London & southern England
 

Plan to stay in London for a few days next May - does anyone know of a good apartment about 50-60 pounds/night? We also want to visit Bath, Stratford-on-Avon, Cambridge and Oxford. Is this best done by car with overnight stays or day trips from London? I assume the accommodation outside of London would be cheaper?

i personally find it better to visit all of those places by private car....driving is on the other side than in usa however...

i suggest a rental from outside london like from heathrow...

you will find prices cheaper outside town, but not all that much cheaper....B&B's are the best bet....get the AA book to help you

Coming from Australia, so for us it is the "right" side of the road.
Have seen the AA book on sale - will look at it more closely. Has anyone got any personal recommendations?

What is a "few days"?

Have you been to London before?

Some things to consider:

Bath, Stratford, Oxford, and Cambridge are each easy day trips from London by train - but unless you were in the city for a couple of weeks there really wouldn't be enough time for 4 or 5 days trips.

Bath/Oxford/Stratford are all easily done on a driving tour of 3 or 4 days.

Cambridge is the odd man out - too far from the others to fit into a driving loop. It is an easy day trip from London by train - but is there a reason you want to visit both Cambridge AND Oxford? They are very similar places - Architecture, rivers running behind the Colleges, etc. I'd pick one.

B&Bs and hotels out in the countryside are generally cheaper than in London - but that does not apply in Bath or Oxford - or to an extent in Stratford or Cambridge. They are some of the most expensive tourist towns in the country w/ rates nearly at London levels.

Tell us how long you have in total and we can help.

Have you tried the smoothhound website for B&Bs? We've always found goood places on it. Those places are all expensive: if you want to drive, consider somewhere in the middle, taking out Cambridge which is "out on a limb" as far as the others go.

This is our first time in England - plan on about 3-4 days in London and then the 3-4 days doing Bath, Stratford and Oxford. Thanks janisj and Suelynne for the suggestion to cut out Cambridge. The archi and river etc were the attractions. If they are similar then that is fine. And no I hadn't heard of smoothhound so will check it out when I have more time - off to work.

Check on tripadvisor for b&bs. We stayed at the Emsley House in Stratford - great place to stay and great hosts.

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_R...e_England.html

We stayed at Langton House in Windsor and we liked the room, location and the breakfast.

Not sure of prices now. You can email them direct and inquire.

Susanne07, if you find a "good apartment about 50-60 pounds/night" in London and it is
a) in London (not Hammersmith or another outlying area)
b) habitable :)
c) will allow you to rent for 3-4 nights (as you noted later).

Please come back and let us know what you've found! That would be a dream find!

We recently used the yha hostel in Stratford as a base between Stratford and Warwick. It was GBP 55 for a private family room for 4, and private bathroom. The place came recommended by another Fodorite and it certainly has its advantages: beautiful converted Georgian mansion, nice manicured grounds (over 3 acres I think)- lunch and dinner are available for a fee, and breakfast included in the price. We got a bum room but I don't think that was typical. Sheets are clean. Bunkbeds comfortable. You can walk into town from the hostel, but it is really only a 2 minute drive. It is a hostel though. I say that because I deluded myself into thinking it was a mansion, inside and out.
Here's the link: http://www.yha.org.uk/find-accommoda...von/index.aspx

In Bath we had trouble finding a place with availability and for less than GBP 150. Ended up at The Manor House about 5 minutes outside of town, in a teeny village called Monkton Combe. It was lovely and was worth the price for us.

We rented a car to get to both places, did Bath first and then the next day drove up to Stratford and Warwick. Our first time driving in England, on the left side, but my husband did fine.

It was nice to have the freedom of the car. Got a Prius from Enterprise, for about GBP 27 per day. Paid very little in gas.

There are many beautiful places in the area. I would suggest staying out of London in order to avoid the congestions when leaving/entering London.

You might be interested in my trip report about the area:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=35148574

I thought 50-60 gbp was hopeful for London, but if you don't ask you don't find out. I like the sound of the places you stayed bratsandbeer and I'm definitely going to check out your recommendation needsnow.
Thanks everyone thus far - it's definitely time to do some more checking out of websites.

Not sure when in May you plan to travel but be careful regarding your day trip to Cambridge. We went in late May on a Saturday several years ago and were disappointed to learn it was exam period and all colleges were closed to visitors.

We went for an apartment this time over and I'm hoping it will work out for us. Having a washer/dryer/stove/microwave and large screen tv (who will ever watch more than the early morning news I have no idea) seems appealing to me.

It cost us very little more than the hotel room was going to cost.....we'll see how it goes. Only 5 weeks to going now!!! :)

Some of the central London youth hostels have self catering facilities. See: www.yha.org.uk/

A budget hotel option is the Travelodge chain. You can get bargain rates if you book well in advance online. Their hotel in Marylebone would be most convenient for your of London trips. See:
http://www.travelodge.co.uk/

After looking at a number of websites I'm not too worried about accommodation - am I naive?? I think that one of the wotif type sites will be the go.
I have a very broad travel plan at this stage and would like some comments - so here goes.
1. London to Bath by car - via Salisbury and maybe stopping at Windsor Castle on the way. Will this give us enough time to see Bath itself on the same day?
2 Bath to Statford-upon-Avon - how long is this by car? Visit Anne Hathaway's cottage, Hidcote Manor Gardens
3. Statford -Upon-Avon to Oxford - again how long by car?

http://www.theaa.com/travel/index.jsp is really helpful. You can design your road trip and print out driving directions.

If I remember correctly, it took a couple of hours to drive from Oxford to Stratford-upon-Avon. Then again, we kept coming back to the Roundabout from Hell that day, so maybe it just seems that long. :-)

Lee Ann

um - not unless you go around that roundabout 90 or 100 times. Stratford to Oxford is only about 50 miles on a good road. Will take about an hour give or take.

As for Windsor/Stonehenge/Salisbury/Bath - that is what the big tour buses do. But it really isn't practical if that is your only day for Bath.

Windsor takes nearly 1/2 a day. Salisbury/Stonehenge = at least a couple of hours. London > Windsor > Salisbury > Bath is nearly 150 miles and would take about 4 hours just for the driving w/o stops. So you'd have very little time in Bath.

Sounds like we might have to consider stopping overnight between Bath and London.
Thanks ElendilPickle for the link to the driving directions - just what we need.

>>um - not unless you go around that roundabout 90 or 100 times. Stratford to Oxford is only about 50 miles on a good road. Will take about an hour give or take.<<

I thought it was about an hour, but it took so long for us to find the bloody hostel that it seemed like two. :-))

Lee Ann

We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Greenwich and it was fine, but all of London tends to be a bit pricey. The nice thing was that it was within walking distance to the tube station and we got into London very quickly.

In Bath we stayed at the Marlborough House which is a B&B. It is vegetarian and serves a very good breakfast, although we are not vegetarian, we enjoyed it. Here's the website: http://www.marlborough-house.net/. It was close to everything and we walked from there to the Royal Crescent and the Baths, etc. It was quiet and well maintained although again because it's touristy,it was a bit expensive.

Hope you have as great a trip as we did.