Short break London

balancelife

Hi all,

Looking for ideas for the summer, and my daughter fancies London to Visit the science museum and natural history too. (And hamleys and Buckingham palace). She's 7, then myself dh and our nearly 4 year old. Thought there's so much to do (ad alot for free) that a 3day ish break could work well.

I'm hoping you might be able to offer thoughts on where to stay, it's a bit of a minefield looking blindly and not bing sure where things are...we could get a train in or we are just under 2hours from central London. Happy to be on outskirts and getting tubes etc or in the centre.

Thanks for any help or recommendations.

p00hsticks

Sorry, don't have much time to post at the moment but there are plenty of threads on this subject on this board (I wish we could have a 'sticky' on the subject as it comes up a lot) that might help if you look back.

All the places you mention are free - if you want to go anywhere that charges it's worth checking out the 2-4-1 offers available with train travel

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

What sort of budget are you looking at for hotels / places to stay ?

zolablue25

Been looking for hotels in London myself for a single night stay. Hotwire have a hotel by "Excel" for about £50 a night for a family room including breakfast. After a bit of research I believe it is probably Holiday Inn Express. Might be worth a look?

We ended up booking the Premier Inn Leicester Square for £111 as we are only staying one night, but being a tight-wad I was keen on the Hotwire deal. SWMBO vetoed

Edit: Forgot, we were also considering Premier Inn Tower Hill at £69 per night.

needaholiday

We've always been lucky with 2 for 1 Holiday Inn offer. Not available at all hotels on all dates though.
We stayed a few weeks ago at Holiday Inn Express London Docklands. Although it was a bit far out from the centre it was really near the tube station. We paid £130 for 2 nights including breakfast.
If you search Holiday Inn Greenroom 2 for 1 offer you should find it.

needaholiday

This is the link
http://www.greenroom.co.uk/rics/?

googler

If you got the train to London from your home, which station would you arrive at and return home from?

Doesn't it make sense to book a hotel near there, so that you're not schlepping all your luggage across town?

Whichever main line station it is, it will be easy to get a tube to any visitor attraction.

unsure

Yu could always try one of the youth hostels like Holland Park (good for Kensington/Museums/ Hyde Park etc

http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/london-holland-park

or Earls court which has 2/3/4 bed rooms. Not the lap of luxury but perfectly adequate at a real budget price for the central locations.

http://www.yha.org.uk/hostel/london-earls-court

dacouch

The London School of Economics students all go home for a long summer holiday and the LSE rent the rooms out as B&B.

The prices are very good, the room quality is good and they're very central locations.

http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/Home.aspx

I'd probably chose Bankside House which is very close to London Bridge, London Eye, London Dungeons, Glove Theatre, Tate and Borough Market etc etc