Try sticking your travel dates into:
www.expedia.co.uk
or
www.lastminute.com
Both will give you a range of options and will display hotels on a map so you can see exactly where they are. I've just picked some random July dates and churned out quite a few central London reasonable (but not luxury) hotels for around £55 - £70 per night.
My company often uses these sites to find decent, well-priced accommodation. The websites will generally give you a decent, honest description of the hotels.
For what it's worth, here are some excerpts from the "Guide to the UK" that I prepared for some Aussie mates who came over last year to live here....Bear in mind that they are spending a year or two here, so some things that I recommended for them might be hard work / pointless during a 6 day visit!
General London Advice
Go up Primrose Hill on a clear day and see the view over London Zoo and the city – it’s great! Then wander around the area because it’s lovely.
Try some Indian restaurants – Try a balti, which is usually very mild and was invented near my home town (apparently) in the Midlands. Or try a Vindaloo, which is stupidly spicy….
Try to check a real map as well as a tube map before you head around London – sometimes it’s easier to walk than change tubes twice! (e.g. getting to Covent Garden from Tottenham Court Road is a 15 minute walk, but a pain of a tube journey at rush hour!). The London A – Z map is probably the best one to get.
Go for a huge Sunday roast lunch – there are lots of nice places to get lunch, but I really recommend The Princess of Wales pub near Primrose Hill. They have free live jazz on Sundays and great real ale. The lunches consist of roast lamb, chicken, pork or beef & about 15 veggies (or there is fish, vegetarian and other stuff). You can sit upstairs, or go down to the cellar bar and still hear the jazz down there.
Try some real ales – Wadworth’s 6X, Ruddle’s County, Old Speckled Hen and Bishop’s Finger are some of the best. London Pride is OK and available most places.
Belgo’s are great restaurants…..if you like beer and mussels. Belgian style food – lots of fries, steaks, sausages, seafood, and a list of over 100 great beers to try. There are 3 of them around the place, including the Bierodrome, which is mostly beer.
Avoid Aberdeen Angus Steakhouses and anything that looks similar (I’m not being a snob, they’re horrible as well as expensive).
Charlotte Street (parallel to Tottenham Court Rd) has lots of nice restaurants, and Soho has got something to offer everybody…..including a rather sordid sex trade, but it’s mostly expensive, nice bars these days, and decent, moderate to expensive restaurants.
Use the TKTS booth in Leicester Square to get discount tickets to West End shows / plays (they sell all remaining seats for that day/night’s performance at half price).
Wander across the Millennium Bridge and into the Tate Modern gallery – entry is free but there are usually fees to enter some of the exhibitions. Wander along to see the Globe theatre while you're in the area.
Unbelievably, if you dial 020 7222 1234 (London transport advice line) at any time of day or night and tell them where you are and where you want to go, they’ll tell you the routes and methods available to you (I’ve not tried this myself, but it’s supposed to work!).
Driving in London is a nightmare and you now have to pay 5 pounds (I think) if you enter the congestion charging zone (most of central London). Look at www.easycar.com for car rentals – they can be cheap (especially if you book in advance), but check the small print.
UK Boring Stuff
999 is the emergency number for Fire, Ambulance, Police, Coast Guard.
London postcode prefixes give you an idea of where places are (NW = North West, SE = …..errr….you get the idea).
Beggars are everywhere in London, it’s best to ignore them if you can – if you want to help, you can buy a copy of The Big Issue from a licensed, homeless vendor for about 1 pound 50; they get to keep the profits and are less likely to spend it on booze or drugs.
Tubes & Taxis
The last tube is generally around 12:15 at night – it can be later or earlier depending on which station you’re at. Buses run much later, sometimes all night, but they can be a little rowdy in the early hours.
You can get daily, weekly, monthly etc. travelcards covering different tube “zones” (see Tube map for details). Daily travelcards are cheaper if you buy them after 9:30am. They cover tube, Docklands Light Railway (DLR), Bus and train in the zones you pay for.
The Northern Line splits at several points, but the main distinction going North is that one way goes to High Barnet and the other goes to Edgeware (the branch for Chalk Farm, Belsize, Hampstead). Camden is the last place North that you can change between the two branches. Going South, the Northern Line goes either via Charing Cross (Leicester Square, Tottenham Court Road) or via Bank (the City area, Angel). It’s notorious for delays, but that can’t be helped….
The Circle Line does exactly what it sounds like – it circles the centre of London without ever going right into the centre.
Victoria Line – good, fast line for getting across town. Like the Northern Line it generally goes North to South (and some stations are shared) but has a different route.
Jubilee Line – good, fast line for getting North to South along yet another route. Lots of nice new stations on the newest section.
Central Line – runs East to West through the middle of town.
There are others, but I don’t know much useful info about them.
Taxis – black cabs can be excellent and (generally) always know the way from A to B anywhere in London. Prices are cheapest during the day, then they rise quite a bit after 7pm (I think) and then get even more expensive later at night.
Minicabs are usually OK, and are generally safe if telephoned or booked in an office, although not generally recommended for women traveling by themselves. Technically, minicabs aren’t allowed to stop if you hail them in the street, but many do.
Cars that stop late at night and offer to drive you home can be regarded as either a blessing or a potential axe murderer – I favour the latter and have so far only ever got in one once, with 3 big mates….avoid if at all possible.
ALL taxis of whatever type have to display a plate on the back of the car showing their license number – there are a lot of ex-official taxis being driven by normal (and abnormal) people, so check for the plate if in doubt.
Websites worth visiting
www.multimap.com – it can find any address in the UK by street name and area or postcode. This is very useful for finding out where places are, as you can zoom in and out of a detailed map of the area. It can also give you step-by-step directions from one place to another by road. (It also does addresses abroad).
www.lastminute.com – excellent source of London, UK and flight/holiday discounts, e.g. half-price meals in excellent restaurants, brilliant hotel deals, great cheap holidays and weekends away, gifts, discount theatre / sports tickets etc.
www.squaremeal.co.uk – I like food so I like this site. Gives decent, honest appraisals of restaurants, including prices. Lets you do things like specify “medium priced Indian, Thai and Lebanese restaurants with a private room in the City central or North area” and then gives you various options.
www.thetrainline.com – allows you to plan rail journeys and get prices, as well as buy tickets. Beware that it will not always show you the best prices or fastest options, but it’s a good starting point. There are usually cheap tickets available if you book well in advance. Turn up and go on the day and it’s extortionate!
www.google.co.uk – great search engine for UK and world stuff.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/ - London transport homepage.
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