London Overnighter - Early December

London Overnighter - Early December

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Discussion

Muskythedog

Original Poster:

1,970 posts

112 months

Thursday 27th August 2015
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Hi all, we (myself, partner and 9 year old boy) and in the process of organising a trip to London in early December. We aren't yet decided on wether or not to go on the train from Wakefield or take the car and look for parking in/around London, we are planning on having a look round on Friday dinner time onwards and then going to a show on Friday night. We ideally want to stay walking distance from the Covent Garden type area and have a budget for a hotel of around £200 ish for the hotel but could go a bit higher if we had to.

We are planning on going the London Eye and then splitting up for the London Dungeon and Sealife Centre on the Saturday (we have Merlin passes so can get entry) then making our way home Saturday evening. Does anybody have any recommendations or tips for us that may help us with the parking/hotel/eating out/anything else please? Mainly hotel advice needed really, are we asking much to get something nice enough in this area for this sort of money?

Thanks in advance

brickwall

5,192 posts

209 months

Monday 31st August 2015
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Central London hotels are really expensive. You could save some money by:
- Using Hotwire.com or another anonymous booking engine
- Staying a little further out - even going out towards Chelsea things are cheaper than Westminster/Piccadilly
- AirBnB - there seem to be plenty of pleasant places in good locations for £200ish

Restaurants - SquareMeal is pretty reliable for working out something good in the right area/price range. I'd look for things with at least 1 'Squaremeal star'

johnfm

13,668 posts

249 months

Monday 31st August 2015
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Marriot County Hall - though might be a bit over your budget. They do family rooms too.

numtumfutunch

4,705 posts

137 months

Monday 31st August 2015
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Totally take the train, although if you buy a December ticket now it will be ££££££ so wait a little longer

You should be able to get return tickets for the 3 of you for well under £100, it may even be worth buying a family railcard just for the one trip to get the discount and still save overall

The M1 traffic on a Friday is mostly going in the opposite direction
It will be OK until you hit the M25 when it becomes rather more random, plus if youre a northerner like me it will just then be a bit scary smile

I recently stayed in the Novotel at Southwark bridge for a lot less than £200 inc brekkie via hotels.com
The room was good, breakfast buffet great and the room rate actually better than the Premier Inn at Kings X

As snobby as I was about 'Sarf of the River' when I lived in London the location was brilliant
Borough market has changed beyond recognition and is now a cool foodie place and you have all of the big stuff like Tower Bridge, the Shard and HMS Belfast on your doorstep

Get an Oyster card before you go and you can be in Covent Garden on the tube pretty quickly too

Good luck


thebraketester

14,193 posts

137 months

Monday 31st August 2015
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What type of food do you like? There are loads of great places I can recommend.

TwigtheWonderkid

43,248 posts

149 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
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numtumfutunch said:
Get an Oyster card before you go and you can be in Covent Garden on the tube pretty quickly too
Not required if you have a new style "contactless" debit or credit card.

megaphone

10,696 posts

250 months

Tuesday 1st September 2015
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Have a look at the YHA, they do family rooms, clean and cheap, http://www.yha.org.uk/places-to-stay/london

You can always park on the outskirts of London and get the train in. Avoid driving into the centre unless you know hat you're doing.