Weekend in London

funkyphantom

funkyphantom

funkyphantom

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Joined
4 Oct 2004
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1,277
Hi,
It's our 10th wedding anniversary in August. Neither of us have visited London before, we came close once but I had to go into hospital the night before so unfortunately we had to cancel the trip.
Would be traveling on the 8th of August staying overnight.
Some suggestions on a nice romantic hotel would be fantastic. Budget would be around £200 mark. Also I would like suggestions on what we could do at night. I would like a nice romantic meal included, although this could be added to hotel price if we dined in hotel. Also something to do afterwards at night time. Nice bar or some other entertainment like a show?
Also, suggestions on travel from Stoke on trent. If I travel down by car how would parking be? Would I need to pay congestion charge etc etc? Is it best to travel by train?
Thanks
 
£200 for both nights hotel wise?

You won't get a 'romantic' Central London hotel for £200 for the weekend. Infact in terms of Central London you are unlikely to get a Premier Inn for that budget. You are going to need to consider staying further out and getting the train in, or increasing your budget considerably.
 
Sorry just for the Saturday night mate. Would like to arrive sat afternoon, check in to hotel stay over night. Do all day in London Sunday come home Sunday evening.
 
In which case is there any point spending £200+ on a 'nice' hotel if you are there for such a short time? It seems like you have plenty of good plans which will mean you'll arrive back at the hotel at midnight or later and be out again for more things to see first thing. Where is the £200 value there? I'd be tempted to pick a reasonable Premier Inn or something and spend the saving on more stuff to do.

Premier Inn London City (Tower Hill) on say 16th August is £79 at the Saver rate - near Fenchurch Street.

That leaves you with £120 extra to spend on fine dining, or better shows, or whatever.
 
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Fair point I guess. Never thought I could get a room so cheap in central London. Would you recommend driving and parking in London or getting a train down? I'd much rather drive if parking is easy to find because we wouldn't be on any time limit to come back.
 
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If you are staying in central London, get the train - it'll be much less hassle, probably quicker and the parking charges in the centre of London will be huge.
 
[TW]Fox;28141246 said:
In which case is there any point spending £200+ on a 'nice' hotel if you are there for such a short time? .
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Only for bonus points with missus :)


For one night only there's plenty of reasonably priced hotels , the further away from the centre the cheaper it becomes ,i try to stay within zone 2 just to keep tube journeys to a minimum

centrally I've stayed at Citadines near Trafalgar square, it was nice and close to loads of stuff


as for a romantic meal then there's loads to choose from

The Savoy grill is very nice , very comfortable and the service is excellent ,the food is nice but not too fancy if you're fussy eaters, with drinks I paid around £150 for two of us last time I was there
 
JBuk said:
Only for bonus points with missus :)


For one night only there's plenty of reasonably priced hotels , the further away from the centre the cheaper it becomes ,i try to stay within zone 2 just to keep tube journeys to a minimum

centrally I've stayed at Citadines near Trafalgar square, it was nice and close to loads of stuff


as for a romantic meal then there's loads to choose from

The Savoy grill is very nice , very comfortable and the service is excellent ,the food is nice but not too fancy if you're fussy eaters, with drinks I paid around £150 for two of us last time I was there
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Lol, I guess bonus points count :p
 
At this stage you should be able to get train tickets with Virgin for circa £80 return, far easier than messing around with driving and frankly not that bad.
 
I can't really give much advice on places to eat or stay as I tend to spend a bit more but it's London. If you can't find somewhere to stay, eat and enjoy you must be a deader :)

Re-read, see it's 200 a night. I am down there most weeks as I work in the city, but I am down there on the weekend 19th/21th June with my wife for the Foo Fights gig at Wembley and we are staying at Montagu Place Hotel near Marylebone (9 mins on train to Wembley). It's about 233 per night, is our preference of boutique and frankly its location was perfect. They had rooms around 195 I think, I went for a bigger room upgrade but ideal for a couple I feel and much nicer than a big hotel IMHO.
 
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I'd recommend looking on secret escapes as there are a few London based hotels on there.

I'm currently looking at The K West as I've stayed there before with the missus and both liked it.
 
If you want a nice romantic meal, id recommend one of the restaurants in the shard. Fantastic views and great food.

Have to book well in advance though.
 
Agree with fox , your there for 1 ngitht and will be out most of the time

Aldgate premier inn (alie street) was very nice for a premier inn, as its all new) was very impressed with hotel and rooms were great.

Near aldgate tube station and one tube station down (minutes) is tower hill station and tower bridge
 
Top secret hotels on Lastminute are great, used them a couple times when I was over last summer and every time got a great hotel, particularly the City ones.
 
DJMK4 said:
Agree with fox , your there for 1 ngitht and will be out most of the time

Aldgate premier inn (alie street) was very nice for a premier inn, as its all new) was very impressed with hotel and rooms were great.
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Quite - I'm absolutely not averse to a decent hotel when the time spent there is worth it but for trips like this Premier Inn are fantastic. Presumably your travel budget isn't unlimited so why splash on a posh room to leave empty all night?

Frankly Premier Inn standards are so consistent that there are several Hilton properties in the UK I'd pick a Premier Inn over at any price (and indeed have done in the past). Some of the other chains could learn a lot about consistent standards from Premier Inn.
 
It depends what's important to you. If you want to make it special, then my advice is spend more and aim for a boutique hotel, it doesn't matter if you don't spend a lot of time there, frankly, as the impression you will make (as long as you are not silly) and the memories you will give are worth it, in my view. Nothing wrong with Premier Inn, good value, clean and comfy these days, but never special. If your other half isn't into special then all good, but if you want to make it special I'd look elsewhere.
 
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