AIBU to think I can get accommodation & parking in London for £500?

[piefacedClique]

We’re planning a family trip to London from 23rd-26th Feb – me, my husband, and our 10-year-old daughter. We want to visit:

• Natural History Museum
• London Zoo
• London Eye
• Sephora at Westfield

Ideally, we’d like to find accommodation with parking for £500 max, but am I being completely unrealistic? Would we be better off parking somewhere like Heathrow and getting the Elizabeth Line in to make it more affordable? Any recommendations for places to stay or general tips would be really appreciated! Thanks!

dont stay in Slough or near Heathrow, grim areas.

If you’re looking outside of London, why not try Windsor as just off the M4 and good for heading back and having meals there in the evenings? About 50 mins into London on either the Elizabeth Line via Slough or SWR to Waterloo. Holiday Inn is £100 a night.

There is a large DoubleTree hotel with parking on Ealing Common - 5 min walk to either Ealing Common station (Piccadilly/district lines) or Ealing Broadway station (Elizabeth/District/Central Line). Also quite a nice area - 15 min drive to Westfield too.

I would drive to Maidenhead and hop on the Elizabeth line there. I've done this from Wales. We parked on a driveway booked via "Your Parking Space" for a reasonable price, we had an easy ten minute walk to the train station and saved so much money.

if you're parking outside of London and travelling in, why near Heathrow which is likely to be one of the most expensive options?
as a PP has suggested, if you're far enough out, free on street parking is an option - or an NCP,,, or the park on my drive parking apps - but I don't get why you'd go for somewhere premium like Heathrow.

Also, in some areas, your train journey into London could be combined with a travelcard, and some London attractions offer 2 for 1 type deals if you've travelled by train.

You and your husband can use your debit cards on the tube, buses, trains in London. Just remember to use the same card. Your daughter may need one of these to get free travel https://tfl.gov.uk/fares/free-and-discounted-travel/5-10-zip-oyster-photocard#on-this-page-0

It can be pretty expensive getting the train in - I live in Woking, about 30-40 mins in on the train to Waterloo, and weekday return tickets for the three of them would be £45 per day. Could get it down to £35 daily if you have a family and friends railcard. But if you wanted to travel before 9.30am it would be more like £55 daily. So be careful about train costs going in daily! And with a 10 year old I reckon it would be nicer to stay centrally so you can go out and eat in the evening then be back at the hotel quickly rather than heading out on a 45 mins journey back to the hotel each night.

Why not try train to Paddington (book in advance and travel off peak , much cheaper) , and stay there ? There are a couple of hotels in the area, but easy to use the tube to get as and where needed. Paddington has trains toward Cardiff and the South West which may make things easier. This one here is a bit more than anticipated , but admittedly has its own kitchen and can recommend it for staying and a good base. Paddington is great to wonder and enjoy , white not being directly in the centre.

3 nights is pushing it unless you can find a premier inn on offer, may have to be further out. I do drive to London now and park at Q Park Hyde Park which is around £60 a night but great location and frankly the trains are so unreliable every time we have planned to go there's been a strike or whatever so this suits us better. We normally stay at Holiday inn Bloomsbury but that's c. £200 a night.
If you stay on the outskirts hopefully you can find something:

Factor travel costs to central London time and money if you stay outside
Look for zone 2 premier inn like archway etc

The travel lodge and premier inn in Richmond will probably be within budget. Neither is a lovely hotel but both are ok for somewhere to put your head down. Richmond is on the District line so good for NHM, and train to Waterloo is 20 minutes. It's also a pretty pleasant place to stay, and you can walk by the river if the weather is ok.

The hotels might have parking?

Any hotel in Ealing would work and only 15 mins into central on the Lizzie line. You’d have to cost travel in London but quite henestly I’d get the train and stay centrally.

Get a family railcard and your rail fare will be even cheaper.
I never drive to London (from Yorkshire).

We got an Airbnb near Clapham Common a while back that was £96 a night and paid daily rate to park at the Asda, which was £20 ish a day.

You’d be much better off parking outside London and train in to your hotel, leaving your car in any train station car park. Basically look at your route from Wales, find a station near London, look up parking facilities and cost of daily parking, choose one. Probably £20 ish a day, you can book multiple days at a time usually on whatever app the car park uses.

There are Premier Inns near Paddington Station or in Paddington basin for between £300 and £400 for three nights for a family room. My understanding is that trains from Wales come in at Paddington so that might be an easy option and you will be near the tube for commuting. Do not drive.

Definitely get the train

I would park somewhere and get the train in. Premier Inn for the hotel, there are some nice ones.

I think you'd get a room for that in the Imperial chain of hotels (v central). Some have parking too, but obviously extra £. Agree with others though that I'd try v hard to avoid driving if you possibly can.

You could get the train (there are discounts for booking 3 or more tickets together).

We've got international family staying with us at the moment (SW UK), and they have driven to Reading station, parked there, getting the Lizzie line and staying at a Premier Inn at Paddington. I just looked for your dates, and a family room at P'ton is GBP309 non-refundable. The Kensington P Inn suggested is also a good option.

We've also done the drive to Westfield in White City and parked there while staying in Shepherd's Bush.

I don't know if they have zipcar in Wales? Something that you could drive and leave. And the same back.

Stay at a travel lodge near a station and get the tube in. Angel/Islington/highbury area is nice for walkable bits and cafes plus good tubes into congestion areas.

parking will cost though

Go by train and stay somewhere slightly out of the centre on a tube line

If you do decide to go by train look into whether you could save money by getting a Family Railcard ...

If you have any Tesco club card vouchers you can buy a railcard with them.

They are presumably going to be using public transport to get around while they are in London, and so it won't be that much more expensive to have an extra journey each day from zone 5 or 6. But important to stay in zone 6 and not veer out into Herts or Surret etc as this means tfl prices won't cover it.

Get the train. If you can, buy a family rail discount card for cheaper rail fare coming up from Wales - you could probably use tesco clubcard vouchers to get that.

I would 100% get the train and stay near Paddington. I think it would be so much easier and probably cheaper once you factor in all the travel. I'd want to maximise my time in London to do fun things personally.