Anyone been to London?
 

Anyone been to London?
I am thinking of staying over in London for a couple of days on my way home from Holland. Is it worth checking out?

Definitely.

recommend any hotels near the airport?

Hmm, no. Heathrow shouldn't be too bad, but hotels in London are quite expensive compared to many US cities.

they cant be more then 300-400$ US a night for a decent hotel can they
(I dont stay at motel 6's or holliday inns)

is heathrow in the city?
I want to stay at a hotel where I can walk to things so stuff has to be near like pubs and what nots...

I lived there for about five years but can't remember how far Heathrow was, it's out a bit though like 20-30 mins on the train I think from Victoria station.

Yes, you will get a very nice room for $300-400 even quite a bit less.

Wait a couple more hours for the Londoners to wake up and you might get some better advice. :winkwink:

thanks... any idea where Westminster is?
is it far from the airport?
there is a hotel across the street from big ben that sounds good

I really enjoyed London, for the most part. Got some of the worst fucken pizza I've ever eaten, on King's Road, though.

Don't stay in a hotel by the airport. Stay in the city.

Why do you want an hotel near the airport ? better take a cab there after you're done and get an hotel downtown...

thanks, I am looking at Marriott London County Hall, its in Westminster and is across the river from Big Ben

:1orglaugh

Hyped places seem to be like that! :winkwink:

england has some really great food :disgust

London is great, TONS of touristy things to see and do, and you havent lived until you can say you've got hammered in a British pub!

wait till sarah webinc is up and ask her. Heathrow is not very close to the center of london at all.

I plan to do that the first night, my plane arrives at heathrow at 9:30 pm, by 11pm I should be at the hotel and by midnight at a pub..if there is a close one :)

Westminster is very central, anywhere within the yellow "circle" line will be fine :thumbsup

Here's a big subway map aka "The London Underground" aka "The Tube"

http://www.oxfordtube.com/assets/lon...ground_map.jpg

cool, thanks ozman, I am trying to read up on london and where to stay, what to do and such, I dont think I have the guts to use the tube, will prolly stick to my feet or taxi's

Heathrow is way out of town, there is a tube (subway) but it would be a pain staying out that far.

Westminster is in the city, but I think the hotel you are thinking about is on the South side of the river. Its best to try to stay North of the river. You really dont get much for your money here, anywhere you stay - high end or low.

Things you must do include - The London Eye, Piss up in an English pub (try and find one thats not touristy), Victoria And Albert museum, National Gallery, Camden and Soho at night.

There are of course a million other attractions - Buckingham Palace, Westminster Palace, St Pauls, 100's of museums and galleries.

Find a good London tourist web site and tell it what your interests are - it will spit out a massive list of stuff to do. Come back here and me or someone else will tell you if it is worth it.

Im sure Sarah will have some ideas as well when she gets here. She may have something to say about my "south of the river" comment as well lol.

I will give you a tip.
Don't trust Cockneys.. They only want your money.
Go out to the provinces, Birmingham. Liverpool, Manchester.
Don't trust Cockney spivs.

This Cockney says BULLSHIT.

We are the nicest people you will ever meet :upsidedow

HUGE TIP: NEVER EAT ANYWHERE THAT CLAIMS TO BE 'AMERICAN STYLE' or similar such wording.

Damn straight they do. As long as you go to foreign restaurants. Great lebanese food amongst others.

Leave it out! You're joking innt ya? Know wot I mean? :1orglaugh

This made me laugh. :thumbsup

I run a serviced apartment company in London and I will be able to find you something very nice in one of the best areas.

I don't really want to give the company name on this board but you can email me privately if you're interested: funkmachine [at] gmail [dot] com.

Cheers.

London is pretty amazing. Go there like once per 2 months and theres always something to do and see. Its also top 10 most expensive cities so dont book a 50 bucks hotel youll get the worst of the worst.

Appartments are a nice way of avoiding high costs too plus Camden yes, cool area :)

Serviced means you dont have clean n all?

Venus, this is where we usually stay in london Renaissance Chancery Court and its excellent. Very convenient for Covent Garden, shops, resaurants and taxis (we never use the tube) and all of the London attractions are just a few minutes away by cab if you dont want to walk.

You don't ever want to stay at Heathrow unless it's a stop-over and you are flying out early the next morning.

Yeah london is great fun, only annoyance being a few tourist traps with high prices & low returns...

Camden and soho have great nigh life and camden is nice for a drink

yeah the hotdogs for instance - instant sickness and they charge like 10 bucks or so, even though they try to get them off the street ppl still buy there and get sick...

camden is cool, pub on the edge of the market is cool for a drink and food, relaxed ppl, its like youre in a totally different town... and I dig the Nutella and walnuts pancakes they sell there :)

That's right.

It's basically like a hotel, but you get around 20% more space for your money as the apartment building doesn't have to employ as many staff or provide a bar or restaurant. You also get your own kitchen, so you can prepare your own food if you want to.

Staying in a hotel tends to make people feel like a tourist but having your own apartment is more like a having a home away from home. Hotels are for n00bs :)

The apartments I provide are priced anywhere from £40 - £1000 per night. £100 per night will get you something totally decent. Price includes broadband access.

Whilst I'm spamming myself, I may as well mention that I deal also in investment properties in London. Most of the stuff on the market at present is overpriced crap but I do have a good one just on which will generate around 12% return per annum if anyone has got £2.2M kicking around doing nothing :)

If anyone is visiting London and wants a few pointers as to good places to eat or visit, then email me at funkmachine [at] gmail [dot] com. I'll help you out regardless of whether or not you take an apartment through me.

cool ill certainly email you next time, hotels in London are expensive and small like every big city. I like the townhouses, soho has some nice ones. Anyhow thanks for tip email noted :thumbsup

London is big time fun, especially if you speak English.

If you have a chance, explore even more of the country. The British have done an excellent job in preserving their culture, so there are some fantastic cultural places to vist throughout England.

I particularly enjoyed my stay on the coast in Whitby.

For sure, drop Sarah at WebInc a line as she probably posseses tons of info on out of the way fun things to do to make your trip memorable (I will surely look her up on my next trip to the UK).

Cheers,

ADG Webmaster

Liverpool? Just thieving scousers up there :upsidedow

Look forward to it.

I'll be able to get you a really nice flat in a Victorian townhouse on a quiet tree-lined street if that floats your boat.

I can also give you a few tips on the best strip bars/ pubs to visit if that's your thing :winkwink:

:1orglaugh If I were american I wouldn't dare travel to Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool... Glasgow on the other hand... [bwuhaha]

Heathrow is about 1 hour away from central london on the Tube, all the hotels are on a long strip with buses passing by every 5-10 minutes going to Hatton Cross [so you can get the Tube to London, don't even think about taking a taxi to central London unless you want to shell out £50-100 cause you'll be stuck in traffic for the majority of that time. I do suggest you stay in Hatton Cross/Feltham for as little time as possible, it's a cesspool of violence and decay.

For tourists i'm sure it's fun. As an ex-resident I can't say I enjoy London. :1orglaugh

Quite an interesting/funny thread for the brits amongst us.

I used to live there. It's a great place to visit, but it gets old to live there. The weather and food suck (except for the Chinese, which is way better than in the States).

do you really need to ask this?
I've never been to London and I can tell you, yes, it's worth checking out.

The food in London can be great if you make an effort to eat in decent places. Stick to McD's and greasy cafes and of course it's crap. The weather isn't actually that bad compared to some parts of the UK, especially the NW. But then it depends on your tatses - if you like to send the whole day sweating then there are far 'nicer' places to live weather wise. Enjoy a decent mix then there's FA wrong with it.

As for living there to be honest I miss it. I prefer the edge of the M25 to central London as you have some greenery and are still only 30 mins from the city but having spent all my childhood there it sort of grows on you.

Best answer yet :) Same can be said of NY, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Barcelona etc etc etc :)

Yeah, rent one of those short-term furnished apartments. I've done it before. Good times.

yeah check it out, hit up the pubs, get drunk, do some shopping, go to Fabric nightclub and have a dance, check out a soccer match, lots to do

Don't forget to shag a slapper, but watchout for mingers!

Bring a lot of cash. things are very expensive there. But I had a good time anyway.

Don't even consider staying in Heathrow - it's 20 miles from central London and is a dump, basically.

Anywhere in central London will be fine to stay in. Popular areas for hotels include Russell Square, Totteham Court Road, Holborn, South Kensington (more expensive). I imagine you'll be spending most of the time sightseeing from South Kensington across to Green Park, Bond Street, Oxford Circus, Leicester Square, Picadilly Circus, Westminster (in terms of tube stops - useful landmarks even if you don't travel by tube).

I live about 400 yards from the Marriot you mention overlooking Westminster (I actually have a spare room too heh). I have a nice view of the river and The Houses of Parliament (being South of the River isn't anywhere near as bad as it used to be 30 years ago). This area is known as the South Bank and is pretty nice, but I'd suggest you look at somewhere vaguely in the centre of the areas you're likely to sightsee; that way you can easily walk from one thing to the next (taxis aren't expensive - figure on spending the equivalent of $12-$25 when getting from A to B, but walking is a good way to get around in town. I walk everywhere).

The Covent Garden Hotel in Monmouth Street is very nice - it's not cheap, but good value for the money. London is a bit like NYC in terms of hotels - most of them are expensive, and not very nice at all.

Food is expensive if you want to eat well. Best place to eat is Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, though you're looking at about $200 a head. You can have a great value Sunday lunch at the Savoy (about $40 + wine), a bit of an undiscovered secret for the majority of Londoners. There's a cool wine cellar bar called Gordon's near Embankment tube. Musty, cheap and full of character.

Take a boat from Westminster to Greenwich - takes about an hour. Nice way to see London (from the river). The big wheel is quite good. There are tour buses which seem a bit cheesy, but are actually good too. If you like musicals (I don't), shows are about half the price of Broadway.

Mark

yes its boring