Suggestions for London and Dublin Ireland

cmcole4509

My fiance and I are planning on going to Europe for our honeymoon. We figured we can go to the beach really any time, and he wants to go out of the country at least once in his life. I myself have been to four countries over a total course of about 3 1/2 weeks. We are planning on going to London, England and Dublin and Galway in Ireland. I have been to Galway with my parents before and I have been to London during a study abroad trip through my university, and I would love to go back to both places. So, we decided to go there as well as Dublin. 

Here is my question - does anyone have any suggestions for places to stay in London or Dublin? (I have an idea about Galway but suggestions for there are welcome as well). We do not want something super expensive since we will pretty much only be sleeping there since we will be spending most of our time traveling, but we do not want something that seems to be falling down around us. 

Also, if anyone knows of any kind of travel agents that may be beneficial to look into I would welcome suggestions for them as well

dazyabbey

For our honeymoon we went to London and Paris and we booked it online through a travel company called EuropeanDestinations.com and that was the hotels, flights and EuroStar. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Hammersmith because it had breakfast. We liked the location because it was a quick underground ride to the main attractions. And the Hammersmith area was really awesome. We loved it. :-)

[Deleted User]

When are you planning to book this?  We're going to London next month.  Staying at the Rathbone in London and at the Tracy Park Countryclub something near Bath for a few days.  If you're not booking this before then, I can remember to write you after we get back.

cmcole4509

That would be awesome LMc0322. We are not going until next April. Our wedding is April 5th so it will be sometime later that month. I did a little research and it seems to be the general consensus that they recommend you not book flights more than 60 days in advance for international travel. My dad who has traveled all around the world for both business and for fun said he tends to agree with this statement. So I will not be booking anything for quite a few more months, but I am just trying to brainstorm ideas so that when the time gets closer I have somewhere to start my search, if that makes sense?

krispi921

I stayed at Milennium Baileys in London when I went, and I loved it. It's an older building with a lot of history and charm. That made it seem even more romantic to me. It was walking distance to Hyde Park and right across the street from a Tube station.

[Deleted User]

Makes perfect sense, I am the same way! I'll let you know about our hotels when we're back-- the Rathbone in London was very reasonably priced compared to some others but isn't a giant chain. I'm excited to see it!

Jells2dot0

We stayed at Le Meridien Piccadilly in London.We LOVED the location. I'm not sure of your budget, but I'd look into it. We also bought the Rick Steves guidebook.  

laradoll

CMGr said:

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Do remember that most of northern Europe isn't air-conditioned.  This can be a problem in the summer.  When are you going?

ha air con - you need a cardi and an umbrella not air con

Dublin can get expensive

If you like history - churchill's war offices are great (they are underground) in London

If you get out of London then Windsor castle is nice. Bath is beautiful (and Wales is full of castles and would be a 3rd country :P - Cardiff is 2hrs from london and many do it in a day) You can do Canterbury cathedral in a day from london (just over and hour by train) and is lovely.

 

beharrington

Got back from our two week London/Scotland honeymoon about two weeks ago. My answer would depend on how long you're staying at each place. In London, we stayed 5 nights (did a few day trips). So, we booked a flat through a hostel website.. Worked out great. Private room and bathroom with a small kitchenette. That way we could buy groceries and save money on breakfast. We even did some days where we packed sandwiches for lunch and brought them with us.

In Scotland, we were driving from town to town every night so we would just find a B&B in each town as we headed to it (used booking.com quite a bit). That way we didn't have any days where we couldn't stay longer somewhere if we wanted to.

beharrington

Also highly recommend the Stonehenge/Bath day trip with Evan Evans tour group. We had a fantastic time on that day trip out of London.

beharrington

Last note: we booked our airfare in November for the April trip. Flights were British Airways but we used Orbitz so if the price had gone down (which it didn't - it actually went up since tourist season begins mid-April in the UK), we'd have gotten reimbursed for the difference.

ETA: pay the extra fee to book your seats in advance. It's free if you do it 24 hours before the flight but it's your honeymoon. Don't risk not sitting together. Our flight there was fully booked. Several families were split up since they didn't pay the fees to book seats in advance.

cmcole4509

Thank you all so much for all of your ideas! I definitely appreciate all of it! We know it will be somewhat expensive but we figured 1. It's our honeymoon so we deserve to splurge a little on ourselves, and 2. This will probably be the only time that we have to take a big international trip like this for a while. I will definitely be looking into everything you all have said!

dazyabbey

You should check out the forums on Trip Advisor as well. They helped me out tremendously.

We found out that London/UK has a Two for One type deal if you travel by the underground. So many of the things we were already going to we ended up getting one of our admissions for free. :-)
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

 

We booked a tour to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath through Premium Tours and it was great. Very quick paced but well worth it. Good luck!

GraphicDesigningBride

If you're going to Dublin I can recommend the Ashling hotel. It's a great hotel with great food there's a direct busline from the airport and you can reach the rest of the city easily and in no time thanks to the LUAS-line.

sdg2502

I can't recommend any accommodation because we were lucky enough to have my fiancées wee sister staying in London for a few years so we just crashed at hers.
What I will say is that almost any area is alright if it's got a tube station nearby, the London Underground is superb for travelling and very easy to understand. Staying inside zone one and two is best (the zones start with one in the centre and increase the further away from the centre you go.)
For sightseeing, London has some wonderful museums. Churchills war rooms as someone else mentioned and which appeared in an episode of doctor who.
The imperial war museum, the science museum, Victoria and Albert museum, natural history museum, all superb. And, I think, all free. Certainly the last three I mentioned are.
For nightlife, Camden is a brilliant area, it's the area where Amy Winehouse came from and has lots of cool and funky wee shops at Camden market and then bars that have good live music, plus a great cocktail bar that does 2 for 1 happy hour
The last time we went to London, we'd arranged it months in advance then the royal wedding was announced for the weekend we were going. It worked out brilliantly for us because there were street parties all over London so we ended up sitting outside in Soho (in April, and it was lovely weather) drinking cider and dancing with drag queens dressed in Union Jack flags wearing stilts. Amazing stuff.

hz80408

Are you set on Galway?  We went to Ireland for a week in the fall (http://justcallmehaha.blogspot.com/2012/10/ireland-day-1.html) and it seems silly to spend your time in

cmcole4509

I would like to go back there for even just a day or so. It was a nice little town, plus there were a couple of really fun bus tours that my parents and I took when we went a few years ago that I would like to take him on. I don't plan on spending a ton of time there, but I would like to spend a little.