London on a Budget
 

My friend and I are planning a trip to London over Thanksgiving, leaving Boston on Wed night/arriving Thu morning and returning Sunday afternoon. She's been there before in a whirlwind tour, I have never gone. We're planning on staying somewhere in the West End, and our only definite plan is to see Wicked at the Apollo (we're purchasing tickets now...), and my friend would like to go to Madame Tussaud's. We're hoping to spend around US$100 a night for a hotel - any suggestions? We've found some decent prices if we go through priceline (have you had any luck w/ that site?) or one of the airline websites, with airfare around US$500-550. (that's what we've been finding at the low end of flights for then)
Do you have any itinerary suggestions or must-sees and hotel suggestions??

why don't you tell us which hotels come up with good deals for you and we can give you feedback.

To fit your hotel budget, Priceline is the way to go.

Many museums in London are free, which will certainly help with your budget. Also there's occasionally a 2-for-1 offer (none for the summer, but may come back for fall/winter), which will save you some money. You can also get 1/2 price theater tickets from TKTS.

There's a "Frugal London" thread recently, which may give you some other ideas.
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34791351

thanks yk - there's some great stuff on that thread.
the hotels that are coming up cheaper are the thistle euston, hilton olympia, and the hilton kensington, with some others...location is pretty important, since we're planning on walking/taking the tube/bus.
thanks for your help!

Do you know about tripadvisor.com? Check reviews.

Priceline is THE way to go for a hotel. People regularly win the Holiday Inn Kensington for $75-100/night bidding on Priceline. Look here
http://p070.ezboard.com/fpricelinean...abiddingfrm215

You should be able to get a better airfare than that imo. Check kayak.com

There are dozens of previous threads here on London on a budget if you do a text search. Lots of good one on budget dining too.

i didn't realize i never posted after the trip...we ended up staying at the thistle euston and it was great... the location was perfect (a block or two from the tube) and the room was clean and well furnished. it was small, but we expected that and didn't plan on spending much time there anyway. i'd recommend it!

Try streets near any rail station. !,000s of B&Bs at minuscule prices. Check luggage at station and search. Prices are posted. The further you get from the station the lower the price.

You'll LOVE Wicked. Saw it last week.

If I am reading this correctly, girl_on_the_move took her trip over Thanksgiving 2006 and has come back to report the hotel they used. Is that right, girl? What else did you do in your long weekend?

Yes, sorry! The trip was last Thanksgiving :) and YES - Wicked was fantastic. (I'd seen it before, and it was basically the reason we went. How often do you get to see a Tony award winner (Idina Menzel) reprise her award winning role??? We had tickets to two shows and ended up queuing for a third. I wish I'd knew about queuing for tickets in the West End - we could have saved some cash.)
We enjoyed our quick time and saw the basic tourist sites - London Eye, Buckingham (once at night and once during the day), Picadilly Circus, Regent's Park, the British Museum, Big Ben/Parliament, and a bus tour where we saw Trafalgar Sq, Marble Arches, St. Paul's, London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and got off at Tower of London, Westminster Abbey...maybe others? It was a quick trip, but it was a great taste of London! We actually had great weather all but one day, and it only rained while we were in the British Museum. I couldn't believe how smooth the trip went - it was a great alternative for Thanksgiving.