London recommendations!

[Julz]

Ok folks, for once I'm doing a bit of forward planning!!

At the end of February I'm taking Rob to London for his birthday (same weekend as the Mini2 Charity Ball) and I need some recommendations for places to go, things to do, places to see etc. and also somewhere decent but not tooooooooo expensive to stay!:)

I've only been to London a couple of times and they were both for drinking sprees:dead: (although I did get to go round the Millenium Dome when it was being built and we also saw James Bond bobbing down the Thames in a wee boatie with a gun attached:eek: <reminds self of silly comment - who the heck does he think he is, James f'n Bond?:I>)

So come on... answers on a postcard please!!:D

[Scottie]

Take the train out Brighton way and visit John Cooper Garage.

Get on the phone now and book yourself tickets for the wheel.

What kind of stuff do you like doing.

[Julz]

Eating, drinking and spending money!! So if we want on the wheel I should get tickets now!! Yikes!! Best get booking!:D

[MartinSullivan]

London eye tickets available here

http://www.ba-londoneye.com/

they also offer deals with "partners" on restraunts hotels etc - when booked at the same time

[Julz]

Yikes, have you seen the price for a 'private' capsule!! Eeek, there goes that idea, guess we'll be sharing with the rest of the plebs then!!;):D

[Burple]

quote:Originally posted by ScottieCoop

Take the train out Brighton way and visit John Cooper Garage.


Totally agree with this one!
It's worth the trip down if you've never been before!
You'll not be taking your wee monster will you? I'm sure they'd love to see it!
Tell them a bit about who you are and some stuff about the site, they'll give you a nice wee tour of the place! It's way cool!! :D:D:D:D

[Scottie]

Visit Harrods.

Up to the Pet Store and buy something for your Moggy.

Then down to the food hall. Amazing and if you want you can eat there too their Piza's bar bit is brilliant.

[Steve74]

Restaurants:
Try lunch at the Ivy in Covent Garden. It's a really good way to eat there without having to wait 6 months for a reservation - steak and scallops are amazing, wines pricy though. Just walk-in and you should get something.
There is a new Japanese place called Roka in Charlotte Street W1 which is just as posh but really, eally nice. The Waasabi fish egg rice is excellent!
Or Italian - Bella Napoli on Dean St - Sergio runs it and makes it a really nice place.

Bars/Clubs:
Blend is a mate of mine's bar in Shorts Garden WC1 - very nice cocktails. http://blend.uk.com
Avoid anywhere like the Atlantic Bar and if you like new music try Cargo in EC1.
Try a Daiquiri at Floridita http://www.floriditalondon.com/ - a new place in Wardour St, Soho.

Shopping:
Selfridges of course!

Staying:
MyHotel in W1 - really really nice and not too expensive.
http://www.myhotels.co.uk

Something special:
The Charlotte St hotel do dinner and an old movie in their private theatre in W1 - £35/head and big leather armchairs - Sunday only and you have to book!
http://www.firmdale.com/cshdraw1.htm

Hope that helps!




:)

[Nenah]

Julz, you can team your London Eye Trip with a 2.5 hour dinner cruise down the Thames (they depart on the opposite bank to the Eye) - I took up this option when I was there in May and had a great time and got to see many of the sites under lights and can be very romantic too! The Eye ticket/dinner cruise option is on the website Martin gave above.

- Phantom of the Opera is worth seeing (I'm not ito musicals but loved it!) you can get cheap & discounted tickets too at the Leister Square box office. Otherwise, The Jerry Springer Show The Musical is extreme hiarious entertainment Springer style!
- Portabello Markets on Saturday morning are worth a stroll esp. for star spotting and tres cool up and coming designer's clothes on the cheap or grab a curry at London's Brick Lane
- Drop into the Walkabout Pub at Coveant Garden to say G'day and have a few tinnies - awlays good place for a quick drink & laugh!
- Do the London Dis-used Undeground Tour or London Ghost Hunt Tour www.london-ghost-walk.co.uk - both very spooky!
- Get the London Pass Card from £12pp per day that gives you free entry into many attractions
- Book lunch/dinner at Jamie Oliver's Restaurant Fifteen (if you book now you should get a table!) booking is a little complicated so check out the website - www.fifteenrestaurant.com. Ive eaten here and its worth a visit plus great for the celeb spotting!

[euan]

My work hired a private capsule which we nabbed. It was for a customer but they pulled out, more fool them. Pimms, strawberrys and cream. Brilliant. (Tip for the eye - it can get MOBBED, but it's usually pretty quiet when it first opens and you can get a capsule to yourself anyway)

Hotels: I had to stick to my work list but the Radissons are really nice. I stayed the Malborough a few times, which has the Aston restaurant in it (which is where the first Aston Martin owners club met). Wouldn't eat there, but the bar is nice. Only slight problem is that it's a bit far across to walk anywhere. Other than that, Jury's off of Tottenham Court Road is great, and much more central for theatre, Covent Garden, SOHO, Chinatown etc. You can get good deals on laterooms.com, but only for a few days in advance.

OK, dinner - My other half took me to Le Pont De La Tour for my birthday and it was fantastic. It's on the Thames, views of Tower Bridge, and great food. There are some cheaper places beside Covent Garden we went to a lot (Boulevard Brasserie being one) which are good and pretty reasonable. Have a look at LondonTown.com as they have user reviews of places as well as their own reviews. www.viewlondon.co.uk is similar, and have 360 views of some places as a starting point.

Sightseeing - depends what your after. Some great little places, but only if your into what they are.

[euan]

Fifteen is up in Hoxton - home of the infamous Hoxton Fin that Fran from Travis sported for a while. There are some very trendy places up there that I'm very scared of going into on the basis that my socks might be last season's. In fact, they definitely will be, but you get the idea. Fifeteen have opened up a new bit to replace the bar now, lighter lunch type things, and they don't accept bookings for I think it was 50% of the tables, so you should be able to walk in, but it's a different menu from the main bit.

[MartinSullivan]

quote:Originally posted by euan
Fifeteen have opened up a new bit to replace the bar now, lighter lunch type things, and they don't accept bookings for I think it was 50% of the tables, so you should be able to walk in, but it's a different menu from the main bit.


Yeah and beans on toast is 7 quid :eek:

[duncan]

Science Museum, Natural History, and V&A - and all FREE! (which is pretty amazing for London.)
They're not far from Harrods.

The Science museum also does themed events, at a cost, but are worth the entry.
Outside the Natural History Museum was/is an exhibition of "Earth from the Air" which was some fantastic photography on large billboards.

Imperial War Museum - south of the river - interesting.

I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which was pretty good - tickets from the TKTS booth in Leicester Square at half price. (They do lots of theatres tickets at reduced prices)

Definately do the Eye - fantastic view, even though its £10.50ish

[Monsta Mo Mini]

I'd second the Natural History Museum for a FREEEEEE! day out.

Belgos in Covent Garden for beer, mussels...and a fantastic night out!
http://www.belgo-restaurants.com/

Steer well clear of the "touristy" stuff as most of it is really crap and totally over priced! £18 for a bus tour???? feck off! and as for all the "royal" attractions....great if you want herded around with a bunch of annoying Japanese and American tourists who genuinely believe they might see one of the sloany spongers!

PS....I'm not a fan of London.

[sleepyrascal]

Do the eye! Really good, plus you get to look down into MI5!!

We stayed at the kensington Hilton which was really nice and handy for most things. Try and master the tube and avoid black cabs. You will end up sitting in a Q most of the journey! And definately avoid mini cabs.

Go to the Harrods audio/visual dept.!! You will laugh at the prices of stuff!! One in particular, fully installed cost half a mill! NICE! And leave by the back entrance. Thats where you will see the celebs getting in their astons and bentlys!!

[Nenah]

quote:Originally posted by MartinSullivan


quote:Originally posted by euan
Fifeteen have opened up a new bit to replace the bar now, lighter lunch type things, and they don't accept bookings for I think it was 50% of the tables, so you should be able to walk in, but it's a different menu from the main bit.


Yeah and beans on toast is 7 quid :eek:


I've only ever been to The Restaurant - it was pretty casual affair dress wise...and they def. DO NOT check if your socks are this season to be allowed in ;) I did see Jamie that night AND Jack Nicholson :p:p:p Plus, if you enjoy good food and are sick of paying good money for crap service and food (stricty ref. to SOME places in Aberdeen here & wish I lived in Edinburgh/Glasgow just for the good eats!) then make an effort to budget for good restaurants whilst visiing London - be it Fifteen or not - and hey, let's face it, if you're in London EVERYTHING is going to be costly - even beans on toast! :D:p ENJOY!!:I

[MartinSullivan]

quote:Originally posted by Nenah-M3RPM
EVERYTHING is going to be costly - event beans on toast! :D:p ENJOY!!:I


:D

[Nenah]

quote:Originally posted by MartinSullivan


quote:Originally posted by Nenah-M3RPM
EVERYTHING is going to be costly - event beans on toast! :D:p ENJOY!!:I


:D

mmmmmm....beans....! ;)

[The Dogfather]

Places to stay, try the new City Inn or the Raddison Vandebilt - If your really cheeky ask them for a government rate and tell them you work for the Highways Agency, or Scottish Parliment - You should get a room for £80 - £100 pn.

[Julz]

Cheers, folks, some great ideas there!! I think I'll maybe do the Eye with the Thames 'cruise' and I'll check out some of the hotels Steve has listed, might have to give Fifteen a miss as Rob hates J.O. but I'll maybe just not tell him!!:eek: Looks like we might have to add another day to this wee holiday!! So much to do and so little time!!:evil::p (Fiona, I like the idea of Harrods for cat things.... hmmmm;)):D

[Scottie]

quote:Originally posted by Monsta Mo Mini

I'd

Steer well clear of the "touristy" stuff as most of it is really crap and totally over priced! £18 for a bus tour???? feck off! and as for all the "royal" attractions....great if you want herded around with a bunch of annoying Japanese and American tourists who genuinely believe they might see one of the sloany spongers!

PS....I'm not a fan of London.




Sorry but I must disagree with the bus tour thing. It's a good way to see London as it's a hop on hop off service but in February could be a bit chilly if you sit up top.:cool:

[euan]

I'm not a fan of London but I still live here!

Other good trip we did (if you don't do the dinner and eye) was get a boat down the Thames, you can go all the way to Greenwich but unless you want to see the stuff in Greenwich I'd get off at Tower Bridge. When we did David Blaine was hanging about Tower Bridge in his cage. Was less than 10 quid each I think to get to Greenwich (and to get back quicker than the boat we got the DLR to Tower Hill.)

I never paid more than 90 quid for a Radisson hotel, just banter with these people. I called up a hotel in Manchester last week and was quoted 120 quid, I mentioned that my mate had stayed there for much less and she said, oh hang on, here you go, 72 a night. Just like that...

I can recommend Belgos - we had a work night out there and a couple of birthdays in the main bit of the restaurant and it's fantastic. If you book, you go into the private area through the back which is much quieter. We went a bit mental when work was paying and managed to spend over a grand on booze...We were all very drunk. They also sell Absinth which was a recipe for disaster the next day.

Another good place I love for lunch is Wagamama, I know it's part of a chain but the food is brilliant and the fresh juice they do really keeps you going for a hard afternoon shopping!

Another good place - RK Stanleys is just off of Oxford Street and they do lots of different sausage and mash. It's all very styled and very nice. There is also a great late bar next door which has some great music most nights if you fancy going on somewhere. It's in the basement and it's name escapes me, sorry!

[Julz]

I've managed to suss out all our travelling as we will be arriving in London on the wednesday night and going to Northampton on the saturday morning, so it's all planes, trains and automobiles!! I'm now trying to suss out hotels and I want to stay pretty central, we'll be arriving at St. Pancras and leaving from Euston so that sort of area might be handy, trying avoid lots of travelling when we'll have a full kilt outfit and ball gown to lug about!!:eek::p Handy that National Express do direct buses between Northampton and Luton though! I've managed to organise every leg of the journey avoiding any changes at any airport/train/bus station!! ;)

Now, Expedia time methinks!!:clown:

[Steve74]

quote:Originally posted by Julz

I've managed to suss out all our travelling as we will be arriving in London on the wednesday night and going to Northampton on the saturday morning, so it's all planes, trains and automobiles!! I'm now trying to suss out hotels and I want to stay pretty central, we'll be arriving at St. Pancras and leaving from Euston so that sort of area might be handy, trying avoid lots of travelling when we'll have a full kilt outfit and ball gown to lug about!!:eek::p Handy that National Express do direct buses between Northampton and Luton though! I've managed to organise every leg of the journey avoiding any changes at any airport/train/bus station!! ;)

Now, Expedia time methinks!!:clown:


Would suggest avoiding staying around Kings Cross or Euston as they are pretty smelly and horrible at night. Good place to stay may be Russell Square or the Jury as someone suggested in Great Russsell Street - £70 a room and very nice but cos of the price it's always booked up. WC1 or W1 hotels would be easier to get to the stations - cab would be about a fiver. Wagamamas is great for lunch and theres plenty of them. There is a little place called Tokyo Diner which does Japanese in China Town which has nice Nigiri if you like sushi! Have a nice tme. :)

[euan]

Euston is a 3 minute walk from the Radisson Grafton. They have some nice rooms, some are a bit small though, although I did have a really nice suite there once (no idea why, but who am I to complain!) It's right beside the BT Tower. It's beside Goodge Street station at the top of Tottenham Court Road. Just a small note, it's Kings Cross and Euston are not the best areas of London, and Tottenham Court Road is a busy road. However, it's a 10 minute walk to the bottom of Oxford Street (ie the end with the not so good shops on it) and 15 to Covent Garden so it's pretty handy. A cab from the Strand to the hotel is about 7-10 quid, but the bus (prepay) costs a quid. I'm a big fan of the buses in London, you pay before you board, and every trip in central London is a pound.

[Julz]

Ok, so we'll avoid the smelly bit! I think I might just trawl through some lists of posh hotels and see what I can come up with, then get you local folk to give me the nod as to whether or not I've made a good choice!:D