gluvscats

Hi. My hubby/I are planning a trip to London. Are Sept/Oct off peak times? Where did you stay when you went? Suggestions for day trips? We will be there 6-7 days. Thanks.

Calamari

We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Cromwell Rd in Kensington across from the Glouchester tube station. It was great! Clean and v. accomodating service. Sept. early Oct. is good timing. Cool and sometimes rainy. You will find more info on this site then you will know what to do with. Have fun planning your exciting trip!

nytraveler

For London Sept and Oct are not off-peak times - not quite as busy as August but there will not be any bargains (those really only happen Jan through March). Weather should be wonderful. Have a great time.

Laura1787

I was in London in October of this year. I had a fabulous trip. The weather was perfect-cool but not cold. The crowds were minimal and lines were practically nonexistant.

I stayed at the Fielding Hotel in Covent Garden. It was 76 pounds a night for a single room. The room was small but perfectly adequate and the location was fabulous. I would definitely recommend the hotel.

I spent a lot of my time doing London walks which are fun, terrific and informative. Check out their website at www.walks.com. They start posting the summer information (March-October) in March. They have everything on their website but I also like to write for a brochure because I find it easier to work with. I took the explorer day to Windsor and Eton. We took the train to Windsor, First we had a tour of Eton. Then we broke for lunch. I buddied up with a girl from Australia who was also travelling alone. In the afternoon we toured Windsor and the castle. We all went back on our own so my new friend Janelle and I had time to check out the shops and have tea. I also did the London Walks trip to Greenwich. You go there as a group by boat. Then we got a terrific tour of Greenwich. After, I had lunch on my own (the guide recommended a great place) and then explored the Observatory and the Cutty Sark. I went back into London on the DLR-
Docklands Light Railway.

London is terrific. I was there a week and barely scratched the surface. I know you'll have a great trip.













afterwards I had luch on

Wayne

Yes, Sept-Oct will be off the absolute peak, but still busier than winter months, as already noted. You've already gotten some good suggestions for hotels, but if you want to spend a bit more and enjoy a great boutique hotel in a wonderful location, try the Covent Garden Hotel. Another good one of the same ilk is 22 Jermyn Street Hotel. I would do these only as a bit of a splurge, maybe your only splurge if you plan other trips to London.

Day trips are too numerous to mention, and most hotelkeepers will be able to identify many such trips for you. If you want to plan ahead of time, go to "London day trips" on this forum.

My favorite day trip is to go upstream along the Thames from London, starting at Windsor, stopping at others, and continuing west as far as you can go in the time allowed. The English villages along the river are almost all unique, quaint, and somewhat less busy than the well-known sights. Good luck.

Daisy54

The nice thing about London is that you can take loads of day trips from there to great places by either train or tour bus - personally I prefer the train. Places I've been to as a day trip include Stonehenge/Salisbury, Blenheim Palace (in Woodstock near Oxford), Canterbury, Battle/Hastings, Windsor, and Brighton (Royal Pavilion is a must-see). I'm going back in April and my day trip list this time includes Warwick, Sandringham, Cambridge, Bath & Leeds Castle. I always buy a BritRail pass when I go to the UK and take the trains everywhere, works out great.

carrolldf

I was in London 5-12 Oct this year. Weather was gorgeous. Highlight of my trip was an afternoon spent meandering around in Hyde Park, in shirt sleeves!

I stayed at three different hotels during my visit, each in a different location. Thistle Kensington Palace, Holiday Inn Kensington Forum, and Thistle Bloomsbury. There are pros and cons to everyone of them. I think I liked the location of the KP best but liked the hotel the least -- it was right across the street from Hyde Park, within a 5-10 minute walk of the Kensington High tube stop and right on one of the bus lines (I ended up taking the bus more then the tube). The HI-KF was very convenient to the Glouster Road tube station which had a nice super market in the Arcade and I liked this hotel and my room there the best. The Bloomsbury was a decent room and not too far from tube station, also on bus lines.

I took two day trips which were both great: One to Stonehenge and Bath and One to Canterbury, Dover, and Leeds Castle. Depends on what you want to see. The two different tour companies I used were Evan Evans (http://www.evanevans.co.uk/) and Golden (http://www.goldentours.co.uk/). I would use either of these companies again. I slightly preferred Evan Evans however a sample of one tour from each company is not a good represenation so I would probably do the same thing I did this time -- choose the tour company which offers the tour I want to take on the day I want to go. No need to arrange before you go -- your concierge can book it for you the day before or you can call them up yourself or book on the internet the day before.

elaine

HI
I have a long file on London, feel free to email me if you'd like to have it
[email protected]
I'm making a return visit myself later this week.

What did you want to spend per night on acccommodations?

daph

Be sure to tour buldings usually closed to the public which are open for one weekend near the end of Sept. We saw the Foreign Office-once an Indian company-really striking and also the Office of the British treasurer. http://www.londonopenhouse.org/OHEvent.html