Help with London Apartment location choice- I added one more choice,Thanks!
 

Any advise on the three locations for 50 something couple w/two college aged boys. Christmas visit for 6 days looking for easy access to restaurants & pubs and the traditional touristy things.
Added one in Kensington area, looks great and expect there to be pubs/restaurants nearby but wonder how long to get to central London? A few more dollars but a little nicer are we giving up anything (location/convenience)?

Trying to choose between the three and am open to other two bedroom apartment suggestions. thanks to all, Vaca!!

http://www.vrbo.com/486804

http://www.vrbo.com/48345

http://www.vrbo.com/1004294ha#location

I prefer the location of the other two a lot more. Many things within walking distance and near parts of London University (which might be good for the nightlife for the young men).

But I'm not a fan of south Kensington.

I would not start a new thread. Otherwise posters will have to reinvent the wheel. Why not add this one to your existing thread???

You do realize that lower ground means basement?

>>Added one in Kensington area<< FYI this is not Kensington. It is <u>South</u> Kensington ( South Kens. is a totally different area and much more convenient from a sightseeing point of view)

From other posts I get the idea nyt thinks South Kensington is some backwater out in west London (she often says it is too far west). However S. Kens is very central with very good transport options. Most people would pick the Russell Sq property, or this one - but not if being in the basement would bother you.

I'm certainly no expert, but we stayed in a flat about a 5min walk from the S. Kensington Tube station and got everywhere very easily. Nice residential neighborhood.

I would pick the Russell Square flat.

Easy to catch a bus in the next block and also the Original hop-on, hop-off tour buses have a route there.

Diagonally across the street is a shopping mall and grocery (Waitrose).

There are several pubs and the British Museum is just a few blocks away.

Meant to add -- it IS a basement flat -- but there are windows front and back and a small terrace. So it isn't a 'cave'. But in front you'll be looking up to the street level and folks walking by can look down into the apartment.

Lower ground flats don't particularly bother me -- but some people feel less secure in this sort of set up.

There are lots of pubs and restaurants very near all three of your options.

There are lots of English basement apts where I live, and despite a small window at the upper end of the wall, they are kind of like a cave and very dark. And there are security issues, of course. I wouldn't want to live in one, but as a tourist, it wouldn't matter as much about the darkness for a few days.

"despite a small window at the upper end of the wall"

No Christina, Lower Ground flats don't have American style small/high on the wall/basement windows. The windows will be as large as windows in upstairs flats. Whether the flat is light or not depends on its actual aspect --

Per the photos this one has nice windows -- whether they get a lot of daytime light -- who knows. the pictures may have been taken during the only 30 mins during the day when sun reaches the windows :)

My pick would be the South Kensington apartment. We stayed on Queen's Gate last year and I loved it. Used Gloucester Rd and S Kensington tube stations, depending on where we wanted to go. Nearby shops and museums were great.

In slightly poorer days we always opted for Gloucester Rd, but Queen's Gate, where your third apartment is, is much more upscale and quiet. We loved it.

I prefer this to Russell Sq. but that's just me.

"From other posts I get the idea nyt thinks South Kensington is some backwater out in west London (she often says it is too far west)."

NYtrav stays in Mayfair or St. James, she's in the Abercrombie & Kent range so for her South Kens is an undeveloped region just east of Cardiff.

South Kens is fine (have stayed in the area myself, hopping on the Piccadilly or District/Circle Lines will get you to 80-85% of anywhere a tourist would want to go) but the Russell Sq flat would be really close to all kinds of attractions, including places where the boys can happily get away from the oldies.

And to give the whelps some real cultural immersion - look into the Boxing Day matches in the various football leagues. They'll learn words even the frat boys in college don't know.

janisj

Having been to London about 20 times I know exactly where south Kensington is. To me it's too far west. We prefer to stay more in the center - Mayfair, Covent Garden - Knightsbridge is as far west as we go.

Since the other 2 apartments are more central - and to me closer to many sights - I gave that opinion.

If you like to stay in Kensington - that's fine. There's nothing wrong with it - but there are a lot of places more central.

Sorry - we actually stayed there once - quite a few years ago - since it was a free package and the hotel was near the Gloucester Road station. Frankly all that to and fro on the tube is a PIA versus staying more centrally - where you can walk - or a shorter ride from places in all parts of London.

"If you like to stay in Kensington . . . "

The flat is not in Kensington -- and no, I don't like to stay in Kensington much. The flat is in South Kensington.

As Big Russ suggested, you usually recommend Mayfair and sometimes Knightsbridge. Well those two are very VERY expensive and the majority of people can't afford them (hence the Abercrombie & Kent reference -- but maybe you missed the relevance)

South Kens is exactly one tube stop from Knightsbridge and two from Mayfair, hardly in the hinterlands. But maybe you don't use the tube? And South Kens is more convenient to more sites than the flat in Chitty Street (I have stayed in both Neighborhoods several times, as well as Mayfair and just about every corner of central London. I find Mayfair (w/ a couple of specific exceptions), to be a posh ghetto.

Not everyone has a Manhattan budget or point of view.

Russell Square, hands down. Best location, nicely laid out and furnished.

Thank you to all! I think we'll go with Russell Square because of location and the boys will have a shorter trip home from the pubs. Wonderful advise from all is much appreciated,
Going to take BigRuss's advise regarding soccer match's. I'll be posting again about how to get tickets. VacationMan2

Definitely better pubbing from the Russell Sq one, easy walking distance to Fitzrovia to the west and such gems as The Queen's Larder and The Lamb on Lamb's Conduit St.

Our favorite area to stay for many reasons.