Emailed on Thu, 05 Mar 1998 10:06:31 GMT
Since several of you gave me such helpful suggestions for our trip to England, I thought I would give you the follow up.
One lesson we have learned is that it is very hard to get a single room for a family of five. Hotel rooms in England are small and many hotels insist that you take two rooms which significantly raises the costs. You have to ask specifically if the hotel has "family rooms" which accommodate larger families. Interestingly, some hotels do not advertise their family rooms so you do have to ask. (On our last trip, we stayed in a fabulous family room at the Royal York Hotel - newly renovated and very spacious - and I have noticed that they do not advertise their family rooms in their current ads).
Our first stop is Chester, and we will use that as our base for a train trip across North Wales and a visit to Conway Castle. Our second stop is St. Albans (north suburban London - we have friends there). Third stop is Stratford-on-Avon, which will be a base for a trip to Warwick Castle. And last (but certainly not least!) is London. We are staying at a B&B hotel near Marble Arch.
While in London, we will try to get to the National Maritime Museum, the War Rooms, the Transport Museum (a re-visit -- the kids LOVE it) and the Science Museum -- and whatever else strikes our fancy. We are also under some pressure (!!) to go to Lego Land (Windsor). We haven't figured out yet where we will fit that in.
Britrail has finally woken up to the fact that tourists are traveling with children. On Britrail passes, young children travel free, and older children travel free with paying adults. So we only have to buy 2 rail passes for the 5 of us. This was not the case 2 years ago.
It's a brave new world booking hotels in the age of the World Wide Web. Many hotels now have email and web sites (with photos) so you can let your fingers do the walking before you book. Just for fun, check out the web site at www.eurohotel.co.uk - and check out the photo of the housekeeper cleaning the toilet. My husband and I have decided that this is Fawlty Towers come to the city. PS - we are not staying there - didn't have the courage.