what part of london to stay in???
 

I am planning a trip to London this fall. I would like to try and get a room on Priceline but have no idea what parts of town to narrow my selections. We will be doing the traditional touristy types of excursions and plan to walk and use public transport.. Any suggestions?????

IMO, it really doesn't matter because you can get on the underground and go everywhere. We stayed in Marleybone, which is way off the main drag, but we were one block from the underground and got everywhere in no time.

There are no really bad parts of London, although the areas in the immediate vicinity of the train stations are tawdry.<BR> I have stayed in Notting Hill and Bloomsbury; each was interesting in its own way.<BR> Since London is such an interesting city to walk in, and its transportation system is so good (when it's working)it doesn't really matter where you stay.<BR>

Have stayed in Kensington and Belgravia area and they are exceptionally nice.<BR><BR>Would agree that all of London is connected extremely well with public transportaiton.<BR><BR>Last trip we stayed in Windsor Slough area at the Marriott Courtyard.(About 20 miles from center of London) <BR><BR>Why?...free with Marriott points and less points than downtown London Marriott. We just took the train in morning and night (had a Britrail pass)...excellent train, subway, bus and taxi services.<BR><BR>US

Personnly, I perfer to stay around Victoria simply because it's inexpensive. We just stayed there in May and paid 59 GBP a night en-suite with a full english included.

I was in London for five days recently on a trip around Europe. I stayed in an area known as Euston. It, like everywhere in London, had an underground station, so I was anywhere I wanted to be within a matter of minutes. Euston was a nice area, not a tourist place at all, mostly locals and a high number of Indian immigrents. You will have a blast in London, it was my favourite place in Europe (except Ireland!!!)

We go to London frequently, no matter where you stay you will not be close to every single sight anyway so don't worry too much about that aspect of it. There are tube stops pretty much convenient to everything so the area you stay in is not that big a deal transportation wise. The tube is fast (most of the time) and buses are convenient too, plus you can actually see something while riding them.

just stayed at georgian house hotel in the victoria station area, nice clean, quiet and 66pounds a night for a double. do a search for it on the site as its been taled of before - web site is http://www.georgianhousehotel.co.uk/<BR>the rooms aren't fany but breakfast is included and the area is nice and close to the tube. i would stay there again.<BR><BR>good luck!

Honestly Cathy, was that really necessary? There are a high number of Indians, Pakistanis, and African English (I guess that's politically correct) but that doesn't really matter now does it. Everyone I met in London were extreamly nice and helpful to me, esp. the Indian and Pak. immigrents.

Maybe GB is overrun with the paks because the limeys overran Pakistan and India? Just a thought...

I second Kensington.

I like Bloomsbury. It's central, and not as crowded as South Kensington or Victoria. There are many nice, small, inexpensive hotels as well as some more upscale places. It's also very convenient for tube stations, and walking distance to much of the theatre district.

Jodi,<BR><BR>I looked at Priceline's London "areas" and they are pretty broad. I'd normally recommend that someone stay in a very central area like Mayfair or central Westminster. But on Priceline, "Mayfair/Soho" combines the high rent district of Mayfair with some seedy areas in Soho, and some in-between spots too. The Priceline "Westminster" area, similarly covers a lot of real estate, but seems to center around Victoria rail station, going all the way to Pimilico in the south and almost to Waterloo station in the east. Those are vastly different areas.<BR><BR>Bottom line: I'm not sure how much you can control about where you'll stay if you use Priceline. If location is important to you then maybe another booking method would work better. <BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>

Jod, I have a small B&B I usually use over in the Baker Street tube area, so I'm used to hanging out there. If I can suggest another way to go at this, try a book! (Reading, the old-fashioned method.) I recommend Sandra Gustafson's "Great Sleeps in London", now in its fifth edition. You can find it at your library. She describes different areas of the city, and then lists hotels that she's investigated. ***