It's off to London

My wife and I are planning to spend two weeks in and around England next June. We're planning to stay in London for a week to see the sights and use it as a base for day trips to the countryside. We have had good luck with AirBnB in the past. Can anyone recommend some good neighborhoods to consider - as well as some to stay away from. It's been 45+ years since I've been to London. Thanks.

You will find London room prices ridiculous (though as I see you are from NY, maybe not as shocking to you as others). It is unlikely that you will get a room in anything other than very basic accommodation for less than £200 (£ not $) per night in a reasonable, safe area. I would suggest staying further out and taking day trips into town, rather than the other way around. Within an hour train travel of London you can be in some beautiful countryside from almost any direction, still with historic sites to see.

Remember that wherever you are in central London you will need to use buses and/or tubes and each journey is likely to be in the region of half an hour, especially some of the tubes.

A good way to be around London is to use the visitor buses. You pay for 24 hours and can get on and off as often as you wish, somewhere takes your fancy to see at closer quarters, just get off and enjoy the sights, get on a later bus. They cover just about everywhere you want to visit. Current costs are about £15 per person and tickets last 24 hours, so buy a ticket at 11am one day, get up early the next and you're still good til 11. If you do stay in London itself I would recommend staying away from Earls Court, Bayswater, Soho and most of the east.

Enjoy your trip to England, but unless you only want to see a large city, please remember that there is an awful lot more to England away from London, as there is US to NY.

I'm not a London expert by any means, but did visit this past summer (wrapped around a trip to Croatia). On the first part of our trip, we stayed in an apartment in Marleybone on Baker Street (just off the Marleybone Road). We were walking distance to restaurants, shops, Regents Park, and the Baker Street underground stop.

On the other leg of our stay, we stayed in a hotel ($$$$) in Mayfair. Expensive, but walking distance to Green Park, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, etc. etc. I would think that the nearby neighborhoods (Chelsea, Kensington, Belgravia) would also be good places to stay.

I just did a quick Google search and the second place it came up with was somewhere that we had the misfortune to stay at a few years back. At the time it charged more than it does now (well under £100) . As I had arrived there alone whilst my husband was at a conference I had no alternative but to stay there. There was no lock on the door, a single light bulb dangling from the ceiling, no shade on it, no window coverings, the 'table' was an unworking fridge, breakfast was of the cheapest possible ingredients. Needless to stay we only stayed one night, not the three we had booked. The staff were not at all surprised that we didn't want to stay longer!

Just saying: buyer beware!! Not all places are like this, but from other stuff I hear, quite a few are. If it is cheap, question why.

Salica - Thanks for your advice about staying outside of London. Some of the Airbnb places in London look decent and reasonable in cost (about 150 pounds/night). However, your advice is to stay outside London is appealing. Can you recommend some areas outside of London to consider and use as a base for day trips into London?

Certainly. This is going to be my personal taste though and areas I tend to know better, so somewhat biased! Ideally you need to look outside the M25 which is a motorway that basically encircles London, but somewhere with good rail connections into town (aka London). You would need to be further out, west, than Heathrow, which is very overdeveloped with housing, but it's not so bad around Gatwick airport if you are using that as your arrival hub.

I would look towards Surrey or Hampshire to the south /west or towards the Cotswolds (Gloucestershire) to the west. I love the New Forest area (south Hampshire) and the cities of Winchester or Salisbury. Oxford is also within the range. I don't know too much about north and east of London.

The three towns I have mentioned are all fabulous with loads to see. Real England with glorious country side on the doorstep. If you have been to UK before you have probably 'done' Bath. Lovely but way too touristy these days.

Hope this helps, or maybe hinders!! Please ask away if I can be of more assistance. I'm not much good geographically north of Birmingham or east of London, but know the south and west of England well.

I'm pretty sure I have looked at every single airbnb in London over the last 3 days!!! We are doing a long layover after our Croatia trip in June. We also ended up in an apartment on Baker street in the Marylebonne area, could it possibly be the same as Eva's??

My friends in London also suggested Kensington, Knightsbridge and Marble Arch areas. We have booked Airbnb for our stays in Split and Dubrovnik as well. So far good luck with all of them!

If you're staying at York Place Mansions (117 Baker Street), it will be the same place we stayed. Comfortable and convenient!

If you are staying at the place Eva recommends, great. Otherwise, be very careful. Airbnb does not have a particularly good reputation in London where there are very few genuine bed and breakfast establishments. A lot of people have jumped on this bandwagon offer ending rooms in their homes, but this is totally unregulated. You may be very lucky and get a truly genuine family who give you a fabulous experience, but you may also get a totally unforgettable experience for totally different reasons. My son lives in London and says this is often in local press. If somewhere seems too cheap, it is probably for a good reason. Buyer beware. The Premier Inn, County Hall, right by the London Eye apparently does a decent level of accommodation at cheapest prices you are likely to get., it's a well known British chain. Very central location.
Good luck.

Appreciate the info. We are at a different place from Eva but were careful to only book a place that had quite a bit of feedback, we went right past the ones with no feedback left at all. Sadly, the place we booked isn't "too cheap" but better than any hotel I could find (that I would want to stay in). Fingers crossed! I'll be sure to post a trip report!

I am an expat in London for 9 months. Serviced apartments are an option too but also not inexpensive. I would stay in London as easier to get to the sites via underground, bus, walking or overground trains. We are in Islington which is nice and close to the Angel tube stop on the Northern line. We often just walk into the city as most places are two miles or less from here. Lots of fantastic markets for shopping and food in London. Other nearby paces via train are Bath, Bournemouth, and Brighton. Lots more we haven't seen!

Cheers,

Marcia

Eva, do you remember the name of the Mayfair hotel? We are going to have 2 days in London prior to a Greek island cruise and are looking for something that will be convenient for walking to main sites. Thank you. Beth

We stayed at the Athenaeum on Piccadilly Street -- it's right across the street from Green Park, a block away from the Green Park underground station, and walking distance to a lot of major attractions. Just try to avoid the townhouse rooms. I blogged about our trip starting here: Calypso's Odyssey Blog

Thank you very much