London in August: where to live, what to do?

[Aimless]

Wotcher!

The ginger and I will be in London 8th-15th Aug to celebrate our first anniversary as an old married couple. since neither of us have been there as adults we'd really love to get some tips on

- where to live (fairly central or very close by tube/bus, hotel or airbnb)
- what to do (shows, events, circuses for the masses )
- where to eat (tasty and unique and underrated)

Any all help would be appreciated and also let's have beer and/or curry

[Loki]

Don Quixote on Kingsway (across from the Holborn tube stop) is great and cheap. Nando's are also good if you like spicy food and chicken.

I'm afraid hotel prices anywhere near central London are ridiculous (i.e. $300 a night).

If you plot your coordinates well, you can do visit pretty much all the tourist places in central London in one day. The change of guard in front of the Palace is not as interesting as people make it out to be (and a tremendous waste of time).

[Flixy]

Surely there are also cheaper hotels? I mean, I stayed there for 15 pounds a night ten years ago. Of course it was shit, but there's a world between that and 300. Plus, as you say in the living in new York thread, you can easily stay cheaper in places with proper public transportation

[Steely Glint]

what to do

Get your wallet ready

[Timbuk2]

muh he's from Swedistan. London might actually be cheaper

~

will draw up a few recomendations later Minxiepoo.

[Aimless]

So, is this location okay or horrible:

http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldet...-15#facilities


??

[Timbuk2]

Um. Not so great.

It's kind of got Willesden, Harlesden and Neasden to the West, which truly are the most dispiriting and unpleasant parts of north London, and Kilburn to the East, which is just slightly better.

But then for the prices in the link, it's cheap, so I wouldn't be expecting the Ritz.

However, as with so much of London, just a few minutes walk further and it's an entirely different story. Just east of Kilburn you have Finchley, Chalk Farm, Swiss Cottage, and Hampstead, which are altogether more pleasing and affable parts of town, if a little leafy.

In fact, those apartments are within an easy walk of Abbey Road, in St John's Wood




Anyways, I don't imagine you'd be coming to London to sit around in an apartment. The tube is excellent and will get you anywhere quickly, if expensively.

Still need to make some recommendations of things to do ... sights to see, places to eat, to drink tea and pints of warm beer. Pip pip.

[Aimless]

Hmm is it so bad that I'd risk getting mugged and beaten up more than in other places? >_< Being within walking distance of tube stations and reasonably pleasant places is good

Also, Sthlm is expensive, but London is a whole different league. That being said, London does offer more options and sometimes they're even good value

[Hazir]

I'm pretty certain Stockholm is cheaper than London. In Stockholm at least you've got budget options that actually are budget options. Otherwise, my advise about going to London in August would be; go to Paris in stead. Paris in August is awesome, you wouldn't believe a city that size could be so devoid of its own inhabitants at any time. Paris also has these areas with really cheap hotels on the BP that still are with a couple of minutes of the Ile de la Cité on the metro.

[Aimless]

We went to Paris last august for our honeymoon. We lived in a large and romantic attic apartment on île st louis and it was lovely but half of the restaurants I wanted to try out were closed so the city being devoid of its own inhabitants was a mixed blessing

[Lor]

I'm not sure if others would agree to any of this:

1) Invest in an Oyster Card for the Tube. It will make your life a little easier when trying to navigate!
2) Covent Garden in the evening is fantastic, a nice buzz about the place, loads of restaurants and various shows.
3) If you're a fan of Jazz, Ronnie Scotts is fantastic. You can either see a show downstairs, or visit upstairs as they'll have performers on too.
4) Tower of London is great and worthy of a visit. You can walk across/up Tower Bridge and then do number 5.
5) Katherines Dock, which is near ToL, is great for food/drink.
6) My personal favourite show at the moment is: http://www.jerseyboyslondon.com/, however you've got so much to pick from.
7) If you visit places like Tower or London or any museums/galleries, give yourself sufficient time to travel - be prepared to wake up early! You'll be visiting in our summer period which means you'll be surrounded by bastard kids.
8) I'd personally avoid Leicester Square in the evenings - better places to visit from my experience.
9) I'll also slightly agree with Loki in respects to the change of the guard. However, the surrounding area is really nice to walk around (St James Park/Green Park/The Mall) so you may wish to experience it as you can essentially kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

I wish I could offer info on where to stay, unfortunately I've either 1) done day trips from where I live now, 2) I've only ever stayed in one hotel in London and that's the renaissance hotel in Chancery Court and 3) I was born and used to live in the east end (Walthamstow to be exact) and I would NEVER suggest you stay there.

[Aimless]

Wheee!

Thanks for the tips we leave for London on friday and so far the only things that are set are a wedding and dinner on our first anniversary reservations for our (my) restaurant wishlist have been very difficult, I was probably weeks late when I started I'm told Leicester Square may be a good place to buy cheap tickets for various shows so we might check it out just for that, but for the most part we'll probably be strolling around, go to markets, maybe take a trip on the Thames. Oooor if the weather's anything like I've heard, we'll be at a hospital so the missus can get IV fluids and an ice-bath. I'm a little terrified because, though I have cute white company, I am ugly, sour and bald and also have a most suspicious name.

If anyone's up for beer, coffee, afternoon tea, board-games, TMNT, croquet etc you holla

Oh yeah, I do have one more practical question: what's the best option when it comes to prepaid phone- and internet services for a week? Where's the easiest place to buy a sim-card?

[Timbuk2]

Minxy - apologies had meant to respond ages ago to this.

At this late stage - just one all-encompassing recommendation; a summer stroll along the South Bank, from Westminster to Tower Bridge.

1. Starting at Westminster, north of the Thames, do usual Houses of Parliament, Big Ben etc.



(1a. Pop into Westminster Abbey next door if you fancy it - go pay homage to Charles Darwin who's buried there )



2. Head South over Westminster Bridge to the South Bank, and left along the river toward the London Eye. Bit pricey, but worth a trip up if the queues aren't too big and it's a nice day.



3. Stroll along heading east - there's usually lots of street theatre/music events/book stalls/pop-up eateries/art/stuff going on - particularly at weekends ... South Bank Centre has lots on ... Go into Skylon there ... one of my favourite drinkeries - great views of the Thames



4. You should be able to see the Oxo Tower by now. Entrance is a little hard to find, but persist, take a lift to the Harvey Nichols bar/restaurant at the top, order champagne, and admire the fantastic views ...





5. Eastward again, you'll get to Tate Modern - a modern art gallery in a converted power station - definitely worth a visit - there's normally a cool exhibition in the huge turbine hall.



6. Looking across the Thames from the Tate - you'll see the Millenium Bridge, a footbridge taking you north. Cross this ... and go visit St Paul's Cathedral (in the background here)



7. Returning to the South Bank - head east again and you'll pass Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.



8. Eventually ... you'll reach Tower Bridge ...

[Timbuk2]

Haven't been to Clos Maggiore - but since you've linked it I'll certainly be booking. Looks good.

SIM Card for the week? Umm ... have no idea as I've always been contract.

A quick google of SIM card for a week in London brings up lots of recommendations.

Lastly ... enjoy.

~

Oh - btw I'll be out for drinks at 30 St Mary's Axe (aka 'The Gherkin') in the City on friday night, in The Sterling at the bottom. Stick yer head round the door for hugs n kisses n cocktails

[Aimless]

Weeelll I wouldn't want to intrude and we might be a little worse for wear because we land around six-ish but sounds too good to pass up is it your birthday? And, man, that place... we were hoping for a reservation at a restaurant there and it was booked solid for like the next 8 weeks

Thanks for the tips btw, it sounds like a great way to spend a day and we'll be sure to check out Oxo tower as well God, what will I wear...

[Loki]

I bought a sim card at the airport for 5 pounds, though that was a while ago.

[Aimless]

After a seemingly interminable trip, through a London that was just as grey and wet as I remembered, we arrived safe and sound at our flat late last night. The walls are thin and one of us has to go out for the other to be able to turn around in it, but it's nice and, all in all, we're off to a promising start grocery shopping came close to being our undoing but hunger is the great educator as they say and so we managed to procure enough sausages and tea to last us a few mornings. I regret not having brought a jacket but today the weather is lovely and we're roaming around covent garden + the river gawking at the wonders of the big city. Seeing The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime tonight! My UK number is +447459749226, if you're in the neighborhood, if you'd like to join us for tea later at the savoy it anywhere OOORRR if you know where we can buy a small French press holla

[Timbuk2]

Seems your timing is pretty sucky.

We had 6 weeks of glorious hot weather up until this weekend.

Hurricane Bertha moved in overnight last night and dumped a shitload of rain everywhere. And we've got more to come over the next few days.

[Aimless]

NEITHER RAIN NOR SNOW NOR GLOM OF
NIT CAN STAY THESE TOURISTS ABOT THIER DUTY

We're going shopping today, then dinner and finally if possible Guardians if the Galaxy in glorious IMAX was actually kinda cosy with the rain

[Flixy]

Seems your timing is pretty sucky.

We had 6 weeks of glorious hot weather up until this weekend.

Hurricane Bertha moved in overnight last night and dumped a shitload of rain everywhere. And we've got more to come over the next few days.

It's not really a UK vacation if it isn't raining! First time I went to London it didn't feel like I was in London, because the weather was too good

[Khendraja'aro]

Bertha? Who thinks of those names?

Then again, there is the exclamation "Holy Cow!"...

[earthJoker]

Anna
Anna - oh Anna
Bertha
Bertha - oh Bertha
Carla
Carla - oh Carla
Dieter
Dieter - oh Dieter
Peter
Peter - oh Peter

[Lor]

I forgot to mention 'The Breakfast Club' on Artillery Lane (Near London Liverpool Street station). If you go in and ask to see the mayor or scaredy cat town ... quite a novelty!

[Aimless]

Will keep an eye out! Otherwise left on the list are gardens, borough market, maybe a jazz club and oh yeah the Phantom of the Opera! My keyboard kept trying to autocorrect that to either labrum of the Opera or Phantom of the bladder, i know not why. Anyway if any of you are keen on seeing it within the next few days lemme know, we'll probably book the tickets sometime tomorrow

Today we have checked out the freemasons' holiest if holies (their cunning plan did NOT work on me) and met a guy i haven't really seen or heard from since 4th grade i like this city, it's old and beautiful and people are friendly when they aren't trying to throw you in front of a car or push you down the stairs to the tube

[Aimless]

So we made it there and back, safe and sound and only a little worse-for-wear We had a good time and, though I was more of a grumpy old man than usual, I have few regrets.

Getting there was much easier than I remember it being the last time we went. Heathrow seems to be a "better in than out" kinda place, and I appreciated the smooth tech-facilitated passage through. The wife was stopped once because she looked like she was under 18, but no-one tried to offer me a walker

At the airport, we bought two visitor oyster-cards and topped those up a couple of times during our stay. These were among the best purchases of our entire trip! Less awesome were the two lycamobile sim-cards we bought. During the entire trip, we (mostly I ) were plagued by incredibly crappy connection, patchy coverage and constant ads from lycamobile. Worst of all, we could not send texts or make calls to Sweden. The one good thing about lycamobile was that we had unlimited internet, which proved to be a life-saver as well as a source of constant anger (more on that later). GPS was good, too, and I'll concede that it may be unfair to expect the same coverage in London's subway as I get in Stockholm's.

Getting to our little studio flat in Queen's Park was easy and I was very pleased with our accommodation. It was small, but clean and neat and cosy. For some reason, they'd chosen to fit the room with two dozen extremely harsh soul-searing bluish-white LED-spotlights, which was hell to come home to at night, but we could use the light above the stove for a cosier ambience. We had about 2 non-contiguous minutes of wifi-access, which made planning things (and listening to spotify ) a little more difficult. Nevertheless, I was happy. We were very close to the subway station, and getting to most places was a piece of cake.

But where did we go? Well, we're kinda rubbish tourists, so much of our time was spent meandering through the city from one restaurant to another. We walked by the river, went to the Oxo Tower, did some shopping... we made sure to check out Camden Market (where we found some great presents and saw some wire-fu) as well as Borough Market (no kangaroo-burger, but a damn' good serving of injera). Hurricane Bertha had fortunately been downgraded to Intermittently Crappy Weather Bertie, and we had a few days of sunshine.



One lovely day, we sauntered around in Green Park where we came across the friendliest old man and his two adorable demon-spawned grand-nephews. We chatted for an hour and learned about the ancient martial art of conkers, and then we were joined by an Irish family and talked about Irish banks. Oh yeah, overall, Londoners were surprisingly friendly when they weren't trying to push us down the stairs or in front of speeding cars also on the theme of People, we met up with an old classmate of mine whom I hadn't seen since 4th grade, and it was hella fun =)

I liked the London subway system. Trains came often and mostly on time, and, apart from an unpleasant experience where rush-hour and a rain-shower came together in a perfect human storm of rage, journeys were pleasant. Tube stations were usually less modern than in Sthlm (especially on the hateful northern line), and nowhere near as accessible, but some were instead far more futuristic than I'm used to:



I stood there, transfixed, for several minutes.

Food-wise, the undisputed highlight was the dinner we had, at Clos Maggiore, to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. I don't know if we were unusually lucky, but we got the perfect table (at my request, a cosy corner-table where we could sit side-by-side), friendly, fun and impeccable service with great attention to detail, perfectly executed and very tasty dishes (I'm not a fan of rabbit, but the braised shoulder of Loire-valley rabbit was probably the most satisfying starter I've ever had) that were fairly priced, a house red that stood head and shoulders above most restaurants' special selection (their wine list was the size of a novel, way beyond my ability to parse) and, wonder of wonders, my favourite dessert wine in the whole wide world to go with the most scrumptious dessert. Even the music was great, and we left the place very very happy





Wrt entertainment, I regret to say we did see some TV (I've decided I prefer British commercials to Swedish ones), and saw Guardians of the Galaxy again (this time in IMAX, and god DAMN is 3D ever so much better that way! The movie was also a lot more enjoyable this time around). However, what I enjoyed most was the theatre! I have generally been averse to paying to watch shows here in Sweden, apart from amateur student productions. Swedish theatre is (in my limited experience) often distractingly weird or extraordinarily melodramatic and I feared this would be the case with British productions as well. How wrong I was! We only saw two shows--The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time and The Phantom of the Opera--but both were just so much fun. The theatres themselves were pretty and gave the whole experience an air of luxury, but it was all about the actors and the lighting and the sets and the music and both times I was just enthralled. Next time, we'll screw everything else and just go to shows.


END OF PART ONE

[Enoch the Red]

Snip

END OF PART ONE

Sounds like you had a great time, Minx. Looking forward to part two. I'm unfamiliar with food prices in Sweden, but I've heard that restaurants in London are pretty exorbitant. Did you find that to be true?

[Aimless]

PART TWO

As I said earlier, I spent much of the trip silently or vocally swearing at my phone, at its apps and at the internet as a whole. Rarely have I experienced so much tech-related frustration as I did during this trip, and it threatened to ruin much of the experience for me. I suspect I am tech-addicted, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect things like bookings, looking for directions, searching for shows etc to work without constantly having to start over from the beginning. But the less said about this the better. One app did work flawlessly, and that was the one for thetrainline.co.uk which took us to the most pleasant phase of our trip: a Welsh country wedding



the trip there was enjoyable, though seat-reservations were unexpectedly cancelled and though Paddington felt like the mythical Pandemonium. Once there, man, everything just felt so good. Everyone was busy, and we were feeling a bit shy, but we did meet lovely people and just enjoyed ourselves. I was introduced to the concept of glamping, which I've brought back with me to Sweden, but we slept in a room in a barn that's in the process of being turned into a house. I slept better than I had in weeks, and, the next day...







It was all kinda



But, in the end, it was



Especially for the man of the hour, the well-spoken, courteous and very lucky gentleman pictured above, who no doubt has a wonderful life ahead of him together with his lady

The following day, after a night of great food, good company, dancing (to a rockin' playlist) and blissful sleep, we took off to Cardiff, where we spent a final pleasant night and day gorging ourselves on grilled meats before heading back home to Sweden. I had the great misfortune of seeing The Broken Eye at a Waterstones and then discovering, too late, that it wasn't out on Kindle yet. The ginger had the fortune of finding, like, six awesome fantasy books. And that brings my report to a close. I can't wait for the next go

[Aimless]

Sounds like you had a great time, Minx. Looking forward to part two. I'm unfamiliar with food prices in Sweden, but I've heard that restaurants in London are pretty exorbitant. Did you find that to be true?

Both yes and no! It was easier to find cheap or at least reasonably priced food than it may often be in Stockholm. There were many "ethnic" restaurants that served delicious food at great prices. Boots and WH Smith had their "meal deal" offers, at prices below what you'd find in most of Sweden, and those were great on trips. Sainsbury's had delicious and cheap sausages! Some restaurants were overpriced and meh, but most places didn't make me cringe like they do here. I don't think this was only due to the numbers being smaller in GBP than they are in SEK

Re. the really fancy places, I found better prices in London than I ever have in Sweden. Our anniversary dinner was, for the most part, michelin-class but without a Michelin price-tag (or the silliness ), and nowhere near as expensive as it would have been in Sweden. Similarly, the one Michelin-starred restaurant we did visit was comparable, price-wise, to several Swedish restaurants I've been to that were nowhere near as good.

I think that, compared to Stockholm in particular, prices at most restaurants, cafés etc in London approached fair value. I suspect, however, that they may be quite a bit above US prices. The costs of alcoholic drinks were all over the place.

Of course, at some places we really just felt robbed. These were the places where you pay a premium for a great view, posh atmosphere etc. I think the biggest let-down was the restaurant at the National Portrait Gallery, where neither view nor food nor atmosphere nor service warranted the price premium.

[littlelolligagged]

Aww, thanks for the wedding pics

Sounds like a lovely time.

[Dreadnaught]

History has ended. Humanity can progress no more. I submit to my holographic overlords.

I try to keep my vacations tech-free, but increasingly the kinds of stuff you can do with phones is just too compelling to pass-up. Mapping and GPS is key, followed by the ability to look-up information and ideas on-the-go. Which makes reliable data access all the more important.

But I draw a firm line around no social media checking at-all and possibly no e-mail checking except before/after sleeping.

How is the whole other-side-of-the-road thing going? In particular, do people keep to the left when they walk or just when they drive? For this reason alone I have stayed out of the UK except for three hours for an important task.