favorite london hotel location

Hi Joy,

We've always liked South Kensignton and Hyde Park area.

Mary

With your budget you should have a lot of choices. South Kensington is nice, so is Bayswater. I'll be staying near Paddington on my next trip because it has good tube service and I'll be using the station for arrival, a side trip, and then departure to Heathrow.

Look for a tube station where two or more lines intersect, like Notting Hill Gate or South Kensington or Baker Street or Oxford Circus. That would give you more options for fast rides to your sights. London, and its sights, are too spread out for any one location to be really "central."

As for pubs, they're everywhere. You'll get tons of recommendations on this forum if you want them, but it might be more fun to pick one or two wherever you find yourself and just get to know it, and your fellow drinkers at the bar.

London is huge with a million options for hotels. Over the we tend to stay in the Victoria Station area for convenience to transportation - Tube and bus. Lots of decent Pubs many places. And it is probably habit. We have also stay near Paddington station for catching the train to Heathrow. And once near the Eurostar terminal because we were catching the train the next day. IMO there is no best location.

No favorites but I like staying on the Circle line for easy transfer to the sites, near Hyde Park, and close to Paddington for ease of getting to Heathrow.

We've stayed in several areas, but South Kensington is my favorite.

When I travel solo, I prefer to stay near Victoria Station or Paddington Station. Luna Simone is a good place to stay. I'll be staying there in March.

Thanks for all the helpful replies and advice about the circle line and tube stops -- it makes approaching a big unknown city less confusing.!

"Some places I am considering are Luna Simone near Victoria Station, citizenm near Tower station"
These two would be at the top of my list.

Luna Simone is an excellent hotel. The Victoria Station location is great for transportation of all kinds. The Circle Line (tube) passes through here, so just hop on to go all over London. If you want to do day tours with a bus company, many of the tours leave first thing in the morning from the Victoria Station/Victoria Bus Terminal. These are Gray Line Tours/Evan Evans, and so on. Easy walk to Buckingham Palace or the riverfront/Big Ben/Houses of Parliament/Westminster Abbey.

Citizen M is a good hotel. Tower Hill also has several transportation options--tube, bus, water taxi. Here you are walking distance to the Tower Of London. The Circle Line (tube) passes through Tower Hill Station, so you can easily jump on and get around London.
You cannot go wrong with either of these two hotels or locations.

I have stayed at the my Chelsea in Kensington. Nice hotel, very convenient location. I also like the Lime Tree near Victoria Station. Not familiar with the others you have noted so not of much use there. The areas you have mentioned, though, are all wonderful and all things being equal, I don't think you could go wrong with any of them!

We stayed at myChelsea during our Best of London trip in 2015. It was fine; very nice, small rooms (typical in Europe), great breakfast buffet. But for us, it was way over our budget. If it's in yours, good. We moved to Kensington Gardens Hotel in Bayswater after the tour; about half the price, great location. One possible negative: it does not have a lift. And we ended up on the fifth floor! (fourth floor, as the Europeans count them) But the breakfasts at the sister Phoenix hotel were excellent, the staff was great, and we were in a quiet neghborhood just steps off a busy business street, with 2 nearby tube stops. And it's within walking distance of Paddington.

I like the Vancouver Studios hotel in Bayswater. It's within walking distance of pubs, grocery stores, restaurants, and three Tube lines: District & Circle, and Central. I've been to London twice and in my experience, some Tube stations and occasionally entire lines are shut down for "planned engineering" (maintenance). I like staying near more than one line for that reason.

It's a good idea to check the Transport for London website every morning before you leave the hotel, to see which if any routes are affected.

Belgravia/Pimlico — those are on either side of Victoria Station and an easy tub ride to many places of interest.

Thanks for all the good tips; I will be taking day trips, so may pick Victoria Station, although the Bayswater area sounds nice. I may end up flipping a coin between Luna Simone and Vancouver Studios, but it sounds like it will be a win either way :)