LONDON TO AND FRO
 

Flying in to London on 4/26 from PHX - in at 1:35 and leave 4/30 at 11:30 to Nice.

want to stay downtown to see the major sites (any suggestions?) at nice digs - hotel or B&B (any suggestions?)

also what is affortable transportation from and to Heathrow??

many thanks Dale Sevig [email protected]

For recos on lodging you need to give us a specific nightly budget and also how many people will be in the room. (Usual room in London is one double bed/2 people - more people and another bed will be higher rates.)

Also what do you mean by "nice"? Are you asking for luxury - which will cost a small fortune? Or something like a 4* business hotel? Or ?????

What's your budget for a hotel, roughly? I guess since you say B&B (some of which are not really, more like boutique hotels), I guess you don't mean very expensive. I haven't stayed right in the center so couldn't make a personal recommendation in that area.

I just like to use www.londontown.com and see decent rates on there.

Also might affect your transportation option. I like the Heathrow Express train that goes to Paddington although some think it is too expensive. I don't think it's bad and I like it. OF course the tube is probably cheapest, but again, that might depend where you are going as to the convenience of that. Lots of others like to reserve a private car/taxi service which isn't too expensive in London, at least compared to regular taxis. I haven't done that so can't recommend companies, but others can.

For one person without too much luggage the Tube is the cheapest option and takes about 50 mins.

Heathrow Express is about double the cost, around £20 per person but saves time (~ 15 mins to Paddington).

You can book a car service for around £45-£50 if you have to much luggage and a taxi picked up at the airport will cost more than that.

Have you read any guidebooks? If not, I highly recommending doing so, and deciding what you want to see yourself. Pretty much every guidebook has a list of the "major" sights. You might try the Destinations tab above, too. "Downtown" in London encompasses a very large area, you will not be close to all or even most of the "major" sights regardless of where you stay.

my wife and I - looks like 150 pounds is he lowest for hotels that I see - WOW - I guess we need to go up $250 a night

$250 a night is modest in London (the $ is really in bad shape versus pound and London is an expensive city) but you should be able to find someplace pleasant and reasonably central. Be sure you're near a tube station since you will use it a lot to get around.

You are talking London. $250 / approx. £160 would be pretty cheap in manhattan, and is moderate in London.

Look at Premier Inns - they are all over the central area and will almost always be within your budget. Don't expect posh or character. But modern, clean, and several good locations. But they do book up so make your reservation as soon as possible.

The tube is the only cheap way into the city. But you need to be able to handle your luggage, often with stairs, so pack light. The next cheapest would be a pre-booked car service like justairports.com which will cost between £30 and £40 depending on your location. That is for the car, not for each of you.

The heathrow Express is very expensive and only gets you to Paddington which isn't in the center of things so you'd still have to take a taxi or the tube to your final destination.

Read the London section in 'Destinations' on this site, and look at a guidebook. There are MANY more sites than you have time for so you'll have to make some decisions/cuts.

A double en-suite at the B&B (note, English B&B, not to be confused with an American style B&B) I use is 106 GBP through the end of March. Don't know what it will be in April.

http://www.ridgemounthotel.co.uk/prices

nyt: the $ is NOT in bad shape against the £. Where do you get that? The £ has been running between $1.51 and $1.53 for ages. That is a pretty good rate.