I second this. We’ve had good luck with Premier Inns. Some of them even have character - my daughter and I stayed at one in London near the Globe Theater that was actually connected to a pub where Shakespeare stayed. Editing to add: If there is a Crowne Plaza available, that might be another good alternative. My son participates in a track camp near Heathrow and they always stay at a Crowne Plaza - it’s very nice.
Sorry, editing again - I’ve been having fun reminiscing about that thing called “travel” - another place we enjoyed was the Sir Christopher Wren in Windsor, right on the Thames. It’s very old and atmospheric. The owner, Sarova Hotels, keeps sending me emails about several other properties in London and elsewhere. If old, atmospheric hotels appeal, you might take a look.
No suggestions about hotels in London, but if you want to make your trip an ABBA-themed trip, consider flying to Stockholm after exploring London. Stockholm is my favorite European city.
It’d probably be after Germany, because we’ve really been wanting to see our former exchange student (part of the trip that got canceled for Covid), but that’s a fantastic idea beating out Amsterdam.
Greenwich is very nice but not convenient for central London museums etc. If you want to shift to the east side after a couple of days in the center, then I’d stay there instead of Stratford, which is mostly a poor working class suburb with little to do beyond a walk in the Olympic park. You can get the DLR from Greenwich to Stratford in 30 mins, though check how late it runs if the concert is an evening event.
My favorite London hotel, hands down, is St Ermins in Westminster. In addition to being extremely well located (walking distance to Buckingham palace, Westminster abbey, St James park, Churchill’s war rooms), the hotel itself is absolutely lovely and tucked away from city traffic and noise. It’s part of the Marriott Autograph collection of hotels so if you have any Marriott points, you can use them there. It is about a block from the District (green) line tube station, St James Park. The District line takes you most of the way to Stratford with a change to the Central (red) line which takes you to Stratford. You could also just take a train to Stratford but I don’t think it would be a good use of your time in London to stay in Stratford. It’s so easy to use either the London Underground or British Rail to get you there and back
Unfortunately I appear to have set up the pre-order wrong. I was afraid of that TBH, because first we just wanted tickets and later we decided we’d also want the album so might as well pre-order it. Therefore I just registered for the “day ahead” first and that must apparently be what we have. I never got an email with a code when I added the album approx an hour later (still plenty early on the 2nd) - it was supposed to be here by 1pm today. I was hoping it would self-update.
Such is life. If it’s meant to be, it will be. If not, I’m sure we’ll find another trip we like.
Spontaneity doesn’t always have full thought out, “best way to do it” actions.
I think it’s a night concert, so if these close overnight, that could be an issue.
At this point if I can get tickets I’m thinking of just doing the tickets instead of the packages. Then I have more time to figure out lodging. Stratford would be easiest the night of the concert. For the rest of the nights, there are definitely more convenient places to the rest of London.
Totally second the vote for St. Ermin’s. The location couldn’t be more central to everything, and it’s charming. You can walk to many places quickly and the tube and bus stop are steps away. I wouldn’t call it budget but it’s not too expensive either — maybe because the rooms are small? But you won’t spend much time in the room so it doesn’t matter.
Looking at availability this morning it shouldn’t be a problem at all getting tickets tomorrow instead of today.
I also finally found the email I was supposed to send a notice to if I didn’t get an email with a code (it was on my receipt for the album). I sent an email and was told someone would get back to me within 48 hours. Uh, yeah, by then I won’t need it. I don’t know if I would have gotten a response yesterday if I had sent it earlier.
Let’s just say shopping via gimmicks or other “tricks” isn’t my forte.
We are both bummed that the best seats on our preferred days (aka our Anniversary) are already gone, so… we might actually choose something else at this point. It seems we have the day to contemplate that.
Hmm, seems like the decision was made for us. It’s past the deadline when I should have received an email with a code for tomorrow since I definitely pre-registered for that prior to buying the album, but there’s nothing - not even in Spam. ETA: I know I put the correct email in. I received a receipt for pre-ordering the Album.
I also haven’t received an answer to the inquiry I sent, so we’re going to nix this “plan” and wait for another to come along for our Anniversary.
There’s a lot we want to see/do on our Bucket List, so no worries (although we are a wee bit disappointed, for sure - this sounded fun, and perfect since a show date was on our Anniversary). The thought of being able to get up to try for “perfect” seats this morning is completely different from, “well we could still sit there” (while paying pretty much the same pretty penny for it).
Let this Delta variant Covid wave come/go and see where we’re at while we still look at all sorts of options as they arise. The whole planet is an option, though Afghanistan, Iraq, North Korea, etc, aren’t high on our list.
Maybe we’ll still go to Germany to see our former exchange student, then head to the Netherlands as has tempted us before.
Now I’m wondering if I can get my money back from pre-ordering the album. It was supposed to be buying the album and a code to have first chance at tickets. I never got the first chance and we don’t really need/want a DVD when I can just buy songs I like later.
It seems they should offer a refund, no? I can understand not getting one if we had gotten a code, even if we chose not to use it, but not getting what we paid for is different to me.
ETA: I’ll find out. I just requested a refund. (sigh)
This morning, 1 hour and 18 minutes after today’s non-album ordering, but pre-sale registration opened up, they finally sent me a code. No personal response though.
It’s not like the code is worth anything by the time I got it considering we wanted front row seats. I’m still going to push for a refund on the album. This code wasn’t even pretending to be related to that. It says it’s the pre-sale code plus was supposed to arrive yesterday (not today after opening) for those who had signed up for it as we did before we opted to buy the album to get a better jump.
It’s definitely been a disappointing experience, and that’s an understatement.
But something we like will come along for our Anniversary. It always does. We have months to be scouting.
And to finish the saga, I just heard from folks at the Abba store. We will be getting our refund with their apologies.
At least they are trying to make things as right as they can considering the circumstances. That’s appreciated.
Maybe when they announce more dates down the road one of them will be “right” for us. It seems like it would be a cool show, but at this point not with “lesser” seats on our Anniversary. If we spent the money for lesser seats on another date, then we’d have used up money we could have for our Anniversary, so doing “both” is not happening. We tend to take two larger trips per year - spending Feb somewhere “south” and our Anniversary in the summer. The rest are smaller, less expensive trips (usually). Flying to London, paying $4-500 for two tickets, food, lodging, critter care back home, and whatever else isn’t super high cost, but it hardly qualifies for cheap in our budget.
Stockholm is my favorite European city.
