Where To Stay On A Budget For The 2012 London Olympics

by Jessica Festa on

From July 27 to August 12, London will host the 2012 Olympic Games. During this time, sporting events will be held all over the city, like at Olympic Park in east London, Regent’s Park in central London and Greenwich Park in south east London. To help you enjoy the Olympic Games on a budget, here are 10 affordable accommodations.

Hotels

Falcon Hotel

Located in central London, Falcon Hotel is a bed and breakfast hotel that provides clean rooms and personalized service. Rooms are all fully equipped with comfortable mattresses, large plasma screen TVs, tea and coffee making facilities and free Wi-Fi. Attractions like Hyde Park, Madame Tussauds, Marble Arch and the lively Oxford Street are nearby. Furthermore, the accommodation is conveniently located within a few minutes walking to Paddington Station, making it easy to get to and from the different event venues of the Olympics.

Rates start at $130 per night. Click here to book.Jury’s Inn Croydon

Twenty minutes away from central London by train, Jury’s Inn Croydon is a comfortable accommodation in south London, located near excellent shopping, beautiful parks, historical sites and fun nightlife. Some nearby attractions include the Tate Museum, Wimbledon Stadium and Lloyd Park. All rooms are air-conditioned with spacious bathrooms, high-speed Internet and wheelchair access. And for $31, you can get upgraded to a Superior Room.

Rates start at $144 per night. Click here to book.

Paramount Hotel London

Located in Kensington, Paramount Hotel London features 30 well-equipped rooms in a renovated Victorian building. Upon arrival, guests receive a welcome tray, which includes coffee, tea, milk, mineral water and biscuits. The accommodation is a short walk from many sites, like Kensington Palace, the Natural History Museum, Hyde Park, Harrods and The Science Museum. To easily get around the city and get to all the events of the Olympics, Earls Court Tube Station is only five minutes away by foot. When spending time in the hotel, guests can enjoy the onsite garden, free Wi-Fi and cable and satellite television. Moreover, to help with budgeting, there is a communal kitchen so guests can make their own meals.

Rates start at $151.54 per night. Click here to book.

London Visitors Hotel

Located in central London in the trendy area of Kensington and Chelsea, the London Visitors Hotel is a beautiful Victorian accommodation featuring 28 comfortable rooms. Guests of the hotel are in close proximity to the excellent restaurants and shopping of High Street Kensington, the picturesque Holland Park, the nightlife of Shepard’s Bush and the tube station, to help travelers easily get to different areas of the city. And best of all, a complimentary continental breakfast is included in the stay.

Rates start at $119. Click here to book.

Warwick Lodge

The Warwick Lodge is a family-run guesthouse featuring comfortable rooms, flat screen televisions and coffee and tea making facilities. Likewise, the proximity to the city center makes it very convenient for exploring London. As it’s a B&B, they offer a delicious breakfast of cereals, eggs, sausage, bacon, beans, toast and juices. The staff here is extremely friendly, and will go out of their way to make your stay pleasant.

Rates start at $125.30. Click here to book.

Cedars House Hotel

For those looking for a charming and friendly accommodation, Cedars House Hotel is a great option. Less than a mile from Croydon Station and a two-minute walk to the bus stop, you’ll be able to get to central London in 15 minutes. Furthermore, complimentary offerings like Wi-Fi, free child stays, tea, coffee and breakfast make this a great accommodation for travelers on a budget.

Rates start at $127 per night. Click here to book.

London Guest House

London Guest House is a reasonably priced bed and breakfast in west London. It is easy to get to the city center, as there’s a bus stop right next to the property with buses to the tube station running every six to eight minutes. Alternatively, you can walk to the station, which takes about 15 minutes. The staff is friendly and accommodating, and rooms are clean and feature comfortable beds. Moreover, there is a delicious breakfast set out each morning of muffins, toast, coffee, juices, cheeses, tea, jam and fruit, all served in a brightly-colored breakfast room.

Rates start at $136 per night. Click here to book.

Hostels

New Cross Inn Hostel

The New Cross Inn Hostel is a cheap, friendly and fun hostel located in south east London. Guests will receive free perks like breakfast, Wi-Fi, hot beverages, linens, towels, luggage storage and ear plugs. Moreover, a common room with Sky TV, mini-library, plush sofas, two kitchens and in-room refrigerators make this a very comfortable hostel. Their largest room is an eight-bedroom dorm, but for more privacy you can opt for a four-person room.

Rates start at $50.96 per person, per night for an eight-bedroom mixed dorm. Click here to book.

St. Christopher’s Inn

Personally, this is one of my favorite hostel chains for traveling in Europe. In London, I stayed at the London Bridge – the Village location, although St. Christopher’s Inn has various properties around the city. The Village was named “best hostels in London,” and is centrally located on the energetic Borough High Street. This is great for when you’re not watching the Olympics and want to explore the other things London has to offer. The hostel is within walking distance to the Borough Market, the Tate Modern, the London Eye and the Thames River. While this location tends to be a bit of a party hostel, you can find a quieter reprieve at St. Christopher’s Inn on the same street. The biggest room is a 14-bed dorm, and private rooms are also available.

Rates start at $78 per person, per night for all dorms. Click here to book.

The Walrus Waterloo

The Walrus Waterloo is a centrally located hostel near Big Ben, the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament and Waterloo Station, making it convenient to get to and from the Olympic Games. Guests will enjoy free perks like Wi-Fi, linens, a free city tour and an expansive breakfast. For those who want to socialize, there’s an onsite bar with discounted drinks and a lively atmosphere. Moreover, this is one of the best hostels for customer service, and staff can provide great tips and itineraries for exploring London. Depending on what you like, the property offers a range of rooms, from 16-bed dorms with en suite showers to private rooms.

Rates start at $51.72 per person, per night for 16-bed dorm. Click here to book.

Southend Airport: London’s Sixth Airport

by Alex Robertson Textor on

In April, easyJet began flying in and out of Southend Airport, located to the east of London in Essex. With the arrival of easyJet, London regained a long-dormant airport. (In the 1960s, Southend was London’s third biggest airport.) In its new incarnation, Southend becomes London’s sixth airport. The new kid on the block joins Heathrow, Gatwick, the low-cost hubs of Stansted and Luton, and London City, the most central and most user-friendly of them all.

Until easyJet introduced flights in April, Southend Airport was barely tapped. It was purchased in 2008 by Stobart Group, a logistics company, who obtained approval for lengthening the runway and then constructed a new control tower, which opened in March 2011. Shortly thereafter, Aer Arann, which has since been folded into Aer Lingus Regional, began flying a limited timetable in and out of Southend.

Another key development in the second coming of Southend Airport was the construction of a train station just outside the airport in July 2011, which made it easier for Londoners to reach the airport quickly. The icing on the cake was the inauguration of a new Southend terminal in April 2012.

The terminal is shiny and attractive – a glassy structure that still smells new. There are cafes on both sides of security machines, free Wi-Fi Internet access and a nice “business lounge” with a range of children’s interactive games on wall-mounted screens. I passed through security on Monday in two minutes. In short, flying out of Southend was a notably pleasant experience.

I have but two concerns for the future. First, Southend Airport is inadequately served by public transportation from London. The earliest weekday train from London’s Liverpool Street Station arrives at 6:32 a.m., which is too late for anyone coming from London to catch flights before 8:30 a.m., assuming that the airport’s two-hour check-in request is honored. (I can’t imagine how security would take more than a few minutes even in heavy traffic; nonetheless, the airport suggests very strongly that passengers arrive a full two hours before their flights depart.)

This needs to be sorted out. An earlier train service should be scheduled or easyJet could fill the gap with the operation of an early easyBus link from central London. (Taxis are most definitely not an affordable option. Traveller, easyJet’s inflight magazine, estimates a fare of £130 [$202] for travel by taxi between the airport and central London.)

My second and bigger concern is passenger volume. There are some airports out there that manage to do a very good job with enormous passenger volume, sure, but these airports are the exception. Most high-traffic airports are unpleasant places. Southend plans to build a terminal extension and has a stated goal of bringing in two million passengers a year.

Can this tiny, tidy, pleasant airport serve two million passengers a year, even with its planned expansion? Maybe, but it surely will run the risk of forsaking its tidy and pleasant nature in the process.

Hotel News We Noted: June 1, 2012

by McLean Robbins on

It’s finally Friday (short weeks always feel the longest, don’t they?) and this week’s edition of “Hotel News” is unusually full! This week, we discuss a number of hotel acquisitions, openings, and planned openings – it was a busy week in the hotel world. If you have tips or news, please email us for consideration.

Hotel Ownership: Gaylord Sells to Marriott
Gaylord Entertainment has sold the rights to manage its four massive hotels to Marriott for a whopping $210 million, as well as its plan to convert to a real estate investment trust. Gaylord hotels are currently in four cities – Nashville, Tennessee, Kissimmee, Florida, Grapevine, Texas, and National Harbor, Maryland, just outside of DC. What does that mean for Marriott? Good news for its meetings portfolio – the four hotels are known for their massive amounts of conference space. Marriott beat out three other hotel management groups for the title, although the hotels will still operate under the Gaylord name. Executives are hopeful for future development, but a planned project in the Denver area has been put on hold indefinitely. For the full story, visit Hotels Magazine.

Coming Soon: Bulgari London
Opening just in time for the London Olympics will be the third hotel in the Bulgari portfolio, Bulgari London. The 85-room hotel will be the first new luxury hotel build in four decades in the city of London. Two other properties (operated under the Marriott name) are currently open in Bali and Milan.

Hotel Openings: Ritz-Carlton Montreal and Japan
The Ritz-Carlton announced two hotel openings this past week on opposite ends of the globe. Its historic Montreal property (shown above) re-opened after a nearly four-year, $200 million renovation. The property was North America’s first-ever Ritz-Carlton and originally opened in 1921. In the Far East, the Ritz-Carlton, Okinawa opened its doors as well, making it the first luxury property on the Japanese island.

Hotels on TV: Rosewood Tucker’s Point
Never mind that strange Hotel Catalina, the luxe Rosewood Tucker’s Point in Bermuda is playing host to a reality series of its own this week. The June 4 episode will feature the cast of “The Bachelorette.” The Point, the hotel’s fine dining restaurant, will be the backdrop for a one-on-one date, and the private beach club and its famed pink sand as the group date location. We wonder if the bachelors or bachelorette got to use the spa’s crazy $100,000 shower?

Private Parties: Soho House Gets Five New Locations
Private members club Soho House has announced additional expansion with new openings confirmed for Toronto, Mumbai, Chicago, Istanbul and Barcelona, all of which will open by the end of 2014. The private members club was founded in London in 1995 and has long been an exclusive retreat for the film, media and creative elite.

Mobile Phone Use While Flying: Not All That Popular Says Survey

by Chris Owen on

Just when those who would like to use their mobile phone in the air get a break, a new survey says most travelers would prefer that they keep it turned off.

Not long ago, Virgin Atlantic announced it would allow mobile phone calls during flights on its London to New York route. Calls made will cost £1 a minute and a text will be 20 pence, much more than on the ground but worth it to those who need uninterrupted communications ability.

But a new survey from flight comparison site Skyscanner has revealed 86 percent of those surveyed said it would be “annoying to listen to other people’s conversations” reports Caribbean News Digital.

“In a world where we are now almost always ‘on call,’ it seems people don’t want to say good-bye to their last sanctuary of non-connectivity,” says Sam Baldwin, Skyscanner Travel Editor. “Flying allows us to switch off for a few hours, both from our own calls, and other people’s.”

Even those who like the idea of using their mobile phone in the air are not all that excited about it. Only 1 percent of respondents said they would actually pay more to fly with an airline that offered mobile call ability – surely not enough to get airlines in the mood to offer it.
The Skyscanner survey also revealed 48 percent said they would send texts, 35 percent said they would surf the web, 10 percent would send email, but only 6 percent would actually make and take calls.



[Flickr photo by Tim Psych]

Ancient Curses Uncovered In Two Countries

by Sean McLachlan on


It’s been a good week for ancient curses.

A “cursing stone” has been discovered on the Isle of Canna, Scotland. More precisely called a bullaun stone, they’re natural or artificial depressions in a stone that catch rainwater and give it magical properties, usually to heal or to help women conceive a child. A shaped stone is placed in the hole that’s turned to make a prayer or curse.

The bullaun stone on the Isle of Canna is at the base of an early Christian cross dating to about 800 A.D. Now a round stone carved with a cross has been found that fits exactly into this depression. While bullaun stones are found in several European countries, it’s uncommon for both the stone and the base to be preserved.

Over in Italy, two ancient curses have been translated. A Spanish researcher working at the Archaeological Museum of Bologna has revealed the text of two curses inscribed on lead tablets in Roman times. Called a defixio, such curses were common in Greek and Roman times and often came mass produced with only the name of the target needing to be filled in. The ones in Bologna target an animal doctor and a senator, making it the first such curse found against a Roman senator.

One reads in part, “Crush, kill Fistus the senator. . .May Fistus dilute, languish, sink and may all his limbs dissolve …” The one against the animal doctor is no less nasty: “Destroy, crush, kill, strangle Porcello and wife Maurilla. Their soul, heart, buttocks, liver. . .”

Many museums have examples of these ancient nastygrams. One at the British Museum was found in London and curses a woman’s memory. Since it’s the only record of her to survive, it appears the curse worked.

Curses can be found all over the place. In Carlisle I came across a cursing stone made in 1525 by the Archbishop of Glasgow against the Border Reivers, Scottish raiders who stole English livestock. There’s a photo of it above. You can read the text of the curse in my article about Carlisle.