Place to stay for Honeymoon in London
 

I am looking for a nice hotel to stay London for under $200. A travel agent had booked us at Thistle Islington, but I haven't heard anything good about it, and would like to find a better place for our honeymoon in June. We are only going to be in London for three nights (the rest is in Ireland) so I would like to be somewhere that is easily accesible to the best places to go. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

The Thistle Islington is located near the King Sq council estate.

For the same money, possible a little more - we're talking 125-150 a night, try the newly opened Malmaison, Charterhouse Square. It has a designery feel, and a relatively good restaurant. I advise this hotel as it is in a similar area - we're talking a mile away - to the Thistle Islington.

Or you could of course go somewhere completely different, I'm at a loss to find you any other hotels as by and large at your budget the quality will always be a bit iffy in London. Even some of the 5* properties aren't up to scratch.

The Malmasion has bright and pleasant rooms, so even if the service isn't great at least you will have a clean room to retire to. As it is so new I doubt your agent will have heard of it, it is a 4* property.

For 185, say an additional 100USD you could have Claridge's which is an institution and in a completely different league. I'd say for the sake of 300USD over the three day period, especially as it is your honeymoon stay there, I promise you, you will not be disappointed. Upon booking advise it is your honeymoon, and I'm sure you will be upgraded to a super suite!

Just to clarify something in m_kingdom's post: "council estate" - means public housing project.

But back to your question - No - Islington is not where I'd stay on my honeymoon. If you want to stay under $200 you can usually get wonderful 4 or even 5 star hotels in great neighborhoods for that (or a lot less sometimes) on Priceline.

A council estate, is none the less undesirable - it's not the social experiement that is perhaps implied by Janis - they are usualy associated with violent youths, violent drug dealers/users, and even the "OK" occupants are usually undesirables!

The Labour government of the 60s went on a little council housing spending spree, and expensive areas such as Hampstead and Primrose Hill were subject to the scarring of these architectural nightmares! Pimlico, a stones throw from the highly sought after Belgravia lies the Churchill Gardens Estate - around 6000 units all facing the Thames - what a waste of a site!

Anyway, i digress, the trouble with Priceline (although I have not used it) seems to be you cannot choose what property and as such it is a gamble really, but obviously many people win, but do some lose too?

My point was many Americans haven't heard the term Council Estate. To some "estate" sounds posh and up market. So I was just letting mikelash know what it meant.

as for priceline - using biddingfortravel really helps. London is a great city for PL since the ways the neighborhoods are split up and w/ the help of biddingfortravel you really do have a pretty good idea of which properties you'll get.

But bidding on PL is not the only way to get good rates in London - Londontown.com and other sites are really useful.

I got Waldorf London for $100 for a trip this summer. It's near Covent Garden, so perfect for a night at the opera or shopping at the little shops.

I've heard that it is very modern and a very good value, definitely in your price range.

Congratulations on your wedding!