we can convert them to 4x there value to see various attractions - did this last time and worked out great! Last time we also went to London bridge (think thats the name - the one near tower of London) that was only about 6/person and was good. I recomment the tower of London itself too although is a bit more costly. That reminds me try to book tickets for any attractions via the internet in advance as you normally get a couple of pounds off Another place we went with tesco vouchers was wine tasting with vinopolis - this was great fun and we got to taste various wines from all over, whiskey, been absinth (yuk!) and gin.

Hope you have a good time and will keep my eye on this thread to see if i can get some more ideas!

h.cowell

Hi, I recently took my daughter to London and we stayed in a Premier Inn in Belsize Park. It was £90/night but that was peak season, and is in a good area, very convenient etc (4 stops on the Northern Line to Euston, 7 stops to Leicester Sq). We had a very good experience with them so would recommend them to anyone .

I've also heard (from a friend who regularly works in London) that the Premier Inn at Tower Hill is good too... it might be even more convenient, but also more expensive due to location.

Hope this helps!

Edited to add: Belsize Park is also an easy bus ride to Camden! I've just checked the Premier Inn website and it is listed as 'London Hampstead'.

p00hsticks

If you're getting there by train, you can get 2-4-1 tickets for Chicago via the days out guide by showing your train tickets

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/attraction-types/entertainment.aspx

Try Travelodge Covent Garden or Southwark for cheap but fairly central hotels....

Floxxie

I wouldn't recommend Travelodge Covent Garden; it has to be the worst hotel I have ever stayed at...it is well and truly stuck in the 1960s :(:(

Lip_Stick

Thanks for the replies.

Managed to get train tickets, return, for 2 adults, for £50 from Hull. I have booked a hotel in Paddington, which was £52 a night B&B, through Alpharooms. I expect it to be the pits, but we won't be in it often, and the location makes up for the tacky decor.

Will definitely give London Bridge and The Tower a look. Am gutted though, I could have got 2 top price tickets to Chicago looking at the Daysoutguide website for £63, but unfortunately it's only until end of September. Damn it. Oh well, guess it'll be the not-so-good seats for us.

If anyone wants to recommend free musuems, or cheap places to eat around Paddington, that'd be fab.

diable

The British Museum, Natural History Museum, V&A and National Portrait Gallery are all free and worth a visit.

Paddington food wise is not that exciting but go to Notting Hill and have a Thai in the Churchill Arms on Kensington Church Street.

Quinny_2

For a spot of people watching and some nice eateries, then Leicester Square is the place to be.

diable

Quinny wrote: »

For a spot of people watching and some nice eateries, then Leicester Square is the place to be.

Hagan Daaz mmmmmmm

Lip_Stick

Ok, here's what I've so far sorted out. If anyone can see any problems in my plans, please let me know. This is the first time I've arranged something like this, so it's probably going to go all wrong. If anyone has any hints on what we can do on an evening, I'd appreciate it. Most of the things I've listed finish at around 5. Also, for museums, when they put opening times, is the last time that's listed when the last people can go in, or is that when people have to leave? If people can also give an indication of how long attractions I've listed take to look round, that'd be great. x

Tuesday – from 2 ish - arriving at Kings Cross, but unsure when we can check in to the hotel
Nothing arranged

Wednesday
London Dungeons/Taussauds, Tower of London, London Bridge

Thursday
Trafalgar Square, Lunch in Leicester square, British Museum, Chicago Musical

Friday
Buckingham Palace, Oxford Street, Regent Street – Hamleys to xmas shop for the little one

Saturday
Natural History Museum, Walk through Hyde Park, Eat at Churchills Arms, Camden Market - get to Kings Cross for 4ish

It looks like I can get a fair few of those attractions for 2for1 with the daysoutguide, so ty p00hsticks. If I can, that'd be great!

loveabargain13

I just got an email from lastminute.com to say that they are doing offers in london for cheap meals, theatre tickets and days out.

The open top bus around london is currently £10 a ticket and you get a free river cruise.