Not the height of luxury but this Travellodge in London (Teddington) is a great deal at this price. I know little about Teddington itself but it is near a station for a short trip into London City.

Teddington is a commuter area of SW London. If you stayed here you would not be able to walk to any sites and would be reliant on trains in and out of Waterloo. Just an FYI.

Yes but at that price you could afford a taxi in.

stevelyon: "<i>Yes but at that price you could afford a taxi in.</i>"

Not likely. Do you have any idea how much a cab from Teddington and back each day would cost? By road it is nearly 15 miles and probably 45+ minutes. Maybe £35-£50 each way. For what a cab would cost one could actually afford to stay in a posh hotel the center of town.

You will be better off staying close to the center. Check out London school of Economics dorms: http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/ or YHA hostels ttp://www.yha.org.uk/find-accommodation/london/hostels/london-st-pauls/index.aspx

One of the highlights of my visit to London was the nightlife. You are really limited if you cannot stay out late and enjoy the pubs.

This is a converted office block on a main road very close to Teddington station, from which there are normally about four trains an hour to Waterloo (only two per hour on Sundays), taking 40-50 minutes to get there. There are trains back to Teddington after midnight, but basically you would be commuting to and from a pleasant enough suburb. There are some nice pubs down by the river, where there is a more villagey feel, but it isn't likely to be lively.

I stayed in a Travelodge (in another city altogether), and it was clean and functional but totally impersonal.

And, by the way, this hotel isn't planned to open until late May.

Without wishing to pile in on Stevelyon, it's far from certain he'll be able to get a taxi to <s> the frozen wastes </s> Teddington from central London (how, BTW, did the City get dragged into this?).

Black taxis are NOT required to take fares over 12 miles from where they're hailed. Worse, in Teddington's case, if they DO accept a fare, they're required to follow the standard tariff, if the destination's in Greater London (which Teddington is). So they're deeply disincentivised from accepting a fare to somewhere they've got close to zero chance of getting a return fare from, and are legally barred from negotiating a supplementary fare with the passenger to compensate them for the empty return journey.

Stevelyon will need to hire a mincab to get back to Teddington - which he can't do on the street. He needs to book one by phone, or find a booking office - which proliferate in the suburbs but just don't exist in the centre.