London in 2 days
 

coming in on June , we are 2 adults with a 15 and a 12 year old. . What is the best centrally located area to book a hotel that would allows to us see as much as possible, any good hotels (seems lots of the hiltons,) budget around $150 to 200? what are the "most see places" ? would appreciate any input, thanks a bunch!!

This is a bit of a lazy request considering the information on London both on the web and on this site is voluminous.

http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/england/london/

You aren't going to get a Hilton for $150 - that is only about £95. Even $250 may be tough since you'll either need a family room or two doubles. Now, if you have Hilton points, that helps.

Plus this June will be very busy - what are your exact dates? Early June is busy because of the Jubilee. Later in the month may be a bit easier. Check out londontown.com for some semi-discounted rates.

Renting an apartment will give you much more bang for your buck, but you may have to contact several/many/MANY to find availability.

There is no one 'best' area - almost every neighborhood in central London is convenient to every other area via the tube/buses.

(Cautionary tale: I'll be in London 5 days the first week in June - only need a single, was looking at hotels/B&Bs/flats w/ a pretty generous budget . . . and it took me more than a week to find a place.)

oops -- just noted you are only there 2 days. There are a few flats that rent by the night, but many require a 5 or 7 night minimum.

You could try one of the Citadines chain. . . apartment hotels.

What are your interests? You might have your kids do some research to figure out what they want to see as well.

I don't know what the rest of your trip looks like, but if you can spend a little more time in London, it would be worth it.

Lee Ann

Without knowing what your interests are, it's difficult to give recommendations on "what to see."

Bloomsbury is a good central location. I think you will find it difficult to get anything in that area for your budget. I think you will need to move more to the outskirts or on the south bank of the Thames for peak season at a max budget of $200.
Ann Marie

Both the Arran House Hotel www.arranhotel-london.com and St. Margaret's Hotel www.stmargaretshotel.co.uk in Bloomsbury area have basic (bathroom down the hall) quad rooms that might work.

We stayed at Arran House with our two teenage daughters a few years back, and loved it. The breakfasts, included in price, were especially fun for us, and they have a sweet little garden out back where you can relax. Not having ensuite bathroom was not a problem for us and was worth the discounted price.

Sorry, I see that St. Margaret's has merged/moved to Celtic Hotel. It's a very nice area, just off Russell Sq, and walking distance to British Museum, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square.

Bloomsbury would work. South Kensington also is nice. There are quite a few B&Bs in the Bloomsbury area, so that could keep costs more reasonable.

British Museum, shopping, restaurants, Tube..all nearby. Heathrow is accessible directly from this area via Tube.

My last stay I walked from this area to St Pauls, Covent Garden, City, Trafalgar Sq,etc..

www.harlingfordhotel.com
www.crescenthoteloflondon.com

This is a bit of a lazy request considering the information on London both on the web and on this site is voluminous.>

and another brand new Fodorite is met by sarcasm and rudeness! Good show Fodorgarch - be proud of yourself!

With children that age definitely spend 1/2 a day at the Tower of London. Go first thing in the morning, skip the beefeater tour and head straight for the crown jewels - this will help avoid the crowds later! Then head back to the front gate and pick up a free beefeater tour. This will be an hour, and then you can see what you missed. My favourite site in London and as its a castle kids will love it.

With only 2 days it will be tough to see all the top sites, so you will need to decide what you want to see (pick up a good guidebook and maybe let the kids be included in the planning?) Do the two days include travel days? If so you will have even less time.

My other favourite sites:
Westminster Abbey - dont miss a verger tour (book a week in advance)
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us/tours

St Pauls

There are literally hundreds of other things to see so you will need to pick and choose. Also check out www.walks.com for great affordable walking tours.

Give it a rest, PalQ. The OP asked about LONDON, which is the largest city in Western Europe, which has MORE information available about it on the web than just about any other place in the world other than perhaps NYC because it is large and in the Anglosphere. Oh yeah, there's also a FODORS section for London on this website, to which I directed her. Meanwhile, you just whined.

Good Morning!! I can not thank you all of you enough for all your great tips and advices, yes even BigRuss, being new to the site and very unfamiliar with London, I just wanted a more personal opinion, although like you pointed out, there is plenty of information on this site, I feel that someone's opinion might be more helpful than that of a site and I thought that was the reason for the forum, Thank you PalQ for voicing my initial though when I read BigRuss response. I did click on the link provided by BR and found it quite helpful after all.
I was able to book the Metropole using some of my points and others discounts for about $600 in total,so I think not so bad.
Our family is pretty excited about this leg of our trip and look forward to come back with tips of our own.

Oh, that should be fun. Have a great trip.