Tag Archives: England

The Park Lane Hotel – London, England, United Kingdom

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My pre-trip worrying was pointless.  We arrived at the Park Lane Hotel a little before noon and we were given a choice: did we want the free upgrade that we qualified for (finally!) that was not quite ready or did we want the original room now?  The upgrade, please!  We had planned to just drop our luggage and venture out to find lunch anyway, so this worked perfectly.  And thus began our weeklong stay at the Park Lane Hotel.

Price.  Prices will vary depending on when you are visiting and whether you do the prepaid rate (with no refund) or a flexible rate.  From what I’ve seen, the cheapest room ranged from about £230-£330.  We were lucky enough to have enough starpoints to stay for free.  I was pleasantly surprised when we checked out and owed absolutely nothing.  For 72,000 points, we stayed here for a week, and it was definitely worth it!  I’m saving my points again for when we make a return trip to London.

Beautiful Green Park, right across from the Park Lane Hotel

Location.  The location was perfect.  As long as you stay at a hotel near one of the tube lines, you can get anywhere very easily.  Our hotel was right across the street from Green Park and a short walk to Piccadilly Circus.  It was also very close to Buckingham Palace, which we visited our last morning just before our flight back home.  

Room.  As mentioned above, we were upgraded (we booked the lowest level room)!  We didn’t have a view and we were only on the first floor (one level up from the ground floor), but the room was spacious with an extra large bathroom with a shower and a bath tub.  We were very comfortable the entire stay.  The room also had a large TV that swiveled and a desk (which I used to store my makeup and cold-weather accessories).

Dining.  We didn’t take advantage of the restaurant and bar at the hotel, but they had both.  The bar was large and open late, but we spent our time at different bars around London instead of sipping beer at the expensive hotel.  Still, it’s nice that the option was there, in case we wanted to stay in for a night.  Their Italian restaurant, Citrus, receives favorable reviews, and we did almost decided to eat there one night. 

Amenities.  A gym (which we didn’t use) and wireless internet for a hefty fee (if you are gold or platinum with SPG, you can select free wifi as your check-in gift).  Nothing too special, but it worked well for us.  The room did not include breakfast, so we went to Pret A Manger most mornings (just a couple of blocks away) for a cheap, quick, and satisfying breakfast.  

I am very happy with our choice to stay at the Park Lane Hotel in London.  It worked well as our base for exploring London for a week and, best of all, it was free.  I would highly recommend this hotel if paying with starpoints, and we plan to stay here again in the future.  I will say that if we were planning to pay for a hotel, I would opt for a cheaper hotel.  London is a city that is best enjoyed out and about, so not much time is spent in the hotel.  Choose your hotel accordingly!

Affordable Transit & Sightseeing in London: National Rail’s 2FOR1 with Travelcard

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Sightseeing in London is expensive.  A day full of admissions to London’s top sights will quickly eat through even generous travel budgets.  Luckily, for those traveling with a companion and interested in travelcards for London’s transit system (including unlimited access to the Underground), National Rail offers a program that allows 2 travelcards to be used for 2-for-1 admission at many of London’s attractions, marketed as “2FOR1 London”.  The list of participating attractions includes many must-see sites, including the Churchill War Rooms, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the Tower of London (excluding July through September).  It’s worth checking back often before a trip because the list frequently changes.

Normally, 2FOR1 is designed as a perk for British visiting London who decide to travel by rail.  For a one-way ticket to London, 2FOR1 discounts are valid on the same day as the ticket.  For return tickets to London, discounts are valid through the duration of the visit to London.  Many foreign travelers are not buying rail tickets to London, but National Rail extends eligibility to travelcards for travel within London.  The catch is that the travelcard must be purchased from National Rail, in a paper ticket format, as opposed to the Oyster Card version sold in Underground stations.  The popular Zone 1-2 travelcard sold by National Rail only costs £8.80 for unlimited travel for 1 day or £30.40 for 7 days.  2FOR1 discounts are valid during the entire eligibility of the travelcard.

Buying a National Rail paper travelcard is less convenient than purchasing an Oyster Card at an Underground station, but the extra hassle is well worth the savings.  We bought our travelcard at Charing Cross Station in central London.  A new rule requires a photo ID card to accompany 7 day paper travelcards.  For the clerk to create a photo ID card, you need to provide a passport size photo when buying the card (note that UK passport photo size is 45mm x 35mm vs. the 2″ x 2″ standard in the USA).  We took a digitial photo before leaving, cropped it to the correct size, and printed it on photo paper.  Our amateur versions worked just fine.  After arriving at Charring Cross, the entire process of paying and obtaining a travelcard took less than 10 minutes.

For each attraction, 2 travelcards (or rail tickets) and a voucher must be provided.  Vouchers are available in a booklet provided when buying the travelcard, or can be printed out ahead of time from the National Rail website.  We had no problems with any attractions honoring the discount.

In the end,  the 2FOR1 promotion saved us £73.65 (or £36 per person) on our recent trip to London:

  • Churchill War Rooms: £16.50
  • London Eye:  £18.90
  • St. Paul’s Cathedral: £15
  • Tower of London: £20.90

The nice part is that we wanted to buy a 7-day travelcard anyway!  The only added cost was the small hassle of finding a National Rail station to make the transaction, which was more than worth the trouble. 

City Overview: London, England, United Kingdom

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City.  London, England, United Kingdom

When?  Sunday, November 18 – Sunday, November 25, 2012 (7 nights) – during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday.  Staying 7 nights in one city was great, but if you have less time than that, it is definitely still worth it.  We actually took two day trips during our stay and we were still able to see many of the must-see London sites, as well as relax a bit (shop, afternoon tea, etc.).

Where? The Park Lane Hotel on Piccadilly.  We booked using Starpoints, so we paid 12k per night for this category 5 hotel.  We actually only paid for 6 nights, since Starwood has a  stay (and pay) for 4 nights, get the 5th night free.  Our points gave us the lowest level room but, as gold members, we were upgraded to an Executive Room, which is nicer than the older, non-renovated rooms.

Transportation.  The London tube was fantastic for getting around the central area. We even used it from the airport.  Ryan will do a more in-depth post about the tube ride from the airport, but for day-to-day use, we found it to be very simple to ride and cheap with our 7-day travel pass.  London also has the famous double-decker red buses (also included in our pass), but we didn’t end up taking a ride in one while we were there. However, we were cautious about London driving accidents and made sure to stay aware of the traffic conditions.

Food.  We tried a number of different cuisines: Pub Grub, Indian, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, German, and Belgium (okay, that was when we were in Brussels, not London).  The Indian food stole the show, but we also had delicious Italian and Chinese dinners (these were pricey though, costing over $150 per meal, with wine).

Day Trips.  As I mentioned above, we took two day trips.  We went to Brussels, Belgium, taking the high-speed train and traveling underneath the Channel.  The trip time was about 2 hours each way, and if we did our trip over again, I would not include a day trip to Brussels – we didn’t stay long enough to make it worth our while.  We also took a day trip to Bath, taking a normal in-country train.  The ride was 1.5 hours each way and completely worth it.  We shopped, enjoyed the Christmas market, visited the Medieval Baths, and had our favorite pub meal of the trip.

Attractions.  There are so many things to do in London.  Not only did we visit the more popular sites such as The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, London Eye, and the British Museum, but we also went to the Churchill War Rooms, Parliament, Borough and Portobello Markets, Christmas markets, and enjoyed afternoon tea!

Language Barrier.  None in London, although I didn’t always catch what everyone was saying on the first pass.  There wasn’t an issue in Brussels either, since everyone spoke English, but the majority of people in Brussels do speak French as a first language.

Cost.  London is known as being an expensive city, but you don’t have to spend an outrageous amount of money to enjoy it.  Of course it’s hard to miss the top sites, so plan to spend money on the big ones (many were around £15-20 per person) and save money in other ways – enjoy the free parks, eat lunch at the markets, get a tube pass to save on transportation, buy tickets at the “half-price” booth for shows, etc.

Advice.  Do not give up on the food and succumb to tourist trap restaurants!  Do some research and find out which restaurants have great reviews.  London is actually on Yelp, which we found to be helpful since a lot of locals use the site, and not just tourists (like Trip Advisor).  Also, do visit free sites to save money – there are several free attractions, markets, and parks that are well worth a visit.

Closing comments.  I cannot wait to visit London again. The planning seemed so effortless compared to other trips (I’m thinking it’s because they speak English and because we were only gone for one week, instead of two or three).  I absolutely loved visiting in November, although I do think we were very lucky with the weather and lack of rainy days. Additionally, tube advertising plays a key role in targeting audiences in London. I heard about the london tube advertising cost; it cost for £500-£15,000 per month.

We’re Back: London in Pictures

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We’ve been back from London for about a week and I can’t even describe how much I fell in love with the city.  Everything was better than I expected: the flight, the hotel, the food, the weather, the sites, the tube, the shopping.  While we collect our thoughts and sort through the pictures, I want to share a few pictures to try to sum up the trip (impossible!):

  • Sites – Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Tower of London, and so many more!
 
  • Food – pub food, Italian food, Chinese food, and Indian food (and more than that, but I can’t fit it all on this small collage)
 
  • Beer – we honestly didn’t have too much beer, but we had enough.  I rotated between beer, wine, and hot chocolate with baileys (at the Christmas markets)
  • Relaxing – afternoon tea, walking through the parks, and shopping
 
  • Day Trips – one to Brussels, Belgium and one to Bath, England
 
  • Harry Potter sites – we visited Platform 9 3/4 (not the actual one used in the movie, unfortunately) and walked across Millennium Bridge, which was destroyed by Death Eaters in the beginning of the movie Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
 
  • Markets – Borough Market, Portobello Market and Southbank Christmas Market
  • And just the smallest bit of rain – we seriously lucked out with the weather.  It really only rained one day we were there, with a few sprinkles here and there throughout the week. 

We can’t wait to share more details!

London Hotel Pre-Trip Worries

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We are able to make this trip to London, which is our second trip to Europe this year, because we are using Starpoints for our entire hotel stay (hotel = completely free).  From time to time I look at hotels on SPG and dream about traveling.  I happened to look at the London hotels and noticed that one, the Park Lane Hotel, was only 12k Starpoints per night, which seemed like a steal!  Ryan took a look and confirmed the great location, and we began to look into the trip a little more to see if we could actually afford it.  

Since our hotel was chosen for us based on affordability, I skipped the part of the planning process where I read reviews.  Well, after returning from Portugal and Spain, where we stayed at two Starwood properties, I decided to start looking up some information about the Park Lane.  I started on flyertalk, which I love to read because everyone there travels like crazy and is honest about the hotels they stay in and the airlines they fly.  Of course, I can’t usually relate because most are flying business or first class and have hundreds of thousands of hotel points, but it’s still fun to read.

In this case, I found myself horrified by the negative reviews of the hotel.  In some cases, travelers actually changed hotels mid-stay (and often moved to the much-nicer Le Méridien Piccadilly).  The reviews caution future travelers against staying at the Park Lane Hotel with it’s dated and noisy rooms, but mention that an upgrade to an Executive Room (the ones that were actually renovated recently) can be worth the low cost of the hotel.  Also, there are some reviews that were positive; it’s just that the negative reviews overpowered the positive ones.

So here I am, imagining that the room will look something like this (pictures taken from the SPG website):

But after looking through the traveler photos on Trip Advisor, I’m worried we might get stuck with one of the small, dated, noisy rooms, with an old hair dryer, a makeshift A/C unit (luckily we’ll be there in November!), paint peeling off of the walls, and dirt left in the shower.  

At this point, we are not changing our hotel.  Some of the positive reviews mentioned upgrades at the Park Lane – either because they have status with SPG and received the upgrade for free upon arrival or they were sent a deal before the stay where they could secure an upgrade by paying a certain amount.  We are SPG Gold, but so far that has meant little to us in Europe (no upgrade in Barcelona or Madrid), so I am not too confident that an upgrade will happen in London.  And since we’re SPG Gold, I don’t want to pay for an upgrade when, if available, we should be offered one for free.  Even if an upgrade is only £30 per night, it adds up to £210, which is over $300.  And we’re staying here for free.  That’s the whole point – it’s 100% free, no taxes, fees, or anything. 

With about a week and a half until we get to London, the best I can hope for is that our room will be fine.  We plan to spend most of our time away from the hotel, so a less-than-perfect room will definitely be acceptable.  That being said, we will be staying at the Park Lane Hotel for 7 nights, so I expect a clean and comfortable room, with a working hair dryer!  I can’t see myself demanding a new room, but I also don’t want to give in and settle for a room we are not comfortable in.  

There’s not much to do now but wait and see what the hotel and room are like when we arrive.  I’m hoping for the best!