Hotel recommendation in London

Hi Allison! I recommend Premier Inn County Hall, near the London Eye, and Westminster attractions. Low price. Great buffet breakfast. It is also near the Millennium Pier, where you can catch a boat to travel along the river to many other attractions. This hotel is near many tube and bus lines for transportation, and walking distance to perhaps half of the attractions you may want to see. I also recommend London Hilton Hyde Park, with bus lines right outside the front door, and tube stops a couple of blocks away. Also, check out this thread, "Central Hotel In London", from here on the Helpline: https://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm/rurl/topic/107831/central-hotel-in-london.html

We have stayed a couple of times at the 4* Ruebens Hotel which is a block from Victoria Station and across the street from Buckingham Palace Royal Mews. Also nearby is St. James Park, pubs and restaurants. Very nice hotel. You might want to check out the website www.londontown.com.

Rebecca, are you sure the breakfast buffet is encluded at County Hall? When did this start? Excellent! I can also recommend PI at Southwark. It's a great neighborhood that encludes the Borough Market and Southwark Cathedral... The restaurant "attached" to this PI (all PI's have a restaurant in the same building or as near as possible to them) is of historical signifance and is on the river. Check out this area. After staying at County Hall many times, I actually prefer Southwark now.

We have enjoyed staying at the hotel inside Victoria Station. It used to be the Victoria Thistle and is now called the Grosvenor (I think). It is a lovely old Victorian era station hotel. But I understand that they recently remodeled the rooms (though the lobby kept the 'opulent' look!!!). Very good location - easy access to the Tube or buses, plenty of pubs and restaurants in the area, too. And the station itself has at least 2 or 3 grocery stores, 2 Boots the Chemist, a 'tech' store, a W H Smith bookstore/newsstand, and a decent food court with McDonalds, KFC and others.

Hi
We were with a tour and though it's in the North End of London all the trains stop down the street at St Pancreas station. It's a Jury's Inn and has air conditioning and a great buffet breakfest and a nice pub food. It's on Islingtion St. The British Library is there as well.

Hi Laurel, I made a slight mistake when talking earlier about Premier Inn's breakfast. When booking, you have a choice to book "room only" or "room with breakfast". My husband booked the rooms for us last time, he booked "with breakfast". So I assumed all hotel stays came with breakfast; not so; I didn't realize he had booked it that way. I still think that's a good option, though; the breakfast is inexpensive (not free, as I had originally said) when booked at the same time as room. That said, I was disappointed at the dinner we got in their restaurant, Thyme. The meats were undercooked and cold (steak, salmon). The service was bad (forgotten by server), so I do not recommend it. The vegetables served were also not fresh and had been overcooked. Frankly, Laurel, I think I'd like your Premier Inn location In Southwark better on my next trip. The restaurant you described sounds interesting.

Two great hotels in great areas. One is the Crowne Plaza, South Kensington, Right across the street from the Gloucester Tube station. We stayed there four years in a row, for 10 days to two weeks, each visit. South Kensington is a beautiful area to stay in. We have also stayed at the Doubletree in Westminister, in 2012. It is a very short walking distance to Parliament, Big Ben, the Piers, The Tower Bridge, the HorseGuards Parade, etc., etc. The Crowne Plaza is associated with the IHG hotel group (owns Holiday Inn's, Crowne Plaza's, InterContental's). You earn hotel points there. The Doubletree is associated with the Hilton Hotel chain. We would go back to either hotel in a heartbeat.

I can recommend Vancouver Studios in Bayswater. The rooms have kitchenettes with fridges, utensils, a cooktop, etc. which is great if you want to buy food in a grocery store to save some money. I paid 75 pounds per night for a room for one person. I also liked this hotel because it's close to 3 different Tube lines: the Circle and District lines at the Bayswater stop (5-minute walk from hotel) and the Central line at the Queensway stop (10-minute walk from hotel). This is important to me because the city may close entire lines, especially on the weekends, for "planned engineering". The Circle and District lines closed once or twice during my week stay in the city so the Central line became my link to the city. The neighborhood of Bayswater has lots of grocery stores, shopping, restaurants, and a post office if you want to mail postcards. But it isn't practical to walk from there to very many touristy sites besides Kensington Gardens / Hyde Park and the Victoria and Albert Museum. I also recommend checking the Transport for London website (www.tfl.gov.uk) every morning before you head out, to see which lines if any are closed that day. Closures occurred surprisingly often, in my opinion.

Allison - Its really all in what you want. Some have mentioned the Hyde Park Hilton, in Bayswater. In the same general area is the Thistle Kensington Gardens. Convenient to both the Bayswater and Queensway Tube stops as well as numerous bus lines. The Thistle is likely to be the least expensive of the two. Others to check include the Guoman Cumberland, at the Marble Arch Tube stop, as well as the Thistle Marble Arch. If you really want to be in the center of it all, you can try the Guoman Charing Cross - which is just off of Trafalgar Square. Do note that the Guoman hotels are generally 4-star, which usually means a little more money. If Hilton is your thing, the Hilton Islington, while a little out of the way (Northern Line Tube is very close by, not far from Kings Cross and St Pancras rail stations), will occasionally have decent rates due to location. My personal favorite for central access is the Rembrandt Hotel, right across from the V&A museum, and 0.5 miles from Harrods. Its very convenient to the South Kensington and Gloucester Square Tube stops on the District, Circle, and Piccadilly lines. The Piccadilly Line takes you to Heathrow, so its convenient to and from the airport, approximately 45 minutes one way. Also in the vicinity is the Regency Hotel - closer to the Gloucester Square Tube stop, which is somewhat less expensive. Hope this helps. Enjoy your trip.

Thanks Everyone, I really appreciate all the thoughtful suggestions. We've decided on Montague on the Gardens. I'll give a review of our experience when we return. Again, many thanks!

I can't say enough about the Crowne Plaza St. James Hotel, which is about a block from Buckingham Palace. It's a beautiful hotel...great service...within walking distance to Westminister Abbey, Big Ben, Parliment, and a few tube stations...great bar in the lobby and good restaurants/pubs nearby!