Visiting England Aug.26-Sep.4, 2018 Need suggestion for visiting,

I am sure lots of others will pile in with advice, but you are asking basic naïve first time visitor questions, so here are my suggestions.

• If you want to visit both London and Edinburgh, fly into one and out of the other ("open jaw" flight). Saves doubling back. Edinburgh is too far for a day trip.
• 9 nights, you don't have time to do everything, so limit yourself to 3 places, with day trips.
• London to Edinburgh, the best, most comfortable and fastest way is train. 4½ hours city centre to city centre, at least one train per hour. Tickets are a lot cheaper if bought in advance. Rail company website: https://www.virgintrainseastcoast.com/
• That decided, the obvious third place to visit is York. This is half way between London and Edinburgh on the rail line, so it all works. London 5 nights, York 1-2 nights, Edinburgh 2-3 nights.
• During your 5 nights in London, reserve 1-2 days for day trips outside London. Lots to choose from: Windsor. Hampton Court, Canterbury, Salisbury and many others. All by train.

"Best budget hotel in London that close to tourist attraction areas." - No one place is close to everything in London, it is too spread out. But, tube and bus will get you anywhere. Anywhere on or within the circle line is equally good. Look up Premier Inns hotels , that is about as cheap as it gets: http://www.premierinnhotels.co.uk/

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I would like to add that a good guide book for the UK will help you immensely.

Referring to your last question about a day trip from London to Edinburgh: you really need to look at a map that shows distances. This would not be a day trip. London to Edinburgh by car is more than 650 miles (approximately 7 hours one way), and the train trip is more than 4 hours each way.

See http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/scotland/edinburgh/articles/The-cheapest-way-from-London-to-Edinburgh/

Scotland is a wonderful place, but you'd want to do it justice with at least 3 nights, which would leave you only 6 nights in England.

This is a rather short trip. Most such vacations are ruined by trying to see too much separated by long distances. The travel chews up valuable time. Consider flying round trip London. You'll probably find decent fares from LAX. There is so much to see and do in London and you can do easy day trips-Windsor, Bath, Oxford, Cambridge to name a few.

"I am planning to visit England with 2-3 friends, and will be arriving on August 25 from Los Angeles
Would like to visit London and Edinburg from Aug.26-Sep.4 ( 11 days - 9 nights)."

Whilst you're in Edinburgh, please don't mention that you thought it was in England. :-)

You've already made a few of the biggest mistakes that travel novices make. First, not doing any research - even a basic guidebook should have shown you that Edinburgh isnt in England and can't be done as a day trip.

Second, trying to cram in too many stops in a short trip. You've listed 6 stops in a 9 day stay. The only thing you'll remember from a trip like that is the view from train windows and train stations, because you've left so little time to actually explore any of these places.

And as already stated, no hotel is close to all the major tourist sites in London. The city is much too spread out. Go to TripAdvisor, Booking.com, or Hotels.com and plug in your particulars to find something within your budget. Look especially for a fairly central hotel close to an underground station and a bus stop (Google maps is good for that).

Since Edinburgh is the outlier in your list of places to visit, I'd drop it and plan to do a Scotland visit next time. Spend your time in London and do a few days trips from there (Windsor, Oxford, Bath, etc). You certainly won't run out of things to do in 9 days.

London and Bath only-you could do Stonehenge and Cotswold tour using Bath as your base. Oxford and Windsor as day trips from London. It will be difficult enough trying to fit all your England choices into 9 days-you don't have time for Edinburgh unless you fly there directly and drop some of the places you plan to visit in England.

I agree with others that you're trying to do too much in the time you have. I suggest either of these plans:

(A) Spend 6 nights in London and 3 in Edinburgh, going between them by train. This is Chris' suggestion but without York. Fly "open jaw" using the "multi-city" option on airline websites, i.e. from LA to London and Edinburgh to LA. This avoids backtracking, saving you time and money. (You might end up flying from Edinburgh to London and connecting there to LA, or flying from Edinburgh to another US city with a connection to LA. The point is to avoid backtracking on the ground if you can.)

(B) Spend 6 nights in London and maybe 3 in Bath, going between them by train. Windsor is an easy day trip from London. Stonehenge and Cotswold villages are easy day trips from Bath. In this case you'll want to fly roundtrip to London. Windsor is so close to Heathrow Airport that it could be your last stop, or your first, on the trip.

Use the search engines suggested by others to look for hotels, try to find one close to a tube station, preferably a station where two or more lines intersect so you can get places faster in London. But book your hotel using its own website in case any problems arise. Look at some maps and guidebooks, come back to this forum with more focused questions if you want.

It's Edinburgh, with an "h".

It isn't pronounced the way you think it s.

It isn't in England.

An excursion from London would be a nine hour round trip if you don't get off the train and just come straight back. Flying would be no quicker by the time you got to and from airports, through security etc.

I think you should buy the RS London or England guide book. First trip to the UK or to London, I would stay in London for most of the trip. 9 nights seems like a lot but it is not when there is so much to do and see just in London. If you want to do a day trip out of that time there is plenty to pick from, Windsor Castle or Hampton Court Palace or Bath. But one day trip or two is plenty. You want to see the biggies in London. What you want to see would take a two week trip. What you are listing above, you will not be really seeing London. The RS books will list hotels and that way you can see on their websites what hotels will fit your budget and needs. Just pick a hotel that is near a tube stop and you will be fine.

For research on what will really interest you, watch free YouTube Videos on London and England including RS videos which are on YouTube. Read various guidebooks which you can get for free from your local library, the internet is a great source to look up sites, musems, cities, images of what they look like, facebook, instagram. It will give you an idea as to what places look like and what interests you. What I am suggesting below I have done on two different London trips and can't wait to go back to London again and see musuems and sites I have not seen yet.

Plenty of museums to visit, British museum, Victoria & Albert museum, the National Gallery, Courtauld Gallery, British Library and Churchill War rooms ( not to be missed) and the Wallace Collection, St Martins-In-the-Field Church.

I went on the Royal Day out - ticket called that for Buckingham Palace where I saw the state rooms, the Queen's Gallery ( paintings) and the Royal Mews- which are where the carriages are. It took the whole day! You can buy other tickets to just see the state rooms or the state rooms and the gardens.

I also toured Kensington Palace and that was wonderful.

Walking tours of London, I went for the first time on the Original London walks and it was great. Went on pub crawl and another walking tour. I also went to the theatre one evening to see Wicked.

Harrods, Forum and Mason, Selfridges are all great to see for window shopping and shopping.

Read up on how to use the tube, very easy, I also did screen shots for the tube stations from my hotel to where I was going every morning as I knew where I would start the day out with what museum or site.

I hope this helps you in your planning and get a better understanding as to why everyone said not to go to Scotland and not to try to do so many day trips. It can be a bit overwhelming, but once you figure out what you really want and can see in a day and map out how you will get there and understand the city better, you will feel more comfortable as to the planning of the time in London.

London is a city where you can go to many times and still enjoy and not be bored.

Have a wonderful safe trip.

I almost forgot, you must see Westminster Abbey and St Paul's Cathedral! And the Tower of London is wonderful as is a boat ride up the Thames River and walk across the Tower Bridge and Convent Gardens are very nice when you are done with museums. I have done this too.

You may also want to take a Big Bus tour to see the city and see where everything is. There is also the London Eye. I have seen it but not been on it, yet... These two things I want to do, if I get a chance.

I don't think I covered everything, but hope you get the idea as to how much there is to see in London without leaving London for the first time visit.

I think Chris F. has some good suggestions. As for a budget hotel, they are hard to come by in London, I think. However, we stayed at the Celtic which is near Russell Square and easy walking distance to the British Museum (a must see for us). It is also just around the corner from a tube station, so you can get many other places very quickly. We walked to/from many places, but are willing to walk more than others might. I think the price at the Celtic can't be beat for its location.

Buckingham Palace will be open for visits during your stay--Royals will be at Balmoral. You can buy tickets at kiosk near the entry on Royal Mews side. We have toured it twice and it is well worth it. First time was after coronation anniversary and all the jewels, robes, etc were on display. A favorite room was the one where the Queen meets weekly with the Prime Minister. They have a tented area where you can have tea or lunch after the palace tour.