Our Greater London Megathread

tommy21

Fratton Fred wrote: »

For the sake of an extra £24, I would go for the premium seats.
Its not like it is something you will be doing every week.

True I guess, have you been there before Fratton Fred?

Fratton Fred

tommy21 wrote: »

True I guess, have you been there before Fratton Fred?

I don't think so, I have been to about f to x plays in the west end, but the theatres all kind of merge into one when you look back.

They are all old designs and some of the tickets are awful (although these will be sold as restricted view).

Ticketmaster usually has a seat guide which can be handy.

Are you dead set on seeing one of those two? There are a lot of great shows on at the moment, like Grease, Blood Brothers, Billy Elliot, Oliver, Phantom of the Opera, Sisteract, We Will Rock You, or, one of my favourites, the Woman in Black, which is a horror.

What sort of thing are you after?

tommy21

Fratton Fred wrote: »

I don't think so, I have been to about f to x plays in the west end, but the theatres all kind of merge into one when you look back.

They are all old designs and some of the tickets are awful (although these will be sold as restricted view).

Ticketmaster usually has a seat guide which can be handy.

Are you dead set on seeing one of those two? There are a lot of great shows on at the moment, like Grease, Blood Brothers, Billy Elliot, Oliver, Phantom of the Opera, Sisteract, We Will Rock You, or, one of my favourites, the Woman in Black, which is a horror.

What sort of thing are you after?

That's true too Fred, I guess I'm after a special show to celebrate our anniversary but doesn't have to be Les Mis or the Lion King, I just know she loves those. Maybe I'll check out the reviews for those and see what else is good.

KavEnn

Hi Tommy,
My boyfriend brought me to see Dirty Dancing last weekend in the Aldwych Theatre in the West End, and I can throughly recommend it (but I am a fan of the film Dirty dancing anyway!!). It was a pretty small theatre, the show and how they did it was excellent, the dancing was fab and they got a really long standing ovation, so the audience really enjoyed it too.

There are loads of little restaurants that do brilliant pre-theatre dinner. We went to a great seafood restaurant and had 2 starters, 2 mains, 1 dessert, carafe of wine, coffee and 2 glasses a champagne all for £50, so spend the money on the good theatre tickets and save on a pre-theatre dinner!

Enjoy!

deisedevil

I'm going to London for 3 nights. I was thinking of getting the London Pass for 3 days. It's about 96euro I think. Would it be worth it, has anyone ever used it?

ncmc

deisedevil wrote: »

I'm going to London for 3 nights. I was thinking of getting the London Pass for 3 days. It's about 96euro I think. Would it be worth it, has anyone ever used it?

I would be slow to buy the pass for 3 days, €96 seems a bit stiff. I wonder would you end up just going into attractions because they are included in the pass rather than actually wanting to see them. Remember a lot of London's top attractions are free, eg British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum. Some of the sites are expensive (Tower of London is about £15 if I remember correctly) but you would want to be fitting in a lot of paid attractions in 3 days to make it worth €96.

I would recommend making a list of things you want to see (and can reasonably expect to fit into 3 days), do a bit of research and see if the attractions you are interested in are free to enter or have a cover charge (and if so, how much) you should be able to quickly see if the €96 is money well spent or not.

deisedevil

ncmc wrote: »

I would be slow to buy the pass for 3 days, €96 seems a bit stiff. I wonder would you end up just going into attractions because they are included in the pass rather than actually wanting to see them. Remember a lot of London's top attractions are free, eg British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum. Some of the sites are expensive (Tower of London is about £15 if I remember correctly) but you would want to be fitting in a lot of paid attractions in 3 days to make it worth €96.

I would recommend making a list of things you want to see (and can reasonably expect to fit into 3 days), do a bit of research and see if the attractions you are interested in are free to enter or have a cover charge (and if so, how much) you should be able to quickly see if the €96 is money well spent or not.

Thanks for the reply!

Your right, I probably wouldn't end up making the most of it. It's that expensive though because it includes travelpass for the three days. But after thinking about it (and looking at getting around London with tubes, buses etc.) I'm after realising it would be a nightmare to manage to get from one attraction to another in time to make it worth it.

My head is wrecked trying to figure out travelling around London. It's seriously complicated. Getting a bit worried I'm going to be getting stressed out and lost.

Fratton Fred

deisedevil wrote: »

Thanks for the reply!

Your right, I probably wouldn't end up making the most of it. It's that expensive though because it includes travelpass for the three days. But after thinking about it (and looking at getting around London with tubes, buses etc.) I'm after realising it would be a nightmare to manage to get from one attraction to another in time to make it worth it.

My head is wrecked trying to figure out travelling around London. It's seriously complicated. Getting a bit worried I'm going to be getting stressed out and lost.

its all about practice to be honest.

get youself a travel card or an oyster card and it is very difficult to go wrong. if you stick to the Tube and you end up on the wrong train, get off at the next stop and go back. one useful tip is to have a general idea of which direction you are travelling, as the platforms will be marked as Northbound, Westbound etc.

other than that, work out your routes using www.tfl.gov.uk and off you go (There is a mobile version of that website by the way). after two days you;ll be shooting around the old oxo cube like a Londoner.

oh yeah, get yourself an A to Z, it is the London map.

deisedevil

Fratton Fred wrote: »

its all about practice to be honest.

get youself a travel card or an oyster card and it is very difficult to go wrong. if you stick to the Tube and you end up on the wrong train, get off at the next stop and go back. one useful tip is to have a general idea of which direction you are travelling, as the platforms will be marked as Northbound, Westbound etc.

other than that, work out your routes using www.tfl.gov.uk and off you go (There is a mobile version of that website by the way). after two days you;ll be shooting around the old oxo cube like a Londoner.

oh yeah, get yourself an A to Z, it is the London map.

Thanks for that. I thought as much, just have to give it a go and if I get lost then double back. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it. Last few times I got the tube I got it right but took me a while to figure it out.

I'll get the A-Z, looks very handy alright. Thanks.

ncmc

I wouldn't worry about the tube Deisedevil, it is really straightforward, you will be like a pro after a couple of hours! I think the main thing is to keep calm and take your time. There are maps all over the tube stations and they are very clear and easy to follow. I think mistakes are made when you jump on the nearest train without looking carefully where it's going! If you miss one tube there will be another along in 2-3 mins.

Just to confuse you further...

The last time we were there, we bought a 7 day travel card for Zones 1-2 for £25.80, see here

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx

It entitles you to unlimited travel on the tube in zone 1 and 2 but also the buses as well.

We bought the ticket in a train station (above ground) rather than a tube station, therefore it qualified as a train ticket and so entitled us to all these 2 for 1 offers:

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/attraction-types/2for1london.aspx

We were able to get into Tower of London, Hampton Court and Westminster Abbey on the 2 for 1 offer. We saved a packet! There are also show tickets and restaurant offers on that website. The offer was vvalid as long as your ticket was, so in our case the whole 7 days.

I hope I've been clear in the way I've described this, PM me if you have any questions!

deisedevil

ncmc wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about the tube Deisedevil, it is really straightforward, you will be like a pro after a couple of hours! I think the main thing is to keep calm and take your time. There are maps all over the tube stations and they are very clear and easy to follow. I think mistakes are made when you jump on the nearest train without looking carefully where it's going! If you miss one tube there will be another along in 2-3 mins.

Just to confuse you further...

The last time we were there, we bought a 7 day travel card for Zones 1-2 for £25.80, see here

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14416.aspx

It entitles you to unlimited travel on the tube in zone 1 and 2 but also the buses as well.

We bought the ticket in a train station (above ground) rather than a tube station, therefore it qualified as a train ticket and so entitled us to all these 2 for 1 offers:

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/attraction-types/2for1london.aspx

We were able to get into Tower of London, Hampton Court and Westminster Abbey on the 2 for 1 offer. We saved a packet! There are also show tickets and restaurant offers on that website. The offer was vvalid as long as your ticket was, so in our case the whole 7 days.

I hope I've been clear in the way I've described this, PM me if you have any questions!

Can't thank you enough for that, very helpful! I'll do exactly that myself, would be exactly what I'm looking for.

Thanks again!

ncmc

It worked out great for us, we just took the tube everywhere as it was all paid in advance. Just remember the ticket has to be bought at an above ground train station to qualify for the 2-for-1 offers, I think there is a list of some of the main train stations you can buy it in on the Days out guide website. Also, if you want to venture beyond zone 1 or 2, you can just pay the balance.

One final thing, in adition to the valid rail card, you will need to show a voucher when you are redeeming your 2-4-1 entry. Most stations will have a booklet with all the vouchers in it, but I would print the ones you want to use off the website and bring them with me too, as some of the stations were out of the booklets when we were looking for them.

OPENROAD

ncmc wrote: »

I wouldn't worry about the tube Deisedevil, it is really straightforward, you will be like a pro after a couple of hours! I think the main thing is to keep calm and take your time. There are maps all over the tube stations and they are very clear and easy to follow. I think mistakes are made when you jump on the nearest train without looking carefully where it's going! If you miss one tube there will be another along in 2-3 mins.

Just like to add that all tube stations are well staffed and staff are excellent imo, they will point you in the right direction.


One bit of advice is to not only check the screens on the platform but check the front of tube train and the info screen on the actual tube important if you are going to Heathrow in particular.

Most parts of the tube are very straight forward, the thing to know is what tube stations you will pass through on your way to your destination, so you will know straight away if you are on the right track, if not jump off the tube,and go back to previous station, for most underground lines(the deeper lines) this will be just the platform opposite, the deeper lines only have two platforms, more complicated for the overground tube lines, but as said staff are on hand.

Be careful getting on tube trains if you are with someone, Londoners are very polite when it comes to using the tube but tourists tend to gather at the doors of the tube rather than using all the available space so just be careful getting on the tube that your companion also gets on i.e. keep them close to you.

Also make sure you know how many tube stops to your destination, the tube can get very crowded at certain times of the day and so you won't be able to see what tube stop you are at, that said most of the time an automatic voice makes announcements will tell you what the nxt station is 30 secs or so before you reach it.

Remember as one tube train leaves the tube station, another one is normally 30secs away, so you don't have to get the first one. Also the back two carriages tend to be less crowded.

The two most complex lines for tourists imo are the circle(yellow) line and district(green) line so just be extra careful on these lines, check the destination board and front of tube train.

Oh and finally please please stand only on the right of the escalator, the left side is for walking up only :P

Also you don't have to get the tube everywhere, sometimes it can be quicker to walk.

Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions or for advice.

deisedevil

Excellent advice again. Thanks v much!

Feel a bit better about it now. Bit of planning and practice and if in doubt will just ask staff. And as for the escalators, I learnt that lesson the hard way a few years back,lol.

Thanks!

Featherl

Ok, I need advice on London!

Planning on going to London for Easter but finding it very hard to get a hotel. We are going to see tourist attractions.. London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Big Ben, etc.. and need hotel close to most of attractions. What areas are best to look up?

Flying from Dublin to Gatwick, anyone recommend hotels that are near any of the above.

Thanks in advance

OPENROAD

Featherl wrote: »

Ok, I need advice on London!

Planning on going to London for Easter but finding it very hard to get a hotel. We are going to see tourist attractions.. London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Big Ben, etc.. and need hotel close to most of attractions. What areas are best to look up?

Flying from Dublin to Gatwick, anyone recommend hotels that are near any of the above.

Thanks in advance

Perfect location, ifyou have any questions feel free to ask.


http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=59595655&highlight=kensington#post59595655

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=61108935&highlight=kensington#post61108935

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=60745677&highlight=kensington#post60745677

DeadSkin

Got some useful information here for a recent trip to London and thought I'd give my 2 cents for accomodation.

We stayed in Fraser Place, Queens Gate in Kensington.
Found it excellent, we got a studio appartment, cost 230 Euro for 2 nights. It's a 2 minute walk to Gloucster Road tube station.

SheRa

Im going to London this Sunday, flying into Heathrow, and staying until Tuesday. I'll use the tube to get my hotel as its on the picadilly line that goes from Heathrow, so thats grand. I see that there will be some network rail industrial action from Tuesday (see below) so I dont want to rely on the train to get back to Heathrow for my flight Tuesday evening. Could you recommend a mode of transport that is reliable and not too expensive? Im leaning towards the national express coach service, but any help would be appreciated:).

NATIONAL RAIL INDUSTRIAL ACTION: Some Network Rail staff belonging to the RMT and TSSA unions have announced that they plan to take industrial action between 06:00 and 10:00, and between 18:00 and 22:00 each day from Tuesday 6 April to Friday 9 April. Rail travel during the Easter weekend will not be affected, however National Rail services, throughout the London area, will be subject to delays and cancellations throughout all four days. Some stations may be closed through all four days. Reported: 29/03/10 17:32 Last Updated: 29/03/10 17:32

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en&sessionID=JP20_46083162&requestID=2&tripSelector2=1&itdLPxx_view=detail&tripSelection=on&command=nop&calculateDistance=1

OPENROAD

SheRa wrote: »

Im going to London this Sunday, flying into Heathrow, and staying until Tuesday. I'll use the tube to get my hotel as its on the picadilly line that goes from Heathrow, so thats grand. I see that there will be some network rail industrial action from Tuesday (see below) so I dont want to rely on the train to get back to Heathrow for my flight Tuesday evening. Could you recommend a mode of transport that is reliable and not too expensive? Im leaning towards the national express coach service, but any help would be appreciated:).

NATIONAL RAIL INDUSTRIAL ACTION: Some Network Rail staff belonging to the RMT and TSSA unions have announced that they plan to take industrial action between 06:00 and 10:00, and between 18:00 and 22:00 each day from Tuesday 6 April to Friday 9 April. Rail travel during the Easter weekend will not be affected, however National Rail services, throughout the London area, will be subject to delays and cancellations throughout all four days. Some stations may be closed through all four days. Reported: 29/03/10 17:32 Last Updated: 29/03/10 17:32

http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en&sessionID=JP20_46083162&requestID=2&tripSelector2=1&itdLPxx_view=detail&tripSelection=on&command=nop&calculateDistance=1

Is the tube effected by the strike though? Is it not just national rail?

SheRa

You are right, it shouldn't affect the tube, except maybe that the tube may be busier. I spoke to a london underground customer rep just there who confirmed this. Phew!

cson

Can anyone tell me what the area around Paddington is like? Thinking about booking the Novotel near it.

OPENROAD

cson wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what the area around Paddington is like? Thinking about booking the Novotel near it.

How much is your budget per night?

Kensington much nicer.

Lenny

You seem to like the kensington place openroad.. you keep gpoing on about it
To me, it looks like a lump of flats!
But anyways I am going next week and I was looking at prices for it, did you go for the "2 single beds option"
or is the standard room a doublebed?

edit: I'm also flying into stansted, so I assume I have to get 2 tubes to get to this hotel?
How much would a taxi cost at night from the centre to this hotel too?

heres the price I'm getting for it for the dates

Reservation Price Details
Rate Information Per Night for 1 rooms.
Fri 23 Apr 2010 - Fri 23 Apr 2010

£113.00



GBP


Sat 24 Apr 2010 - Sat 24 Apr 2010

£158.00



GBP


Sun 25 Apr 2010 - Sun 25 Apr 2010

£113.00



GBP


Total Tax

£67.21



GBP


Estimated Total Price

£451.21



GBP

Seems quite expensive for what I seem to be getting, saw nicer hotels for cheaper..
or is there something I'm doing wrong here?

OPENROAD

Lenny wrote: »

You seem to like the kensington place openroad.. you keep gpoing on about it
To me, it looks like a lump of flats!
But anyways I am going next week and I was looking at prices for it, did you go for the "2 single beds option"
or is the standard room a doublebed?

edit: I'm also flying into stansted, so I assume I have to get 2 tubes to get to this hotel?
How much would a taxi cost at night from the centre to this hotel too?

heres the price I'm getting for it for the dates



Seems quite expensive for what I seem to be getting, saw nicer hotels for cheaper..
or is there something I'm doing wrong here?

PM sent.

How Soon Is Now

Im heading over to hardrock calling in June from 25th to the 28th and looking for place to stay for the Friday Saturday and Sunday night.

Im heading with mates but probley gonna have to find me own place to stay.

Has anyone any ideas where would be cheap places to stay??

shrapnel222

just do a search for bayswater hotels. there are tonnes of them and it's just beside hype park. they're mostly pretty basic hotels

thorbarry

http://bayswater.hotels-london.co.uk/

Here's a list of hotels in bayswater. Stay away from the blakemore http://www.hotels-london.co.uk/blakemore.hotel
I stayed there last year when going to the Blur gig. Rude staff, alright rooms and no air con

How Soon Is Now

237 euro for 3 nights think ill look at hostels lol
Thanks for the help in anyways i wonder what the hostels around hyde park are like.

georgesoros

Is there any Adverts.ie or equivalent website that is decent for London, I've been looking at gumtree, craigslist and loot and they all seem pretty weak with very few listings.

who the fug

georgesoros wrote: »

Is there any Adverts.ie or equivalent website that is decent for London, I've been looking at gumtree, craigslist and loot and they all seem pretty weak with very few listings.

What are you looking for?