Looking for Recommendations for our England DVC trip

[velrox]

We are scheduled for a DVC exchange to London for August. We are flying out 4 nights ahead of time. We are renting a car when we arrive to drive to York and the Lake District. Any suggestions for places to stay. My husband got a recommendation for Augill Castle for a couple of nights (although not budget, sounds wonderful). In addition, I am hoping that someone can recommend an inexpensive, decent place to stay for two more nights in London, after our apartment stay is over. Please keep in mind we will have our two boys with us (9 years old and 5 1/2 years old).

Any restaurant recommendations would be appreciated as well.

Thanks.

 

[spiceycat]

go ask on the UK board
here a link
http://www.disboards.com/forumdisplay.php?f=61

 

[Tara]

Base2Stay in Kensington is a great deal for a modern-equipped hotel with kitchenettes, close to Earl's Court tube station, free wifi - out of 1000 London hotels reviewed on Trip Advisor, it's ranked 16th - and it's very affordable for a London hotel! My first love is the Dorchester but it's very expensive (but oh so wonderful) - but Base2Stay is still great. I wish I were staying there next weekend, but it was full, so I'm staying at the Grand at Trafalgar. But hey, I'll be in London, so it's all good.

 

[CarolMN]

I'm going to move this to the IK DVC Board - I think you'll get more responses there.

 

[RDP]

Unfortunately London is the most expensive place to stay in the UK. Keep in mind you get what you pay for in London. Would you be abe to stay outside of London for a few nights ? There are many beautiful places in England that are within an hour or two drive from the capital. The Dorset coastline is fantastic with the towns of Dorchester, Poole and Bournemouth a must see. The cities of Bath, Oxford and Cambridge are also worth a visit for history and beautiful architecture. If you are looking for budget accommodation the UK chain hotels are Premier Inn (www.premierinn.co.uk) and Travelodge(www.travelodge.co.uk). These are no frills hotels and are not really up to US standards in my opinion but are ok for a couple of nights. Both provide family rooms and are situated throughout the UK. Hope this helps. Have a great trip.

 

[Nero the dog]

I'm sure you will have a great time in both York and our favourite place, Lake District You could consider a good bed and breakfast for your accomodation in these places (4 or 5 star), as the hotels will be expensive. With going in August the English schools are on holiday too so you should book something as soon as you can.

As for your London stay, we have stayed at the Hampstead Premier Inn in London and it is great for a short family stay, and they offer a full english breakfast too. It's close to the tube station into London central and there are some lovely restaurants very close for an evening meal

 

[Jets fan]

Have a look at lastminute.com as this is where I book all accom as it's much cheaper. In the summer London has some fantastic offers, so look around. Kensingon, Knightsbridge, Hyde Park and Piccadilly are all in the centre. Look at a map and decide which area best suits you and then google the hotels in that area and then lastminute them - you'll be suprised at the bargains you can get. I booked a hotel last week, the Copthorne Tara, as it's near the Albert Hall and it's in central Kensington , I got two rooms for £100 each per night including breakfast, which is good for London.

Maybe when you have selected a few hotels, go to the Uk boards and ask has anybody had any experience of them, as somebody usually has.

As for the Lake District, I've only been there once and it's a lovely area, but cannot recommend anywhere to stay as I haven't got the foggiest idea of where we stayed.

Sorry I can't be more help, but hope you have a fab time.

Tina

 

[amackay]

We always stay in a fantastic boutique hotel in the Earls Court area. It's extremely handy for all of the many tourist areas. It's usually about £99 per night which is very reasonable for London prices.

Here is the link : http://www.20nevernsquare.com/20Nevernsquare.com/Home.html

Eating places I would recommend would be Belgo in Covent Garden (fantastic moules-frites) http://www.belgo-restaurants.co.uk/

If you like Chinese food and are game for a bit of a laugh i'd suggest the Wong-Kei in the China Town area. The staff are famously rude and you are either told to go "upstairs" or "downstairs" with no logic to where you are being sent. The food is very good and the prices are excellent. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wong_Kei

 

[UKDEB]

I'm going to move this to UK Community as that board gets far more traffic than UK DVC.

 

[HighlandLass]

On the way north from York, you go past Alnwick (have I spelt that right) which has a castle that was use for parts of Hogwarts(Harry Potter's school), and its a lovely little walled village. Chester is great, it has Roman remains (York is my favourite but its solidly Viking), and from Chester you can get to Liverpool and the home of the Beatles and a zoo.
And there's Durham, oh it is so beautiful though perhaps not for the little ones.
When we stay in London we go on Last Minute dot com and book one of their mystery hotels. You get a great bargain. Don't forget to hang out in Covent Garden, the kids will love the street entertainers, and the Natural History Museum was the home of the Dinosaur that went missing in the Disney film.
The exchange rate is looking good at the moment, so although the UK is not the cheapest destination int he world, you might get a few good bargains this summer!
lots of museums are free in the UK, did you know?

 

[Dimplenose]

Another London restaurant - again it's at Covent Garden

http://www.porters.uk.com/default.asp

Good traditionally English food.

 

[Pegasus928]

York is a favourite place to stay for DW and I and we try to make an effort to go at least once a year - normally around our anniversary date (unless we're in WDW of course)
We have stayed in a couple of nice places, and once DW is available I will ask her what the names of them were so you can have a look. Food wise York has a lot of great places to eat, and I guess it depends on what type of food you like as to what would suit you - but I would definately recommend a trip to Bettys. The queues are normally out of the door but it is well worth the wait
Also if you are looking for something to do in the evening I would suggest one of the ghost walks around the town. These are organised, and are very well advertised, and you meet up at a set time along with anyone else that fancies it. The guide then takes you on an hour or so walk around York pointing out some of the famous spots and telling some tales from its history. Some of them are funny and some are of a ghostly nature - but none are really designed to scare the pants of you. Our DD went with us once when she was about 6 and loved it.
We have done most of the ones that are available and this one was by far the best
http://www.ghosthunt.co.uk/

Any other information needed then feel free to ask

 

[velrox]

On the way north from York, you go past Alnwick (have I spelt that right) which has a castle that was use for parts of Hogwarts(Harry Potter's school), and its a lovely little walled village. Chester is great, it has Roman remains (York is my favourite but its solidly Viking), and from Chester you can get to Liverpool and the home of the Beatles and a zoo.
And there's Durham, oh it is so beautiful though perhaps not for the little ones.
When we stay in London we go on Last Minute dot com and book one of their mystery hotels. You get a great bargain. Don't forget to hang out in Covent Garden, the kids will love the street entertainers, and the Natural History Museum was the home of the Dinosaur that went missing in the Disney film.
The exchange rate is looking good at the moment, so although the UK is not the cheapest destination int he world, you might get a few good bargains this summer!
lots of museums are free in the UK, did you know?

Thanks for the great suggestions! I will definitely check out last minute.com

I have been keeping my eye on the exchange rate, and I think you are correct that things might not be so bad this summer. We just got back from Hawaii, which was quite pricey, so we used that as prep for our summer trip.

 

[velrox]

York is DW and my favourite place to stay and we try to make an effort to go at least once a year - normally around our anniversary date (unless we're in WDW of course)
We have stayed in a couple of nice places, and once DW is available I will ask her what the names of them were so you can have a look. Food wise York has a lot of great places to eat, and I guess it depends on what type of food you like as to what would suit you - but I would definately recommend a trip to Bettys. The queues are normally out of the door but it is well worth the wait
Also if you are looking for something to do in the evening I would suggest one of the ghost walks around the town. These are organised, and are very well advertised, and you meet up at a set time along with anyone else that fancies it. The guide then takes you on an hour or so walk around York pointing out some of the famous spots and telling some tales from its history. Some of them are funny and some are of a ghostly nature - but none are really designed to scare the pants of you. Our DD went with us once when she was about 6 and loved it.
We have done most of the ones that are available and this one was by far the best
http://www.ghosthunt.co.uk/

Any other information needed then feel free to ask

Thanks for the tip on the night walks (and adding that your daughter was fine with it!). That sounds fun. Years ago (before kids) we did a haunted Jack the Ripper tour in London, which would be totally inappropriate for kids

I look forward to further recommendations!

 

[Mrs Pegasus]

Following on from what Kenny said about our trips I thought I would pop on and post the links to some of our favourite places to stay whilst in York - all are within 10 minutes walk from the Minster.

http://www.arnothouseyork.co.uk/ this place is run by a mother & daughter and the breakfast was amazing This guest house was very traditionally decorated and I remember on one of the landings a collection of old dolls

http://www.straphaelguesthouse.co.uk/ a little more modern than Arnot House - very comfortable and again great food

http://www.hedleyhouse.com/default.asp this was the last place we stayed and I would definitely re-book this one. We had a family room at the top of the hotel and it was very nice. Once we had booked we were sent a menu with an offer to pre-book a meal - 3 courses for £15 ($10) The choice was fairly limited but the quality more than made up for that.

The first time we went to York (Kenny surprised me for our Anniversary) we stayed in the Queens Suite here http://www.knavesmire.co.uk/ It's much further out and not really walking distance but the hotel was amazing. The house once belonged to the Rowntree family. We didn't eat there so can't comment on the food but it was a great place to use as a base.

Hope this helps - have fun planning your trip

Elaine

 

[mazz1]

we too give York the big thumbs up as a place to visit although i would highly recommend the visit york website and maybe consider searching for a apartment type accomodation if it's for a family?

we have stayed in two apartments in york both within walking distance to the city and for very reasonable costs

this one does 2 nights and a 3rd free at certain times of the year and is a 5 min walk into the city centre (we are shortly to have our 3rd visit here) http://www.annapartments.com/ the owners Ann and Alistair and lovely and will arrange any special treats if it's a special occasion, we are going for my sons birthday and they are organising his giant birthday cookie, balloons and banners as a suprise and they did the same for my dd last year

this is also a nice place to stay and the building has different sized apartments avail through the visit york website some are from £70-90 per night so it can work out quite reasonable

http://www.boothamluxuryapartment.co.uk/

http://www.visityork.org/

we would highly recommend the ghost walk too, we have done this with mr and mrs pegasus and it's great fun

whatever you choose to do and go have a great time and happy planing