We are planning a trip to London in March. The trip has been arranged through a travel agent, so we have little leeway in hotels. They generally book with Thistle Hotels, but we could pick which one. I have visited London before but don't have a sense of where we would like to be. We want to visit museums and shops and are not wary of using the tube. Would appreciate any input on which Thistle is best!

Since I don't know where the various Thistle properties are it's hard to recommend a specific hotel.
Generally for areas Mayfair is very convenient and popular; South Kensington is where I usually stay and is very convenient for museums and tube.

My favorite cental London Thistle is the Royal Horseguards. It is in a terrific location and right next to the river.

The other Thistle properties I would consider depending on the budget, would be Charing Cross, Trafalgar Square, Bloomsbury, Victoria, Westminster, Piccadilly and maybe Marble Arch. I'd be happy to stay in any of these.

Other nice properties - like the Tower Thistle or the ones in Bayswater and Kensington are just not in as convenient locations.

I have not stayed at them but stayed close to two of them. One is at Marble Arch..it's a tube stop and right at the beginning of Oxford Street..close to Hyde Park and Edgeware Rd. The other is on Bayswater Rd. I'm trying to picture a map...it's further west of Marble Arch..fairly close to the Nottinghill area if I'm not mistaken. We went by it on the way to Lancaster Terrace which is in the same general area. I think there are other properties that are a little bit closer to the sites but I found that is was really pretty convenient getting in and out of the area with the tube, the bus stops were all close and the hop-on hop-off buses all stop in the area. I think Marble Arch was a big stop for the hop-on hop-offs. Others can probably give better info than I.

jon,
we had stayed twice at thistle hotels in London,we are very please with the service and the rooms.
We stayed at the Victoria,very convenient because we were arrivig at Gatwick airport and the train station is just behind with a connecting door to the hotel,we stayed last time at the Picadilly,just across Leicester square,very convenient to get discount theater tickets and to walk everywhere around the area,very lively indeed,and to get to the tube.

Jon

We stayed at the Tower thistle hotel which is right beside the Tower Bridge. The location was great with a few restaurants in the area and walking distance to the Tube. This is a large hotel, the service was great, room was large it even had a pant presser on the door. Overall a great area.

Clea

I stayed at the Trafalgar Thistle which is practically next door to the National Gallery. Just a few short blocks to Covent Gardens, Leicester Square, theatres, etc. It is a smaller property which I appreciated. I recommend it.

Stayed at the Thistle Kensington Palace, and the Thistle Kensington Park is next door. We had a great room overlooking Kensington Palace. This is my preferred location in London. Kensington High Street and Gloucester Road Tube stops are about equidistant from these hotels.

I have stayed at Thistle Royal Horse Guards, Thistle Victoria, Thistle Charing Cross and Thistle Trafalgar Square, several times at Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square.

For location, as CC,TS and RHG are all within few hundred yards of each other, to me, this is the most centre,convenient area for sightseeing,museums, concerts and theatres. Thistle victoria is all right, but not really convenient for sightseeing on foot.

However, CC is the best for taking bus, as many bus stops are right in the front,besides it is next to train station. For Traveling by tube, RHS is better, only few hundred meters from Embankment Station (if from heathrow, you would have to change train at Hammersmith), besides, it is almost at the foot of Hungerford footbridge, easy access for South Bank.
For theatres and budget meals around Chinatown, TS is a bit closer, besides within 5 minutes walk from Leicester Square Tube(Picadilly Line), if you are coming from Heathrow.

Among these three hotels, from my lastest experiences(September, October and November 2004), CC has the nicest rooms and bathroom facilities, most spacious breakfast room. In RHS, it is the quietest in the night, has the granest public area; but the room is a bit faded. In TS, the rooms are OK and functional, but public area is cramp and dark; however, ususal they offer the best deals.

The buffet breakfasts are almost identical among all of them; except CC offer more fresh fruit and better bread.

While I can't compare it to other Thistle hotels, we stayed at the Trafalgar Square one last year and it was a terrific location. Short walk to theatres and lots of restaurants in Covent Garden. Just about every bus line in every direction stops at Trafalgar Square, plus of course the tube. The room was small but not so tiny that we were uncomfortable. Bathroom was not huge but was a decent size with full bathtub/shower. Although the public areas are not large, I have to say that I did not find them cramped and certainly not dark. Buffet breakfast had just about anything you could want. Hope this helps.

Hi, We stayed at the TS Thistle in October and it was just fine, but we saw the CHarring Cross Thistle and it looked much nicer. The neighborhoods are very close and both are great for sightseeing and transportation. We also went into a Thistle down the street from Harrods, but I don't know which one it was. It also was much nicer looking then ours. If you can pick any of them, why not pick the nicest? Have fun.

The site www.milesfaster.co.uk/thistle-hotels-london.htm lists Thistle hotels, with short notes. There are underground and tube maps at http://www.afn.org/~alplatt/tube.html/
and http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/pdfdocs/colormap.pdf/. For museums I would pick a hotel on the District and Circle line, to take you fast to the South Kensington museums (Victoria and Albert, Science, and Natural History), to the display of court dress in Kensington Palace, the royal coaches in the mews of Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Somerset House, the Tate Modern, and the Tower. That means three a short bus ride from the shops
Thistle Charing Cross
The Strand, London, WC2N 5HX
Charing Cross and Embankment tube
Thistle Trafalgar square
Whitcomb Street, London, WC2H 7HG
Trafalgar Square, and Charing Cross tube
Thistle Royal Horseguards Hotel
2 Whitehall Court, London, SW1A 2EJ
Westminster and Embankment tube
And two a short tube trip from the shops
Thistle Victoria
Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1
Victoria
Thistle Westminster
Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1 0QT
Victoria
Over five years I have collected views of Fodors forum readers on these hotels, and I can gladly send them to you if you e mail me. I am pleased to see that I choose just as Janis does.

For shopping and a quick bus or tube run to the British Museum I would choose

Cumberland Hotel
Marble Arch, London, W1A 4RF
Marble Arch and Oxford Street

Thistle Marble Arch
Bryanston street, London, W1H 7EH
Marble Arch

Thistle Piccadilly
Coventry Street, London, W1D 6BZ
Piccadilly Circus

Thistle Selfridge
Orchard street, London, W1H 6JS
Marble Arch and Oxford Street

Like Thistle Victoria, Thistle Charing Cross is a railway hotel, built by the railway line for passengers from Paris, Kent, and Sussex. From Gatwick you take a Thameslink train to London Bridge. There you leave the train, wait on the same platform, and take the next train, which goes to Charing Cross. You release a luggage trolley with a refundable pound coin, leave the station, turn right, and in the station yard 20 yards away find the entry to the hotel. You can push your trolley to reception, and ask staff to take it back to its place. But I think you are right to think of ease of access to shops and museums, where you go often, rather than to airports, where you go once.

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I am so glad to read positive things about theTthistle Trafalgar Square. We are booked there in Feb and I am indulging in one of my favorte pre trip activities...second guessing myself!