London hotel and train to Scotland
 

Could anyone recommend a few hotels in Westminste or downtown area of London around 150.00 per night for a double room.
Also, we think we would like to take a train out of London and up to the Borderlands of Scotland. How long would the trip be? And is it possible to hop on hop off along the way?

150.00 what ($, £)

Yes you can take a train to Scotland. Whether you can get off along the way depends on what sort of ticket you buy. If it is just London to Edinburgh - no you can't get off. But if you book London to say, York, and then York to Edinburgh. Then you could break your journey.

How long do you plan to stay in Scotland? There really isn't much rail service in the Borders. The trains go up the coast.

I assume you are talking about the region called "The Borders" (due south and SE of Edinburgh) rather than just anyplace in southern Scotland along the English border.

For the hotel - 150 what? Pounds? Dollars? And is "we" a couple sharing one double bed?

You could take the overnight sleeper from London to the Highlands or even just Edinburgh - www.seat61.com/CaledonianSleepers.htm.

Or hourly daytime trains London (Kings Cross) - Edinburgh or London (Euston) to Glasgow.

'Anytime' tickets allow break of journey, but cost megabucks, basically for business. Off-peak returns only allow break of journey on return leg, the cheapest 'Advance' tickets allow no break of journey, so you'd need sepaarte tickets for each train you took.

Use www.ntionalrail.co.uk to find train times and fares. You'll find advice on various aspects of UK train travel including the fare range, maps, how to buy tickets, BritRail passes, at www.seat61.com/UKtravel.htm.

www.nationalrail.co.uk

But as it's best to book these tickets several weeks in advance in order to get the cheapest fares you may as well go directly to www.eastcoast.co.uk which allows you to book any train in the UK except the Bargain Berths on the Caledonian Sleeper

Thanks to all for your response.
Sorry I should have specified currency which would be dollars. And "we" is my husband and myself.
We are leaning towards taking the train to Sterling, which we would use as a base and rent a car to do day trips from there.
If anyone knows of a nice B&B on the outskirts of Sterling, I would appreciate any suggestions/links.
We have never been to the UK, and are looking forward to the adventure!

If you are searching for a B&B you may find more hits on Google if you spell the town's name "Stirling"

OK - Stirling isn't in the Borders. It is really pretty close to the center of the country (not counting the Islands or very northernmost bits)

It is agreat place to base to see Edinburgh, Glasgow, the Trossachs, Perthshire, etc. However, I would not stay IN Stirling itself. Since you'd have a car you can stay in any of several nearby towns/villages. Anywhere from Callander to Doune to Aberfoyle to Auchterarder to several others. If you don't sty at least a night in Edinburgh, you can take a train in for a day trip from Stirling, Dunblane, Perth or wherever is closest to where you end up staying. Then you won't have to deal w/ the car in Edinburgh.

As for London, $150 is about £95 right now - who know when you travel, could be more or less. For £90-ish you could get a decent/serviceable 2-3 star double. But if you use Priceline, you can get a true 4 star place for the region of £80-$100 plus taxes.

If you haven't used PL before, check out biddingfortravel.com and betterbidding.com where you can see how much folks are bidding for London hotels. (By priceline, I mean the 'name your own price' function, not the straight booking side)

janisj thanks for your suggestions on places to stay. We had thrown a dart and chose Stirling for it's central location but will look into the other places you suggest.Originally we were thinking to train to just across the border then rent a car from there ( I know Stirling is not on the border). However, now I think we will take the train as far as possible and then rent car. Also will take a train to Edinburgh for the day instead of trying to drive there.
Sheila thanks for the correction to my spelling of Stirling!

Taking the train to just across the border and then renting a car really isn't feasible. The railroad doesn't go through any cities of any size (where you'd find national/international rental agencies) between Newcastle and Edinburgh.

Most of northern England and Scotland is pretty much totally rural and you can't just rent cars any old place.

Europcar and Enterprise are both in Stirling and will come get you at the station. For others, you'd have to take a cab.

But - if you did want to see some of the Borders, you could just take the train to Newcastle and drive north from there. You could see Hadrian's wall, Bamburgh/Alnwick castles, Lindesfarne, some of the Border Abbeys, St Abbs Head etc.

Mostly depends on how much time you have.