travellingteacher

My daughter is going on a school trip to London and they will be staying at the Holiday Inn Forum at 97 Cromwell.

The girls (age 17) will have some free time and will be exploring London on their own. How safe is the area around the hotel? What about the tube? Will two teenage girls on their own be okay?

Thanks for the help.

Tallulah

17? Yes they'll be absolutely fine unless they're totally naive and unworldly. Give them an A-Z and a tube pass and they'll have a ball. There's no language barrier, for a start...

I'm sure you may be worried (are you from a small town, for example?) but so long as they take the same common-sense precautions as you'd expect them to take at home, there shouldn't be any problem.

tudorprincess

We stayed right down the street from the Holiday Inn this past March and I felt very safe. In fact, I've never felt unsafe in London. But I am 38yrs. old and I was never out alone, either with my 17yr. old or my husband. And with age does come a certain amount of wisdom.
As with anything you must always be aware of your situation and what's going on around you.
I've also never felt "threatened" while on the tube at any hour. Hope this helps.

travellingteacher

Tallulah,

Thanks for the reassurance. It's the first time she's travelling overseas without the family and I'm worrying just like the first time she walked to school by herself, first time she drove the car, ......

What is an A-Z?

TT

travellingteacher

And thanks tudorprincess. My concerns arise mainly from not knowing London. Having some first hand info of the area is reassuring.

taggie

The A-Z ("A to Zed") is a map booklet. You can buy a mini one that's easy to carry in a handbag. They are very, very detailed.... and can by hard to use IMO because you have to flip pages. It can be a challenge to get one's bearings sometimes unless one can see the whole area laid out on a map, particularly if the person doesn't know the city too well or has a bad sense of direction.

For that reason I would recommend buying them a Rand McNally City Flash Visitor's Map (or similar) - something on a folding card; still easy to carry but with less detail, and the main part of the city nicely laid out so it's easy to see the relationship between the various areas.

They will have a lot of fun - London is very safe and full of teens on their own.

francophile03

I stayed there when it was just being taken over by Holiday Inn in 2001. The hotel is in Kensington, a safe, residential area. Kensington High Street is not far away so there are lots of nice shops and restaurants. And Kensington Palace, former home of Diana, Princess of Wales, is very closeby. As someone mentioned, you all will be safe, just be aware and don't do anything unwise.

Kate_W

They'll be staying in a quite a nice, upscale part of London - South Kensington, near a university, museums, etc.

While some neighbourhoods in London are a bit dodgy, the risk of violent crime (e.g. muggings etc) in the area they're staying is quite low. I don't think this is something they need to worry about.

There is, however, a risk that she'll get ripped off. I lived in London in 2001-02 (and travel there frequently now). I have found that I had to be a lot more careful about protecting my valuables in London than in, for example, large Canadian cities and even New York City (where I used to live). For example, if I put my garbage out on the street (in London) for pick-up the night before, someone would have gone through it for the credit card receipts. On an overnight stop in London last year, someone to whom I gave my credit card (either a shop or a restaurant) copied down the number and used it to charge $3000 worth of plane tickets (by phone and internet). There are a lot of scams relating to ATMS, which are located almost exclusively on the outside of buildings (rather than in foyers inside banks). If your daughter needs to withdraw money from an ATM, should be careful about who is around the ATM, she should go with a friend, and they should stand back-to-back (ie her friend should face the street) to watch passers-by while she does so. She should not give a credit card or ATM card to a salesclerk or waiter and allow them to walk away with it to process a transaction (this probably how I got ripped off). If she uses a credit card or ATM card, she should keep the receipts in a safe place (or shred them if she decides to throw them out - but remember that she'll probably need receipts for purchases to show Customs when she comes back to the US).

If she carries a daypack, she should be careful about where she keeps her ID, money, cards, ticket etc. It will be OK to lock up her valuables in the hotel room safe. She should keep money and anything else valuable in some pat of the pack away from the front pockets. She doesn't need to go so far as to wear the daypack on her chest, but she should be very aware of where it is at all times. In restaurants, on the tube or bus or anywhere where she's sitting down, she should keep it in front her and attached to her in some way (e.g. looping the straps through chair leg and under the table between her legs in a restaurant, etc, keeping an arm through the backpack strap and holding it in front of her on her lap while sitting on the tube, etc.)

In terms of personal safety, there are probably two risks that she might face. First, she should NEVER NEVER accept a ride from a "mini-cab" driver on the street. Mini-cabs are unlicensed cab drivers. They're a lot less expensive than regular cabs (which are the big boxy ones with signs) and they're often more plentiful later in the evening (e.g. when it's closing time at a pub). While I've used mini-cab services in London (you can call them to pick you up), I never accepted a ride from one waiting on the street. If your daughter and her friends go out at night, mini-cab drivers are likely to be waiting outside the pub or bar and will offer them a ride home. Don't accept the ride. There have been widespread reports of mini-cab drivers sexually assaulting women travelling alone or in pairs.

Likewise, if your daughter goes out to a pub or a club, she should buy her own drinks at the bar and see them poured by the bartender. I haven't heard a lot of stories about the use of date rape drugs in London, but I imagine it's no different than in the US and Canada. One thing that is different in London is the common practice of people taking turns buying the table a round of drinks. This presents a risk for her (because it will be hard to turn down the offer of a drink). She could reduce the risk by buying drinks as part of a group of girls.

You might not like the idea of your daughter going out to a bar or a club, but she's 17, she'll probably be able to get into some of them and that's what teenagers do when they're away from home. Even if she's drinking non-alcholic drinks, there is still a risk. So you should warn her about the risk and advise her of how to protect herself.

ira

Hi TT,

One point to remember is that in London "No" is pronounced "No".

Tulips

I lived not far from there, and the area is fine. The tube is too. If it's a school trip, I don't suppose they will be wandering around London in the middle of the night. The Gloucester Road tube station is very convenient, and in 9 years of living in London I never had a single problem on the tube, even travelling at night. Buses are frequent in that area as well.

The advice about the mini cabs is good; only take licensed London cabs (easily recognisable) if you need a taxi.

Kate_W

"If it's a school trip, I don't suppose they will be wandering around London in the middle of the night."

Sure, they won't. To mention just a few of the school trips my sister and I went on: (a) There was the girl who got alcohol poisoning on her school trip to London. (b) There was my stupid friend, who tried to buy marijuana and had all of her money stolen in Seattle. (c) The countless times we sneaked out of hotel rooms after "lights-out") to go outside and do nothing in particular, but we certainly weren't staying in bed. There was summer "music school" in a small town, where my friend and I made a pact to break every single one of the camp's rules about curfews, outside activities and fraternization with the boys from town.

They might not be type to sneak out and go clubbing, but there's a very good chance they'll go out at least once after lights out.

nytraveler

That arsa of London is perfectly safe - as safe as you can ever expect to be outside of your own house.

My only concern is how naive your daughter is. If she;s used to cities she will be fine. If not - she needs to become a little more wordly wise before she goes so she doesn't unwitingly make any silly mistakes. The advice above is a good place to start - or perhaps let she and her friend do a day on their own - or even a weekend (with a parent back at the hotel) in a nearby city - to sharpen her skills a little.

Intrepid1

I'm sorry and with the greatest of respect you should have been asking this question LONG BEFORE you agreed to let the child go.

How can anyone possibly know exactly what will happen to your child whose abilities and inclinations are more familiar to you than to anyone else?

This post is really all about you and not about the child, unfortunately.

lincasanova

that certainly wasn't very nice. my gosh. she /he is only asking about a neighborhood.

when i was in new york (at 40 yrs. old) a policeman told me not to wander around the environs of the hotel at night.. so what is so "about you" when the post is asking about the hotel area??

lighten up.

i find a bit of separation anxiety totally NORMAL , don't you?

travellingteacher

Intrepid1,

I'm kicking myself for responding to your "This post is really all about you and not about the child, unfortunately" comment.

My questions arose because:
1) I felt comfortable about the trip but recently had someone tell me the area where the hotel was located was a little seedy. Not having been there myself I wanted some more feedback.
2) The tube question was to help decide if the girls would be okay on the tube or if it would be better to walk and/or use taxis.

I wanted the girls to have some first hand information to help them decide what they should and shouldn't do. I certainly would not let my daughter go on a school trip if I didn't think she could handle it. We have travelled as a family overseas and thought this would be a good bridge to independent travel.

The idea of travel talk is to ask questions and get first hand information from other travellers. That's all I wanted, not a judgement!

travellingteacher

Thanks lincasanova. You expressed the point of my post better than I did!

travellingteacher

Oh yeah, I forgot to thank all the people who responded to my questions. I feel more comfortable about the area. The info about the minicabs is great - something I didn't know.

lincasanova

one suggestion i would make is to email the london visitor bureau to get FREE maps and brochures.
request a bus map also if they have one.

i have only been to london a few times, but like the bus so much better than the tube.
(for reasonable distances).
it is just so much more pleasant than going underground all the time.

the kiosks were offering better priced combination tickets than the streetside machines in october. it might have been some kind of special.

the kids will have the time of their lives i hope.

travellingteacher

Great idea about the maps. Thanks.

PatrickLondon

If she won't think it terminally uncool, she could do some research for herself on getting about (or is her school taking care of all of that? No-one's mentioned their responsibilities!), e.g., at

www.tfl.gov.uk - from which you can get all the transport maps you could want.