Planning a trip to London for 5 nights, two couples early 30s. Looking for nite-life,cool bars, good casual food, original/local designer shopping. Budget around 200 pounds/night/room. Will probably do very little sightseeing. Coming from overseas, landing at heathrow.

So far have considered places like Hoxton or Ace hotel in Shoreditch vs trying to get a deal on a 5* hotel in SoHO/mayfair on hotwire/priceline name your own price. Seems there is a fair bit of nite-life in this area as well.

I've been to London once and done the touristy stuff, others have little interest so that is what drew me to East London? Is this a bad idea? Is shoreditch still the best neighborhood for this sort of thing (lots of the sites recommending it are from a few years back)? Other alternatives in East London

If it helps, if we were going to NYC for this trip would stay in Village/Lower east side rather than midtown.

For Shoreditch, think Brooklyn. It's a fun area if you have a high tolerance for hipsters, a little way out of central London but easy to travel.

Not sure why Mayfair is in the title - it's not a binary choice Shoreditch or Mayfair! Mayfair is one of the fanciest stuffiest parts of London and the complete opposite of Shoreditch.

You could look at the Fitzrovia or Soho areas - they kind of run into each other in central London, and they are both full of great restaurants and coffee shops, but fewer artisan beards than Shoreditch and much more central. Think media, advertising, etc.

>>Not sure why Mayfair is in the title <<

I had the same thought -- Mayfair and Shoreditch are just about polar opposites.

Shoreditch has been much gentrified recently with restaurants, bars, shops - but still has some grittier streets as well. Have a look at streetview.

I think you mean Soho rather than Mayfair. Soho is full of bars, clubs, restaurants, pubs. Much more central than Shoreditch.

5 nights with no interest in 'touristy' things - that's a lot of clubbing and shopping. I would go for Soho rather than Shoreditch, as it's much more central. You can easily go east by hopping onto the Circle Line at Tottenham Court Road.

Shoreditch is our favourite area of London these days. Tonnes of cool pubs, restaurants, shops, street markets (food and clothes). It feels a bit edgy as it has been gentrifying over the last decade. It used to be the haunt of the hipsters but is more mainstream now. We probably spend 90% of our life in that area now. We NEVER go to SoHo or Mayfair - too many tourists!

It's Soho, not SoHo.

Mine was just a typo!

thanks everyone.

Mayfair/Soho is the label given to the hotel area on priceline/hotwire that we would use to save a bit of cash if going with the more central location, that's the only reason its in the title.

Combining Soho and Mayfair is ridiculous.

The problem w/ priceline's zones is that almost every one includes areas far from the 'name' of the zone. So you might not get anywhere near Soho or Shorditch w/ a blind bid.

We used to get a LOT of questions re Priceline on here but almost none in the last 2 or 3 years. I myself haven't used PL in London in about 8 or 9 years. W/ the £ so low right now it really isn't necessary. There are all sorts of discounted rates available on booking.com and londontown.com especially if you pre-pay non-refundable which is what you'd do on PL. That way you would get a known hotel in the actual neighborhood you want.

Yeah I wouldn't risk it for Shoreditch, but seems like the areas more central are fairly small so may be worth it.

For instance the 'Mayfair/Soho' zone covers a huge swath of London from Marble Arch to beyond Holborn and down to Temple.

'Westminster' almost always nets a 'win' south of the river in Vauxhall

And most of the 'City - Tower Hill - St Paul's' zone is south of the river in Southwark and Elephant & Castle.

They artificially draw almost every zone to essentially guarantee you don't get a property where you'd want it.

Really - the only zone that doesn't have these bear traps is the Knightsbridge/Harrods zone which is basically Knightsbridge and a bit of South Kensington.


I just wouldn't use PL in London now if I wanted to be sure to at least get a nice/convenient neighborhood . . . and I know London like the back of my hand.

Now, for hotels at Heathrow -- PL is terrific, but not in central London IMO/IME. Hotwire would be a little better because w/ some research you can often work out which hotel it is before bidding.

well thanks for the warning, I will rethink or at least look closely at what hotels we could be getting.

I'll take a look at Soho and Fitzrovia, any other areas jump out for us? If i'm booking without hotwire/priceline type deal seems money goes a bit further in east london especially with our plans for the trip in mind.

There are budget/moderate properties in every corner of London. What is your nightly budget?

hoping to keeping it around 200 pounds/night/room, could stretch a bit to say 250, i like the looks of The Hoxton Shoreditch for example.

Gee - that is a nice budget. Look at booking.com and Londontown.com and you will have a TON to choose from.

Look in Hoxton, Shoreditch, Southwark, parts of Camden, islington, etc.

Or the more typical 'tourist' neighborhoods like South Kensington, Victoria, Sloane square, Bloomsbury, the Gooodge street/Charlotte street area, Covent Garden.

As OP is looking for " nite-life,cool bars, good casual food, original/local designer shopping," Shoreditch delivers all that.Re hotels: the Hoxton tends to be difficult to get into as it's deservedly popular. Other options, besides the Ace: the Boundary, the Courthouse Hotel, M by Montcalm, citizenM. The first Nobu hotel is due to open later this year. For the tpe of action OP has listed, the focus has shifted to East London.

We've stayed at the Hoxton and Ace hotel in Shoreditch. Also stayed at the new Hoxton Holborn last fall and liked that location. We've stayed at the Ace a couple times and it's a little more expensive than Hoxton rooms, but I don't think it's worth the extra cost. Ace's lobby is completely full of local people on their computer and searching for a chair to sit in becomes a chore for most of the day. Shoreditch is fun and lots of great restaurants and bars, but we did love the Holborn location. Very central and can access lots of great places to hang out.

By 'nite-life' I assumed OP meant clubs and live music venues for which Shoreditch (for better or worse for us residents!) is more or less the epicentre. If s/he means theatre and restaurants, then Holborn or Clerkenwell are great bases.