Cotswold Eagle

I’d also urge you to have a hard think about what you are seeking to achieve by staying in London for one night. As I understand it, you are flying overnight, so by the time you get into town from Heathrow (that’s a transfer that will take an hour or so, and you’ll have immigration and baggage collection to clear first) it’s likely to be late morning. You’ll need an early check-in to your hotel in if you want to freshen up, of course. That only gives you a few hours to “tour London” (whatever that means), whilst dealing with travel fatigue and several time zones worth of jet lag.

Hi, Mark. There is a collective groan on this board when the word ‘reasonable’ is used, particularly when followed by US dollar amounts that appear to have been plucked out of the air! You’ll have got the message - stop chasing unicorns and deal with the realities of the post-pandemic London market 😀 Your most pressing need is a hotel room on a Saturday night (some hotels may have minimum 2 nights at weekends for their best rates) in high season in one of the most expensive cities on the planet. The Premier Inn chain was mentioned on your post on a different board. They are a large chain, with a very consistent product. No frills, but often with a bar and restaurant attached. Some people still think of them as ‘budget’ - I regard them as very price sensitive, with dynamic rates that reflect demand, and even if I’m not intending to stay in one (although I frequently do for a one night stay) I always check their rates, as it helps me to set expectations. Thier cheapest pre-pay rates are fully refundable up to 28:days prior, so I also think about locking in a rate and then looking for other deals with the pressure off! (Using a foreign card, you will lose a little on fees and exchange, but it may be a price worth paying for flexibility). One of their properties frequently mentioned here, London Waterloo (Westminster Bridge), is available on that basis now for £232 (around $296) on 22 June. Many people would balk at that - a few years ago it would be a ludicrous amount for a Premier Inn room - but to me it indicates that your $300 target is very challenging for anything higher end.

Not odd, really - Portland was an American embarkation point for the assault on Omaha Beach. Dorset was one big marshalling area for American forces. The museum is Castletown D-Day Centre.

It's not clear what tour you are referring to. Is this a shore excursion? As mentioned above, quite easy to do it yourself - frequent trains from Rotterdam to Leiden, and the combination transport from there and entrance ticket for Keukenhof available on their own website. https://tickets.keukenhof.nl/en-US/public-transport?journey=public-transport

I'd say by far the easiest will be train to Downham Market and pre-book taxi from there. Maybe the obvious place to think about picking up a hire car would be Stansted airport (train from London Liverpool Street), but that still leaves you at least 90 minutes driving to Oxburgh and back. Are you SURE you can't make this an overnight? Lots of good places to see up there in Norfolk!

Just a thought - have you tried using their app (if you have smartphone access) as an alternative to the website?

It should be very doable, probably about an hour each way. I would take either the X99 bus, the train from Dalmeny or a shuttle into Edinburgh centre and jump on the tram out to the Ocean Terminal at Leith. Alternatively, a taxi, of course. Please note the port is South Queensferry, not Queensbury.

I suspect that’s just the current limit on Eurostar (Red) bookings.

This will be true of coins, but Elizabeth II was the fist monarch to appear on Bank of England notes. (George V was on some notes issued by HM Treasury during the First World War, but they would have been long gone by the time the Bank issued their first notes with the Queen on in the 1960s).

Ah, yes. I just picked a random date, and all the offerings had short connections, which seems to be the Eurostar default, with no way to book the earlier service on one ticket.

This is the suggestion I made upthread. To be clear, your first Eurostar train is the service formerly called Thalys, the trains that run between Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands. They are now owned by Eurostar and have been rebranded as such. Colloquially, they are known as Eurostar Red because of the train livery. You second train is a “proper” Eurostar, so to speak - i.e. a direct train to the U.K. Unlike the former Thalys routes, these have immigration and security controls before boarding. The published suggested arrival time at Brussels Midi is 90-120 minutes before departure for most passengers, and the gates close at 30 minutes. So what Eurostar insist on calling a 45 minute ‘platform change’, is in fact a tight connection. That said, they continue to sell these tickets as the only options on their booking engines and I assume the single itinerary gives some protection in case of delay. I have done it at least once, and it is a bit of a scramble to get to the Eurostar check in at Brussels and there were a lot of stressed people in the queues, some not understanding that everyone is checking in for the same train or that the 30 minutes cutoff is at the check in gates, the first thing you pass through. Security and the immigration controls are after that.

If you have a few days, I'm not sure there is much value in doing something during the transfer - the distances are so short. Delft is well worth a visit, but is only 10 minutes by train from Rotterdam.

You could well spend two hours there, I think - depends if your interest lies in the War Rooms, Churchill or both, if you see what I mean! I would absolutely book for a visit in late August. This from the IWM FAQ should give you some comfort (as Globaliser says, it's a traffic calming measure, rather than a strict limit on entry): Do I need to arrive at my booked time? We ask, where possible, that you make a booking for the time you are expecting to arrive at one of our branches. This will guarantee you entry to the museum for that slot. At busy times you may need to queue before entry. If you are running late, we will attempt to get you in as soon as possible but you may still need to queue. Once you have arrived, you are welcome to stay in the museum as long as you wish, up to the advertised closing time.

You actually used a link to a downloaded copy on your computer, just for info. It also adds, "and when cruise liners call at Kirkwall ", but that's certainly the page to keep an eye on.

Compared to what? We are talking about one of the most expensive cities in the world at the height of the tourist season, and I think folk are still adjusting to a post-pandemic reality of higher prices. But as mentioned by Globaliser above, that area may have less weekend demand. I picked a random Friday night in August and saw rates (for example at the Indigo) with free cancellation around £250. I’d reserve something at that sort of price and hope rates might fall between now and then - keep checking and cancel and swap. If you get below £200, great. Around £150 would be an absolute steal 😀 The Four Seasons will be insanely priced come what may, though 🤣🤣 The night I picked it was close to £1,000.

I don’t think that is quite right. They left about 10% of the collection in the first few bays, as you say, but as far as I know there is no intention to bring back the rest before the whole library closes at the end of 2025 for redevelopment, including installation of environmental and fire protection systems.

Visiting the Book of Kells and the Old Library is by timed entry, bookable in advance online. The vast majority of books have been removed from the Old Library as part of a massive conservation and redevelopment project. It is still a fabulous space, but a great library without its books must be a strange sight.

Worth a visit, but not what it once was in my opinion. If I was staying in Bedford Street, I’d check out the Coal Hole in the Savoy buildings or the Nell Gwynne (up a little alley between the Adelphi and Vaudeville theatres on the Strand) as my locals 😀

I fear whenever Simpson’s reopens, it will not be the same, not least because they flogged off the fixtures and fittings in a two-day sale a few months ago (despite it being refurbished only three years before it closed in 2020). The writing was on the wall for me when it stopped doing what was one of the great London breakfasts when it reopened in 2017. I never went back 😂 No doubt they will give the space to some executive chef, but Ramsey has apparently said it’s not going to be him.

Good point - and moderately possible by public transport (train via a change at East Croydon and a mile or so walk from Hever station) 😀 https://www.hevercastle.co.uk

Ah, yes, there was/is a consultation from Southern on that...but, "Passengers between Southampton and Gatwick Airport would have a short, convenient, same-platform connection at Barnham."

I think general advice would be to go with the flight that suits you best. Not much difference between the two for Southampton. Public transport option are National Express coach from Heathrow, train from Gatwick. There is a ’sticky’ at the top of this board for this topic. The new thread doesn’t have much information yet (and got derailed at an early stage!), but there is a link to the older, and long, version which will contain more detailed advice. You can set a departure time on Google maps, so no need to try and search in the middle of your night 😀

I don’t wish to alarm you, but you do understand this is a pub/hostel, not a hotel? I would say it’s in Southwark, rather than London Bridge. It’s certainly not AT London Bridge, it’s about a 10 minute walk away.

Some lovely gardens near Gatwick, such as Nymans which is 15 minutes drive, but difficult by public transport. If you are set on staying at the airport, one option would be to jump on a train down to Brighton (direct, less than 40 minutes) and visit the Royal Pavilion and Garden, which is walking distance from the station. And have fish and chips on the pier 😀 Kew is a bit longer by train (an hour or so) and you'd need to change at Clapham Junction for Kew Bridge station.

There are no Eurostar services from Rotterdam either during the period of suspension.