London and Paris Accommodation Suggestions?

[Hurm]

I'm planning a trip to Europe from 12/18/08 - 1/2/09. One week in London and the other in Paris. Any suggestions for affordable hotels/B&Bs in a safe neighborhood? Looking for a room that would sleep 4 (it's a family vacation). Hopefully no more than $215 (USD) a day. A daunting task to be sure. I hear renting an apartment for the week might be the way to go. Any recommendations or at least nice neighborhoods to stay in?

[darrylduffy]

also, hurm is a cool dude so if you have any knowledge on this, please help out.

[Liezl]

When I was in London on a budget, I stayed at the Stanley House Hotel.
Very barebones, no fancy pants soaps, no lift, but they did a private bath, pretty big rooms, and a modest continental breakfast included in the price. They also appear to accommodate 4 in a room.

It's also VERY centrally located in London. Near Victoria Station.

£80 a night.

Sponsored Images



Some of my own old photos of their triple room.




http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Rev...n_England.html

http://en.venere.com/hotels_london/v...&rval=1&pval=4

In any case, I don't remember any bad neighborhoods. Maybe the Brixton area... and the Northern Line around Colliers Wood... actually that whole south end of the Northern Line is sketchy.

[karyrogers]

I recommend the Rick Steves books. We started out using hostels but soon found out we're too old or American or something to really dig that scene and using the accommodation recommendations in his books mid-trip really helped us out; we found cool places that suited us at affordable prices. If I can remember where we stayed in Paris, I'll post it.

[littlegirltree]

Liezl's remommended link of tripadvisor is the best advice that you can get. Any hotel I have stayed @ in the past 6 years has been solely based on tripadvisor reviews. Before tripadvisor, booking a room was a nightmare.

As far as renting apartments is concerned, beware that most of these situations involve someone going on vacation and you taking over their apartment while they're gone. I have rented an apartment only once, last summer in NYC, to be a close as possible to UCB Theatre during the Del Close marathon. The apartment owner came home early and I was stuck paying for a room that I had just been kicked out of. I was so mad I just wanted to go home after that.

In Paris I stayed @ Hôtel de l'Abbaye Saint Germain, which was beautiful, but a bit out of your price range. It was full of English couples on holiday, sipping tea and eating pastries in the garden. It was like we took a vacation in a Merchant Ivory film.

[karyrogers]

Ok, my wife reminded me of where we stayed in Paris. Hotel de Nevers.

Hotel de Nevers in Paris was nice and clean with a friendly, family staff (and resident cats) and the wife loved the window boxes with flowers. It was affordable and looks like it has good reviews on Trip Advisor. Unfortunately, their website seems to be down right now. Also, there was a bakery not far away where we would get breakfast and there was a huge classic toy shop on the same block as the hotel. I have never seen so many classic Star Wars, G.I. Joe and every other toy you can think of in one place. It's a good thing we were backpacking or I might have loaded up.

[Hurm]

Thanks everyone for the suggestions. It has made the search for rooms much easier.
Already got a discount in London just for mentioning Rick Steves! That guy's got juice.

[pg13]

Rick Steves! That guy's got juice.

If by "juice" you mean "weed"--then yes, he probably does.

[Adult Ed]

If it isn't too late, my wife and I had great luck doing a Home Exchange for Paris from Brooklyn and we got multiple offers from other European cities as well. A Los Angeles listing would probably do very well.

It is (or was, last year) pretty cheap to sign up and the apartment we got (in the 20th Arr. near Jourdain) was fantastic.

[scamboogah]

I hate Rick Steves. That guy makes international travel about as adventurous as heating up milk to make cocoa.

[Berliner]

I am going to London and Paris soon. I already have accommodations, but is there anything interesting to see/eat there?

[heatherm]

no

[Berliner]

But I heard they opened some McDonald's there!

[scamboogah]

But I heard they opened some McDonald's there!

According to a movie I saw once, they don't have Quarter Pounders there because they're on the metric system and they wouldn't know what the fuck a Quarter Pounder was.

Westminster Abbey. Easy to dismiss as being too touristy, but chock full of super interesting shit.

[yumitree]

Westminster Abbey. Easy to dismiss as being too touristy, but chock full of super interesting shit.

i'll second this. as a child i rubbed a crayon on a piece of paper on a stone on some earth on a totally dead person.

[littlegirltree]

In London, definitely go see a live band, or, even better, a music festival. Check for upcoming events on Paris Voice or Time Out Paris. The Tate Museum in London always has great exhibitions. Oh, and find out what all the fuss is about Top Shop.

In Paris, Musée d'Orsay was the best museum I’ve ever visited, ever. For the most current ideas on decent dining, depending on your location and price range, I had lots of luck scouring through Chowhound and EGullett. Our best meals in Paris were @ Ze Kitchen Gallerie and La Perouse was expensive, bt the most entertaining – it’s one of the oldest restaurants in Paris. The other 2 couples sharing our dining room were obviously out together on the sly. One of the guys looked and sounded like he stepped right out of a Guy Ritchie movie. He even took a call from his wife at the table, with his mistress giggling as he asked how the kids were doing.

For souvenirs, bring back pastry from Laduree, mustards from Maille (they have all sorts of amazing & crazy flavors, walnut, cognac, it’s amazing and only available in their shops) and chocolate.

[Adult Ed]

jesus christ. this is the second time in a month that I've responded to the first post on an old, recently bumped, thread in virtually the exact same way that i responded the first time i posted.

[isoS]

After you see all the sights in London and France, be sure to check out someone's underpants.

[Adult Ed]

I am going to London and Paris soon. I already have accommodations, but is there anything interesting to see/eat there?

In Paris I really like the permanent exhibition at the Picasso Museum (call to make sure the renovations in that space are finished; the temporary exhibit the last time I went was contemporary war photography), the Musee de la Chasse et de la Nature ("Hunting & Nature Museum" - a lot of amazing taxidermy) and the Musee des egouts de Paris (Paris Sewers Museum; a tour of the working Paris Sewer system and its actually interesting engineering history). I went to the Louvre and found the lines too long for the experience. You are herded like cattle past the best the Rennaisance has to offer and the art is hung and lit poorly. (Walk around the courtyard of the Louvre anyway; the architecture is amazing and you get to decide for yourself what you think of I.M. Pei's pyramids.) Because of my Louvre experience, I've never been to Orsay, though I've heard good things.

It is an amazing walking city so you can kind of go anywhere and enjoy the stroll. I also liked going on a canal tour with Canauxrama. I was staying in the 19th Arr., so I started at Parc Villette and ended in the city center; you might want to do the reverse. I regret not being able to spend any time at Parc Villette because it looked kinda neat.

For an expensive meal, the two places that I loved (I give myself one "I'm in fucking Paris" meal per trip) were L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon and Casa Olympe. And there are neat ethnic neighborhoods around, including Algerian and Moroccan places in the 19th Arr., but I don't have a specific restaurant to recommend. If you have access to a kitchen, you can find excellent fish, produce and bread everywhere. That is what my wife and I did most nights.

I don't have anything specific to recommend in London, which is strange because I always have a good time when I'm there. I agree with Scammy on Westminster Abbey.

[scamboogah]

After you see all the sights in London and France, be sure to check out someone's underpants.

Don't listen to squatch's travel recommendations.

When he told me what to do in China, I wound up with urine in my Coca-cola...