penel523

The Imperial War Museum is wonderful and a must-see. We returned from London about a month ago, and the place that I can't get out of my mind is the Courtauld Gallery. There is a room in that museum that I think I could live in for the rest of my life and be happy. We also loved the Queen's Gallery, though the Flemish exhibit will be gone by the time you get there). The Wallace Collection was very good also; my husband just recently was at the Frick in New York and learned that Frick was influenced by Wallace, or vice versa. Take a walk down the Strand and poke into two great churches there: St. Bride's and the Temple (built by the Knights Templar).

We took a Dickens & Shakespeare walk through London Walks, which I believe is offered only on Wednesdays at 11. The guide told us much about London that we didn't know (and this was our eighth or ninth trip there); the walk is all in the City, an area we were less familiar with.

At Holborn, you're near Fryer's Delight, a great fish and chips place.

Have a wonderful trip, and be sure to write a full report when you return!

HappyCheesehead

Polly, it sounds like a very fine trip!

Where are you using your Marriott Points in Paris? We had a very nice week long stay on points at the Renaissance Vendome a couple of years ago. No lounge, but we received an upgraded room, combo cooked to order/buffet breakfast each morning at the restaurant,Le Pinxo, and it was very good. I thought the location in the first was terrific for touristing.

Interesting that you say the County Hall is your first choice for London. I do have reservations there for my week also (I made mine last summer under the old points system- we are flying on FF tix too so I had this all planned out last July ) but I was thinking the hotel itself was not rated quite as highly and it seems more family oriented. You must have had one of the Thames side rooms which would really count for something and would make all the difference in the world. I would hate to get there and not get the view.

My other choices are Park Lane, Grosvenor Square and the rebranded JW - Grosvenor House. The Park Lane seems a bit too swanky for the likes of me, and I do not really see much of any reason to stay at the Grosvenor Square, BUT Grosvenor House is just remodeled, the rooms look super, and there are free drinks at the lounge there. Now I do not drink at all, but my DH enjoys a libation or two on occasion so free is good.

My main decision is between RCC, CH and GH. I probably will not make the final choice till closer to our departure. The other plus to the RCC is the straight shot access on the Picadilly Line from LHR.

I keep an eye on the Marriott Rewards forum at Flyertalk, so I am waiting to see it any of the London hotels make any major changes to their lounge offerings soon. The Marriott representative that reports in on that forum has advised that properties are again being given more leeway on their lounge offerings and can set them up to suit the requirements to that particular property. Marriott had basically given instructions to the properties to not "overacheive" and to keep to the corp minimums, but that philosophy appears to backfired on them a bit. The lounge at the RCC has always had pretty high marks to I hope it stays that way for both of us. Really though, it is just gravy on top, right?

At least you got your ressies before the program changes and were able take advantage of the sliding scale for your 4 nights. Under the new plan you would get no benefit at all since you have two 4 night stays, which are exactly the same points as a 5 night stay. Glad you got them in advance of the change!

VirginiaC

If you're looking for an out of town day, consider Portsmouth -- the naval museum; Chester -- to walk the old Roman walls, Coventry -- for Lady Godiva and the cathedral; Bath -- if you haven't yet been there; Cardiff -- for the castle and a taste of Wales in one day.

polly229

Staying in Paris at the Ren. Vendome. Did a Fodor's search for Paris Marriotts and that one seemed to get the best comments. (If you've ever mentioned it here, Cheesehead, yours was probably one of the reviews that helped me pick.) I will grant you that if you don't get a river view, CH would be disappointing. Our first trip we had an angled river view but I'm pretty sure the London Eye people had a great view into our room if the curtains were open. But my husband wasn't Platinum that time, maybe not even Gold. Since then we've gotten prime river views and I'm guessing the odds are good if you "have rank". (We always travel shoulder seasons when we can, usually early Sept. in the UK.) Also, travel is down in London, too, and they're not likely to be packed the end of May, early June. Have been thinking about kids since your comment and all the children I can remember is two quiet little boys, 6-9 range, getting food on their plates in the lounge one night. But maybe we've just had good luck. Grovesnor used to be termed the "flagship" location and was hard to get for points when there were fewer hotels, but I didn't find it remarkable. (Except that all the London Marriotts, all Whitbread properties, were better than the US hotels. Don't know if all the newer ones are Whitbread - or if Whitbread still manages the ones they used to, for that matter.) This trip was "spur of the moment" for a mile/point trip, since I usually start on those up to a year ahead, too. In Jan. I started looking at flights for Sept., assuming that Ireland would be drier then, but discovered that April and May were the driest months. Just for the heck of it, I checked to see what I could get in May for 60,000 miles (because I deeply resent the Delta increases and don't want to use 90 or 120k for a trip "starting from 60k".) To my shock, I could fly into London and out of Dublin for 60k on several days, so I grabbed the flights. Having to stay a little longer than I originally planned (hey, better than shorter) to get the "cheap" flight, which is how Paris got thrown into the mix. I'm used to booking outbound at midnight on the first day you can do it, then booking the return a couple of weeks later so we could get business class, but now you can't hold the first leg more than a couple of days, so the old system doesn't work. In the last couple of years, though, I've found business class very hard to get and about given up; but in the last year, coach pops up for 60k now and again a lot closer to the departure date. Actually, I have 5 nights in London, 4 in Paris, and 3 in Galway but the Galway hotel is the new system (though not a category increase) because they blacked out that one in Jan. too. But that was only a 10k increase for the 3 nights.

Have been to Bath a couple of times, but we would love to go to Chester, VirginiaC. Thought the train took about 3 hrs., though, and that would make for a very long day. I will have to check a schedule. Did you like Cardiff? My husband wants to go to Wales but I was afraid Cardiff was just a big, ordinary town. It should be closer, though; seem to recall it's just a little past Bath, half an hour or so, and Bath is about 90 min. If my memory is correct, that would be reasonable.

VirginiaC

Cardiff is a big, old city, but not without its charms. The castle is a Victorian reconstruction of a fantasy castle with all its excesses intact. But that's only the beginning. There is also an ancient keep dating from Norman times, a military museum built within the walls, and a gaggle of peacocks who'll cheerfully steal your sandwiches if you stop to picnic. The pedestrian shopping area just outside the walls is a pleasant ramble, too.

Apres_Londee

Hi polly,

I think the Egyptian museum you're thinking of is the Petrie Museum. I've had it on my list for a while now too.

http://www.petrie.ucl.ac.uk/index2.html

If you liked Highgate Cemetery, you could visit another Victorian cemetery. Here's a link for Nunhead, they do a tour on the last Sunday of the month:

http://www.fonc.org.uk/

Another one is Kensal Green:

http://www.kensalgreencemetery.com/

And the Museum in Docklands is great and the Docklands area is beautiful:

http://www.museumindocklands.org.uk/English/

polly229

Yes! The Petrie! (Should have remembered such a famous name in Egyptology.) Thanks, Apres-Londee. Could probably have found it but you sure saved me a lot of trouble. I was looking at the Kensal Green site and will take a look at Nunhead too.

Has anybody been to the Petrie? Not much luck searching it on this forum or googling for reviews. Just get "would you like to be the first?"

Guess since we wouldn't have a long, long time in Cardiff, we wouldn't be disappointed. Probably only if we were there for several days would we figure Cardiff had been a mistake. Have an ancient Wales travel book around here somewhere, so will drag that out.

paris1953

Great information! Bookmarking.

Denise

bookmarking