London... never been before!

[doozeldog]

So I live a sheltered life, DH and I have never been to London and we have decided we want to go in April half term with our DS. We will be being the train down and it will arrive at London Euston. Thing is, we haven't got a clue Where about to stay that is central to the touristy bits! ( we don't know the area at all or how far away it all is) Just wondering if anyone could offer any travel tips or advice on best area to stay close to everything and also he says that you have To get a Oyster card, is that right?

Depends how much you want to spend but I’d try and get a hotel somewhere round Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus (you’d be walking distance to Buckingham palace, green park, Covent Garden, Oxford st) or somewhere in west London in Kensington or Chelsea (you’d be near the V&A and natural history museum, Holland Park plus high st ken has loads of good shops) or somewhere down on southbank (you’d have the aquarium, the Tate modern, lots of good places to eat and you could easily walk over the bridge to the Covent Garden area in about 20 mins).

You don’t need an Oyster card anymore - you can use contactless cards to pay for travel now.

A tip would be everything is much closer together than you think - if you’re happy to do a bit of walking you can bypass the tube a lot!

"You don’t need an Oyster card anymore - you can use contactless cards to pay for travel now."

You need one contactless card per person, and depending on how old your son is he either travels free or will need an Oyster card.

DD and I stayed near the natural history museum in South Kensington last time we were in London. It was very handy for Gloucester Road underground station, and there were loads of places to eat.

There's a Premier Inn in Covent Garden that I've heard recommended before for being well located and fairly affordable.

If you have enough contactless cards between you I'd just use them instead for ease, and try getting the bus rather than tube because you can see loads of sights really cheap! The 159 will take you from marble arch down Oxford St, past Trafalgar square and then on to Parliament. The 133 goes over London bridge and past the Shard etc.

There's loads of hotels near Euston/Kings Cross if you wanted to stay close to there and both are very easy to get to from central. If you prefer walking and you can afford it then I'd look at staying close to the museums or maybe around Holborn area where you can walk to Covent Garden and Oxford St.

I took my 11 year old to London two years ago. I’ve been quite a few times but not in years and she hadn’t been before. We stayed at the Premier Inn in Covent Garden that BendingSpoons mentioned. It worked out really well for us. It was handy enough for the tube station, shops, restaurants, the tube was her favourite bit , although we also walked a lot. We had an absolutely brilliant time, we just mooched about, saw some things she wanted to, she took loads of photos. Our hotel was cheap but we went midweek in term time.

I think a good budget option for central London is Hotel 82 on Gloucester Place.
It’s a 5 min slow walk to Oxford Street, a 30 second walk to Baker Street. Near the tube (Baker Street) and lots of Sherlock Holmes stuff. Also a 5 min walk to Regents Park and near to London Zoo. Also easily walkable to The British Library and also Kings Cross if Harry Potter fans.
Most of the decent central London stuff is a short walk or max 4 tube stops from there. Plus lots of decent places to eat that don’t get too packed out.