Best neighborhoods in London

For what ??? We always stay around Victoria Station for the convenience of transit, convenience to good restaurants and especially pubs and a laundry. The Belgrave area.

We always stay by the Gloucester Rd. Tube stop. Three lines (District, Circle, Piccadilly) pass through it making it easy to get to the popular tourist sites. There are restaurants and pubs nearby as well as short walks away in S. Kensington and by Earl’s Court.

How long will they be staying? What do they want to do/see? I live in West London and am partial to Chelsea/Fulham, Kensington, etc., but if their plans and preferences dictate staying in central London, or south of the river, or near the Docklands, then we can fine tune our recommendations.

I personally regard the City of London as optimum. Look up its boundaries on Google. The Locke at Broken Wharf has become our standby lodgings.

If you're visiting as a tourist, generally being centrally located is nice.

I think you also want restaurants and services that cater to normal people, so I would avoid the administrative/diplomatic central area of London south of St. James Park. I would avoid Knightsbridge and Mayfair because they're too fancy. You don't want to stay in Belgravia, Chelsea, or near Victoria Station. You definitely want to avoid the City of London because it's a business district, not a place where people actually live.

West London, I would consider South Ken and Earl's Court, but they're a bit boring if you're a young person.

That kind of leaves Fitzrovia, Soho, Covent Garden, Bloomsbury, Southwark, South Bank. I think Spitalfields would be a cool place to stay as a younger person, but maybe that's too out of the way and scruffy.

Define “ best.”

What are your daughter’s interests?

Museums? Foodie? Royalty?

For people of that age I would be recommending places either in the City of London or preferably a bit further east. Spitalfields or Aldgate are well positioned for sites like the Tower and St Paul’s and are well connected with public transport to get elsewhere. You can also these days get there directly from LHR on the Elizabeth line. There are plenty of accommodation options at, for London, decent prices. They could also get out easily to the hip locations in the East End.

Yes, there's lots of neighbourhoods in London that are "the best". Depends what you like.

If the folks are 25 and 27 they might prefer one of the more multicultural, vibrant areas. Brixton is the first that springs to mind as it's served by a tube station on the Victoria Line and is a fast journey into central London.

I live in Hackney, and I feel it's well suited to your daughters' age to visit. I don't have a tube station in walking distance, so I hesitate to recommend Hackney for somewhere to stay. If they're doing daily sightseeing in central London you're probably best looking at somewhere in (public transport) zone 2 that has a tube station that they can walk to. Peckham in south London probably falls into the same category as Hackney; cool, grimy, but you need to prepare for a slightly longer or more convoluted trip into town. Whitechapel, Aldgate and Bethnal Green are served by tube stations and are quite interesting neighbourhoods for culture. Camden Town is quite heavily touristed, but responds well to scratching the surface.

I'm not really a west person, but I think around High Street Kensington has more going on than South Ken.

Have they done any reading or video watching about London neighbourhoods? There's lots on Youtube to watch.

Person A says a location is optimal; Person B says one should "definitely avoid" it.

If this doesn't demonstrate that choosing a place to stay in London is entirely an individual matter, I don't know what would. Everyone has different priorities. But as I consider the question a little more, I might recommend Kings Cross for 20-somethings. Pretty happening place.

London has lots of great neighbourhoods and it really does depend what their priorities are as to which is best. That said, as long as they stick to zone 1/2 and close to the tube they’ll be fine anywhere. I’d would say for that age group to avoid the City of London because it’s the office area. Dead at weekends and catering to an older crowd. I expect they want a bit more of the city buzz. Shoreditch is good, Brick Lane, Spitalfields market. Loads of stuff that young people like around there.

There's a Premier Inn hotel right behind the London Eye. I would suggest staying there, for low price with quality, plus being near all the tourist "must-do" stuff in the Westminster Area. They'll be right across the bridge from Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Parliament buildings....just what a first-time visitor would expect to see in London....and walking distance to Buckingham Palace.
From this location, they could walk along the south bank of the Thames to get to Borough Market.....good food fairly cheap, dozens of food stands.

It may be more important for young first-time visitors to London to be in a location convenient to walking to all the popular sights, rather than to be in a cool neighborhood. (I do not know which they would prefer.) They can go visit those neighborhoods if they want (using the tube is easy--you can get anywhere you want) but being central to all the sights and getting your bearings as to "what is where" is perhaps more important. It helps to get your bearings from this Premier Inn, as you can just stand by the river, look across, and see Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Parliament buildings. Easy to map it on a phone app and let that be your base for exploring London.

I’d would say for that age group to avoid the City of London because it’s the office area.

Fair point. We like it because it's centrally located, offers great views of the Thames at night, and it's quiet in the evenings, promoting good sleep. Offices adjacent don't bother us. But maybe younger people would prefer more flava.

We like it because it's centrally located, offers great views of the Thames at night, and it's quiet in the evenings, promoting good sleep. Offices adjacent don't bother us.

jphbucks, I agree with you about this.

If jphbucks is talking about Locke at Broken Wharf, I'd stay there. It's still geographically in The City of London, but that area around St Pauls / Paternoster Square / Cheapside down to the river is a bit more amenable to spending time, especially at the weekend. Not quite as dead as when you're amongst the skyscrapers in the heart of The City.

I've been making London reservations for myself in the last week or so, for early May and for early June. Rates are very high. If your daughters have budgetary concerns, we really do need to know their nightly hotel budget (preferably in British pounds) and their dates of travel. We can give you our preferences, but if they are not in the right price range, we're wasting our time and your daughters' time.