My husband and I will be travelling to England in mid-February. (Yes, we are crazy winter people.) Anyway, we will be staying in London for one week and would like some good suggestions for an area to stay. We are interested in seeing "must see" sights but more importantly want to "live like the locals". So long walks, people watching, shopping, good food, cinema/theatre, and pubs are what interest us most. Any suggestions?

Hi,

Don't worry about being crazy - I went to London this past January and had a blast.

I stayed in an apartment in the Marylebone area, and it was just as you described. There are not a lot of hotels (compared to Kensington area, for example), which I actually liked. We were right near the Baker St. tube, which I thought was a great location - grocery store about 10 minute walk, 2 pubs across the street, lots of little cafes and restaurants!

The apartment I stayed at was called Chiltern Court, but I was staying with my sister who had it for 2 months. I'm not sure if they rent by the week, but you should be able to find something comparable in the area.

Have fun in London!

Karen

hi margarine,

We will be back in london in October. I prefer going in fall/winter so you are not crazy (unless I am too!).

I can suggest a couple of hotels, but I am not sure if you would be "living like locals".

We are staying at the millennium gloucester in s. kensington. great location....walk out of lobby to tube stop across the street...lots of cafes and restuarants...grocery store etc. This location is great because it is in the heart of everything and the gloucester tube stop is central to everything. (also connects to 3 different lines).

Let me know if you are interested in finding a good deal and I may can help on that.

I envy you your first time visit....you will absolutely love it!

For a week's stay a flat would probably be a better choice than a hotel. Not that you necessarily want to do major cooking but having a kitchen (and its washing machine) lets you have snacks, late night meals, light breakfasts, etc w/i always eating out.

Any area of Central London would be convenient to the things you'd want to see.

Not knowing your price range, here are some to get you started:

E&E Apartments (no website but they do have e-mail) [email protected] phone 011-44-171-828-0453
Moderately priced studio, 1 and 2 bedroom flats in Pimlico and Victoria. Near the Thames, Tate Britain, Chelsea and Victoria Station. £360 - £700+ per week

Hamlet (UK) Ltd. www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~hamlet_uk/
Phone 011-44-181-883-0024 1 and 2 bedroom flats at St Katherine?s Dock next to the Tower of London. £500 - £675 per week

Cottage Net (Nordqvist & Co.) [email protected] phone 011-44-171-828-2424 Many apartments throughout London £450 - £750+

Scala House www.scala-house.co.uk Phone 011-44-171-580-6644. An Apartment bldg with 2-bedroom flats near Tottenham Court Rd and Oxford Street in central London. 2 night minimum £665 - £1225 per week

Price Apartments www.priceapts.co.uk
Studios thru 4-bedroom flats throughout London. £360 - £3,300

Chelsea Cloisters www.chelsea-cloisters.co.uk Phone 011-44-171-403-7760 Full service small studios near Harrods from £480 per week. Larger flats up to £1000

I?ve been to London several times January, February, March and it?s fine. They say there are fewer tourists but the place was hardly a ghost town. We like Bloomsbury/Russell square area. Small hotels like the St. Margaret?s or the Celtic are fine, though far from fancy, neighborhood hotels and would cost you considerably less than the flats mentioned earlier.

My husband and I were in London in June (O3) and stayed at the Marriott Maida Vale hotel for 10 days. We got it through priceline for $80.00/day. It was an excellent hotel, large room, comfortable king sized bed, nice bathroom, refrigerator, and A/C. We did look into renting a flat but couldn't find one that actually saved us any money, once we converted the price to pounds and added the VAT.

Our hotel was in Zone 2, but we had a tube stop within a 5 minute walk and a bus stop right across the street. Since we'd been to London once before, we didn't mind staying outside of zone 1. It was worth it to have such a nice hotel room to come back to every day.

One comment re Lee4's post -- the VAST majority of apartments quote prices that include VAT (including most of the agencies listed above). But if you find one that doesn't, that would add 17.5% to the total bill.