allyboy

So happy to be back on this Forum!!

We are a Senior couple who used to travel extensively before Covid. In fact our last trip, right before and during the early stages of Covid was to spend 3 weeks in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. My wife is a vegetarian and a photographer who specializes in photographing street art. We love theater, live music , art, walking around neighborhoods, meeting, people sight seeing and enjoying a glass of beer/wine.


The plan is to fly to London early April, stay for 8 days and spend two of the days in Bristol ( great street art here). Then we are off for a week in Amsterdam taking the Eurostar from central London to central Amsterdam. We will want to attend the Tulip Festival/Parade in Keukenhof.
We need help in locating the right neighborhood and accommodations and suggestions for Vegetarian restaurants . Of course we are interested in the same things here as I mentioned in London.

The last time we were in London was in 2010 and Amsterdam at least 40 years ago!
We will be traveling from San Francisco

Madam397

You should book your accommodations as soon as possible. The beginning of April is bound to be extremely busy in both London and Amsterdam as it is right after Easter weekend and it is school vacation time. My recommendation is to get a Fodor's guidebook and determine your priorities. In Amsterdam the Stedjilek Museum has been totally renovated and the Museum of the Dutch Resistance, if that would be of interest didn't exist 40 years ago. In London, the National Portrait Gallery has just reopened after a three year total renovation and I was pleased to get to revisit when I was in London in October. It's definitely worth the time to visit especially as it is free. Also in London, transit is primarily accessed by tapping your credit card. When we were in London in October, it was very busy and as it is an expensive city, we decided to acquire some more Hilton points and stayed at the Doubletree West End, walkable to the British Museum and a good location between both Russell Square and Holborn tube stops. There are lots of vegetarian restaurants in both cities. I am sure there would be website that would provide specific listings in addition to Yelp, Easter.com, etc.

janisj

In London there are MANY neighborhoods that are great for a week's stay. In general anyplace within the Circle line on the Tube map will be pretty convenient.

Areas I'd definitely look would include Bloomsbury/Russell Square; Kings Cross/St Pancras (lots of new 'arty' development and especially convenient for catching the EuroStar) ; The Barbican/Farringdon area; South Kensington; Covent Garden. Tons of others but these would be good for your brief.

Finding veg and vegan food will not be an problem in any of the three cities.
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I do have one suggestion -- instead of heading off to Bristol in the middle of your London time . . . I'd go to Bristol first. Assuming you are arriving at LHR, there is a National Express coach directly to Bristol from the LHR central bus station, Stay 2 or 3 nights in Bristol and include a very easy excursion over to Bath - its just a 12 minute train ride. Doing this eliminates and extra check in/check out / move hotels

Short term rentals in Amsterdam are strictly regulated and there are fewer than there used to be. Still a lot but in general rates have gone up quite a bit

Tulips

Amsterdam is extremely busy in April, book a hotal asap! For streetart, don't miss Amsterdam Noord;
https://straatmuseum.com/nl/
If you are in Amsterdam for a week I recommend Wittenberg by Cove apartments, they have a minimum stay of 1 week. Beautiful apartments in a lovely area a bit to the east of the center but easy to get around by tram. They have cycles to hire on site, but only do this if you are confident cycling.

bvlenci

I would consider staying in Rotterdam, a beautiful and vibrant city, with easy access to Amsterdam, Delft, and the Hague . I lived in Rotterdam for a while, over 30 years ago, and it has changed wonderfully since then.