Have an overnight in London. Arriving at Gatwick around 4pm first week in Oct. Any suggestions for travel into the city, hotel, and activities? Leaving for U.S. next day around 12pm. Thanks

Easy! Get the Gatwick Express train into Victoria. This journey takes about half an hour, and gets you into the centre. <BR>You should check out lastminute.com as they have some very good rates for five star hotels (50% off in some cases) A friend of mine booked into the Waldorf Covent Garden for a mere £100. <BR>Try and catch a show, or walk around Soho and Covent Garden for a bit of atmosphere. Rules is a very good British Restuarant in a tradtional sense -- London's oldest. <BR>Hope you enjoy yourself! <BR>

I echo Julie's comments above – an alternative route are the Thameslink trains into London Bridge, or Blackfriars stations the journey is only about five minutes longer than the Gatwick Express - and I believe cheaper - and could be more convenient depending on where you end up staying. Lastminute.com also do theatre tickets etc. but if your flight arrives at 4pm this may not be feasible. If you have never been to London before you could do a hop-on hop-off bus tour of the city which would show you most of the major sites.

I recently overnighted in London and booked my room through priceline.com. I paid only $60 for a 4 star hotel, which is unheard of in London. <BR> <BR>If you want to try using priceline, I'd first go to a site called www.biddingfortravel.com which gives great information both on how to bid in order to get the lowest price and on what others have paid for their rooms on priceline. Read the FAQ section on hotels and then the thread dealing with European hotels.

I had to stay in London last year for one night on my way to another destination. I thought that breaking up the long trip would aid in jet-lag. My travel agent put me up in the worst place ever. The St. Giles Hotel. The room was very expensive and on a main thourofare (or seemed like one due to the noise from the street). It was very near the theater district but I was looking for sleep. The one good thing about it was that during the day you were centrally located for a nice walk but you need way more than one day in London to see its beauty. Anyway, if you are looking for a nice place follow the advise of those before me.