Hotels and visitor apartments in London

Looking for a centralized location to tour London. I'm searching for hotels / apartments in London and I have no clue about the different neighborhoods.

My family will be touring London for the first week in September. Typical tourist sights and a show.

Can anyone recommend a good area to tour with easy access to public transport?

Before anyone states the obvious. Yes I have used the search function. But the results are mostly things like moving to London or looking for "cheap or inexpensive hotels".

I'm not concerned with price just a convenient location.

Thanks.

Not concerned with price ? Claridges.

I lived for a few years near Paddington, and would suggest that for a good centralized spot with lots of budget type hotels. The immediate area around the station is nothing at all special, just loads of hotels, but it's got good transport connections, and is a short walk to the parks, Notting Hill, Marylebone High Street, Kensington. Try to be somewhere between the Paddington main station and Lancaster Gate tube.

Alternately, there are loads of hotels near Victoria Station as well, which is where we stayed the first time I visited London. That's close to the Palace, but I found the area deader at night, and not as convenient for walking anywhere.

The Visit London Official Site is a good place to start as it will provide detailed information for most of your initial questions.

I worked in London in the travel industry for 15 years before moving to Germany, so if you're after any specific recommendations/information just let me know.

Well I like Kensington as it's quite convenient, we stayed at the Holiday inn Kensington forum which is by the Gloucester rd tube, so you have the picadilly, circle and district lines, picadilly is the airport line so very easy if you fly to heathrow (unless someone flings themselves on the track!) and district line is good for Twickenham. I used travelocity and booked a mystery hotel, cost around £120 a night, nice enough hotel but as with most London hotels, the rooms are small. Have a look here & figure what you want to visit & then use the interactive map to look for a hotel.

http://www.visitlondon.com/

Yep - Bayswater, Kensington and Knightsbridge are all good - or take Le Meridien on Piccadilly for one of the most central hotels in London - not terribly cheap, and not really as good as it should be for the money (when I last stayed there), but very very central. Also there are one or two hotels on Jermyn Street that are worth a look - names escape me but Google will pick 'em out.

jermyn st, why is that name so familiar??

Runs parallel with Piccadilly - lots of shirt makers/tailors on it, and also, I think, a club where that Russian KGB spy bloke spent some time just after he'd been poisoned with Polonium (Litvinenko or similar - excuse the spelling, no time to google).

I trip to London quite a lot, and have some favorite Hotels. If price is not that much of an issue, a very nice hotel is called the Bailey's Hotel on Gloucester Road, and I normally try and stay there. Its not one of the standard hotels you find, its full of character and the best thing is that their rooms are big, which is a luxury in London Hotels. Its not super-expensive either for a london hotel, prices probably around £120 for the room per night.

Location-wise, its straight outside Gloucester Road tube station which is on the Picadilly, Circle and District Tube lines. Getting a day-ticket allows you to do quite a lot from here. The tube location makes it very accessible to all the key locations like Leiceter Square (chinatown), Covent Garden (small markets and cafes), Knightsbridge (Harrods), Holborn/Oxford Circus/Bond Street (Shopping), Tottenham Court Road (Electronics Shopping), Picadilly Circus (Trocadero, Theatres), Embankment (Southbank theatre, London Eye, Big Ben, Houses of Parliament), Tower Hill (London Tower). Going east on the Distict line, you will find Hammersmith which is good for Real Ale pubs, and going North on District/Circle you will find Bayswater (good shopping mall, and close and top of Hyde Park).
Another good thing is that in the evening, you will probably end up near Leicester Square/Covent Garden area as its buzzing till 4am, and this is a direct trip on the Picadilly line back to the hotel.

Another tip, if you are on a budget for the hotels then other options I use are the Travel Inns and Travel Lodges. Relatively cheap (£70 or so), price is for the room, but the quality is consistent (another thing you will find which varies greatly in London hotels).

Hope this helps!

Billy

Ah yep, some British agent or something in a book I read got his shirts made there, is it also near the court of St James, isn't that where the American Ambassador lives or sommat??

The Ambassador lives on the edge of Regents Park in Winfield House. Jermyn St is closer to St. James's Park

James Bond has his shirts made on Jermyn St, as do I, and any other gentleman of substance

Thanks for the prompt responses.

If you'd like cheap *and* central, why not look at the newest YHA: London Central in Bolsover Street W1.
More info.