Our Greater London Megathread

Tayla

theblueirish wrote: »

Depending where you are staying consider getting a weekend travel card at Heatrow. This will cover you for all buses and tubes in London. I think the cost is about £7 but its been a while since i been there.

That's all the travelling i'll be doing, i'm staying near Heathrow on friday and then flying home in the early hours of Sunday so I won't have much time to go anywhere else but thanks!

**Timbuk2** wrote: »

Whoops - I had it in my head that the easyBus to Gatwick left from Victoria - that's even handier for you! I'm not sure exactly where that is as I've only ever got the easyBus to Stansted, but when you print out your easyBus ticket there's a small map with directions about where the stop is located! Remember to leave a bit of extra time for the bus journey in case there's bad traffic!

It's perfect, thanks for the suggestion as I hadn't came across easybus when I was looking for transport!

Thanks again guys, now I can relax and not worry about it!

roundymac

theblueirish wrote: »

Depending where you are staying consider getting a weekend travel card at Heatrow. This will cover you for all buses and tubes in London. I think the cost is about £7 but its been a while since i been there.

Get an Oyster card at the tkt desk at Heathrow, it will cover you for all tube and bus and dockland light rail.They cost about a fiver at first, put about £15-20 credit on it and your sorted for the weekend. You can keep these cards for your next trip to London, the credit stay's valid. What we do is put £20 credit on it when we are leaving so that when we return the next time there is no messing about especially when you have luggage, its straight onto the tube. You can scan your card at any tube station to see how much credit you have left. Also the price of your journey's are heavily discounted, up to 75% in some case's.

**Timbuk2**

The best thing about oyster cards is that they are capped at the daily travelcard rate.

So for example, if you were going to London for sightseeing, the chances are most of your trips will be in Zones 1 and 2. Cash fares are £4 per journey, but oyster fares are £2.50 at peak times, and £1.90 at off-peak times (in just zone 1, it's £1.90 all the time).

However, the off-peak travelcard rate for Zones 1-2 is £6.60 (you can travel at any time of the day once your first journey is after 9.30am) - so it will keep charging you until you reach £6.60, and you won't be charged anymore - which makes it excellent value!

Fratton Fred

Earls court is a 20 minute walk from Stanford bridge. I usually get off there and have a beer or two in the oniels bar.

After a game, fulham Broadway is usually closed so you may as well walk back to Earls court.

WoollyRedHat

Sorry, just wondering can anybody reccomend some cheap enough hostels in the centre of London, nothing amazing, just safe and bearable to sleep in that saves having to travel too far out...

also none of which have ridicolous curfews.

Or is there any reasonably priced B & BS?

In terms of the West End which is better: Billy Elliot, Les Miserables or Phantom of the Opera.. I have seen Billy Elliot before as in the film and have heard the other two are great plays

And has anyone been to London around Halloween? Is it a good time to go? Or would early September be preferable?


Cheap food- Any reasonably priced restaurants? Planning to get dinner in Camden Market one of nights, and looking for a nice meal in a nicely priced place for one evening

Thanks in advance!
Thanks !

central park

Has anyone used the newly opened railway station at London Southend airport? What is the name of the station there and is it worth buying rail ticket in advance? I need to get to Liverpool Street station.

schemingbohemia

The airports website is useless!

I went to national rail www.nationalrail.co.uk and one of the drop-down stations is Southend Airport. Not sure how easy it is to get from the airport to the station.

central park

I just tried that and it only comes up in the box as Southend. There seems to be several stations there! I agree the airport site is useless! Thanks for the reply!

schemingbohemia

central park wrote: »

I just tried that and it only comes up in the box as Southend. There seems to be several stations there! I agree the airport site is useless! Thanks for the reply!

The first drop down for me (using IE9) is Southend all stations but the airport station definitely showed up for me as an option once I'd started typing in Southend. SIA is the code to enter for the airport station.

OPENROAD

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Sorry, just wondering can anybody reccomend some cheap enough hostels in the centre of London, nothing amazing, just safe and bearable to sleep in that saves having to travel too far out...

also none of which have ridicolous curfews.

Or is there any reasonably priced B & BS?

In terms of the West End which is better: Billy Elliot, Les Miserables or Phantom of the Opera.. I have seen Billy Elliot before as in the film and have heard the other two are great plays

And has anyone been to London around Halloween? Is it a good time to go? Or would early September be preferable?


Cheap food- Any reasonably priced restaurants? Planning to get dinner in Camden Market one of nights, and looking for a nice meal in a nicely priced place for one evening

Thanks in advance!
Thanks !

To be honest anytime of the year is great for London, personally I love it around October as the nights are drawing in and you can't beat sitting in a coffee shop in London watching the world go by.

For accommodation I would look for something around South Kensington, perfect spot for reasonable priced restaurants in a nice area, I have mentioned a couple of eating places in Gloucester Road(South Ken area) that offer very reasonable food, one is Cafe Forum, is more a coffee shop, but they do pasta and pizza in the evening.

How much do you want to spend on Food/ Accommodation per night in sterling?

**Timbuk2**

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Sorry, just wondering can anybody reccomend some cheap enough hostels in the centre of London, nothing amazing, just safe and bearable to sleep in that saves having to travel too far out...

We (4 x 19 year olds) stayed in the Generator Hostel, which is on Tavistock Place, Bloomsbury (roughly north of the centre of London). It was my first hostel visit so I didn't know what to expect, but it was quite nice! It was safe, clean (the bathrooms were surprisingly spotless!). There's no curfews, you can come and go as you please (also a 24 hour reception). And free breakfast (which is just cereal and toast, but you can have as much as you want and it tides you over until lunchtime).

Location wise, it's a 4 minute walk to Russell Square Tube station (Piccadilly line - the best line for tourists (Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Harrods, etc. as well as connecting London City with Heathrow Airport), and a 7 minute walk to King's Cross St. Pancras Tube Station (Piccadilly, Circle, Hammersmith+City, Metropolitan, Piccadilly and Northern Lines), so it's easy to get around London from any of those! There's also a 24hour Tesco express across from Russell Square Tube Station, and an O'Neill's Irish bar on the way to King's Cross station

The only thing is, we went on the first 4 days in August and temperatures were between 27 and 30 degrees for the first 3 days, and the room wasn't air conditioned and the window only opened slightly, so it felt like a sauna, but we didn't mind (we can't complain about good weather!), and it probably won't be an issue in October! The rooms are also very small but clean! You share a bathroom with other people on your floor (it's a large bathroom so you won't be queuing for ages) but there's a sink and mirror in the room!

Some reviews I've read say that it's very noisy (the bar is open until 4am) but I didn't notice it at all - we were on the top (5th) floor so maybe that's why!

Another hostel I was considering was a hostel called Hillspring Lodge in Willesden Green. It's a bit further out of London, and is on the Jubilee Line (about 15-20 minutes into central London on the tube). We didn't actually get to look at it, but from the reviews it looked good!

We were in a private room of 4 in the Generator, so it cost us about €28 (that's euro, not sterling) a night (per person) which is fairly expensive as hostels go, but I would do it again! We booked through hostelbookers.com!

WoollyRedHat

Thanks OPENROAD and Tim, advice was great, appreciate it!
Will check the Generator place think €30 is dealable (especially if there is free breakfast and it's not a kip!) for around 3 nights, and location sounds pretty grand if it's near the tube. Good to hear no curfew either and handy that there is a tesco express ( although Morrisons I'd prefer food is lovely there).
Size of room wouldn't bother me too much short term, having spent time in the YMCA in New York, which was small enough!!

OPENROAD wrote: »

To be honest anytime of the year is great for London, personally I love it around October as the nights are drawing in and you can't beat sitting in a coffee shop in London watching the world go by.

For accommodation I would look for something around South Kensington, perfect spot for reasonable priced restaurants in a nice area, I have mentioned a couple of eating places in Gloucester Road(South Ken area) that offer very reasonable food, one is Cafe Forum, is more a coffee shop, but they do pasta and pizza in the evening.

How much do you want to spend on Food/ Accommodation per night in sterling?

In regards to Kensington, this was somewhere I was considering having spent two days there in a hotel just up past the EMI Building around 3 years ago. Would hostels not be a bit expensive around there?


There is a great organic food centre on Kensington High Street I think, great selection of food and the sights and shops are great there, good choice! Will also check your reccomendations for restaurants OpenRoad cheers! Budget for accomadation would realistically for us want to be no more than 30 euro a night.

Foodwise, wouldn't mind spending around £25 for a decent restaurant some night... my opinion is you can still enjoy London and keep it cheap and cheerful enough if you look around.

Anybody been to either Les Miserables or Billy Elliot in Westend? Wouldn't mind catching a play one of nights. Saw The Mouse Trap last time round and would highly reccomend it.. it's the longest running play in The West End if I remember correctly.

cyning

Hi has anyone any recomendations for a central hotel: we have three nights midweek in London in Sept and we're flying into Gatwick and out of Heathrow! Looking to spend around the 6/700 euro mark for the three nights we will be doing the tourist thing in London and really want to get in a show while we're there too!

OPENROAD

cyning wrote: »

Hi has anyone any recomendations for a central hotel: we have three nights midweek in London in Sept and we're flying into Gatwick and out of Heathrow! Looking to spend around the 6/700 euro mark for the three nights we will be doing the tourist thing in London and really want to get in a show while we're there too!

Plenty of good stuff already in this thread, worth having a read through, however have a look at this link.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=70789748&highlight=kensington+forum#post70789748

cyning

Perfect and Booked thank you so much: we're flying into Gatwick and we'll get the Gatwick express into Victoria: can we get taxi for some sort of reasonable price from there? I hate the thoughts of manuvering tubes with luggage (we have a stopover after being in Italy for two weeks!!)

Also what shows does anyone reccomend for the West end?

OPENROAD

cyning wrote: »

Perfect and Booked thank you so much: we're flying into Gatwick and we'll get the Gatwick express into Victoria: can we get taxi for some sort of reasonable price from there? I hate the thoughts of manuvering tubes with luggage (we have a stopover after being in Italy for two weeks!!)

Also what shows does anyone reccomend for the West end?

Depends how much luggage you have if you have chosen that place in Gloucester Road, you are only three stops from Victoria(Circle or District line), the walk from the Gatwick Express to the tube is not that long, actually if memory serves me correct when you come off the Gatwick Express and walk away from the platform, you should see a London Underground straight in front of you. Depending on the time of day, yes the tube platform can be busy, however you can take any train from that platform( think it will say Westbound platform) and the journey is only about 5 mins.

Taxi from there would be approx £ 10-£15, kind of guessing a bit but shouldn't be any more than that, traffic permitting

AntoSRFC

Great thread will try have a look through most of it tommorow but could anyone recommend a decent nightclub around covent garden on a Wednesday? Somewere that has a young enough crowd and isnt too expensive. Thanks for the help.

Janey Mack

OPENROAD wrote: »

Taxi from there would be approx £ 10-£15, kind of guessing a bit but shouldn't be any more than that, traffic permitting

I got a taxi from Victoria to Gloucester rd recently for £8 with 4 passengers and not much traffic.

We booked the Hotel through this link http://www.ichotels.com/exclusive
Used 35% off option. There wasn't much left on the 2 for 1 option.
Printed off some of the discount vouchers too. Be warned though there is no cancellation allowed.

Thanks to Openroad for the recommendation, the location was ideal. Stayed in the Crown Plaza ideal for a family.

easychair

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

There is a great organic food centre on Kensington High Street I think,

I assume you are talking about Wholefoods Market. www.wholefoodamarket.com. It's a very well known american grocery store with 6 branches in London and about to open one in Glasgow.

ShoulderChip

Hi

I need to plan a week in London after work
so evening stuff

I have one champions league game on the tuesday, what else should I do?
What are the best plays to see now?

I am kind of interested in the Lion king, should i pay 40gbp on ticketmaster or could i get tickets cheaper in town? bearing in mind it will be 7pm before i get to town and it seems to be a very busy show.

I am also looking for more non musical plays --> I see war horse is sold out and jerusalem is not on any other suggestions.

This is the week from 24th september, any other reccommendations?

degaquethe

Im looking for some info on renting an apartment in London for a weekend, it dosen't need to be anything fancy just central enough. Also with such an apartment say it was for 6 people are they generally strict on how many come in and out of the place. I'd imagine people renting an apartment for the wkd must realise the tenants may end up having a bit of a session there after the club, is they're any such place that wouldn't be too strict, or am I asking too much!?...cheers in advance for any help........

Furp

You could try http://www.think-apartments.com they are an apart-hotel with a few locations in south central London around Southwark. easy enough to get north from there via London Bridge or Borough Tube station.

whiterob81

Heading to London in November and me and my wife are hoping to catch a show over there. Can anyone recommend any good, reliable non-ticketmaster websites where you can get can get cheap theatre tickets?

Thanks

Dr Nic

Hi Guys,
Anyone recommend anything here?
GF's b'day soon and she talks a lot about going there.
Thing is we're both students and would like to keep the price moderate
Anyone any suggestions?
Thanks!

Dr Nic

Booked Nov 11-13 for 48euro return for the both of us. Damn ryanair mastercard charges bumped it to 70euro but still delighted with that...
Now to book hotels and decide on what to do!!

Anyone?

Oh - i see theres a sticky!

Dr Nic

Any hotel/B&B recoomendations for a mid 20s student couple for hotel anywhere in London? Just close to central tube line.
Flying into stanstead
Thanks!

Bomany

A word of warning about which bus you book to get from London airports to city centre. I mistakenly booked two seats with a company called Terravision. The mistake made was I booked them from Luton, when in fact I was flying into Standsted. Still don't know how I did that! When I realised what I'd done I contacted Terravision to get the booking changed. They don't allow any changes and won't give refunds. Their customer service is a joke. Scandalous. Checked some review sites and discovered they have an absolutely terrible reputation. Ripped off for £30. Re-booked with National Coaches - checked them and there is no problem with refunds. Avoid Terravision at all costs.

The Davestator

I've used Terravision with no problems for years and always recommend them. Once you realise that they are a bus version of ryanair you'll be grand!

Sorry to hear your troubles by the way.

Savman

Sorry, what? You ballsed up the booking by putting in the wrong airport and you have a pop at the bus company!

number10a

Bomany wrote: »

A word of warning about which bus you book to get from London airports to city centre. I mistakenly booked two seats with a company called Terravision. The mistake made was I booked them from Luton, when in fact I was flying into Standsted. Still don't know how I did that! When I realised what I'd done I contacted Terravision to get the booking changed. They don't allow any changes and won't give refunds. Their customer service is a joke. Scandalous. Checked some review sites and discovered they have an absolutely terrible reputation. Ripped off for £30. Re-booked with National Coaches - checked them and there is no problem with refunds. Avoid Terravision at all costs. Avoid making incorrect bookings at all costs.

fyp