Staying in London
 

Dear all,
I would appreciate it if you could help me with this one.
We'll be staying in London and hoping to get to see most of the tourist attractions.
Which area is safe to stay in, close to the city and affordable (budget less than 200$ per night), close to the tube.
my friend suggested Kensington. Any other ideas

Thank you!

Welcome to London! The thing about London is that it is very spread out so no one place is close to all attractions. South Kensington is popular with tourists as is Bloomsbury (close to the British Museum) and Mayfair. The City is a section of London known mostly for its financial services history and is very dead on the weekends. You will want to look at a map and choose a place likely within the boundaries of the Circle Line on the tube as a general guide.

For your budget you may want to consider Premier Inn near London Bridge. The area around London Bridge is my favourite in London - lots of pubs, borough market, right on the river, easy walk to St Pauls, Tower, the Thames path along the waterfront to Waterloo etc. It is also a 5ish min walk from London Bridge tube station.

No matter where you stay you will need to use public transport to get to all the sites so be sure to familiarise yourself with www.tfl.gov.uk for journey planning and ticket prices. If you are here 5 days or more I always recommend getting a 7 day travelcard for ease. Any less and you may consider Pay as you Go. Both can be loaded on an Oystercard.

The travelcard can also be purchased from a National Rail station (not tube stations although some are both) and gets you 2 for 1 on some attractions if there are 2 of you traveling together: http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london so you may want to do that instead of putting it on an Oyster card.

Hope this helps!

I like the Premier Inn County Hall. The London Eye is right out side the door, Big Ben is just across the river. It is an easy walk to Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square as well as the Horseguards, and Churchill's War Room. Both the Westminster and Waterloo tube stations are within 5 minutes.

Then, there is the Premier Inn King's Cross which has both the British Library and the British Museum nearby as well as good transportation connections.

There are lots of good choices.

Thank u so so much.
Appreciate your replies
i will check out these areas

Have you ever used Priceline.com? It's supposed to be very good for London; you can snag 4**** hotels for less than $100. The safest area to bid on is Mayfair-Soho -- safest because there are few bad locations there. All of inner London is pretty safe, in terms of security. There are websites like betterbidding.com which help you use Priceline smartly if you're unfamiliar with it.

But you can only use Priceline for double rooms.

Agree with Mimar. With your budget, I'd recommend Priceline. Mayfair-Soho is the best zone, but Bloomsbury-Marble Arch is decent, too. Should be able to get something in one of those two zones for somewhere around $100, maybe a bit more if you wanted to stick with Mayfair-Soho.

I have 2 favorite areas. If I'm going to stay a bit longer I like the village atmosphere of Hampstead where you can find private B&B accommodation. If for just a few days I like the entertaining and central location of Bloomsbury where there many budget places in the vicinity of the British Museum and close to Euston-St.Pancras-King's Cross stations.

You don't say how many you are so this may not help:

We have used AtHomeinLondon agency twice for B&B's (a room in a person's house, not a small hotel). Both times the rooms were well below your budget, met those criteria you posted, and were quite comfortable.

As was stated above, be aware that London is greatly spread out; you will not be near "all" the tourists spots any place, but you will be able to get to them "all"--or at least however many you have time for! And allow plenty of travel time when you plan your days. And enjoy!

Enop82, you will get many suggestions on this forum about “favorite” hotels in London. Mine is the STRAND PALACE, minuets from Trafalgar Square (National Gallery, Portrait Gallery, St. Martin’s in the Fields) and within less than a mile of the City, St. Paul’s, British Museum, Westminster Bridge, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Soho and theater district.

The building is “vintage” but all rooms have been completely undated in recent years – with an excellent breakfast. Last summer I paid about $200 per night for a single. Strand Palace is directly across from the toney Hotel Savoy (where Beckam and Posh stayed recently). If you click on my name, you will find my London trip report describing my experience at the Strand.

Wherever you stay, you will love London….

Try Londontown .com I always manage to get either the Millenium Gloucester or the Millenium Baileys which are next to each other and across from the Gloucester Rd tube station Also lots of bus service nearby. Cafes and services neaby too.
Paying 90 GBP in March this year, paid 85 GBP last November

I also like the Strand Palace Hotel, convenient to Trafalgar Square, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, the West End for plays, Tesco Express ( for take out food), Boots (chemist) across the street, Starbucks on the next block, plenty of restaurants nearby (the Italian restaurant across the street was surprisingly good..... can't remember its name and Loch Fyne for seafood nearby), very safe at night...I've stayed there three times and it's just clean and convenient. There is a shortcut through to the Thames that the doorman showed us, so easy.

I wish they would update the bar, it's quite plain. The rooms are smallish, but clean and we don't spend much time there anyway! I was surprised when the Concierge remembered me from my previous visit!