I've promised to take Andrea to London for her 16th birthday gift (next year! My baby will be 16 next year!!! oh...I digress). I can't imagine depriving Sonja of the joy of looking at her little daughter's (little??? She's taller than I am!) face when she sees all of this, so there will be three of us.

I have looked at a Holiday Inn that's on the corner of Picadilly and Berkely(?), that says they have connecting rooms. I have looked at the Marriott County Hall but that costs almost as much as Park Tower. I want clean rooms, a/c, and within reasonable distance from some of the things she will want to see (Tower of London, London Eye, Harrods (!!!!). And a safe area for three females to venture out for dinner.

Help? Please?

Pam,

My husband and I travel to London frequently for the weekend and stay at the Hilton Green Park. It is not a fancy place, but the location is fantastic. I have even stayed there for a few days by myself and gone out at night to the theatre. (I am a chicken too!) The Green Park tube station is a five minute (or less) walk. There are plenty of places close by for cheap eats too......Pret a Manger, Starbucks, Marks and Spencer takeaway.

Good Luck!
Pam

Thanks! I'll look more closely at that one, but at a fast glance I don't see anything except one double (is that an American double?) bed in any room and it doesn't mention a/c. I know I'm being terribly picky, but if we don't get rest we'll be miserable.

Oops! I didn't mention time of year, did I? Andrea's birthday is in early September, but we'd probably have to do a late summer trip. I have a reasonable budget, but Mark and I stayed at Park Tower in '06 and I just can't justify that kind of money when we will want to do lots of other stuff.

We've stayed at the Forum in South Kensington - a three minute walk from Gloucester Road tube station, on many London visits. Forum's now part of the Holiday Inn group.

At Gloucester Rd. station you can get Piccadilly, District and Circle lines - which makes it easy to get to just about any site in London.

Holiday Inn used to include the hefty 17.5 tax on its website prices, but I noticed recently the tax was "additional."

I priced the Forum recently using United Vacations' website and it was about $178 (US dollars) per night in February, including tax and breakfast - far less than Holiday Inn site. The United site offers many other hotels, also. The key for us is being near a tube station.

On our theater jaunts to London we travel light - just a rollaboard each. We get a one- week tube pass at LHR for zone 1 (and an extension from LHR that covers the zones prior to Central London) and take the tube directly to Gloucester Rd. Station.

Have a wonderful trip!

Pam, look at The Rembrandt. Nothing fancy but clean, large room and very friendly staff. Harrods is one block walk and it is directly across the street from the Victoria & Albert Museum. Close to Hyde Park. And one of my favorite London restaurants - the San Quentin. It's been almost 4 years since I was there but would return in a heartbeat, especially since you won't be spending much time in your room. Got a great rate through BA back then. Have no idea about rooms for 3, but I was with a girlfriend so we requested a room with 2 beds. They didn't have a lot - if my memory holds - but got one with a great view of the Museum.

These are all good suggestions, Pam. The airline vacation packages do get much better rates for the hotels than going straight to the websites. Other choices:

Millenium Glouster or Millenium Baileys - both directly next to Glouster Road tube stop (3 tube lines intersect here).

I haven't stayed at the Royal Garden but hear good things. It's inconvenient to the subways, which keeps me from staying there.

Use starwood or other hotel points if possible. Hotel prices are impossible in London these days, sad but true. We stayed at the Sheraton Belgravia last summer. Pretty neighborhood but a hefty walk to any subway.

Cheers, Anne

I don't have enough points at any single hotel chain to help at all. I'm hoping to use airline miles (sitting on a bunch at Amex) to get us there and back, if I can get an airline to cooperate.

I emailed the company that seems to own the Rembrandt. Got a reply from Marrakesh (sp?) that answered none of my questions. Betty, is it air conditioned? We'll be there in summer.

(And all of this while I'm trying to clear out 28 years' accumulation of "stuff")

Here's the hotel website link, Pam. From the 'bedrooms' page, some (but not all) rooms have air conditioning. Whether or not it is working, of course, needs to be ascertained locally.

Rembrandt Hotel London website

Cheers, Anne

Thanks, Anne! When I google'd it brought up another ownership email link.

As of last summer, it was part of the Sarova group of hotels. The picture, etc. all look right to me.

Cheers, Anne

I may have found a totally different Rembrandt, for all I know. I like the looks of that, but once again I'm getting "2 people". I'll figure out who to email and ask about either a third bed in one of the biggest rooms or connecting rooms.

The web site that Anne gives is the place I stayed. Air conditioning - I don't know. I was there the end of March so needed a jacket. The lobby/lounge area had a fire going. This is not a posh hotel, but it is very nice and great after a long day of touring. You might check with Denise. I think she also stayed there before her river cruise last year. Her views would be more up to date than mine. But if I was going back I would definitely stay there again. Rather apply that awful pound conversion rate to something other than an expensive hotel. Loved sitting in the lounge by the fireplace with a "toddy" after a long day of touring. Since you will be with a teenager, the toddy part is probably out, but still a nice area.

We like the Washington Hotel in Mayfair.
Great location and not too overpriced.

We stayed at that Rembrandt, the one across from the Al and Vic museum, and a couple of blocks away from Harrods. Now granted it was November, but we enjoyed it, the staff was so helpful and pleasant - but I do not know about AC, as we obviously would not have needed it in Nov. We walked and walked and rode the double decker buses and managed to see everything we wanted to. I think Anne is right it is now part of the Sarova group - but Pam its a nice place and very quaint, with lots of twin bedded rooms. :D :D Actually I think we wanted to stay at the Reubens Hotel, but it was booked and they referred us to the Rembrandt - I don't remember for sure, because the couple we were traveling with made the reservations. Try the Reuben Hotel also.

As JoAnn stated, the Reuben Hotel is very nice...however, ANY of the RED CARNATION hotels..the MAYFAIR, etc. are very nice and good values. The rooms are small, but very elegantly appointed and the service is impeccable. The locations are very good as well. All of the hotels have nice touches for women, such as dogs you can walk with so as to not be alone. The food is very nice at these hotels as well. They are my first choice whenever I am in London.

Thanks to all of you; I am sending out inquiry emails on all of these. Some have answered.

Does anybody know if any of these hotels are handy to the train station for Heathrow and Gatwick.

Ngaire, I used a pick-up service van that was included with BA, but this is from the Rembrandt's web site.

By Air
Heathrow Airport
16 miles (26km).Via the Underground direct to South Kensington (Piccadilly Line)

Gatwick Airport
Take the Gatwick Express train to London Victoria, then take the District or Circle Line, two stops to South Kensington.

Rueben is walking distance from Victoria

Hi.

I was there before Thanksgiving. I used an American Airline package that was cheap; $1000 for 4 nights and air fare. We stayed at the Millenium Knightsbridge, which is a fantastic location, close to tube, Knightsbridge. London is very safe, so you should be fine. We bought a week tube pass and took the tube to and from Heathrow. Be aware; when you leave London at Heathrow, you can have only 1 bag!

Marcia

Ngaire - most are convenient to the Gatwick train. Heathrow comes in at Paddington; not so many of these are close by. Fred put us on to the paddington hilton - it's a lovely hotel & right next to the paddington station.

If you are talking about the Piccadilly subway line from Heathrow, then any on the Glouster Road/knightsbridge/hyde park/green park stops are close by. Problem is hauling your luggage up stairs (ex. for Glouster Road and Green Park) at the subway stops

Millenium Knightsbridge is a great location. I checked it out a few years ago and found the beds too soft for my liking. Millenium Glouster and Baileys are better .. but now are more expensive. Of course, if Millenium Knightsbridge has refurbished, perhaps the beds are a different comfort level

Cheers, Anne

As Anne noted, the Paddington Hilton is great for access to the Heathrow Express, since the hotel is in the same building as the train station. One simply goes down the escalator from the hotel into the train station and onto the Heathrow Express. Marvelous, indeed. Paddington is also the station from which one takes the trains to Oxford (from which one can get a bus to Woodstock to visit Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill and one of the great palaces of England). The Paddington Hilton is quite modern in decor and facilities and had A/C that was about 7 degrees cooler than that available to Kathy & Frank at the much more expensive Intercontinental Mayfair. There is also a major Underground station right in Paddington Station, thus allowing easy access to almost anywhere in London. So, if one has Hilton points to use, the Paddington Hilton is a good choice in London.

Cheers, Fred

Fred -we don't stay at the Intercontinental Hotels - We're Starwood/Westin people - we stayed at the Sheraton which was pretty decent for free with miles and was very nice. There was both a Starbucks and better yet a Pret A Mange very close by for a great quick breakfast at for London reasonable prices. We hopped cabs everywhere and we walked to Harrods and Harvey Nic's from the hotel. We were near the Hyde Park Station and we had a good view of the park from our room. We were also a block from the HOHO Bus and spent a day touring London that way which was great!

heathrow just changed the one bag rule this week back to two bags. I think one of the gatwick terminals is still one bag