2+ weeks in UK, need help with accommodation and etc...
 

My husband and I plan to visit London for about 10 days, arriving August 23th, then travel North to Scotland and other intersting sites for another week, return to LHR for our flight back to NY.

The Sheraton at Heathrow Airport is US$75+-/day. There is The Heathrow Express to the city every 15 min. Is this location VERY inconvenient or is it OK. Is Priceline.com a good option to consider for UK? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

We also need help with transportation from London and travel North to Scotland, and other interesting sites. By rental car, rail or bus?

PS. I have read about purchasing the travelcard and the 2 for 1 offers...Thank you.

OK -- are you asking about staying at the Sheraton for just the night before flying home -- OR are you asking about staying there the whole 10 days??

It is a fine place to stay the last night (though you can get it cheaper via Priceline). But it is a simply <U>TERRIBLE</U> place to stay as a base for seeing London.

R-T on the HEX is £32. So you'd be adding £64 a day to get into town on the HEX. Plus £8 R-T each for the hotel hoppa bus to get from the Sheraton to the airport to catch the HEX. And the HEX only gets you to Paddington which is not near any of the sites so you have extra time/expense to get anywhere interesting.

So $75 a night PLUS £80 ($130) just for transport.

Now of course, no one would take the HEX back and forth for several days - But if you take the tube every day -- it means having to get 6 zone transit cards (way more expensive than central London zone 1-2) PLUS the hoppa buses, PLUS and hour each way into town.

So no - the Sheraton is NOT convenient and definitely NOT a bargain.

(Ignore all the above if you were only asking about you last night)

Transport north depends mostly on what you want to see. But w/ only week you do not have time to drive up and back. So one option would be a train to York for one night, train to Edinburgh for maybe 2 nights, pick up a rental car for 3 days to explore a bit, and then fly back to LHR to catch your flight home.

meant to add - Priceline is wonderful for central London and for Heathrow -- but not as good for other areas. Especially because it really mainly deals w/ large, business type hotels, which aren't the sorts of places one usually wants to stay - and that are sort of non-existent in most areas you'd want to visit.

But there is really no need to use PL outside of London anyway - in most other areas you can get very nice B&Bs for near the price of a PL hotel in London.

Try these websites for UK accommodation:

www.lastminute.com
www.laterooms.com

They both offer much cheaper than rack rate rooms.

If you can't/won't change London for 10 days, one week to see the rest of the UK is impossible, except in a blur! Train is your best choice and if you can fly back from a Northern airport, you'll save lots of time. Manchester, for instance, flies direct to JFK and Newark and is a great place to visit.

Scotland and other interesting places. Is a bit like saying California and Alaska and parts near by. It is a very dense country. So you either need to chose some options or tell us what you like to do (castles, glens, fishing, golf etc)

Train for two is probably good for city to city, but if you want to go into the countryside then a local rental will be needed

I'd fly and drive or train and drive.

janis, given that it takes less than 5 hours from central London to Central Edinburgh by train, why do you suggest an overnight in York? It's not like the need the break for exhaustion, and they've only got a week.

sheila -- "<i>why do you suggest an overnight in York?</i>" Because the OP said >>North to Scotland and other intersting sites<< in fact, she said it twice. It isn't necessarily what I'd do, but was just a way for them to see something else.

In any case, they need to focus a bit more before we can really help much. I sort of answered her question, but hopefully the questions get more "answerable" ;)

OK. Just asking...

Another thought - have you looked into flying back to NY from Edinburgh? It would give you a little more time in Scotland.

Lee Ann

Thank you all for your valuable information. Sheraton is definetely OUT of the question as base. We have never been to London so may be we should just stay around London for the entire trip instead. We like to walk the cities visiting castles, gardens, Museums,palaces, shops, see shows etc. There must plenty of things to do for 18+ days in London. Is staying in one place in the city as a base a good idea in London? I will try Priceline and hope to get a good rate($100/night at a 3 stars for 18 days). I thought with current economy, it should be easier to get rooms at the last minutes, especially at the end of the summer vacation, end of August. Your input, suggestions?

Again, thank you ALL so much for your time.

Blade

janisj, you indicated "Priceline is wonderful for central London and for Heathrow -- but not as good for other areas. Especially because it really mainly deals w/ large, business type hotels, which aren't the sorts of places one usually wants to stay - and that are sort of non-existent in most areas you'd want to visit".

If we stay in central London for the entir trip, why the large hotels aren't the sorts of places one usually wants to stay? Is it not a good idea to stay in one hotel and visit closeby areas/cities? one day trip?

Blade2007 your other option in London is to rent a studio apartment which is what we always do when we go over. It seems to be much more convenient and less expensive for us to do so. There are a quite a few sites such as VRBO that can show you what is available. We always try to get one close to a tube stop. Our last one, in May was only about 250 ft from the tube stop in Kennington.

Mikej48, Thanks. I will definetely look into it. Yes, I would certainly like to prepare some "health" food ourself instead of eating out every meals. Would you mind sharing with me which one you stayed? and the cost? Thank you.

blade2007 - I think your trip can go either way. Ten days is a great amount of time to see a lot of London and do a day trip or two, if you still want to spend the rest of your time seeing some of the rest of the UK that may not be good for day trips (Edinburgh, Lake District, etc). You can certainly fill up 18 days in London, though. It all depends on what you would like.

I think large hotels in central London are fine. This may or may not be what janisj meant, but in other places, bed & breakfasts or other smaller places may be less expensive and have a little more "personality." Plus the Lake District, for example, doesn't really have large chain hotels. I think the apartment idea is a great one, even if you don't stay in London for your entire trip. I can't recommend any myself, but there are many trip reports and threads on these boards which mention them.

Sounds like u would enjoy say 5 days in central London and then maybe train or coach trips to York,, Cambridge, Oxford, Stonehenge and the like. This very much the golden tour (ok e=add stratford which is not a good use of a day).

August 23 is at the height of UK summer just before we all go back to work so first week busy, second less so. Accomdation will be easeir to find in week 2. You could do lake district or hadrians wall

I would never EVER stay 18 days in a hotel -- anywhere -- if I could help it. I'd get stir crazy w/i the small rooms in most affordable London hotels. And PL really isn't good for extended stays -- since the availability are strictly based on expected room inventory. It would be really difficult to get an 18 day booking, using PL. You'd have to break your bids up into 3, 4 , 5 days stays and then have to move from hotel to hotel. If one was to spend 18 days in London - then a flat makes much more sense.

But That is not what I'd recommend for the average first time visitor. 7 to 10 days is a really good intro to London. Ten days in a flat would be fabulous. Then you could go anywhere else for the other 8 days. Say a B&B in York for 2 or 3 days, and another in Edinburgh for the rest. That would be a totally non-driving trip.

OR - you could take the train to Edinburgh for a couple of days and then pick up a car for 4-6 days (depends on how long you spent in London) to see a bit if the countryside.

Once you get a feel for where/how long you want in each place we can help you refine your itinerary . . . .

We had 17 days in May in UK. We stayed several days in London then took the train to Edinburgh for 3-4 days. We rented a car and drove up to Sterling & stayed in Callandar (Scotland) for couple of days. We then drove to York (along the North coast to sightsee) and stayed in York for several days and left the rental car in York and took the train back into London for the last couple of days before heading back to US. We stayed at a place in York that had parking and we kept the car a couple of more days. You don't need it in York though.

The last 2 nights we stayed at the Paddington Hilton (which we got on Londontown.com). It is connected to Paddington station and we just walked over and took the HEX back to Heathrow.

The first several nights in London, we stayed at "The Sumner Hotel".

Thank you all for your information. I will try to create an initial itinerary in the next couple of days. I'm sure I will need add'l help from you all.

Hi All,

I have firmed up my flight schedule. Arriving LHR 8/27 AM and departing LHR 9/9 AM. 13 nights in London. May be the next trip North to Scotland, Dublin...

We would like to hit all the major attractions - British museum, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, Hampton Court, Victoria & Albert Museum, the British Museum and Library, Tate Modern, the National Portrait Gallery, Westminster Abbey, St Paul's Cathedral, Windsor Castle, The Eye, Kew Garden, Covent Garden, Kensington Garden and Palace, Soho, Antique Markets, Shopping( Knightsbridge, Borough Market,Camden MarketGood, Portobello Road, Spitalfields Market), 1-2 shows. If time allowed, day trip to Oxford, Cotswolds and/or Bath.

We both enjoy walks, able to walk to places within reasonable(30-45 min). We plan to get the travelcard with the 2 for 1 offer. We like to be close to shops, restaurants, markets, night life.

Question #1: Since we can walk to many places do we need to get the travelcard for all 13 days or does it have to be consecutive days?

Question #2: For lodgin, which area(s) are best located? We preferr to stay in one/same hotel, so we eliminate the check-in/check-out process. Unless you feel we would be better off staying at different area hotels so to be closer to the various spots. Below are the hotel areas from Priceline.com. I am hoping to spend US$70-$80/night for a 4* hotel, less for a 3.5*, possible?

1. Bloomsbury - Marble Arch

2 Finsbury and Islington

3 Hammersmith

4 Kensington - Earls Court - Knightsbridge

5 London Docklands

6 Mayfair - Soho

7 Notting Hill - Bayswater

8 Regents Park - Baker Street

9 The City and London Bridge

10 Westminster

Last, but most importantly. Would someone help me to GROUP the sites with consideration of their locations(Central, East, West...etc).

Thank you very much for all your help.

Blade

Hi Blade -
You will have a hard time getting a Priceline hotel for that length of stay. It's usually much easier to get 2-4 night stays. You might have to split your stay into several chunks which could mean changing hotels. You may want to try to get a flat instead.

As far as areas go, you'd be closer to things if you went for Mayfair/Soho, South Kensington/Knightsbridge, and Bloomsbury. I prefer S. Kensington/Knightsbridge, but that also depends on the hotel. I don't really like the PL hotels in that area for long stays so I usually stay at the Rembrandt.

There is never a non-busy time for London hotels - the last 2 years I've gone in Jan-Feb and it's still busy then. So don't expect to find a bargain due to "end of summer vacations". London is never a bargain, but a visit there is priceless.

There are sites all over the city. You would benefit from a guidebook so you can see how the city is laid out and where things are located. We are happy to offer advice but you do have to do some research yourself! Kew Gardens is outside central London, as is Hampton Court.

I would suggest that you will take public transportation most days, even if you think you will walk to most sights. It's a big city, things are spread out quite a lot, and even using transport you will still do tons and tons of walking. Way more than you realize.

You should also check out London Walks (www.walks.com) - they are generally very interesting, and there are some guided day trips offered which might fit the bill for you.