Woo hoo! Spring break in London!
Apr 14th, 2009, 11:18 AM
#1
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Woo hoo! Spring break in London!
Where: London, obviously.
Who: Myself (mother of two, professional, travels a lot for work), Son (18-year-old, last time he’ll have spring break that coincides with his younger sister’s), Daughter (15-year-old, altogether delighted that her future spring breaks probably won't coincide with her brother’s).
When: Spring break for public schools here in Atlanta, the week right before Easter.
Why: Well, Cancun just isn’t going to happen for me, ever, and particularly not over spring break. London was the kids’ choice. They’d been before and chose it over numerous other European destinations, some old and some new.
Who: Myself (mother of two, professional, travels a lot for work), Son (18-year-old, last time he’ll have spring break that coincides with his younger sister’s), Daughter (15-year-old, altogether delighted that her future spring breaks probably won't coincide with her brother’s).
When: Spring break for public schools here in Atlanta, the week right before Easter.
Why: Well, Cancun just isn’t going to happen for me, ever, and particularly not over spring break. London was the kids’ choice. They’d been before and chose it over numerous other European destinations, some old and some new.
Apr 14th, 2009, 11:39 AM
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Thanks, Jamie. I'm enjoying your report of your trip over Easter, though I will admit to being a bit perplexed initially: children? What children?
(and for those of you who are in turn perplexed by this reference, click on jamikins to see the report and read about the little darlings)
(and for those of you who are in turn perplexed by this reference, click on jamikins to see the report and read about the little darlings)
Apr 14th, 2009, 11:59 AM
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Advance planning:
Truth be told, not much. I was finishing up the year's schedule for work and realized that I was unexpectedly going to be able to take the week in question off. Normally this week is the subject of pretty intense competition, as my colleagues and I all have school-age children, and I'd taken it the previous year (in Amsterdam, on a house boat, very cool). So there I was, sitting in front of the computer, and so decided to plug the dates into delta.com's award availability calendar. I tried Paris first and was a bit shocked to see that my exact dates were available at the lowest rate. I then checked a few more destinations and all were available.
So I called a family conference, by which I mean that I called into the next room where the children were both watching some rubbish on the TV:
"Hey, do you want to go to Europe for spring break?"
"Uh, sure."
"Where would you like to go?"
"Uh, wherever."
"Well, what about Paris?"
A bit more yelling back and forth and we'd settled on London. The next stage actually required that I walk upstairs, where my husband was staring at his own computer screen.
"Do you want to go to London with us on spring break?"
"No, not really."
"Would you like to go somewhere else?"
"No, not really."
So, that was settled, and I booked our tickets. Direct flights ATL-LGW at 7:40 PM Friday (so I'd be going directly from work), return not quite so direct, LGW-CVG-ATL, departing mid-morning the next Sunday (Easter Sunday, in fact).
Truth be told, not much. I was finishing up the year's schedule for work and realized that I was unexpectedly going to be able to take the week in question off. Normally this week is the subject of pretty intense competition, as my colleagues and I all have school-age children, and I'd taken it the previous year (in Amsterdam, on a house boat, very cool). So there I was, sitting in front of the computer, and so decided to plug the dates into delta.com's award availability calendar. I tried Paris first and was a bit shocked to see that my exact dates were available at the lowest rate. I then checked a few more destinations and all were available.
So I called a family conference, by which I mean that I called into the next room where the children were both watching some rubbish on the TV:
"Hey, do you want to go to Europe for spring break?"
"Uh, sure."
"Where would you like to go?"
"Uh, wherever."
"Well, what about Paris?"
A bit more yelling back and forth and we'd settled on London. The next stage actually required that I walk upstairs, where my husband was staring at his own computer screen.
"Do you want to go to London with us on spring break?"
"No, not really."
"Would you like to go somewhere else?"
"No, not really."
So, that was settled, and I booked our tickets. Direct flights ATL-LGW at 7:40 PM Friday (so I'd be going directly from work), return not quite so direct, LGW-CVG-ATL, departing mid-morning the next Sunday (Easter Sunday, in fact).
Apr 14th, 2009, 12:34 PM
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Lodging:
Seems like I always end up in the same neighborhood in London, South Kensington. It's certainly a very nice place: reasonably posh, reasonably safe, reasonably central, very good transit access. Probably the think that I like least about it is that it's so very popular with tourists, so popular that one is hard-pressed to hear English spoken at all. Lots of French, lots of Italian, lots of Spanish, but very little English. Oh well.
I did end up choosing an apartment (with some input from Fodor-ites, so thank you very much) at the south end of this neighborhood, so almost Chelsea. Given that it was already February and I was looking at a pretty popular travel week my choice was limited. I enlisted my daughter's assistance in choosing among 15 or so properties that various agencies were able to suggest, and we used the following criteria:
Sleeping arrangements: ideally three separate bedrooms, but I wasn't going to be able to afford that unless we stayed farther out. Kids absolutely didn't want to be in the same bed (and who could blame them?) and I didn't much want to be in the same bed with my daughter.
Washing machine: ideally in the apartment, though in the building would be okay.
Internet access: very, very desirable
Distance to closest tube station: over 10 minutes walk less than ideal, particularly if we ended up with windy wet weather
General attractiveness of property: difficult to define, but mostly to do with the quality of the furnishings and the amount of natural light
Daughter set up a little grid and we went through the various properties and agreed that this property looked best:
http://www.aplacelikehome.co.uk/prop...t=propertylist
Seems like I always end up in the same neighborhood in London, South Kensington. It's certainly a very nice place: reasonably posh, reasonably safe, reasonably central, very good transit access. Probably the think that I like least about it is that it's so very popular with tourists, so popular that one is hard-pressed to hear English spoken at all. Lots of French, lots of Italian, lots of Spanish, but very little English. Oh well.
I did end up choosing an apartment (with some input from Fodor-ites, so thank you very much) at the south end of this neighborhood, so almost Chelsea. Given that it was already February and I was looking at a pretty popular travel week my choice was limited. I enlisted my daughter's assistance in choosing among 15 or so properties that various agencies were able to suggest, and we used the following criteria:
Sleeping arrangements: ideally three separate bedrooms, but I wasn't going to be able to afford that unless we stayed farther out. Kids absolutely didn't want to be in the same bed (and who could blame them?) and I didn't much want to be in the same bed with my daughter.
Washing machine: ideally in the apartment, though in the building would be okay.
Internet access: very, very desirable
Distance to closest tube station: over 10 minutes walk less than ideal, particularly if we ended up with windy wet weather
General attractiveness of property: difficult to define, but mostly to do with the quality of the furnishings and the amount of natural light
Daughter set up a little grid and we went through the various properties and agreed that this property looked best:
http://www.aplacelikehome.co.uk/prop...t=propertylist
Apr 14th, 2009, 01:03 PM
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If you look at the apartment you'll see that it wasn't absolutely perfect, as the children are still sleeping in the same room (the downstairs room with two blue divans, each of which folds into it's own full-size bed) and in fact it's longer than 10 minutes to the nearest tube station (either Gloucester Road or South Kensington---this fact assumes rather more significance later in this report). No internet listed either, but when I asked about it the agency said that the owners would install it before our arrival.
On the positive side, the apartment was large overall, with good separation between various living areas, including a large eat-in kitchen and a separate bathroom for me. Good proximity to a couple of small groceries, and a bus stop just around the corner (more foreshadowing). Semi-ground floor, but very large windows with correspondingly good natural light. Careful inspection on seety and google maps shows no commercial development on the street (Drayton Gardens) whatsover.
So I booked, and started thinking about other details.
On the positive side, the apartment was large overall, with good separation between various living areas, including a large eat-in kitchen and a separate bathroom for me. Good proximity to a couple of small groceries, and a bus stop just around the corner (more foreshadowing). Semi-ground floor, but very large windows with correspondingly good natural light. Careful inspection on seety and google maps shows no commercial development on the street (Drayton Gardens) whatsover.
So I booked, and started thinking about other details.
Apr 14th, 2009, 03:39 PM
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Along for the ride indeed, stokebailey. Perfect segue to my next topic, ground transportation.
Within this category falls transit from and to the airport, as well as trips within London. I'm a big fan of public transportation for lots of reasons: better for the environment, better for your brain (since you have to think about it), better for your sense of community (because you have to share space with others), and easier on your wallet. I'm especially keen on making sure my kids understand it, and understand how best to take advantage of it.
Airport transfers in London are generally quite easy to do via public transportation, and at considerable savings over, say, a taxi. Gatwick is served by the Gatwick Express and Southern Railway, with Gatwick Express charging a bit more (16.90 GBP vs 10.90 GPB for a one way ticket). Both give discounts if you purchase round trip tickets, and both have discounts for groups (4-for-2 on Gatwick Express, DaySave on Southern). Since we'd be traveling off-peak I chose the DaySave option, requiring that I order the tickets on line in advance. The tickets were mailed directly to my home here in Atlanta, so not only were they cheaper, but I didn't have to bother with purchasing them after my arrival.
So by way of comparison, round trip car transfer arranged by the apartment rental agency would have been 140 GBP, whereas via Southern was 40 GBP (plus the cost of the tube + the walk from the tube station). Not a huge difference, but enough.
Within this category falls transit from and to the airport, as well as trips within London. I'm a big fan of public transportation for lots of reasons: better for the environment, better for your brain (since you have to think about it), better for your sense of community (because you have to share space with others), and easier on your wallet. I'm especially keen on making sure my kids understand it, and understand how best to take advantage of it.
Airport transfers in London are generally quite easy to do via public transportation, and at considerable savings over, say, a taxi. Gatwick is served by the Gatwick Express and Southern Railway, with Gatwick Express charging a bit more (16.90 GBP vs 10.90 GPB for a one way ticket). Both give discounts if you purchase round trip tickets, and both have discounts for groups (4-for-2 on Gatwick Express, DaySave on Southern). Since we'd be traveling off-peak I chose the DaySave option, requiring that I order the tickets on line in advance. The tickets were mailed directly to my home here in Atlanta, so not only were they cheaper, but I didn't have to bother with purchasing them after my arrival.
So by way of comparison, round trip car transfer arranged by the apartment rental agency would have been 140 GBP, whereas via Southern was 40 GBP (plus the cost of the tube + the walk from the tube station). Not a huge difference, but enough.
Apr 14th, 2009, 04:03 PM
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Into each life some rain must fall, and my delight with the airport transfer was tempered somewhat by my failure to obtain a Zip card for my daughter. What, you ask, is a Zip card? Well, it's an Oyster card and photo ID together, and the holder of this card is entitled to ride buses and trams absolutely free and gets the child rate for other London public transport. In the case of off-peak travel that's capped at 1 GBP per day.
But there's a catch, and the catch is that you have to order the card on line (using a digital photo) at least three weeks in advance of your pick-up date. Hardly difficult, you say, but that's because you haven't met my daughter: camera shy does not even begin to describe her, particularly when the person taking the photo is either of her parents. So I've got scores of pictures of her turning her head quite rapidly away from the camera, and not a single one of them will serve the purposes of the good people at Transport for London.
She is, by the way, lovely, and one day will look back with regret at her reluctance to document her loveliness at this point in her life, but never mind that for now. It's a photo that I need, and quickly. So I ask her for one pretty much every day, explaining to her that it will save money and make things much more convenient for everybody, and she does, finally, email me a picture. Unfortunately it is now less than three weeks to the beginning of our trip, so never mind again. She will come to realize the error of her ways, and rather sooner than she expects.
But there's a catch, and the catch is that you have to order the card on line (using a digital photo) at least three weeks in advance of your pick-up date. Hardly difficult, you say, but that's because you haven't met my daughter: camera shy does not even begin to describe her, particularly when the person taking the photo is either of her parents. So I've got scores of pictures of her turning her head quite rapidly away from the camera, and not a single one of them will serve the purposes of the good people at Transport for London.
She is, by the way, lovely, and one day will look back with regret at her reluctance to document her loveliness at this point in her life, but never mind that for now. It's a photo that I need, and quickly. So I ask her for one pretty much every day, explaining to her that it will save money and make things much more convenient for everybody, and she does, finally, email me a picture. Unfortunately it is now less than three weeks to the beginning of our trip, so never mind again. She will come to realize the error of her ways, and rather sooner than she expects.
Apr 14th, 2009, 05:21 PM
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Love this report, sounds like my somewhat dysfunctional household with conversations echoing room to room. I emailed my daughter from the study to her bedroom the other day, guaranteed to get a quicker response!
Apr 15th, 2009, 07:05 AM
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Thanks for all the encouragement. It's fun to write these reports and fun to get feedback as well. I've gleaned all sorts of great tips from others' reports over the years and hope that I'll have some to share.
As for my husband saying that he'd rather not take the trip, well, different strokes for different folks. I still remember the first time I told him (years ago, over dinner in a Thai restaurant) that I thought we might want to consider taking separate vacations some of the time. He was the one taken aback then, but once we did finally realize that it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do it actually relieved some stress in our marriage: his idea of a vacation does not involve jet lag and foreign languages, and my idea of a vacation does not involve long car rides punctuated by single night stays in roadside motels. Or camping.
Both of us compromise: he went to Amsterdam with us last spring break, and Stresa the summer before that, and I spent a week rafting and hiking the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho last summer, and planned the third stop on a 'round the world itinerary in January so that he could easily join me.
The kids are the real winners, as they go on nearly twice as many vacations as they would if we all traveled together all the time.
As for my husband saying that he'd rather not take the trip, well, different strokes for different folks. I still remember the first time I told him (years ago, over dinner in a Thai restaurant) that I thought we might want to consider taking separate vacations some of the time. He was the one taken aback then, but once we did finally realize that it was a perfectly reasonable thing to do it actually relieved some stress in our marriage: his idea of a vacation does not involve jet lag and foreign languages, and my idea of a vacation does not involve long car rides punctuated by single night stays in roadside motels. Or camping.
Both of us compromise: he went to Amsterdam with us last spring break, and Stresa the summer before that, and I spent a week rafting and hiking the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho last summer, and planned the third stop on a 'round the world itinerary in January so that he could easily join me.
The kids are the real winners, as they go on nearly twice as many vacations as they would if we all traveled together all the time.
Apr 15th, 2009, 07:43 AM
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I agree very strongly, Therese. In fact, that was pretty much the idea behind my son's essay for his college apps! (Both the mind broadening and his appreciation.)
However, I suspect HappyCheesehead may have meant something more along the lines of being surprised that your husband would turn down the chance for a trip. Though I know I really shouldn't try to speak for someone else!
However, I suspect HappyCheesehead may have meant something more along the lines of being surprised that your husband would turn down the chance for a trip. Though I know I really shouldn't try to speak for someone else!
