London
 

Hi! Need lots of help. Flying to Europe for the first time!!! Family of four - two adults and two children (11 and 13 years of age). Need help locating a nice, but not so pricey hotel in London. We will be there from December 18th through the 21st. (Dates are flexible. We fly back to the US on January 2nd!!) We plan on leaving the 21st or 22nd to fly to Dortmund, Germany from Stansted, London. Help!!

london as you may know is very expensive for hotels...have you considered bidding on priceline...if you are interested read their companion site: www.biddingfortravel.com to help you understand

lower level hotels are not the greatest in london...

try also to look at best western...they have a great network of privately owned hotels in europe .... also holiday inn...believe it or not the Y is not a bad place to look as well...they often have family rooms....

you might also see what your airline can offer you in the budget range

and take a look at www.eurocheapo.com

Best wishes,

Rex

Try londontown.com, london-discount-hotel.com, and thistle.com. Once you narrow down your hotel choices, you may want to check tripadvisor.com for hotel reviews, or post here again with questions.

I notice that you are new to the forum, so you may not be aware that you can also do a search by typing "london hotels" (no quotation marks) in the text search box above.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful stay in London.

Thanks so much for the help! I am new to the forum and have found this sight very informative, so thanks so much for all the info!! Also, what is the best way to get around London??

The underground is fastest, but the bus is more fun; you see where you are. And the children will love the buses (mine do).

Getting around in London?

Walk! It's interesting and lots of fun too. You'll get "the feel" of London.

If you get tired or too far from your hotel, then take the tube and/or (for the kids) the double-decker bus. Or, maybe start off by riding to a general area to sightsee, then make your way back to the hotel by walking through neighborhoods or sites of interest.

Use "walking-tours" from a guide book, say the "Eyewitness Top 10". There are many such books with walking tours.

I was just researching the same thing, moderately priced accommodation for 4. As rhkkmk says, London is not particularly moderate. We aren't going until April but it is Easter week vacation so I wanted to take care of this now. I found a quad/family room at the Abcone hotel for 140GBP. I also found 2 interconnected rooms with balcony at the Cranley Gardens hotel, at 89GBP per room, which is the one I decided to book. Neither are cheap, both are 3*, get good recommendations (here and tripadvisor), include continental breakfast and are located in So. Kensington (the area I was interested in). From what I read the Cranley seemed to be the nicer of the 2, and worth the extra cost. In general, I prefer to stay in smaller hotels, in quiet, safe neighborhoods, hopefully with some local charm, walking distance to some restaurants and near public trasnportation. Info for these hotels:
Cranley Gardens ?
ph: 44 20 7373 3232
www.cranleygardenshotel.com

Abcone
ph: 44 20 7370 3383
www.abconehotel.activehotels.com/

I found it difficult on booking sites to find quad accommdations. In both cases I called the hotel directly to book. I didn't want to take any chances with the room arrangement.

I hope this helps. Good luck!

Although I have personally never stayed in this hotel, the Lime Tree Hotel has received very favorable reviews from Fodorites (you can search for comments on this board). They have a family room with 4 single beds and they serve breakfast. You will need to contact them for rate info. Their website is www.limetreehotel.co.uk

If anyone reading this has stayed in one of the family rooms at the Lime Tree, please respond and let us know what you thought of it.

Susan

On the subject of accommodations, I suggest that you research staying in a B&B. There are many agencies that offer this. You just might find what you're looking for and it should be less expensive than the hotel option. The downside is that the location might be a bit more distant.

We were a group of three, staying in adjoining rooms, sharing a bath, with a family in Chiswick. It was 70#/per in the high season. The tube stop was on the next corner and the ride to the centre of London was about 30 minutes.
We stayed there 10 nights and left each morning after a huge English breakfast.

The Lime Tree Hotel (mentioned above) is also recommended by Rick Steves (Europe Through the Back Door). It's located in the Victoria Station area. Here are some other hotels within walking distance of Victoria Station which are also recommended in Rick's London 2001 guidebook. (I'm sure the prices are out of date by now.) I quote from the book:

Winchester House is family run and perhaps the best value, with 18 fine rooms, no claustrophobia, and a wise and caring management (Db-80, Tb-105, Qb-125, no CC, no groups, no small children, 17 Belgrave Road, London SW1V 1RB, tel. 020/7828-2972, fax 020/7828-5101, run by Jimmy).

In Woodville House the quarters are dollhouse tight, showers are down the hall, and several rooms are on the noisy street (doubles on quiet backside, twins and singles on street). Still, this well-run, well-worn place is a good value, with lots of travel tips and friendly chat from Rachel Joplin (S-42, D-62, bunky family deals-80-110 for up to 5, CC:VM, 107 Ebury Street, SW1W 9QU, tel. 020/7730-1048, fax 020/7730-2574, www.woodvillehouse.co.uk, e-mail: [email protected]).

Elizabeth House feels institutional and a bit bland--as you might expect from a former YMCA--but the rooms are clean and bright and the price is right (S-30, Db-60, T-75, 118 Warwick Way, SW1 4JB, tel. 020/7630-0741, fax 020/7630-0740, e-mail: [email protected]).

Cherry Court Hotel run by the friendly and industrious Patel family, offers tight, basic rooms for a good value in a central location (S-30, Sb-42, Db-48, T-55, Tb-70, CC:VMA, using CC adds 5 percent extra, fruit-basket breakfast in room, only double beds, nonsmoking, Internet access, TV, phones, 23 Hugh Street, SW1V 1QJ, tel. 020/7828-2840, fax 020/7828-0393, www.cherrycourthotel.co.uk, e-mail: [email protected]).

Another very important thing to do is verify your room will have 2 double beds. A standard double occupancy is a room with 2 twin beds or one double. Rooms can be very small and unable to accomodate roll away beds.