Requesting advice for stay in London

[cathrowan]

Let's take it as a given that I should have sorted this out two months ago. That said, I'd be grateful for suggestions about finding accommodation in London (England). We plan to be there for a week at the end of August. We don't need anything fancy, and it does not have to be in central London so long as it's near some sort of transit. Any particular neighbourhoods I should look for, or avoid? Any other suggestions for a first-time visitor? oursin, cosmolinguist, got any advice for a clueless Canadian?

Comments

[rmc28]

Kettering is inconvenient for Cambridge by public transport, the kind of thing where going via London between the two is actually the quickest route (and driving direct takes about half the time). Cambridge is heaving with tourists for a reason, there are many lovely and historic sights to see, and some decent theatre and live music too (the Shakespeare Festival runs until 24 August, if that meets your dates). You can also reasonably do a day trip to Cambridge from a London base, much as I do the reverse, the rail station is about 20 minutes walk from the historic centre, but there are a bunch of buses will take you the distance, and there's a bus tour with audio guide that has a stop at the station.

Cambridge itself has less good public transport than London: we don't have the equivalent of Transport for London, so the buses are all run by private companies for profit and thus expensive, often crowded, and often late. Most of them are run by Stagecoach, but some by Whippet. They all go via the city centre (which is sometimes part of the problem with them being late, because Cambridge traffic snarls up at the mildest provocation). There are local taxi firms and also Uber. You could do worse than check out the Travelodge/Premier Inn options, there's definitely also airbnbs galore, and the tourist info have accommodation listings

If you do come to Cambridge and would like to meet up, let me know. I'm working throughout August, but I do a standard Mon-Fri and have some flexibility over my hours so might be able to e.g. take a long lunch or finish a bit early and make up the hours another day that week.

[cathrowan]

I did some playing around with Google maps; I did not comprehend how heavily radial the train system is. You are right, a day trip from London makes much more sense, and that way we wouldn't be hauling luggage around. I'm interested in early music - I will have to look and see if there are concerts alongside the Shakespeare Festival.

If we do make it up for a day, I'd love to meet up! I'll get back in touch if that looks like a go-ahead.