Hi, I am taking my 72 yo mom to London next year and I need suggestions for what area would be best to stay in? She is in fairly good shape and loves to shop and enjoy museums. Never been there myself so we will be both be going in as newbies.

Any suggestions will be most appreciated

Maybe you should start with giving us an idea if you're looking to spend $100 a night or $400 a night.

World class musuems await - National Gallery, British Musuem, National Portrait Gallery, Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Victoria and Albert are worth visits.

Take some walks with London Walks - walks.com They are great introductions to London. The pub walks are fun.

If you like theatre, go to Leicester Square to the TKTS booth - the stand alone building to get half-price tickets. Avoid all the other "half-pricce" venues that clutter the Square. They are rip-offs.

ever played monopoly?i am no london expert but from what i read on here and on the net i found the prices listed on the board give an approximate idea of how the areas compare costwise.
I got an idea for a tour company: a monopoly walking tour!

London is easy to get around in on the tube so your options of areas are wid ranging. For close-in accomodations stay in the Victoria Station area but you will be ok in Kensington or Nottinghill, Marble Arch, Russel Square or any number of other areas. Check out VisitLondonOffers.com for budget places.

Depending on how well your Mother gets around you might start off with a bus tour and see all the sites and then you could decide which areas you would like to explore more. That is what we did and then we went back to the sites that we really wanted to ecplore. You can get on and off the busses at any time and catch the next one that comes along. It gives you a good idea fo the layout of the city in a short time. It also saves a lot of walking for older people, so they can save there energy for the things they really want to see.

To follow up on littlesthobo's suggestion, there is actually a book out called 'Do Not Pass Go' by Tim Moore, who writes amusingly about the places on the London Monopoly board and what has happened to them. But I don't think I'd treat it as a guide book.

And to answer the original query - most of the 'tourist' areas are reasonably close to museums and attractions (e.g., Bloomsbury for the British Museum and South Kensington for the V&A, Science and Natural History Museums), but all of them are easily reached by public transport. Bloomsbury is very central for theatres as well.

As well as the hop-on, hop-off tourist buses, the buses we locals use might be useful as well:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/images/tourist.gif

Most Americans would be baffled by adverts for a Monopoly-based tour, since we play the original version, with property names and prices based on locations in Atlantic City, New Jersey!

Be aware that although your mum is fit, London is really quite exhausting. I'm 30 and some days when I'm trying to get from A-B (eg. just from Soho to Covent Garden), the sheer number of people that you have to dodge round, push past, kick out at(!) makes it seem like the walk is 3-4 times longer!

Having said that, also make sure that you compare the tube map to the normal A-Z. The tube is useful (when it's working!) but sometimes it may, despite what I've said above, be easier to walk than go through the hassle of using the underground. The tube map is not representative of distance and the number of times I've seen, for example, people getting on at Embankment just to go to Charing Cross (one stop), which is a minutes walk up Villiers Street, beggars belief. They have put themselves through the ordeal of using the tube (try not to use it during rush 'hour') and made their journey 5-6 times longer.

Hope that you have a lovely stay!

Sarah, I was in London last Sept with my 80-year-old mother. She is also in very good shape, but still, due to her age and my arthritic knees, we took the bus instead of the tube (or a taxi when necessary). That way, you avoid all those stairs and long corridors in the tube. Just something to consider.

We stayed at the Thislte Trafalgar Square, which was a fantastic location for theatre, restaurants and bus. Just about every bus line going in every direction stops at Trafalgar Square. Of course, there's a tube station there as well.

Charing Cross and the Strand are best placed or short walks to Convent Garden, with shops and Transport and Theatre museums, busses to Whitehall and Westminster, and tube runs to the Tower and South Kensington. The shortest walk to Buckingham Place (a dull place) is from Victoria: the walk from Trafalgar Square is long, straight, and boring.

I have on disc notes of Fodors forum readers views on hotels there, which I shall gladly e mail to you if you ask me. The Thistle Charing Cross might be best for you.

Welcome to London

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I think SummerSquash's suggestion is a great one. A hop-on, hop-off bus tour is a great non-taxing way to spend your first day in London. After a transatlantic flight you don't have to be 72 for your jet to be lagging behind you. You get a feel for the city and if you are tired all you have to do is sit there.

Thank you everyone for your replies! I so appreciate it. I have a better idea now . (Bus tour for sure!!!!!!!)

With all due respect to Mr. Haines, I am never bored in London. Walking around London is one of my favorite things to do. I'm estactic that I am going again.

Tastes differ: Buckinhgam Palace and the Mall bore me. I think they bore many others, and that visitors go to the palace because they want to tell their neighbours they went. That way, they bore their neighbours, too. Visitors probably go along the Mall because on the map it looks the obvious way.

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