London hotels and day trips
 

My husband and I are planning on going to London August or Sept 2003. We want to stay near the signts. Any suggestions? Our budget is no more than $100.00 a night. We want our own private toliet/shower. Where have you stayed that you liked?<BR><BR>Also interested in day trips. Any ideas? Would it be possible to see Cardiff or Edinburgh? Thanks.<BR><BR>

It is quite easy to go from London to Cardiff via train for a day trip. The service is frequent. You would not have a lot of time to spend there if you are planning to return to London on the same day, but you could see a few (such as the castle) highlights and have time for a meal there.<BR>Edinburgh is a 4 hour train trip from London..and again, the trains are frequent. But a 400 mile trip each way would make for a very rushed sightseeing tour of Edinburgh. It would be better to plan spending at least a couple of days/nights there .<BR>

$100 per night with en suite is a tall order for London. More so if you are concerned about a central location.<BR><BR>London is a very expensive city.<BR>

Have you tried priceline? Biddingfortravel.com shows rooms for less than $70 per night.

We've done both Cardiff and Edinburgh from London. If you are pressed for time go to Cardiff. It is a pleasant place to spend the day, easy to negotiate and interesting. A day trip from London would be a pretty long day, but doable. Edinburgh is a long way from London. Once you get there it is not especially easy to get to the things you want to see from the train station. We did it as an overnight trip and I am sorry I wasted the better part of 3 days on it. Most of a day to get there, a rushed day in Edinburgh and most of a day to get back.

I rented a studio apartment in London, once for a week with a friend, and another time for 2 weeks by myself and spent around $100/night. Staying near sites is not really an issue as the subway (tube) gets you everywhere quickly. The sites are so scattered that you have to rely on the tube unless you want to spend more for a taxi. If you'd like the details on apartment renting send me an e-mail directly and I'll look up my apartments.<BR><BR>Since I don't know how much time you have but assuming it's a week or so, I would limit daytrips to closer areas, i.e, Bath, Hampton Court, Warwick, Canterbury for example. I met a lady who took the overnight train from Edinburgh just to spend a day at Kew Gardens. It's an awfully long trip. You'll spend so much time on transportation that you won't really see much. Just my opinion.

We got the 4* Copthorne Tara on Priceline for $75 in July and you might by able to get it cheaper if you look at www.biddingfortravel.com for recent bids once it gets closer. I thought the hotel was great for the price and would stay there again. Private bath, hair dryer, refrigerator, a/c, close to the High St. Kensington tube stop.<BR><BR>There are all kinds of day trips from London. Edinburgh might be a bit too far for a daytrip but you could go to Bath, Oxford/Blenheim Palace, Stratford, Warwick Castle, Leeds, Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, etc.