<p>Last summer my oldest spend a week in NYC at a youth hostel – and you guys were fantastic with your information! The suggestions of places to see, things to do and info on hostels and transportation were right on target.</p>
<p>This summer he is heading to Cambridge for 4 weeks to study religion and ethics and he will be staying in London for three nights at a hostel before the program starts.</p>
<p>He has never been to London before (neither have I) and we don’t know what hostel would be in a safe and convenient location. He is flying into Heathrow and will be using public transportation.</p>
<p>This is England not the USA, London is a very safe city with little crime. The biggest problem is pick-pockets. As long as you stay in the central (kensington/Knightsbridge) area you should be fine. Avoid some of the outskirts which can be troublesome.</p>
<p>thanks – that is good to know! So if we look for any hostel that says it is a central location we should be ok? It is hard to know what the “outskirts” are since we aren’t familiar with London (we do have a map we are looking at).</p>
<p>hs- Some of these are a bit off the beaten path. The ones in Greenwich might be difficult to get to - unless the tube system has greatly expanded since we lived there. Same for the ones in the Docklands area…it’s a relatively new beautiful area but kind of like Wall Street at night. Not dangerous but not much going on either. IMHO, the ones in Kensington or the one in Bloomsbury by the museum sound best…not that I’ve stayed in them…just for location.</p>
<p>Even though transportation is efficient and safe, I would recommend as Woody has stated staying in the “West-End” area as it is central to most of the tourist sites. Find Buckingham Palace on the map and look west from there. The area is called Kensington, Knightsbridge and Chelsea. Bloomsbury is great but avoid the closeby Kings Cross area. I hope you have fun and take plenty of money, the exchange rate is bad for Americans visiting the UK. I usually estimate that nearly everything costs twice as much!!!</p>
<p>thanks so much!!! Just knowing what locations to look for really helps!</p>
<p>He is just staying three nights before his program starts – and he will already know the cost of lodging before he heads out. We are going to look for hostels that also serve breakfast to save costs on meals. So he needs money for transportation, food and museum/attraction admissions. He is pretty good with keeping costs down and he has a budget – so we are hoping it works out well (we can put money in his account from here if we need to).</p>
<p>We booked a youth hostel – Regina House on Gloucester Road in the South Kensington/Knightsbridge area. The hostel has a good rating and the cost includes breakfast, dinner and internet access.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help – it made a big difference! The three he has originally picked out were not near London central and would have be very inconvenient.</p>
<p>My friend that just came back from London told me how expensive it can be–$26 for good burger/coke. I don’t care if it’s the best burger in the world; it’s still just a burger. :)</p>
<p>You can eat cheaply in London if you don’t try to eat things like a burger and a Coke–very touristy, very American. “Pub Grub”–the food served with a half-pint of British ale–is way cheaper and probably tastier.</p>
<p>My S2 stayed at the Generator recently–on S1’s recommendation. He loved the central location but said that the kids were already in cliques and not that friendly. For a solo traveller, it wasn’t ideal.</p>
<p>Be sure to tell your son to bring eye patch and ear plugs–and stay in a quad or bigger. The more people he rooms with, the more likely he’ll meet a good crowd.</p>
<p>Also, he should bring a nice pair of non-jean pants and nice non-tennie shoes. The kids like to go out to clubs to go dancing. They know where all the cheap ones are… ;)</p>
<p>The kids also know where the cheap eats are. My son ate lots of Japanese meals…</p>
<p>My son took the train into the city from Heathrow–no worries. He had a map printout of the hostel location. Tell your son to get an Oyster card for the tube–and watch his wallet. There are lots of pickpockets in London. Other than that, my son had no trouble. He loved it. Surprised himself really.</p>