One night

We will be flying into London Gatwick on a Thursday morning in early June, and flying out the next day around 12:30 pm out of Luton Airport on our way to Croatia. Could anyone suggest an area to stay where we could not only rest our heads and be convenient for our connections, but also possibly catch a little London flavor?

Two nights

On our way back from Croatia, we will land at Luton on a Friday at 6:00 pm, but will not leave for US until Sunday, with a 12:30 pm flight from Gatwick. So where might be a strategically good area to stay for our final two nights (Friday and Saturday)? It would be nice to spend a lovely Saturday and Saturday night doing something nice in London.

I am open to any suggestions. Thank you all in advance...

There are direct trains between Luton and Gatwick on the Brighton to Bedford line, stopping at St Pancras, City Thameslink (between High Holborn and Ludgate Hill) Blackfriars and London Bridge. There are hotels near all of these, e.g. a Novotel within walking distance of St Pancras, and any number in Bloomsbury a little further away - Bloomsbury in particular would meet your "London flavour" requirement. Ludgate Hill/Blackfriars is more of a business district, though again, there's a Crowne Plaza just over the road from Blackfriars station, and within walking distance of St Pauls. There's also a big hotel more or less on top of London Bridge station, which is within walking distance of Borough Market and all along the South Bank, though the immediate surroundings of the station are a bit scruffy.

All of them would have plenty of transport links to get around central London.

Here's the train timetable:
http://www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/Main.php?sEvent=Timetables&crs_code=GTW

and here are maps of London transport:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1106.aspx

Thanks for this information, Patrick. I'm still trying to make sense of London transportation. It seems extremely efficient - I just need to familiarize myself with it, and the neighborhoods, a little better.

So, if I am understanding you correctly, I can take the Brighton-Bedford Line from Gatwick, and get off at St. Pancras and walk a little ways (which way?) to get to the Bloomsbury area? Or would I need more transportation to get there?

On this map, where would Bloomsbury be?

Many thanks for your help.

Bloomsbury can be a fairly elastic term (especially for people trying to sell hotel rooms), but basically the area south of St Pancras and north of Holborn, centred on the British Museum and Russell Square. That's quite large in terms of walking from St Pancras. Depending on where you settle for a hotel, you might need to take a taxi, but there are buses from opposite St Pancras that go down to Russell Square, as well as the other side of the BM.

That map only shows the routes that go closest to the main attractions - here's the full set:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/Central-London-Day-Bus-Map.pdf

As a Londoner, I don't know a lot about the hotels, but there are plenty around, and I'm sure other Slow Travellers could advise.

After spending the better part of my free time today online, I'm maybe a little closer to figuring out where to stay. I've been doing searches of previous threads about traveling to and from airports, and recommended areas to stay at. I've read the hotel and B&B reviews on Slow Travel, too. All of this info has been so helpful - to be honest with you, I've never really spent much time on the United Kingdom board, but let me tell you, this place rocks! TONS of great advice.

I like the idea of staying in the Bloomsbury area - it seems like a central location and a nice area, well-connected, too? Thinking in terms of Bloomsbury, here are a few places that are on my list:

Jesmond Hotel - not too sure about this one.
St. Margaret's Hotel, which is a longstanding family-run place that has gotten nice reviews. I think Marta suggested this place on another thread.
The Morgan Hotel also looks nice, and good reviews on tripadvisor, too.

We're mainly interested in a nice, clean, and comfortable (and safe) accommodation that won't break the bank for us. We will mainly be resting our heads there, and don't want anything that will skeeve us out, either inside the hotel or in the neighborhood.

So, how am I doing so far? Am I overlooking a comparably nice and convenient to sights/transportation neighborhood?

quote:

to be honest with you, I've never really spent much time on the United Kingdom board, but let me tell you, this place rocks! TONS of great advice

It's lovely to have you too, Terry!

For your relatively brief foray and your particular connecting travel plans, Bloomsbury is a good choice.(Good suggestion, Patrick)

Good transport/not far from central sights etc., Do get out and about, though - it is a fairly uniform area, Georgian stucco and not particularly green - take a walk in Green Park/St James' Parks (which are close to Buckingham Palace/Houses of Parliament and all that sort of thing)

There's a useful shopping mall in Bloomsbury , called the Brunswick Centre which has a Waitrose supermarket (good) for supplies and some reasonably priced cafes and restaurants. I go to the Renoir cinema there (an arts/foreign language one) and always feel safe walking about after the film.

Location-wise, these are fine, with excellent public transport links to pretty well anywhere.

I have no idea about the insides of these hotels, but I've been past the outsides of them often enough. The Jesmond's frontage is close to the virtually non-stop traffic on Gower St. The Morgan is set a little further back from the bottom end of Gower St, and the St Margaret's is in more of a side street.

...and you won't be far from Piccadilly, if a little hustle bustle is OK. Dinner and a show? Perhaps the Piccadilly Theatre has something on that you'd like and there are plenty of restaurants from which to choose surrounding the whole Piccadilly Circus area. For that matter it's a short enough walk East to the whole London theatre district from Piccadilly Circus...

I always opt for Chinese and forget the names of the places I've eaten in that area.

Between Gatwick and London you can also take the Gatwick Express. There is a page about Gatwick Airport on the site. As Patrick notes, it would be good to be in a hotel near the Luton train for your arrival. You could stay in two hotels - one near the Luton train on arrival and one near the Gatwick Express (Victoria Station) on departure.

Pauline, that's an excellent idea. I forgot that I had read somewhere about the Gatwick Express, and I like the idea of staying in two different parts of the city for our two (too short) stays.

Makes sense to stay nearer the transport line for the next day's airport departure.

I discovered after reading great reviews about St. Margaret's that they are closed due to some major legal problems - they had to shut down a few months ago. There are a number of highly regarded inexpensive bed and breakfasts on Gower street in Bloomsbury - I'm staying at the Arran House but almost booked at the Arosfa (http://www.arosfalondon.com/ ) which also got great reviews and is on the same street. I've found www.tripadvisor.com to be extremely helpful researching accommodations.
Tracy

Well, I'm now booked for London for the one night.

I was really waffling with some of the B&Bs, guesthouses, and hotels that I saw online. Some of them looked really nice, but were over budget. Some of them were the right price, but looked a little rough around the edges. So I decided to try Hotwire, and chose a 4 star hotel "to be announced after purchase" in the Bloomsbury/Marble Arch area. I took the plunge! and for one night, for two people, for 80 GBP, I'll be staying at the Hilton!

The only "hangup" is that it doesn't appear to be in the Bloomsbury area to me - it's actually near Paddington Square. But to get there, I can take the Gatwick Express from the airport to Victoria Station, and then the Underground to the Edgeware Road tube station. (<----these were their directions on their website ). To get to Luton by 12:30pm the following day, I guess we'll take the tube back to Victoria, and then maybe the EasyBus from there. [although I'm open to any other suggestions)

Now to find a booking for our two nights in London after Croatia....

quote:

Bloomsbury/Marble Arch area.

That is a really strange definition of a geographical area by Hotwire - it's huge,they may as well have said 'the whole of central London North of Oxford Street' ! I'm not suprised you ended up in Paddington. Sounds like a good value stay, though.

quote:

Gatwick Express from the airport to Victoria

I would also consider the First Capital Connect train that runs from Gatwick to Luton and stops at King's Cross, which is only a few stops on the Underground from Edgware Road. I don't know whether it's still true but a premium used to be charged for Gatwick Express tickets which didn't apply to other trains. Perhaps someone who is more up-to-date than me can correct me if this advice is wrong.

[Editing my own post!]
I've just read earlier posts and have seen that Patrick has already mentioned this train as a good one if you were staying in Bloomsbury. So far as I know, it would also be good for Edgware Road.

That sounds good, WestSussexBird, thanks. I'll check it out on the maps.

I'll let you all know what I come up with for our two nights back in London at the end of our trip - still hunting...

We've just booked at The Park Plaza Victoria for our two nights in London at the end of our trip, and I'm quite excited. I won the bid on Priceline, my very first win on Priceline, too. Two nights - $350 for two. Now on to planning our time there.

Thanks for everyone's input so far.

quote:

To get to Luton by 12:30pm the following day, I guess we'll take the tube back to Victoria, and then maybe the EasyBus from there.

No need to go all the way back to Victoria, Teaberry, - you are much nearer to the pick up points for Easybus at Baker Street or Marble Arch.

Thanks for the tip, Felicity!

Perfect Terry!
Now what do you plan to do while in London? I really think you need to see Borough Market. Portebello on a Saturday is an experience.
This is a whole thread on the London Markets.
Just your cup of tea!

GREAT LINK, Sandi. Thanks.

You are now the second or third person to recommend these markets to me, and I believe that I cannot leave London without visiting them.

Now if I only had more time!

Theh Portobello Market is great, but if you go on the Saturday, go early, like 9. We arrived at 9:30 and followed the trail of people to the market. Wandered down the road for a couple of hours and turned around to head back and WOW!! We were shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip all the way back up. It was incredibly crowded by 10:30-11:00. Almost impossible to maneuver around. But what a neat place!

If you have time and weather cooperates, the Harrods Food Halls are awesome, grab goodies for a picnic in one of the great parks.

We just got back on Saturday from our 3 nights London/one week in Paris trip. The "tube" is great and easy to use....you'll see once you get there. I was a bit intimidated by the maps etc., but no problems whatsoever.

Picadilly Circus was unbelievably crowded on the Saturday night (May 3rd)but I think it was a holiday weekend, so probably more so than usual.

We are heading back in June for similar stopovers like you on our way to Corsica. We have one night enroute and two nights on the way back. Looking very forward to visiting again.

Linda

just got back from a fabulous 2 night stay at the Montague on the Gardens near Russell square. Great hotel,and the staff were brilliant, I couldn't reccommend it enough.