Tia

Hi everyone:<BR><BR>Have gotten much, much help from bbers on the Fodors site for my last trip to Costa Rica, but need help on planning a trip to London. Thinking of going next year in maybe March, April, or May. Can anyone advise me as to the best time of year to go? And I also need help with where to begin to look for travel deals, maybe a package as that seems to work best for us from past experience in other countries. What are the best places to stay as far as hotels or areas of the city? We would like to spend approx. $1500/person including airfare (from the U.S.) and hotel with other items such as food, etc. extra. I'm thinking of maybe 10-14 days total. Please tell me if this is realistic as far as length and also cost. I have heard that London is extremely expensive, so am unsure if I'm even in the ball park! Really any advice to help me begin to plan or what direction to go would be greatly appreciated! Thank you so much in advance.<BR><BR>Tia

Jane

I've been to Paris twice on a shoestring (except shopping). Once was with a package from US Airways, air and hotel from NY for $800 for one week. Second time air was $500 RT on Luthansa (great airline) and stayed at a tiny no frills but extremely cute hotel called Hotel Eldorado. I paid only $35-40 per night and the place was very centrally located. You can find lots of good cheap Europen hotels on www.eurocheapo.com. I really enjoyed my stay and all the money I saved went to shopping! I think London is more expensive than Paris although flights there are much cheaper (from NY anyway). Enjoy!

Kim

1500 USD total for a 10-14 hotel stay with food extras thrown in isn't gonna get you very far. <BR>1. The exchange rate is not the greatest<BR>which makes London a very expensive place to visit.<BR>2. You will be going in peak spring/summer season and the plane ticket alone will probably cost at bare minimum $400. <BR>Although it's very likely you may be able to find a fare in March for much cheaper but you have to keep your eyes peeled for the rest of the winter for those deals. Usually the March is the last month you can get a great fare going to London...in my experience anyway.<BR>3. A great place to look for package deals would probably to be search on travel sites that everyone here swears by like priceline.com, expedia, travelocity, orbitz...etc. I personally perfer Orbitz myself.

nancy

The advantage to May would be the longer daylight hours but the airfare will jump a lot. If you can handle the colder weather go towards the end of March. London is very expensive food-wise but you can spend less if you don't mind dull sandwiches/pub food to keep from starving. Be sure to read the travel section of your newspaper for cheap combo air/hotel deals. Everything is accessible by the tube. In 1999 I spent a week in May and then went back in October for another 2 weeks. Both times I rented an apartment which was cheaper than a hotel. If you'd like more info, please e-mail me directly. P.S. I live in California so add on $300 more for airfare.

carolyn

My daughter and I made a priceline.com bid and got round trip airfare and five hotel nights for U.S.$750 next week from Kentucky. We had a choice among five hotels and got our second selection.

Wayne

Although I think an apartment could be a low price solution, also allowing you to do some of your own cooking at a bargain, you might want to think of the combo air/hotel deals offered by British Airways or one of the other airlines. It is possible to stay within your budget if you can get a good air/hotel cost. Generally, the total of such a combo deal can be as cheap or cheaper than independently going to the airline and then renting an apartment from someone else. <BR><BR>The discount brokers already named are a good place to search, also. You have plenty of time, and if you could keep looking through February you might find a great bargain. My own preference for a trip, especially considering that both London and Paris are rather cool in March, would be to go in May. I'd start looking, and keep looking, for bargains for the month of May. Give up on that search only after you have had no success for several months.

Diane

We did London & Paris, a week in each last April. We used miles for airfare, found a great deal for London hotel from the Moat House Hotel website -- 75GBP per night. Friends of mine got a similar deal for next month. Excellent locations, Sloane Square (Chelsea) and Kensington, so these really were terrific deals. Will you fly between or take the train? The Eurostar was more expensive than flying, but it was really convenient to leave from and arrive"in town. There are more budget hotels in Paris to choose from than you can imagine -- do a search here and you'll get plenty of suggestions, two potentials are Grand Hotel des Balcons in St Germain and Hotel Muguet near the Eiffle Tower, I believe. Eating out is less expensive and easier in Paris if you are watching your budget. You might stay 3 nights in London and the rest in Paris. Public transportation in both cities is easy to learn and use, and inexpensive. We gambled going the last two weeks of April (April in Paris is often cold and wet, but we lucked out and it was gorgeous.) When we went late in May in 1998 the weather was perfect. You might find more "deals" however, in March and April. Be sure to buy a 7-day carte musee to visit the museums in Paris. Try to see a concert at St. Martin in the Fields in London (I ordered tickets before leaving, but tickets were available at the box office under the church so...) Another good place to get ideas (and see pictures) is www.virtualtourist.com Have fun planning!

xxx

Tia: I believe I saw your post on another thread that said you are currently living in Wisconsin. That being said, you will certainly be able to "stand" the weather in March/April. We found on our trip during the end of March, beginning of April that London was certainly more springlike than home was. Many prices seemed to jump on April 1. The only "problem" we had is that some historical sites in the countryside were not open. But there was still no lack of things to do.

Tia

WOW!! Thanks a million to everyone who offered their suggestions!! Actually, I never thought Paris would be cheaper than London. I'm surprised. <BR><BR>Diane mentioned that the Eurstar is more expensive than flying. I noticed a flight from London to Paris for $23 on a travel site the other day. What are we looking at for cost of a flight (should I make arrangements before the trip?) and what is the cost of a train ticket? <BR><BR>Carolyn, how was your experience using Price Line? I've been hesitant to use it as some have had terrible problems. Are you able to choose your own dates and flight times? Apparently, you can choose your own hotels. I can't believe the price you got! Was it a last minute trip or did you plan in advance? <BR><BR>Again, thanks a lot to all who took time to post.<BR><BR>Tia

janis

Sure, you can do it for $1500 - Six years ago (yes I know that is a long time ago but you will see the relevance) I took 12 friends to London and the Cotswolds for 15 days. We rented 3 flats in London, 4 cars in the country, and a watermill converted to 4 cottages in the Cotswolds.<BR><BR>Late Sept airfare from the west coast ($630), Great British Heritage Pass, cottages ($110 pp), apartments ($200 pp), petrol, rental cars ($40 pp) stocking basic food in all the kitchens, Theatre several nights, etc came to less than $1250 per person.. Most of the group spent about $2000 - $2500 in total (a couple went on major shopping sprees.)<BR><BR>Most prices have gone up about 25-30% (except for the airfares which are actually about the same) since then. So if you are only talking about air and accomodations you can do it very easily.<BR><BR>The best fares would be in March - but it is easy to find reasonable fares in April and May.

ann

Right now there are several package deals (air and hotel) to London starting at $399 for a week. Gotoday.com and Virgin vacations both have them. The $399 is from major east coast airports, it's more from others, also more if you want to go on a weekend. But still a very good deal. Lots of hotels to choose from although the price goes up with nicer hotels. But $399 gets you what looks to be a decent B&B in a decent location. They also let you extend your travel dates (and hotel if you want) so you could go to Paris and come back for the return flight. There are many many places to stay in Paris for $75-$100 a night for 2 and 3 star hotels. Try France-hotel-guide.com and parishotels.com. Eating on a budget in Paris is no problem. Try the streets in the Latin Quarter near Place St Mich. Lots of restaurants with prix fix menus (3 courses) starting around 8 euros for very decent food. Many take away their cheapest option around 7-7:30 so if you don't mind starting your meal before that time you can get some bargins. I havn't been to London yet but in researching my upcoming trip have found many suggestions for cheap eating. Several threads going on right now on this forum. It does seem in general that London is more expensive than Paris. As far as when to go, most of the specials out there now require departure by March 30. But last year in Paris and Belgium in March the temps were in the 60s and daffodils and other early flowering plants and trees were blooming and it was lovely. I'm hoping it's like that in London in mid-late March. Anybody know?

carolyn

Tia, this is my second priceline trip. We booked a domestic flight through them a couple of years ago with no problems. This trip has been planned for a couple of months. You choose the dates of travel and the number of stops you are willing to make. They offer you reservations, and you say yes or no. Be sure to allow for taxes not being included when you make your bid. The drawback is that once you accept, you cannot make any changes. I did call the airline and e-mail the hotel to confirm the reservations, and both were fine. Our return departure time changed slightly after booking, and priceline e-mailed me the changes right away. Another thing that some people dislike, we don't have paper tickets.<BR><BR>We were in London in April in 1998 and had cool weather, misty rain, and even some huge snowflakes one day. I wore Cuddle Duds every day and layered with sweaters and my raincoat, but the lilacs and tulips were blooming. You just never know about the weather, but don't let it worry you. We did everything we wanted to anyway.

ttt

topping

g

Tia,<BR>I think Carolyn is referring to a fairly new feature on Priceline. If you click on Vacations, they do offer air and hotel combined. I have not used this yet, but I have heard good things from other people. I did book flights to London from the Midwest 2 years ago - $300 per person round trip in November. Even though November usually does offer lower ticket prices, we have a hard time flying from here to Houston round trip for less than $225 to $250 most of the time, so $300 from here to London at any time of the year seemed like a pretty good deal!