London? Go in JANUARY!
How about something concrete this week, like the fact that London’s much cheaper now — see this email below from an enthusiastic Susan (our Travel Adviser) when I asked her about a lower cost London …
To answer your question of doing London lower cost: the main tip is: GO IN JANUARY!!!! Remember that pound is now 1.52 vs. 2.05 to the dollar, compared to a year ago. Lots of reduced hotel rates in London in January — always — but this year they’re even better.
Check out www.firmdale.com for great properties in good locations. Example for this year: their Knightsbridge Hotel had two deals — one was pay 2 nights/stay 3, the other was a better than last year winter’s rate, both with full breakfast (but not 15% VAT). A king bedded room will cost about $300-$350 per night, and you can stay for less if you can handle a queen bedded room (we can’t — Bruce is too tall!). Last year they had winter rates in January, but not as aggressive and the pound/dollar rate was worse.
Toptable.com — like Opentable.com but British – has some 50% off offers at decent restaurants we like. For example: Last year we paid about $120 for two people for dinner at 50% off, this year it will be about $80, I’m guessing due to the better exchange rate — and these are upscale places. But, the hotel deals disappear by the end of January and so do many of the restaurant deals. Actually, I think it will cost less this year than going to NY and staying in a hotel of same caliber as I haven’t noticed NY reducing hotel rates which have gotten quite high.
Also, airfare is usually low in January and we can get upgrades (although not as easy to come by this year as in the past, despite empty planes). The airlines – United at least — seem to be holding on to them until the last minute, and we can’t stand that kind of suspense as we don’t want to end up in coach for 10 hours.
So, we go in January (but rain is expected this year — past years we have been very lucky in terms of weather).
Susan
