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Source: (consider it) Thread: ISO a London hotel
Brenda Clough
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My husband has never been to London, and so we are going to go. The World Science Fiction convention takes place there in August! The convention hotel is all settled, but because he wants to tourist around we need some other place (cheaper and more convenient) to stay. Does anyone with local knowledge have any suggestions?

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Penny S
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I would respectfully suggest that you don't need a local. Locals never stay in local hotels, and if they live somewhere people want to go, people stay with them. (We used to live in Dover, convenient for the ferries.) You need someone not local who stays in London on occasion.

I'm afraid I live too close to know, and not close enough to offer.

[ 17. April 2014, 19:38: Message edited by: Penny S ]

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Dal Segno

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The event is at ExCeL in Docklands, that's about eight miles (12km) distance from Central London. You probably want to try to find something nearby if you want to avoid a long commute each morning and evening. You can get a hotel in that area for that weekend from £100 a night upwards.

Frankly, I have never stayed in a London hotel that is great, because I've never been willing to pay the enormous prices that the nice hotels can charge. Most reasonably-priced hotels in London seem to be have very small rooms and minimal facilities by US standards.

If you want to stay in Central London, you need to be warned that you will spend 50 minutes commuting from Central London to Docklands each day, which is not great. In Central London, the hotels are very expensive. My experience, from an event I organised at Covent Garden about six years ago, is that the Strand Palace Hotel is the cheapest hotel for about a one mile radius around there. Even as the cheapest in the area, it is still about £150 per night. Most hotels in Central London are considerably more than that.

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ecumaniac

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Oh I stay in London hotels all the time. Let me send you some suggestions. What facilities do you need?

Personally I've had great times touristing in London with several friends from Australia and we never paid more than £100 a night. I don't like to spend much more than £80 for what is basically a room with a bed and a shower. Hotel breakfasts are mostly rubbish compared to simply going to a wetherspoons.

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Horseman Bree
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It used to be that various university accommodations were on rent out of term. ISTR that there was a form of central registry, but my experience is only 50 years out of date. Google may be your friend (as it could not be 50 years ago!)

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ecumaniac

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quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
It used to be that various university accommodations were on rent out of term. ISTR that there was a form of central registry, but my experience is only 50 years out of date. Google may be your friend (as it could not be 50 years ago!)

Oh yes I'd forgotten about that!

http://www.universityrooms.com/en/countries/GB

I've used that website several times, no issues at all.

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Ariel
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Hi Brenda, I'm just going to transfer your thread over to the All Saints board, as questions about visiting different places and where to stay while you're there tend to go on that board. So if people would like to fasten their seatbelts, we'll prepare for landing at our new destination.

Cheers

Ariel
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Curiosity killed ...

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One of the places I am based is near the Excel. People who've been relocated to the company tend to stay in the Ibis hotel down by Custom House DLR as reasonably cheap. But ... the Custom House DLR* is currently a building site as CrossRail is going through there, and that line is running along in front of the Ibis.

It's more like 30 minutes into Central London from the Excel centre, but the DLR gets very crowded from Custom House, and changing at Canning Town and/or Bank or Stratford can be a real game of sardines at the wrong time of day, and there's no real option of buses from there into the centre.

It's also not a good area. Not somewhere I'm comfortable walking around on my own in the dark or late and I'm pretty relaxed about not so great areas of London.

*DLR - Docklands Light Railway - part of the public transit around London, covers the East End and old Docklands.

CrossRail - new rail link across London

Bank, Stratford, Canning Town and Custom House are all tube interchanges and stops.

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ken
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No good advice on hotels, as I live here.

But see you at Worldcon!

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Ken

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Jengie jon

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I have never stayed but did some searching and found this hotel near the midway point between Docklands and central London.

Jengie

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Curiosity killed ...

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Blink - mmm - really not sure I'd recommend American tourists stay in Limehouse.

The DLR isn't the most convenient line to get into central London. (I should know, I use it to get into Oxford Circus fairly regularly) It's at least one change, either walking around the Tower to walk between Tower Gateway and Tower Hill tubes or a foul change at Bank. We all avoid changing at Bank given any choice at all because it is really horrible.

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Jengie jon

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How do you cope with one going to central London and one going to docklands?

Jengie

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Curiosity killed ...

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Stratford? Has Overground, Central and Jubilee lines and two DLR lines. Or Canary Wharf? that has Jubilee Line and DLR, but that's not as easy a journey to the Excel. That route requires a change at Poplar.

Canning Town also has Jubilee line and DLR, but I really, really wouldn't recommend anyone staying at Canning Town.

I'm not sure Brenda is asking for a hotel that does both, but a hotel that will give her tourism options as a second part of her trip.

(You can tell my job takes me all over that area, can't you?)

[ 18. April 2014, 09:10: Message edited by: Curiosity killed ... ]

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Gee D
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Look for a serviced apartment. More space than an hotel, you can easily do your own breakfast, and on the days it's raining, you have space to spread out, and also to spread your wet things around. Our experience over more than 35 years travelling to Europe is that they are also a lot cheaper.

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ecumaniac

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quote:
Originally posted by Gee D:
Look for a serviced apartment. More space than an hotel, you can easily do your own breakfast, and on the days it's raining, you have space to spread out, and also to spread your wet things around. Our experience over more than 35 years travelling to Europe is that they are also a lot cheaper.

With respect, I think you and I have very different ideas on what is "cheap". A serviced apartment is in no way cheaper than a Travelodge + breakfast at the local Spoons!

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Boogie

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Youth hostels are great these days and cost about £40 B&B.

London has several good ones.

We stayed in a fabulous YH in Köln last week - far better than any Travel Lodge, ensuite bathrooms and £35 B&B and evening meal.

Great value!

[Smile]

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Boogie

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My son does Couch Surfing a lot - he loves it.

Of course, you need to be willing to entertain Couch Surfers too [Smile]

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Curiosity killed ...

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The London Youth Hostels, last time I checked, are mainly backpacker hostels. I saw the one at St Paul's a few years back and it really was bunks piled three or four high and packing a room, although they do have private rooms. I love hostelling and do it a lot, but not sure a backpackers hostel will quite qualify as a hotel.

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ecumaniac

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As "piles of bunks in a room" go, St Paul's was not too shabby. The bunks were designed to have individual secure storage (byo padlock, as I recall) though you got a lot of street noise. Just pretend you are on a submarine.

I stayed there when I literally needed a bed for 6 hours. I got in at about 3 am! It was a *good* night [Big Grin]

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Penny S
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There's this place - it doesn't look confined to Quakers.
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Garasu
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quote:
Originally posted by Penny S:
There's this place - it doesn't look confined to Quakers.

Did you mean here?

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Penny S
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Thanks - something got lost there as I was cutting and pasting and looking at what the rooms provided! And the breakfast menu - free range black pudding, for example.

[ 18. April 2014, 18:15: Message edited by: Penny S ]

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Horseman Bree
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They actually let black puddings out to roam about?

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Yangtze
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I've known people who've stayed at the Penn Club and liked it.

The Royal Foundation of St Katherine's sounds like a lovely place to stay - nice to have some peace & quiet and green space. And a beautiful chapel. Open for anyone to stay there. No TVs in the rooms though, so if that's what's important to you....

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Brenda Clough
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You guys are great -- I am going to seriously consider the Penn Club, although I have to run all these options past my husband first. (I try to give him SOME input.) Am I correct in gathering that Russell Square is fairly convenient for touristy stuff? (Alas, my knowledge of the geography of the city is vestigial.)

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Brenda Clough
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Argh, hit send too fast. It will probably be almost impossible to find you at the Worldcon, Ken, because it is so huge. (At conventions I usually see people I know while we are going in opposite directions on escalators, and we shriek and wave at each other as we are carried out of sight.) But I will be on the program, at least once, and it should be possible for you to seek me out and introduce yourself.

It is difficult for me to grasp if the Royal Foundation of St. Katharine is as conveniently located. Opinions?

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Sioni Sais
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quote:
Originally posted by Horseman Bree:
They actually let black puddings out to roam about?

Have you tried fencing them in?

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Penny S
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London map

Russell Square, misspelled, is just above the centre of this map. It is in Bloomsbury, close by the British Museum, and depending on how much of a walker you are, within reach of Westminster, the river and so on - otherwise reachable by the Underground.

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Ariel
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quote:
Originally posted by Brenda Clough:
Am I correct in gathering that Russell Square is fairly convenient for touristy stuff? (Alas, my knowledge of the geography of the city is vestigial.)

It's fairly central, but really depends what touristy stuff you want to do. I suggest getting one of the many tour buses for visitors that take in all the most popular London sights, which will save you a lot of walking/negotiating the Underground. Your hotel should be able to advise you on that on arrival and where the nearest place to catch one might be.
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Welease Woderwick

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Much of London is walkable, if you don't mind tired legs at the end of the day. Russell Square then down Holborn to The Strand then Trafalgar Square, The Mall, Buckingham Palace and the Royal Parks then take a bus or a tube back at the end of the day. If you walked as far as Knightsbridge [Harrods!] then it is just 7 stops on the Piccadilly Line back to Russell Square.

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Curiosity killed ...

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My problem with St Katharine's is that it's east of the fringes of the City of London, which isn't a particularly lovely touristy area anyway, into the old East End. Limehouse Basin (and Shadwell) are part regenerated Dockland, part old East End. Think Call the Midwife - not all those tenement buildings were knocked down in the sweeps of regeneration of the area. You're getting into really quite rough areas there, and the transport links into Central London are not great through any of that. The only reason you'd stay there is to access both areas, Central London and the ExCel. But the DLR in rush hour from the ExCel is not a joy and delight.

The suggested 5 minutes from Bank is by walking to Limehouse DLR, catch the DLR to Bank or Canary Wharf, I reckon. As a tourist, you don't actually want to be east of the City, you want to be in the West End - which is west of the City. There are bits of the City that are touristy, but I really don't think those are they.

The connections from the DLR into the Tube system are either through Bank or Tower Gateway. Bank is a huge underground warren, connecting Monument, Bank and most lines. It's in the middle of the banking area and gets horrendously crowded at certain times of day. Tower Gateway is across a major road and round a few corners from Tower Hill - which is on the District Line. There will be buses, but having put some poor unsuspecting tourist on a bus that I knew took him back to his hotel last summer, and seen the terror on his face, tourists don't find buses in and out of central areas that great.

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Curiosity killed ...

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To correct what I've said above, you can change between the DLR and the Tube system in other places, but they are all east of Limehouse - so going further into Outer London to go into Central London.

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ken
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I'm easy to find at cons. I'm in the fan bar. A very different institution in a large British con than a US one.

I work near Russell Square. There are some immense hotels there, thousands of rooms, that look very boring from the outside. Mostly packed with American tourists on cheap deals - though I guess you might pay a lot more for a one-off booking.

If you want public transport connections to central London and also the DLR you can't beat south-east London. Even grottier than the places CKTC was talking about - when I go over the river to Wapping or Limehouse they strike me as posh, and that is not a joke - but nowhere in London is a no-go area

Lewisham, where I live, and Deptford next door do not tend to hotels or restaurants or cater for tourists, though would be worth a flying visit to see bits of "real" London visitors mostly miss; but Greenwich does have hotels. Loads of them. And its on the DLR. And it is an amazing tourist destination. Especially if you like palaces, parks, history, museums, or stunning views. Easy half-hour journey to the convention centre by DLR, fifteen minutes to town going the other way on mainline train - or take a fast ferry and see London from the river!

And the maritime museum is world-class. If you like maritime museums and history and the Royal Navy. Got the Greenwich observatory as well. Prime Meridian and all that. Give it serious consideration.

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Ken

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

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ken
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A view over inner London from Greenwich.

Picture taken by me. If you follow links from it you would see many more.

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Ken

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

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ken
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This ones nice as well. Taken from just outside the old Royal Observatory.

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Ken

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

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Curiosity killed ...

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Hang on - in her OP, Brenda has said she has a convention hotel for the ExCel bit of the trip. What she wants is a hotel that lets her do the tourism bit. Which suggests West End or Central region.

I would strongly suggest she visits Greenwich, but I'd suggest a boat trip from Westminster or Embankment to go and do it. Because I'd agree that Greenwich is wonderful. But it's not convenient for the West End and theatre or galleries or quite a lot of the touristy bit.

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ken
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Yes - I was thinking of pleasant places convenient for the convention centre without going through the centre of London. And on that score Greenwich beats Beckton or East Ham or Stratford!

But if the con itself is already dealt with that's not so relevant (Though Greenwich is still only a short train ride from Charing Cross)

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Ken

L’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle.

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Yangtze
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True, St Katherine's is not close to the West End and central London attractions - though it is prob less than 30mins by public transport and, despite what CK says, the interchange at Tower Gateway to Tower Hill is easy and about 2mins.

Comfort Inns may be worth a look at. There's one near Victoria.

The Russell Square area is probably a good place to base oneself - nice and close to the British Museum and easy to further west.

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Jengie jon

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quote:
Originally posted by Curiosity killed ...:
Hang on - in her OP, Brenda has said she has a convention hotel for the ExCel bit of the trip. What she wants is a hotel that lets her do the tourism bit. Which suggests West End or Central region.

No she wants a hotel that lets her HUSBAND do the touristy bit. This maybe with her or it maybe while she is at the convention. I think the second is more likely.

Jengie

[ 19. April 2014, 16:04: Message edited by: Jengie Jon ]

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Penny S
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That's a nice set of piccies, ken. (I've a friend who takes photos round Greenwich - we have a set of sunset at solstices and equinoxes over the Park, among other stuff.)
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Brenda Clough
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# 18061

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My actual plan is to stay at the Ibis (where I have a room!) during the convention. This is because I wrote a trilogy this past year and am ISO a publisher, and the way to find one is to hang out at parties. And this calls for staying close, so I am not riding transport late at night, excessively well-dressed and a couple sheets to the wind.
However, because my husband has never been to Britain, we are arriving five days before the convention, and this is where a closer-in place to stay comes in. We will scout out locations (I am, as ever, writing a novel) and go see things he would particularly enjoy, like the Imperial War Museum.
I have been to Greenwich -- in fact I made a specific trip to Britain about twelve years ago to catch the Shackleton exhibit they had there. (I had, with my specific charisma for spectacularly rolling snake eyes, booked my flight for the afternoon of September 11, 2001. You can easily imagine that this did not go well, but I was able to rebook everything for October.) We rode the ferry from the Embankment, and it was lovely!
All your advice is wonderfully useful!

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Autenrieth Road

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# 10509

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When I visited London, lo these 29 years ago, we stayed at a B&B in Russell Square (sorry, don't remember the name) and it was lovely and perfectly convenient for everything we wanted to do. That includes taking the tube places -- I suppose if you want to walk *everywhere* or pack in a very full day of sightseeing with several easy stops back at your hotel room, it might not work. For us, it was wonderful. Take the tube to our designated area for the day, spend all day wandering around, then wander home from a different tube station happy.

We only went to one West End show though. If you're planning to go to lots of shows, you might want to be more directly near the West End.

[ 20. April 2014, 19:31: Message edited by: Autenrieth Road ]

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Truth

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Brenda Clough
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# 18061

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What about wifi, in Britain? Is connectivity easy to find?

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Dafyd
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# 5549

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quote:
Originally posted by Autenrieth Road:
We only went to one West End show though. If you're planning to go to lots of shows, you might want to be more directly near the West End.

I think it's no more than half an hour's walk from the West End. The transport for London website says you can walk National Theatre to Russell Square in 31 minutes - most of the West End is closer.

Incidentally, if you're using public transport in London, the transport for London journey planner is really pretty efficient. (Although it does have a bias towards buses.)
Here.

Wi-fi in the UK is easy to find these days.

[ 20. April 2014, 22:22: Message edited by: Dafyd ]

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we remain, thanks to original sin, much in love with talking about, rather than with, one another. Rowan Williams

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Curiosity killed ...

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Fun things to do from the Ibis: -
  • next stop along on the DLR going into London - you can see them from each other - is Royal Victoria DLR and the Cable Car (properly the Emirates Air Line) to the O2 and North Greenwich. Great views of the Thames Barrier, Docklands and this end of the river from the cable car.
  • North Greenwich gives you access to the Jubilee line and boats to Greenwich and Woolwich (or will in August) - Royal Artillery Museum at Woolwich.
  • London City Airport is on the other branch, the Woolwich line, but the best views are from the Beckton line. Try the dockside at Cyprus or Royal Albert (DLR stops), or the Connaught Bridge near Royal Albert where the planes take off or land over your head. Really cool statues by Royal Albert.
  • There's a pub - the Fox in the Excel(?) on the edges of the ExCel centre, with an upstairs terrace overlooking the footpaths from the DLR - which is fun to people watch at conventions and take pictures of the costumes.


[ 21. April 2014, 07:56: Message edited by: Curiosity killed ... ]

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Brenda Clough
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# 18061

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Ooh, and I am staying in the Excel for the convention!
I discover, by clicking around on the airline web sites, that it makes an enormous difference what day you fly from the US to Britain. Thursdays is about half the price of Saturdays.

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