h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My husband and I have the opportunity to fly to London for free but we have to stay in one of two recommended hotels. I was wondering if those of you who live there or have visited there could tell me about either of them. They are: Kensington Park Hotel and Regents Plaza. Are they nice hotels or scary? In good locations, etc. etc. I would really appreciate all input. Also things that to not be missed as it would be my first trip to England...... We could also use the tickets to go to Hawaii, which do you think we should do?

In other news, there is no other news. Oliver's mom is already asking about grandkids, and we have only been married for a month!!!!!!!!! Give me a break. I have enough trouble being responsible for a cat! Can you imagine? It's not like we can do what we would do for the cat if we were going away. Which is either leave extra food and water or get a cat sitter to come and feed him and play with him once a day. Somehow I think that could be construed as cruelty if it were a child.....call me crazy. Oh well, let her have her delusions. I will not let it get to me......

Hi SandwichMaker,

Don't know about the Kensington Park but I have some bad memories about the Regents Plaza. I stayed there last December while I was doing a one week course in Holborn.

It has a great location - just yards from Picadilly Circus but that was also the problem.
The glass on the hotel room windows were not double glazed and the street cleaners/refuse collectors have to wait until the area quietens down before they do the cleaning. So the end result is... at 3.30 AM *every* morning some bloody loud garbage truck arrives in the street beneath your window while bottles and junk are thrown into it. The whole process takes about half an hour but seems a whole lot longer. I am not a light sleeper, but this stopped me from sleeping on four consecutive nights.

There are rooms on the inside of the building (i.e. no window view but no noise problem) so they must be a better option. Also, my room didn't have ensuite facilities and when I wanted to use a shower room I had to ring downstairs to the reception and wait 20 minutes for a guy to 'open' the shower room for me. Get an enSuite if you go.
The hotel also has what it says is an 'Irish Theme' pub in the lobby. Don't bother - it's run by Australian backpackers and the Guinness is awful.

All that said, the room was clean and the service polite and the deal was reasonably cheap for its location. It's a minute walk to Picadilly Circus tube station and you can get most places quickly from there.

The food was OK but overpriced, but you can pay for the room only and eat out in Leicester Square etc. - anything you want to eat you can get it round there (from McDonalds to Vietnamese food) but prices vary wildly. I'd recommend the Wong Kei for an interesting Chinatown experience (this restaurant serves great food and it's inexpensive too, but has famously insulting waiters).

I wish I could recommend another hotel to you, but I have a lot of friends in London so I usually stay with them when I visit. Plus I lived there for four years so I try to avoid 'tourist traps' if I can.
I'd rather stay somewhere like Hampstead (a nice small and pretty villagey area a few miles out) and then travel in to the west end to go out. It may be worth looking at 'Guest Houses' / Hotels in that area if you don't *need* to be centrally located.

Hope this helps,
- TWF

Thanks TWF that helps greatly. We unfortunately have only those two choices at this time. The deal is our bank gave us vouchers for two free airline tickets to either Hawaii or London but we have to stay in one of their recommended hotels. Those were the only two offered in London. So maybe we will go to Hawaii with these tickets and head out to London another time in the near future on our own. I have never been overseas,the farthest I have traveled was my recent trip to St. Lucia, which while another environment, isn't quite the same as travelling to a larger, different country. I have heard wonderful things about London and England in general and have always wanted to visit. But I guess that will remain to be seen. Thanks again. It was very nice of you to let me know all that.....

Errm... Hawaii or London? / London or Hawaii?... let me see.
I have an answer. It is a heck of a lot warmer, you can go to the beach, the scenery is beautiful, fresh seafood...It begins with H.

Ooops something just clicked. I Suddenly feel very silly.
You were asking about the Regents PLAZA hotel but I got confused and was describing my stay at the Regents PALACE hotel.
RE the Regents PLAZA - I have no idea where it is or what it's like. It could be perfect, I don't know.
Please ignore all my previous rantings...
Sorry!

- TWF

Good to know before I went blaspheming the other hotel. I tend to agree on the Hawaii front but for different reasons such as a ticket to London from where we live (upstate NY) is not too expensive whereas a ticket to Hawaii can cost upwards of $1000, as we looked into last March. But it would be nice to see London. Although this whole thing makes me nervous. I am a control freak and not knowing what airline and not having a choice as it is all up to these Promotions people, is rather frightening, I mean what if the hotels are terrible or we actually get there and don't have a reservation or the flights are stand by etc.etc. It seems almost too good to be true. But again thanks for the help or at least trying to help.

Well good luck anyway!
If you do decide on London then let me know (just post here) and tell me the sort of places you want to go / things to do and I may be able to help out there. I'm in my probationary period in my new job and can't take a proper holiday until at least March so I'm keeping my envy in check

-TWF