Hey guys I am looking to spend a couple of days in London during easter with my GF. We are looking for a centralised hotel with fair prices and decent service. It doesn't have to be the Marriot since we'll only be sleeping there. I would like it to be in a decent neighborhood since we are both 16. We are looking to spend 4 nights or so. Probably something in the region of plane from Copenhagen saturday, and the plane home from London on wednesday. The plane tickets are probably gonna be 100 pounds for both of us, so that leaves around 200 pounds for 4 nights in London. I was thinking of buying one of those Oyster cards for us, so we can get around cheapish. We are just gonna see all the usual sights. Big Ben, Tower, Madam Tussauds and so forth. Oh, and some recommendations for cheap restaurants would be nice. I don't want to live off McD for 4 days -.-'
Firstly, you'll need two Oyster cards, one per person. They are 'free' so to speak as they only require a £3 deposit on the physical card. You then put money on them, and when you're finished with the card, give it back, and they give you all the money on it back.
Welcome to the best city in the world! In all seriousness, though, London's allegedly second only to Tokyo for pricey living, so keep your eyes open. 4 days of travel on the Tube for the two of you will work out at around £25 each, I should think. TFL do offer 'visitor' Oyster cards that I think are actually sent to your home in Denmark and come pre-charged with credit, so check that out on the site. It might be cheaper and it's definitely a bit easier, especially if you're flying in to an airport accessible by the Tube (London City or Heathrow) and you want to get straight on it. If you haven't booked your flights and there's no cost difference, I recommend London City as being absolutely tiny, very fast and very accessible. For a hotel, it depends on where you want to stay. If you're going to do tourist things in Central London, and I don't know why you'd come all the way from Denmark to look at our suburbs, it makes sense to stay in the city so you don't have to commute in and out. I'd look into either a cheap branded place (Travelodge, Premier Inn, Best Western or whatever) or a decent youth hostel, either of which should be able to do you a room by yourselves for not very much money (maybe £25-30 a night for the two of you, if you're lucky). It will get cheaper the further you go from the city. If you pick somewhere and want us to double check it's in an OK place, just ask.
PureSilver has pretty much nailed it there, although if you do want to stay in a hotel further out, with the excellent tube you won't have difficulty in getting from it to the interesting spots to see/eat/drink.
I'm not 100% sure if these rules still apply, but you should check with whatever hotel you end up booking if they allow under 18's to check in/out. Also most require a valid credit card, however some will waive that if you provide another ID (passport) and then they'll just lock the mini-bar. Also, read PureSilver's post. Then read it again! London can be crazy expensive, so make sure you bring a credit card (if you have one) that you don't plan on using and save it for emergencies. Nearly everywhere uses chip'n'pin, so you can borrow a parent's card because the name is never checked. It's better to go home having spent more that you wanted, rather than your holiday be ruined because you ran out of money on the second day. But again, check the hotel age requirements. Some aren't keen on two 16 year old's using their rooms to put Karma Sutra through it's paces.
Yeah thanks for THAT picture -.-' Now, you might have a point with the age requirement. I'll be sure to check that out. On the other point with the credit cards, I'll bring along my mastercard, and make sure we always have enough cash left for a couple of plane tickets home. If the **** hits the fan. I'll call my dad and he can wire whatever amount of cash to my mastercard. And I'll be sure to book the journey with one of his plastic cards that ensure free travel home in case of emergencies. I have found some hotels, but it's a freaking jungle. We are probably looking to spend 200 pounds for 4 nights, and if you could give me any specific suggestions on hotels either in the city centre, or at a local tube station it would be great, and cheesecake would be flowing your way.
If flying into Either London Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted then there are direct and regular train services. Heathrow Express runs direct from... Heathrow into London Paddington station, however, the Underground does also. Gatwick has Gatwick Express, operated by Southern, and run Direct into London Victoria every 15 mins, and take just 30 mins. Stansted Express operate every 15 mins, and take 45mins to arrive into London Liverpool. Hope that's of some help. Sam
I agree with the Travelodge suggestion. They have a deal offering £19 a night so if you manage to get in on that then you'll literally be using less than half your hotel budget! The West End (Covent Garden/Leicester Square/Picadilly) area is where you really want to be for general entertainment and things going on. Most places around here will also be pretty lively. The one place that will be dead though is the City. Literally 99% of shops/pubs close at weekends as all their trade comes in the week. This may be a good place to get a cheaper hotel, but bear in mind you'll have to travel to get to everything (just a few stops on tube, or a longish walk if you know the way)
I cant recommend any where to stay but I would highly recommend you visit south kensington where there is the natral history museum and the science / geology and victoria and albert museum all within a few minutes walk of each other and I believe are free .
premier Inn, They run £29 offers and if you book soon and if it falls on the right dates it can be very good. http://www.premierinn.com/en/it/offers/premier_offers.html
Heathrow Express costs £16.50 *each way* to get into London. It takes 15 minutes. The tube costs about a fiver (depends on whether you're buying a paper ticket, or Oyster etc). It takes about 40 minutes. Do the maths In terms of cheap places to eat, I can recommend a couple of places, although bear in mind, cheap in London is... well, it's not that cheap. At the places below, two of you can eat for around £15-20 with a soft drink and service in a sit down place, where you don't need to book. * Baozi Inn (Chinatown, Spicy noodles) * Wahaca (Charing X/Trafalgar Sq, Mexican) * Chilli Cool (Kings Cross, Chinese) * Yalla Yalla (Soho, Lebanese) * Ramen Taro (Japanese/Ramen, Soho) * Time Out's best cheap eats is a good list. If you want to go cheaper than that, two chains worth looking out for are EAT and Pret-a-Manger. Both offer decent, freshly made sandwiches and soups (EAT's soups in particular are good value at £3.50 a pot and good for lunch). It's the same price as McDonalds but much tastier. On the plus side, a lot of fun stuff is free. Major museums and galleries, walking around areas such as Soho and Bloomsbury, big landmarks and parks... all of it costs nothing. I'm a big believer in the fact the city itelf is an attraction; just being in it for a while is enjoyable. HTH!
Okay, I have found a suitable hotel. This http://www.dolphinsquare.co.uk/house/ looks like quite a charmer. It is located south of Tate Modern, and close to the Pimlico tube station. It's gonna cost 2450 DKK, or like 250 pounds pr. person for the hotel, breakfeast and plane tickets to and from the UK. Do you have any objections against this?
What airport do you fly to? For Stansted, using stansted express train is fastest, but using the bus is cheaper (about half). We used both on different occasions. Terravisions busses were cheapest then, I guess now it's "easybus". Stansted busses For the tube, I just bought a day pass. You can use all tubes trains and busses within London. Try the buslines, the view from the double-deckers is great
