London with 80 y/o mom Help

How many days will you be there, not including arrival and departure days?

What is your nightly budget for the hotel?

I will be in London next October for a few days. I will be 78 and have some problems with knees, back, legs, etc. I am not the energizer bunny.

I have many posts on the Forum. Reading my posts and the responses that I got might be very helpful to you.

It might be helpful for members to know how many days you will be in London and what is your budget for hotels. Hotels are very expensive. Transportation is also very expensive as I have been finding out.

Booking.com is very helpful. I have just ordered R S London.

By London Bridge I am assuming you mean Tower Bridge, the one where the road raises to let boats pass through. London Bridge was opened in 1973 and is nothing special. The best way to see the bridges and sights along the river is to do a river cruise from Westminster to The Tower. You need to check Westminster Abbey as it may be restricted hours as they get ready for the coronation in May.. with her interest in the Royals you should try and visit Windsor Castle and St George’s Chapel. It’s actually not far from Heathrow and might be nice to spend a couple of nights there and then head to the airport.

The Victoria area would be handy for Westminster, Big Ben, the Churchill War Rooms and Buckingham Palace. Consider somewhere near a bus route - it’s easier to manage buses than lots of steps at underground stations plus you get to see London.

If you aren’t concerned with which theatre production you see, then buy tickets on the day at the kiosk in Leicester Square.

The Tower of London and British Museum take several hours and are busy, so start at opening time.

Look at the Premier Inn hotel chain. Elevator access, restaurants in house. Several hotels in good locations. Usually a good value.

Get the City Mapper App on your phone. It makes getting around London on public transport extremely easy.

I don’t know where you live, but if it is near a city that Icelandair flies out of, they have a big sale on airfare that runs through Sunday. Their coach is pretty basic, but Saga class is like a domestic first class.

Finally, make sure you have a contactless credit card with you. Very little cash is used anymore.

My Mother-in-Law was 78 in 2018 when we took her to London. I would put her in the above average category in terms of health and mobility of someone of her age and we had no problems with walking and transportation. You rarely need to walk far to get to a bus stop or a tube station and I found Londoners incredibly friendly; especially on the tube. Not once, on crowded trains did people not willingly give up their seat for her.

We love, love, loved Hampton Court. It's a 30-45 minute train ride away from central London and well worth it. Someone with better knowledge than me might be able to be more specific, but there is a South Western Railway train out of Waterloo Station that stops at the Hampton Court Station which is less than a 5 minute walk to the palace. Google Maps will offer up several options to get to the palace via other stations in the area and then requiring you to transfer to a bus to make it the rest of the way. You have to sift through the options to find this one.

difficulty walking? But you should know that most B&Bs will have stairs, as will many less expensive hotels. To have a lift (elevator) you likely need a larger hotel.

Early March or later? Be aware of March weather most years.

We.stayed at the Hampton Waterloo hotel a five minute walk.to Waterloo station where we got the tube and also.train to the Hampton Court Palace. Great.free breakfast buffet, in house restaurant and in walking distance to.several.restaurants and good.price. We are.returning also.in March. bus stop right at front door too.

The London buses are a great way to get around; we much prefer them to traveling underground with no views and lots of noise. This map of the bus route in central London shows them in relation to the main tourist attractions. Note that is is a schematic map and does not show actual distances or position.

https://content.tfl.gov.uk/bus-route-maps/key-bus-routes-in-central-london.pdf

From a base in the West End or near Trafalgar Square you can use the #15 bus to reach St. Paul’s, the Tower of London, and Tower Bridge. Or better yet, walk down to the Embankment Pier and ride the Thames Clipper boats (aka Uber boats) to the Tower Of London pier, and return by ##15 bus.

The #9 will take you west to Knightsbridge, Hyde Park entrances, and the museums such as the Victoria and Albert. And there are 4 buses that head toward Westminster Abbey, Elizabeth Tower aka Big Ben, and the Parliament buildings.

While the Premier Inn is a good budget option, if you want something with more ambiance and British feel than a chain hotel, you could consider a boutique hotel like the Club Quarters near Trafalgar Square:

https://clubquartershotels.com/london/trafalgar-square

A twin room for 2 in March on the current cyber sale ( refundable rate) is £197 per night; £258 with breakfast. For comparison, the Leicester Square Premier Inn is £190 a night without breakfast,; add about £20 for breakfast.

I am a couple of years younger than your mother and also have stiff knees. We've been to London several times, most recently June, 2022. Here's my suggestions - hope they are helpful.

Citadine's Trafalgar Square is a convenient location and has an elevator. It is an apartment hotel so you can easily fix your own breakfast. There is a small supermarket a few blocks away. Rooms include a sitting area. It's close to the theatre district. Not too far from Fortnum and Mason for the fancy tea experience.

Use cabs! Save your energy for touring the sites once you get there. If your budget is tight, you can save elsewhere by fixing your own breakfasts and buying takeout meals or frozen meals at Simply Food or other supermarkets. There's a cab stand at Charing Cross station two blocks from Citadine's, so you can easily get a cab. If your mother is tired after a long flight, use a car service or cab to get into London. Expensive, but hauling a suitcase through LHR to get to the Heathrow Express or the tube is exhausting.

Take a hiking pole or folding cane. It's useful to have something to lean on in museums or sites. Mine fold up small enough to fit in a carry-on.

If you have to pick and choose for your museums, I would recommend the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert. They aren't art museums, but have huge and fascinating collections.

Make dinner reservations, even for pubs, so you don't have to stand around waiting for a table.

Thanks so much for the feedback.

We will probably 5-6 nights. More might be too much. As for budget, I was hoping to spend @$200/night or less but can be flexible if needed.

Cynthia’s recommendation is also a good one. I was going to suggest Citadines as an option, but was not sure if they offer twin beds and did not have time to check. I did just now, using booking.com as I could not tell what is the official Citadines website. According to booking.com, their studio apartments can have a twin bed configuration. The flexible rate for the same period in March I checked for other options is £258 a night, the same as the Club Quarters room with breakfast. So it is a matter of your travel style and preference.

Both, as well as the Premier Inn Leicester Square, are a bit above your desired target price. You may have to raise your budget, or look to other areas that are not as central and convenient. Personally, I am happy to pay a bit more for a good location, but perhaps your budget does not allow that.

The sights in London are somewhat scattered, so it's not easy to identify one, single ideal location for a hotel until a traveler has an accurate, nearly complete list of sightseeing stops (which I certainly don't have before arrival in a city like London). That said, the West End is central and therefore one of the convenient choices for most travelers. A lot of buses go through that area, which will help you move around the city. And if you attend a play at one of the West End theatres, it is great if you can just walk back to your hotel (though it could be quite damp and chilly late at night in March). Do be aware that not all the theatres are concentrated in the West End, so if an easy trip back after a nighttime performance is important to you, you should check the location of the theatre before buying tickets.

Also note that some of the streets in the West End are very busy, with crowded sidewalks, so I'd recommend using Google's sidewalk view to walk the area around the hotels you're considering. I've walked through there several times, and there are definitely some stretches I wouldn't want to stay on because they are just so hectic (and I live in a big city myself). I'm mentioning this because hotel rates are likely to be somewhat higher there than in most other parts of the city, and your budget is tight.

Earlier this year I stayed at the Premier Inn London Holborn, which is on Red Lion Street just a few blocks north of the West End area. That street is very quiet, with little vehicular traffic. Premier Inns are usually good value. Room rates vary a lot by day (often Saturday is the most expensive night of the week, probably because locals come into the city over the weekend), so I can't tell you what you might pay at that location on your dates. You can check at premierinn.com. I've never eaten any meal at a Premier Inn and would not expect the food to be particularly good, so I cannot comment on the breakfast situation. There is nearly always a breakfast option elsewhere that is less expensive than a hotel breakfast. While staying at the Holborn PI, I often had breakfast (omelets) at the Kozzy Cafe less than a block away. There are a bunch of other restaurants on that street.