First-time Weekend to London

[RapunzelsRealMom]

I hope some of you kind Londoners can give me some advice please.

I'm planning a weekend to a London soon with my teen daughters. None of us have been before (well, I have but not for a long time when my parents organised everything!)

We're planning on staying 2 nights, seeing a show, the palace, the usual sights.

Should we arrive at Euston or Kings Cross?
What areas should I consider for our hotel (so that we can easily walk or take the tube to the west end, sights, etc)?
Any advice at all would be much appreciated - I'm a confident traveller but something about London scares me! I want to feel comfortable that I know what I'm doing

Euston and kings cross are very close its much for a muchness there.

With regards to area what is your budget and what sort of standard of hotel would you like

Should we arrive at Euston or Kings Cross?

It depends where you are travelling from?

Choose whichever station means you get a cheaper train ticket.

What would you like advice on?

I'm travelling from Glasgow so can easily arrive at either station.

Re my budget - I'm looking for a family room around £150 per night. I've seen some online but have no clue about areas and ease of travel. I know the tube is my best bet but I'd like to keep things as simple as possible.

Oh and in terms of where to stay, if you're going to be in the west end then stay there. Again, look for what fits in your budget. You can get from kings X and Euston to the shows and stuff in minutes.

Also - and I hope I don't offend anyone with this (perhaps I shouldn't worry, given the reputation Glasgow has) - I want to feel safe. Are there areas or places I should avoid especially at night?

The train goes direct into Euston.

London is very safe. Unless you're planning on joining a gang or dealing drugs then you probably won't get stabbed.

Go to booking.com, put in Oxford Circus or whatever and sort into what costs around £150 a night

Thanks knobrob. I'll try to avoid those activities

Honestly just play around with Google maps and have a look at journey times etc from different hotels. You're not going to find somewhere luxury for your budget so just choose somewhere basic but clean and central. Booking.com sort by map, too. Once you know what station you're coming in to and where you're staying maybe we can help with specific recommendations?

Don't be tempted to stay on the outskirts for somewhere nicer. You won't be in your room much and you don't want to be sat on a hot tube for 40 / 60 minutes

Download City Mapper for when you're there, but also use it when you're planning to work out how to get from hotel to key places you want to visit.

I have narrowed it down to two choices:

train into kings cross, staying in Finsbury. They seem quite close - google says 15 mins on tube.

Same train, staying Haverstock hill Hampstead Heath - about 20 mins

Any thoughts?

Direct train from Glasgow will take you in to Euston. Unless you get the early LNER which is a waste of an hour. Just get the train direct and tube it to where you are going.

Finsbury Park is the opposite direction to the one you want to be going though.

we are going to london next week for the bob dylan concert at hyde park we are staying in cambden, near hyde and regents park, buckingham palace, oxford street, lots of museums near by, got our hotel from booking .com

sorry kensinton park not regents

Pre-book for the palace if you want to go. And bear in mind it’s not a wander round visit. You get access to an exhibition and part of the garden.

Do you mean Finsbury Park?

Look into AirBnB.

Use TFL website journey planner for how to get around. It gives you all transport options and accurate journey times

Also, Finsbury Park, Finsbury and Finsbury Pavement are all diffierent places

I always stay very near the station I am going to arrive into. That way, if you get there early, you can save your bags there and you can also leave them when you check out for the day, and just pick them up when you are heading back. And you don't need to then carry your bags in the tube.

Prebook the palace and the London eye (if you want to do that?). If you're not fussed about which show, you can head to txts in Leicester Square for 10am and choose - often discounted - tickets for something.

Just use your debit card on the tube.

This is fab advice. Thanks all

Don't look into AirBnB. Get an hotel, or a real B and B.