On 11 Aug, 13:02, Jeremy Double wrote:
On 11/08/2010 06:52, bob wrote:

When I was helping some German friends plan a weekend away in London,
a bit of research found that the best bet for budget hotels in a
reasonably central location was in the area around Kings Cross (and I
don't mean by-the-hour hotels either), and for getting to either the
area around the tower, or to St Pauls and across to the Tate Modern,
Thameslink proved to be quite a useful route. *Also handy for pax
flying via Gatwick. *By all accounts, plenty of other tourists had
come to the same conclusion regarding hotels.

Although I have stayed in the Kings Cross/St Pancras area a few times,
because the area is convenient for travel to/from London (both Yorkshire
and the continent via Eurostar), I don't see it as being particularly
cheap. *Indeed, the Kings Cross Premier Inn is the most expensive
Premier Inn I have stayed at...

Given the availability of Travelcards etc, if I wanted to stay more
cheaply in the London area, I would look at somewhere a little out of
the centre... e.g. for a random date in September, the Premier Inn
called "London Kew" (actually it's in Brentford) is £87 per room,
compared with £150 for "London Kings Cross St Pancras". *For my random
date in August, there was no availability at the Kings Cross Premier Inn.

Actually, I don't know how the Kings Cross Premier Inn attracts so much
business at that price, because the Euston Ibis (in no way inferior to
the Premier Inn, IMO) is only £109 and the St Pancras Novotel is close
by, and with a considerably higher level of service and comfort is only
£175.

(All prices taken from the relevant hotel chain's website, to give a
fair comparison).
--
Jeremy Double {real address, include nospam}
Rail and transport photos athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/jmdouble/collections/72157603834894248/

The discussions here are exactly the reason why I started this thread
(I'm on a different account now)

I always stay in the Kings Cross/Euston area due to the proximity with
the mainline stations from the North, no need to carry luggage on the
tube, plus there is access to many tube lines from KX/SP tube station
and many bus services to Oxford Street/Trafalgar Square etc.

Now that Oyster Pay as you Go is valid on National Rail (although it
may already have been valid on Thameslink? but was all a bit vague and
confusing), I used the Thameslink route for the first time this year,
and realised that once Blackfriars south bank entrance is open, it
will be a handy link straight to the south bank and the popular thames
walkway/London Eye/Tate Modern/Millennium Bridge etc. At off peak
times a more comfortable journey than using the Northern line from
Euston.