Good luck finding a hotel, I can't give you any decent advice on that.

This is the website for public transportation in London, http://www.tfl.gov.uk/ , so the tube and buses mainly for your interests. If you stay anywhere near a stop on the Circle Line, you can very easily get to most of the places you're interested in. Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle are out of town, but the Circle Line will be easy to navigate to get to the train stations to get to both of those. When I was there a year ago, I stayed near the High Street Kensington stop and loved it.

For the Tower of London, get there before they open for the day, and once you get in go look at the Crown Jewels first. The line gets enormous very quickly, so if you go immediately you can take your time where you want to and buzz right through parts you're not interested in. Then take the tour. It's free and I think pretty much everyone loves it. Look up the Ceremony of the Keys to see if you're interested. I loved it, but I'm a dork.

Westminster Abbey is another you should try to go to right when they open the doors so it's not so busy. I highly suggest the tours at both St Pauls and Westminster. The guides are very well informed, interesting and you get to see areas you otherwise aren't allowed into.

Sunset is a great time for the London Eye. Again, this is only my experience and I am by no means an expert, but I didn't buy a ticket ahead of time and only waited 15-20 minutes. Remember that when you'll be there, sunset is pretty early which will curtail some of your sightseeing. Winter hours are often much shorter than summer hours for the places you want to visit.

I will say that you're not going to be able to really see all of the places you want to see in only four days. How late do you get in the first day, how tired will you be, how early do you leave the last day, etc. I spent an entire morning at the Tower and didn't see it all. The tours each take 45 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the location. If you want to do more than just stand outside and take a few snapshots, you'll need to really narrow down your list and figure out what you "must" see on this trip, and what can wait.

I was in London for two full days, and an evening in May 2008. Day 1 - Tower of London, St Paul's Cathedral, misc wandering and pictures, Ceremony of the Keys. Day 2 - Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, random attempt at shopping, London Eye wandering around taking pictures. Evening - pictures of Buckingham Palace. I didn't spend a lot of extra time at any of the places I visited, so this is why I warn you to seriously prioritize.

Good luck

Sorry. I didn't notice there were 3 of you, making priceline not an option. I like Arran House up Gower Rd. www.arranhotel-london.com/ More than $100, but they have triples, and are not pricy if you share a bath. Also look at St. Margaret's Hotel in Bloomsbury. www.stmargaretshotel.co.uk/

If you tell yourself that breakfast is included, you can justify paying a little more when talking to that stern internal accountant.

Priceline isn't an option - but Hotwire would be. Maybe not as flat out cheap as PL - but pretty close. betterbidding.com has good info about hotwire hotels.

Thank you for the very good information! my cousin is coming down to visit this weekend and we can look at all these options. I will let you know what we find.

Thanks,
Sunny