4 Days in London

Mars Bar

Hi all,

We're trying to organise a trip to London for May and the price of flights from Knock to Luton and Standsted are very similar. Which would be the better choice in terms of being able to get in to London and getting accommodation?

I've had a look at there is so much to see that I don't know where to begin! I did find this though and seems a pretty decent way to start.

In terms of area for accommodation. Where would be central and handy for getting back to the airport(s)? It'll be four adults (parents and two children).

Thanks for all of your help!

BrokenArrows

Luton and Stansted are equally far from London. You can get a bus or a train into central London easily enough. If you book the trains far enough in advance you can get a return for around £20 (30ish normally).

How many of you are there? If you have 4 people you're probably better off prebooking a taxi which would cost the same 4 people paying for the train.
https://www.minicabit.com/

Whats your budget for accommodation as london has a lot to offer and can get very expensive.

shrapnel222

Mars Bar wrote: »

Hi all,

We're trying to organise a trip to London for May and the price of flights from Knock to Luton and Standsted are very similar. Which would be the better choice in terms of being able to get in to London and getting accommodation?

I've had a look at there is so much to see that I don't know where to begin! I did find this though and seems a pretty decent way to start.

In terms of area for accommodation. Where would be central and handy for getting back to the airport(s)? It'll be four adults (parents and two children).

Thanks for all of your help!

both airports are north, north east, so good central places would be camden, kentish town, tottenham court road, euston. even kings cross would be decent.

Mars Bar

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Luton and Stansted are equally far from London. You can get a bus or a train into central London easily enough. If you book the trains far enough in advance you can get a return for around £20 (30ish normally).

How many of you are there? If you have 4 people you're probably better off prebooking a taxi which would cost the same 4 people paying for the train.
https://www.minicabit.com/

Whats your budget for accommodation as london has a lot to offer and can get very expensive.

There'll be 3 flying in to the airport and one coming on the train from Preston. I see now that Luton is on the way through Watford. My parents lived there 20 years ago and haven't been back since. I think it would be nice to go through Watford and see what they still recognise.

I don't really know what our budget is to be honest. I'll have to ask but it's for a 50th birthday so I think we'll be a bit more liberal with the money.

shrapnel222 wrote: »

both airports are north, north east, so good central places would be camden, kentish town, tottenham court road, euston. even kings cross would be decent.

That's great. Thank you!

shrapnel222

Mars Bar wrote: »

There'll be 3 flying in to the airport and one coming on the train from Preston. I see now that Luton is on the way through Watford. My parents lived there 20 years ago and haven't been back since. I think it would be nice to go through Watford and see what they still recognise.

I don't really know what our budget is to be honest. I'll have to ask but it's for a 50th birthday so I think we'll be a bit more liberal with the money.



That's great. Thank you!

Luton via minicab is quite cheap if there's 3 of you sharing. It's around £45 to Camden (went there last week) and I booked via a new minicab app called kabbee which gives you comparative quotes. It might even be cheaper if you book return.

Mars Bar

There'd be so much more comfort in a cab so that's definitely something I'm looking in to.

shrapnel222

Mars Bar wrote: »

There'd be so much more comfort in a cab so that's definitely something I'm looking in to.

should have also said, make sure to factor in time of arrival and departure in your decision. the trip can take anywhere from 40 minutes to 1.5 hours depending of time of day, so the train option into euston or kentish town could very well be the best option.

Mars Bar

So we've booked flights into Luton (€150 for 3 adults return and that's including seat reservation for both journeys!) and booked accommodation in Marylebone Travelodge. Anyone have any tips for sites or ways to get deals in to attractions? I'm currently looking at the London Pass website.

silvervixen84

If you end up taking the train from Luton to town, you can get 2 for 1 deals for some of the big sites:

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/

Mars Bar

The train is booked now. I've booked Tussaud's, The Eye and The Dungeon through the Tussaud's website. That's 3 attractions for £50 per person.

I'd like to add in some of the Monarchy stuff, St. Paul's and the British Museum so I'm trying to figure out which is the best way to do this. Tussaud's is booked for 10am on the Friday and that has to be at that time. The combi ticket allows us to go to the eye and the dungeon within 30 days so I'm wondering does it make much sense to do them on the one day or not.

Meeoow

Kellogs cereal packs have 2 for 1 on attractions. Covers dungeons, shrek and London eye etc. get Oyster cards for travelling. You can get discounts on Thames cruises with them! Enjoy

Edward Hopper

The natural history museum, science museum and V and A are all spitting distance from each other. All free to get in.

Mars Bar

Meeoow wrote: »

Kellogs cereal packs have 2 for 1 on attractions. Covers dungeons, shrek and London eye etc. get Oyster cards for travelling. You can get discounts on Thames cruises with them! Enjoy

We have the eye, dungeon and tussaud's sorted now. Zero interest in Shrek! Yeah we are looking in to the Oyster Card. Might get that at the airport.

Edward Hopper wrote: »

The natural history museum, science museum and V and A are all spitting distance from each other. All free to get in.

Excuse my ignorance, V and A?

Edward Hopper

Mars Bar wrote: »

We have the eye, dungeon and tussaud's sorted now. Zero interest in Shrek! Yeah we are looking in to the Oyster Card. Might get that at the airport.



Excuse my ignorance, V and A?

Victoria and Albert museum, sorry. All 3 less than 5 minutes from each other

cee_jay

Mars Bar wrote: »

Excuse my ignorance, V and A?

The Victoria and Albert museum, a museum of art & design.
https://www.vam.ac.uk/

theteal

Will an Irish contactless debit/credit card work with TFL NFC terminals? If so, it could negate the need for an Oyster Card

Edward Hopper

cee_jay wrote: »

The Victoria and Albert museum, a museum of art & design.
https://www.vam.ac.uk/

Their Museum of Childhood is excellent too, but it's a bit off the beaten track in Bethnal Green.

BrokenArrows

theteal wrote: »

Will an Irish contactless debit/credit card work with TFL NFC terminals? If so, it could negate the need for an Oyster Card

Yes it would work, however you will be changed an international transaction fee by your bank every time you use it. It would end up being a very expensive way to travel.

Usually banks have a percentage fee but with a minimum. So you might end up paying €1.50 each time. Check with your bank for the fees.

silvervixen84

Madame Tussauds is at Baker Street. The Dungeons and the London Eye are four stops away on the Jubilee Line at Waterloo. The Eye and Dungeons are literally next to each other so it makes sense to do them together. You could stroll around the Southbank afterwards towards the Tate Modern, and then keep walking to Borough Market near London Bridge.

Marcusm

silvervixen84 wrote: »

Madame Tussauds is at Baker Street. The Dungeons and the London Eye are four stops away on the Jubilee Line at Waterloo. The Eye and Dungeons are literally next to each other so it makes sense to do them together. You could stroll around the Southbank afterwards towards the Tate Modern, and then keep walking to Borough Market near London Bridge.

MUch more fun to alight from the Jubilee line at Westminster - it probably adds 5 minutes to the walk but you get to see the Houses of PArliament close up plus the views from Westminster Bridge are much better than walking across York Road!

Mars Bar

What would camden market be like in the evening? I've been on the website but that doesn't look up to date. I don't need to buy clothes or anything so a stroll and some nice food would be our aim there. What would be the best mode of transport on a Thursday evening to get there from Marylebone?

BrokenArrows

Mars Bar wrote: »

What would camden market be like in the evening? I've been on the website but that doesn't look up to date. I don't need to buy clothes or anything so a stroll and some nice food would be our aim there. What would be the best mode of transport on a Thursday evening to get there from Marylebone?

Its nice in the evening if its warm.
You can take the Number 27 bus on Marylebone Road near the station directly to Camden Town.

Walk up to Camden Lock market. Plenty of tasty street food and some nice bars/pubs.

Mars Bar

Looks like it's exactly what we should do without eating in to the other two days. We were gonna take Thursday to catch up a little.

The forecast is looking decent. 20c on Thursday is supposed to be the max.

shrapnel222

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Its nice in the evening if its warm.
You can take the Number 27 bus on Marylebone Road near the station directly to Camden Town.

Walk up to Camden Lock market. Plenty of tasty street food and some nice bars/pubs.

everything closes at 6, so between 6 and 8, it's a little bit grim tbh. last few tourists leaving and the evening/night visitors haven't really arrived.

Mars Bar

What a weekend for weather in London!

realdanbreen

Definitely get the Oyster card on day 1. Remember for Madame T's & the eye there will be long queues. A boat trip on the Thames will also show you the main sights(some hotels give free passes for the trip)

Mars Bar

Just home after a fabulous weekend. We probably couldn't have gotten any luckier with the weather. The biggest mistake we made was not getting the oyster card before going so we paid well for our tickets but my sister has an English bank card so we weren't worrying about having the correct cash the whole time and just paid her back. Very handy!

The tube, despite the heat and the crowds, is an absolute blessing. Once we got our heads around how it worked, we were buzzing around the place.

On Thursday evening, we walked Regents Park for a good hour and a half. On Friday we did Tussaud's in the morning, we headed to Westminster and saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We then walked to the London Dungeons and we really enjoyed it. It was very interesting and very funny and we got a golden photo of us on the drop dead ride at the end. The Eye is well worth it! Great views, even if there are an awful lot of cranes in that view. Then we finished by making our way to Buckingham Palace. I loved how clean and open the area was but I didn't think too much of the building itself. We didn't do a tour of the inside.

Yesterday we did the British Natural History Museum. It was so interesting but you need almost the full day there. It's feckin' massive! We all agreed that we were suffering from information overload and took the decision to skip the science museum and headed to Oxford Street for a small spot of shopping.

Today we just took a stroll around Baker Street for breakfast before heading for the airport.

Marylebone is a very handy place for staying. It's close to all of the lines really. One thing I would say though is that if you have a family who are spuds and meat people and not very adventurous then it's next to impossible to find somewhere that isn't a takeaway or Whether-****ing-spoons.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread. It helped a lot!

realdanbreen

Mars Bar wrote: »

Just home after a fabulous weekend. We probably couldn't have gotten any luckier with the weather. The biggest mistake we made was not getting the oyster card before going so we paid well for our tickets but my sister has an English bank card so we weren't worrying about having the correct cash the whole time and just paid her back. Very handy!

The tube, despite the heat and the crowds, is an absolute blessing. Once we got our heads around how it worked, we were buzzing around the place.

On Thursday evening, we walked Regents Park for a good hour and a half. On Friday we did Tussaud's in the morning, we headed to Westminster and saw Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. We then walked to the London Dungeons and we really enjoyed it. It was very interesting and very funny and we got a golden photo of us on the drop dead ride at the end. The Eye is well worth it! Great views, even if there are an awful lot of cranes in that view. Then we finished by making our way to Buckingham Palace. I loved how clean and open the area was but I didn't think too much of the building itself. We didn't do a tour of the inside.

Yesterday we did the British Natural History Museum. It was so interesting but you need almost the full day there. It's feckin' massive! We all agreed that we were suffering from information overload and took the decision to skip the science museum and headed to Oxford Street for a small spot of shopping.

Today we just took a stroll around Baker Street for breakfast before heading for the airport.

Marylebone is a very handy place for staying. It's close to all of the lines really. One thing I would say though is that if you have a family who are spuds and meat people and not very adventurous then it's next to impossible to find somewhere that isn't a takeaway or Whether-****ing-spoons.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the thread. It helped a lot!

Good to see things went well MB. What was the Marelbone travelodge like?, expensive?

Mars Bar

It was £511 for four of us. That was 2 adults in each room in double beds for three nights.

It's very, very basic but we didn't need anything more than that. The curtains didn't keep out the light and it was loud (we were in the quiet area too). If you're a light sleeper, it would not suit ya.

BrokenArrows

Mars Bar wrote: »

It was £511 for four of us. That was 2 adults in each room in double beds for three nights.

It's very, very basic but we didn't need anything more than that. The curtains didn't keep out the light and it was loud (we were in the quiet area too). If you're a light sleeper, it would not suit ya.

Travelodge hotels are like this.
The walls and windows are not soundproofed well at all (in england and ireland anyway. Ive stayed in very nice travelodges abroad). The beds generally suck.
I try and avoid staying in them if at all possible.

The last time i stayed in a travelodge was the final straw. I was on the 6th floor and there was a club on the ground floor of the building. I could hear the club like it was next door. Asked to be moved up to the top floor. Think it was the 10th and could still hear it.

Mars Bar

We had really comfortable king sized beds. I think I'd go Premier Inn though if I had to again. I've stayed in the one in Manchester and it was lovely.