Reasonable London Accommodation
 

We are staying 4 nights in London from June 23 to 27. We are looking for a "family room" to sleep 5. Any ideas near Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Regent Street? B & B's, hotels, etc. Our Canadian dollar cowers at the English Pound!

We stayed at the-ascott near St.James. It was great and inexpensive

I googled the Ascott in London and I could only find the Mayfair Ascott, quite pricey. Does it have a web address? Or can it be booked through any particular discount website?<BR>Thanks

Once again, I wonder what the poster means by reasonable? For a nice three or four star hotel in a good area -- for a family room, I'd say 200 to 250 pounds is quite reasonable. Would you? Or did you mean to say CHEAP, like under 100 pounds?

I'm hoping for about 150 pounds per night.. Has anyone stayed at the Travelodge Strand Palace or Regent Palace? How can you make an English pound symbol on the computer?

Pam:<BR>Go to START, click on SETTINGS, click on CONTROL PANEL, double click on KEYBOARD, click on the LANGUAGE tab and click on ADD, then select ENGLISH(British). You're welcome.<BR>John

Pam..try this:<BR>To type a &pound; symbol (if you are running Windows ME or XP) :<BR>Hold down the right side ctl AND the right side Windows key with your left hand and<BR>at the same time, on your numeric key pad, strike in order the 0, 1, 6, and 3 keys with your right hand,<BR>then quickly release the ctl and windows keys... and you get a &pound;<BR>It may take a bit of practice .<BR>This method may also work on earlier versions of Windows, but I have only tried it on Win ME and Win XP.

Also either alt key and numeric keypad 156.

Pam..mea culpa, !! <BR>Sorry..I mistyped something in my how-to-type-a-&pound;-instructions!!! It is the right side ALT key that needs to be held along with the right side Windows key.

I've stayed at the Regent Palace before (a few times) and so have some of my friends. A lot of people on this board don't like it because it's very large and full of tourist groups. <BR><BR>If you aren't specifically looking for a quiet place with a quaint British atmosphere and you need something with very cheap rates, the Regent Palace is fine. It's clean, comfortable, cheap and in the hub of everything - within walking distance to many touristy places such as Covent Garden, British Museum, Oxford Street, etc. I can relate to the Canadian dollar vs. GBP issue!<BR><BR>If you decide to go for it, then get a room with an ensuite bathroom (which looks a little like a tiny space capsule) as it can be a pain to use the shared bathrooms. Although the rooms without ensuite have sinks, the shared bathrooms have toilet facilities and separate, locked showers which you need to call housekeeping to be let into - I guess that way they can control the cleanliness.<BR><BR>Others may be able to provide information on hotels in your price range with more character, but as I said before, if it doesn't really matter to you then I would say the R.P. is a safe bet.

starspinners and &pound;&pound;&pound; -- Thanks for the instructions on how to make the &pound; sign! Do you know if there's a way to do it on a laptop that doesn't have a numeric keypad? I can do it now because I'm using my office computer, but just wondering whether I'll be able to do it when using my laptop.

That formula for making a pound sign doesn't work on my new Gateway laptop. Maybe because there is only one windows key and it is on the left, not the right, but no matter what combination I try it with along with CTL and the numbers, I get zippo.

Why don't we get back to the original question.<BR><BR>Pam,<BR><BR>why don't you try these 3 websites:<BR><BR>http://www.britainexpress.com/index.htm<BR><BR>http://www.all-hotels.com/home.htm<BR><BR>http://www.180096hotel.com/<BR><BR>Good luck and have a great trip!

Since Pam did inquire how to type a &pound; and since she, too ,may have a laptop rather than a desktop, I will risk everyone's ire and respond to Patrick's question. I am willing to suffer the consequences of having my fingers smacked with a ruler. :-)<BR>I don't have access at the moment to attempt a &pound; on a laptop but perhaps typing one can be achieved by using the numbers lock key, I believe it's designed to imitate the numeric keypad that comes on a desktop keyboard.<BR>And Patrick, in my earlier post I meant to say , use the ALT key on the desktop ,not the control key.<BR>And since I am on a roll here being slightly off topic, one can type a Euro symbol ? ( on a desktop) by holding down the ALT key and at the same time using the numeric keypad to type 0128.<BR>

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Thanks for your help. My son just got a sheet from Spanish class with 96 foreign symbols! The Pound can also be accessed by alt 0163 . For Mac it's Op+3. Anyone stayed at the Limetree, we may try that one?

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If you don't have a keypad and use Windows follow this -<BR><BR>start menu &gt; programs &gt; accessories &gt; systems tools &gt; character map<BR><BR>you can find all different kinds of symbols in the different fonts with the character map

Thanks, Bob!

more detail please where is the pound symbol on the keyboard? I set my language up but what key issues the pound symbol???????

You may actually be able to find a flat to rent at a reasonable price, though in June that may be tough. Do a google search on apartments in London, or check out the following site:http://www.chslondon.com/. Also, 2Hyde Park Square apartments may be able to accomodate you for a little more $$ per night.<BR><BR>Also, depending on the ages of your kids, two rooms at a hotel with good deals may work out. Check out the Rembrandt Hotel deals through hotel-assist.com. For a little closer to 200 GBP you could get two rooms including VAT and daily breakfast. I stayed there a couple of years ago -- it's very well situated and the continental breakfast includes tea, coffee, cocoa, toast, fruits, yogurts, ham and cheese, danish, hard boiled eggs, etc.

You might also check out the Citadines chain of &quot;apart'hotels&quot;. They offer studios and 1 bedroom suites (sometimes 2 bedroom), with kitchen facilities and laundry facilities in the building. While the room rate might seem a bit out of your price range, you can factor in the savings of being able to buy, store and prepare some of your own meals. You could configure a 1 bedroom suite to sleep 5. There are some very central locations. The hotels are of good quality. The downside is that they're quite characterless, and you don't get the same level of service (eg housecleaning, sheet/towel change only once a week, unless you pay for extra).

Yes, Pam, I've stayed at the Lime Tree a number of years ago &amp; liked it &amp; the location very much. For 5 I'd suggest 2 rooms or connecting rooms so you get 2 baths. The idea of an apartment also sounds good for your group.<BR>The Cranley &amp; Morgans are 2 other &quot;good value&quot; places often mentioned on this board but I think they're both in the Russell Square area near the British Museum. Would that suit?

ttt