London

Following on from my previous article titled “Radisson Mountbatten Hotel could be the choice location in London“. I appreciate that not everyone can afford a swish hotel even when its reduced its prices. In this second article I would like to offer my advice to visitors to London on a moderate budget.

If you have not stayed in London before then you must be wary of the bigger global hotel booking companies who will tend to classify the actual city of London as “Greater London” and you may think that you are getting a hotel bargain only to discover that you are on the outer limits in Heathrow or Wembley. If this happens to you then you will incur larger travel costs getting around and lose time in the process. You will also not be able to enjoy the evenings so much as you will be preoccupied with the fact that you have to commute back to your hotel.

As I advised in the previous article. You can be comfortable looking between Earls Court (western limit) and Holborn (eastern limit) and from Regents Park (northern limit) down to Victoria / Chelsea (southern limit). Within this area you have 90% of London’s attractions, bars shops and restaurants and also a great transit system.
Given that London is an expensive city be prepared to pay dearly for everything. London Hotels at the minute are struggling and provided that you plan your dates in advance to avoid peak periods such as Wimbledon Tennis at the end of June then you can find a bargain without ending up in a dump.

Two areas spring to mind as being suited to visitors on a cheap budget, Bayswater just north of Hyde Park and, more upmarket, Earls Court / South Kensington just south of Hyde Park. Just to clarify this even more, in Bayswater, the better parts are to the west of the borough and in Earls Court / South Kensington, its best to stay no further west than the Earls Court Exhibition center.

Both have food outlets galore so the evenings are easy to manage whilst a visit into the West End is little more than a 10 minute trip on the tube.

Hotels to check out include:
The Montana Hotel London which if under £100 gbp a night for two persons, is good value and if you are staying 7 nights then you only pay for 6. If it is under £ 100/ night then this would be my first choice.
In Bayswater I would recommend the Holiday Villa Hotel, again I would be looking at a sub £100 gbp price otherwise look elsewhere.
There are some horrific hotels in both areas so do not be influenced too much by cheap deals - I would personally argue that if its sub £70 then its worrying.
I have recently seen a 4 star Kensington hotel at give away prices at the weekends. The Kensington Close Hotelhas been selling at well under £100 gbp and I would at that price point I would classify it as a “strong buy”.

If you are confused by all the garbage spoken about where to stay then ask me. I know almost every hotel and I’ll tell it as it is, not with false hotel reviews that I know happens.