What area of London would you stay with pre teen children for a weekend?

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Which area would you say is best for seeing the main sights ? Somewhere that feels nice area. I don’t really know London well at all. We are arriving into King’s Cross station . Want to stay in a nice hotel nice area, we don’t want to search for somewhere super cheap. Although, not £1k per night or anything like that.

London eye holiday Inn /premier Inn not sure which it is

Almost at the bottom of the London eye can walk across the thames to get tubes to museums right by boat trips, aquarium, can walk up to Trafalgar etc

Walk along river going east for places to eat

There is a decent playground

South Kensington. It's got the museums which are great for pre-teens and close enough to the centre for everything else.

Thank you. So I am thinking south bank area? Or South Kensington? What about Notting Hill? My kids love cobbled streets and ye olde world/character too. Not sure if you get that in London?

We did the premier inn by London eye too, it is basically south bank if that's what you were interested in. Very convenient location. It's called premier inn county hall.
Near Waterloo station for underground connection.

We stayed at Novotel Vauxhall recently, near to south bank and Waterloo. Notting Hill is a bit far out from most attractions I think.

Premier inn county hall must be popular as its fully booked for the dates we want

Premier in Waterloo is handy. And the Euston King's Cross ones are good too and near most stuff.

South Kensington is good, but anywhere central you can get a room would work, just avoid the independent hotels in the Russell Square area, had a few bad experiences over the years, unless you are keen on 70's decor!

I would do South Bank over South Ken
There's another Premier Inn closer to Tower Bridge I think which is also central

Covent Garden/Bloomsbury is also central with more of a cobblestone/alley feel but agree with PP to avoid independent hotels unless they are highly rated

We stayed at the Tower Bridge Premier Inn last week and had a fab time, hotel location was excellent about 15 minutes walk to tube station.

Next time we go we're definitely staying here again

Meant to say it was the cheapest rate PI snd we were with DD 14

There's a Novotel at Blackfriars just south of the river which is the eastern end of the South Bank. It's also handy for things towards the east like Borough Market, The Golden Hinde, the Millennium Bridge, HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge which has a viewing platform and a museum.

We have stayed a few times at the Morton Hotel in Bloomsbury. Can highly recommend.

I second this. Plenty to do here, nice access to the other main stations and sights.

Not sure of prices now but we stayed at The Rembrandt which is across the road from the main museums & were very impressed. Worth hunting for deals as prices can vary quite a bit from company to company.

I would say somewhere round Waterloo, Victoria or South Kensington

You should find various Premier Inn/Travelodge - ie known brands - in all of them. Check reviews for others - most are fine, but some (usually the cheapest) attract student/backpacker types and can be noisy

Agree, South Bank. Park Plaza is good too, not super expensive and great views of the London eye etc if you get an upper floor room.

We stayed at the Rosewood on High Holborn. They have beautiful family rooms that sleep 4. We got the train in to Kings Cross too (or it might possibly have been Farringdon; same train line for us) and walked to the hotel. In fact we didn’t need to get on a tube the whole weekend - it’s a nice walk from the Rosewood to the British Museum and Covent Garden, and we took the dc to a children’s afternoon tea at the hotel on The Strand. Nice, safe part of London. But it all depends on which attractions you want to visit really.

We stayed at south bank with two
kids under 6. Really good location and a great playpark near the london eye.

Thanks lots of great suggestions I will look at them all

The Rosewood is indeed lovely but not exactly in the same price bracket as the Premier Inn!

venusclaptrap that sounds amazing. Off to google rosewood

No, it isn’t in the bracket of a Premier Inn, but the op said nice hotel nice area, not super cheap. And sometimes two rooms in an economy hotel can work out not far off the cost of one family room in a better hotel.

Yes rosewood looks lovely but does stretch budget ! As an aside, I notice most hotel rooms only seem to offer double rooms, not twin rooms. Family rooms are generally double plus sofa bed. Or some hotels do double double. Premier inn do double rooms with sofa bed. Even their twin rooms are actually a double bed and a sofa bed . We would really prefer proper beds for the kids. As we will have had quite a long journey to london so hoping they get a good night sleep between sightseeing . But it seems twin beds are hard to come by in London, even if you pay for a second room it’s likely just a double room again.

Yes the double bed thing is an eternal problem, not just in London. When it’s a sofa bed too it’s even worse because those are usually quite small. We’ve found that the dc will tolerate sharing a bed if it’s one of those massive hotel ones though, and if housekeeping can provide an extra duvet so they’re not fighting over the same one. That’s probably not going to stay the case as they enter their teens though!