After getting married this summer, my new bride and I are heading to London and Paris for a couple of weeks. I’m looking to book our accommodations this week and would love to hear if anyone has any real-world-experience recommendations for us.
We’re basically planning to be tourists for a week in each city (London and Paris). We’re not looking for luxury accommodations. Our price range is something like this: as cheap as possible, while still being clean, being in a decent location, and having a private bath. I realize that these aren’t cheap cities to visit.
If you have any advice, or better yet, specific suggestions, please contact me. Thank you.
Hotel Marignon in Paris. It was a while ago but cheap and fun and near the things you want to be near on the Left Bank. Say hello to Roland. Here is a review from Rick Steve’s el cheapo Euroguide:
Priceline is a great option to get a nice place at a reasonable rate. Especially in London.
Are you after a hotel that just serves breakfast or do you want an evening meal as well? In Paris there are lots of very good cheap restaurants in the Latin Quarter which you might like to try, however eating out in London can be much pricier and the quality of the food much more variable.
In London, if you’re not after anything fancy try Premier Travel Inn – there’s a few dotted across the city and they’re reasonably priced (£83/night weekdays, £75/night weekends). They usually come with Wifi and networking facilities too, and I think you can book online.
Use Easyjet or Ryanair to fly from London to Paris (or visa versa). They’re no-frills lowcost airlines, which is exelent for only an hour of actual flight.
Hotel Henri IV – 25 Place Dauphine.
I loved this place when I stayed there 12 years ago. I recently did some Googling to see if it was still in operation, and apparently it is. More hostel than hotel, but it’s got Parisian charm up the ying yang, and an excellent location. I highly recommend based on price, atmosphere, experience.
NY Times Travel: http://tinyurl.com/6pelp
Virtual Tourist(scroll down): http://tinyurl.com/69yya
We found Eurocheapo helpful when we booked hotels for our honeymoon
While on my honeymoon, I stayed in Hotel Londres New York in Paris. It’s not expensive, is very well located and with a very good breakfast. Rooms are not large and the acommodations are not luxury ones, but it’s very clean. I think it was around US$ 100 a day for both of us.
Travel Inn’s for London are not a bad bet. You will probably find that they charge extra for breakfast which isn’t a bad thing as it means you can go out and discover a nice breakfast place.
The one near Tower Bridge is pretty good in terms of location (http://www.premiertravelinn.com/pti/hotelInformation.do?hotelId=23884), quite near to the East End, Borough Market and the South Bank. Also there are quite a lot of nice restaurants around there, check out the ones on a street called The Cut, all good and reasonably priced for London.
I would buy the Rick Steves guides for both; they’re fantastic. They skimp a bit on things like nightlife and bars, but for touristy things and cheap, clean, lesser-known hotels, they are completely unbeatable.
It appears 12 years may have clouded my memory. I did not stay at Hotel Henri IV… it was the Hotel de Nesle, a couple of blocks away. My description above still holds true, but on further thought, it may not exactly be your ideal honeymoon hotel… but that depends on what you’re looking for.
Two reviews from the Guardian (UK):
http://tinyurl.com/46th3
http://tinyurl.com/55qmy
I spelled it wrong, Steve. It is the Hotel “Marignan”. They have a website now and they even have a picture of Roland. My pals and I spent the best part of a month there way back and had a great time as it is family run and are a great resource for what to do and what is on.
Hey Steve,
Used to go to Solid Rock Youth with you (my brother is Ross). Anyway, I am currently living in London so I would be happy to give you advice on things to do. You can get rooms for £25 pounds and up, but they tend to be small. Even in a nice expensive hotel the rooms will be small. Space is at a premium here! But a lot of the websites, hotel.com, priceline.com etc. have great deals if you are willing to shop around a bit. Russell square has many little hotels which are in a great location for getting around central London (although nothing is great for lugging your bags long distances from airports…). Near Victoria Station can also have some nice places. And there is a cheap north american chain near Waterloo Station that would be also be easy to travel from. I would say it is better to spend more on what you eat and what you do than where you stay. Especially with the exchange rate the way it is.
Although Ryan Air and Easy Jet are cheap ways to get to Paris from London, I would recommend the Eurostar train. If you book it now! you can get relativley cheap prices £30 each way per person. This sounds like a lot, but if you fly it will take you 1 hour minimum to get to the airport. You will have to be there two hours in advance, and when you arrive you will not be in central Paris. Whereas, with the Eurostar, you leave from Waterloo Station (very central) and you arrive in Paris a couple of hours later, also in the centre. Plus you travel in style and get to see some of the countryside.
Anyway, send me aline if you want anymore information. It might be easier to answer specific questions. And I have advice on my favorite things to do in London!
congrats!
Megan
I’ve seen Formule 1 mentioned in several places as the “Mcdonalds of hotel chains,” which might be just what you’re looking for. No private bath, but “Toilets and showers are located right outside the room. Showers are spotless, spacious and well equipped with a dry area for putting down clothes and toiletries.”
We stayed at the London Marriott Hotel Regents Park in 2003 and found it quite reasonable (75 pounds for a double room) and well-appointed. It’s very well set up for the “person from away.” The Swiss Cottage tube stop is about 5 minutes walk, and there are several good places to eat in the area.
If the weather is pleasant in Paris, I recommend visiting the Rodin museum and lingering in its sculpture garden. A quiet, beautiful secret in the heart of the city.
Don’t waste your time, or money, with London – it’s an overrated hole.
Come to Glasgow instead.
The museums are all free (check out Salvador Dali’s ‘Christ of St. John of the Cross’ or one of Rodin’s Thinkers).
It has more areas of grass and park land than any other city in Europe.
The pubs are great.
And, of course, we have the famous Glasgow Celtic….
greeat blog
Hey, Steven … I’ve just done all this research, for a tour in May … London and Paris. I was as exhaustive and thorough as I could be.
For Paris: check out http://www.paris-hotels-paris.com/ This L’Hotel de la Porte Doree … it’s a tad (and only a tad)off the beaten track, but that’s probably not a bad thing with Paris, where part of the charm is getting around. It was rated 11th (of over 1400 hotels reviewed) by http://www.tripadvisor.com (an invaluable resource, by the way). The remarkable thing about that rating – based on 29 independent reviews) is that it is the only 2-star hotel to appear in the top 25 – in other words, it’s not your $400 a night luxury premises, but it holds its own with them. See: http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187147-d472021-Reviews-Hotel_de_la_Porte_Doree-Paris_Ile_de_France.html
In London, I finally settled on the Comfort Inn, Notting Hill (booked through destina.co.uk)- for a couple of reasons. First, it again balanced off fair value for good ratings. But secondly, London (like Paris or any big city) has some neighbourhoods that are good and some that are downright frightening. There are some inexpensive hotels, for example, near King’s Cross. I learned not to stay in that area. Likewise the Pigalle in Paris. Hard to enjoy your honeymoon, when you’re breaking up knife fights between hookers and their pimps. And many hotel websites don’t make mention of the crack galleries across the street. They all look clean, spacious, and the facade looks utterly quaint and charming from the photos they publish. And how are we to know, over here? Well, tripadvisor, and friends, and word of mouth.
Notting Hill is accessible – the Comfort Inn is right by Notting Hill Gate, a major tube station. And again, most of the fun in London is navigating around – both cities have public transportation systems that are jaw-droppingly efficient, so don’t be thrown by the fact that your digs are not right in the heart of the theatre district.
If you need more info, drop me a line … these are the picks I made, but I have other suggestions.
I can personally recommend Peggy O’Mahoney of flatsearchlondon.com. She has rented reasonably-priced flats for myself and my family in central London for the past twenty years!
We usually stay in Queensway (central, right next to Hyde Park), but she offers flats in several locations. Hope you have a great time!
Keith and I just arrived home from 2 weeks in Ireland..we stayed at B&B’s and a few hostels. I was able to get a great deal on a hotel in Dublin through ireland.ie one of the main tourist info sites. The B&B’s were 60 euro a night.