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The capital city of England, London, it the number one vacation destination in the British Isles and it has some of the most well known visitor attractions in the world. If you can class people as tourist attractions then the British Royal Family and the Queen must rank first. However an often overlooked attraction is the stunning shopping opportunities in the city.

London is one of the main three cities of the world associated with serious shopping, the others being Paris and New York. Check any bottle of perfume and the city is bound to appear somewhere on the packaging and usually on the bottle itself. Virtually every company involved in the retail trade has it’s UK flagship store in one of the primary shopping districts of London.

Department stores, designer shops, fashion shops and boutiques, music shops, bookshops, jewellery shops and virtually any other type of retail outlet is found within easy walking distance of a London tube station. Usually the different types of store tend to appear in groups in certain areas such as Oxford Street, Knightsbridge, New Bond Street and the likes.

Oxford Street And Knightsbridge

Oxford Street is the busiest shopping street in the whole of Europe and it is where you will find the famous Selfridges department store. Knightsbridge is well known for being the home of the famous Harrods department store but along with the other stores you will also find the excellent Harvey Nichols.

Bond Street

Gucci and Armani are just a couple of the luxury brands you should expect to see in Bond Street. If it is expensive, luxurious or unique then you will most probably find it here. Bond Street is famous for having the highest number of stores having a Royal Warrant (suppliers to the British Royal Family).

Covent Garden

Bond Street is great if you are rich and famous but for ordinary folk Covent Garden is the best place to go for fashion clothing. Covent Garden is home to a large number of smaller independent fashion stores and boutiques and this is the place to go if you are in search of a decent pair of shoes.

Other Shopping Areas In London

Covent Garden is great for clothes but you may also want to visit the famous Carnaby Street which is becoming popular again. If you want bespoke tailoring then Savile Row is the most famous place to go but look around Piccadilly, especially on Jermyn Street. If you are looking for jewellery but cannot afford Bond Street try Hatton Garden (near Farringdon) which has many long established jewellers to choose from. Books are best found on the Charing Cross Road but also look around Covent Garden.

London has lots more places in which to go shopping and the above list is not comprehensive, there are simply too many. Other places to go shopping, especially for unusual items, are the many London markets, too many to list here.

Tags: Accommodation, city break, destination, destinations, holiday, hotel, hotels, london, London Travel, recreation, shopping, Travel and leisure, Travel Tips, vacation destinations, Vacations
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The Fourth Plinth is located in Trafalgar Square, London and is traditionally used to display statues. This year it is being transformed into a space for living art as Antony Gormley shows off his ground-breaking “One and Other” project (until October 14th 2009).

The well-known artist has asked anyone who lives in the UK to come forward and “perform” on the plinth for one hour with the eyes of the world (via tv and webcam) gazing at them.

Many thousands of people applied for the 2,400 available places which have all been chosen at random. One person is standing on the plinth every hour (24/7!), for 100 days in total.

Each individual is free to do as they please on the plinth, providing it’s legal. A lot of participants are taking the opportunity to show the world everything they’ve got!

The artist’s own description of the project is shown on the London Hotels Insight blog (link below), which also links you to the live webcam showing the 24/7 “performance” in progress.

It is a truly path-breaking project and gives tourists visiting London an awesome perspective on Britain’s diverse, eccentric and fun-loving population. You can’t miss the opportunity to see it if you’re visiting London in summer or autumn 2009!

To allow you to stay as near to the event on Trafalgar Square as possible, here are a couple of suggested hotels that rate highly on TripAdvisor. They cover all possible budgets:

A 5 star hotel with great reviews

If you come to London with someone you wish to impress, you would be wise to consider One Aldwych. This is a hotel with amazing contemporary design (later copied by many others) but which also thrives on friendly and down-to-earth service.

From the moment you step into its impressive lobby, the hotel seems to caress you with its natural warmth.

I’ve been lucky enough to meet the hotel’s founder, Gordon Campbell Gray, who told me his goal is to make every guest’s stay “as exquisite as possible”.

There is more on One Aldwych at the London Hotels Insight blog, where you can also get the best rate from more than 30 different travel websites with a single click.

A cheap hotel with good reviews

If you’re on budget but still want to stay in this amazing area in the heart of Theatreland, you might want to consider the Travelodge in Covent Garden. It is only 10 minutes walk to Trafalgar Square.

You’ll feel smug about getting a functional, clean room in an amazing location for much less than other tourists with accommodation in the same area!

Guest reviews on TripAdvisor suggest that Travelodge Covent Garden is a steal for its modest room rate and unbeatable location.

The location of either of the above hotels is handy for checking out the Tate Modern gallery or to take a ride on the London Eye.

If you stay in this area you will also be in a convenient location for the fantastic markets and street performers in Covent Garden.

So if you intend to go to London in the summer or fall of 2009, make sure you visit the fourth plinth on Trafalgar Square!

Tags: europe, london, London hotels, London Travel, London trip planning, Travel, travel ideas
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Even though London is preparing for the Summer Olympic Games of 2012, there is no reason not to visit the city today. In London you find many sights, superb shopping and pulsing nightlife. Even great food can be found in the city.

The newest (and one of the most interesting) sight is the London Eye. The 135 meter (443 feet) high Ferris wheel can be found between Waterloo and Westminster Bridge. It was originally opened for the millennium new year by Tony Blair. But because of technical problems, the public couldnt use it before March 2000.

The 32 cabins on the wheel have room for 25 persons each. It is a very popular attraction; and because one rotation takes about half an hour, you can expect long queues in the high season. But the view from the top over the central London (including Big Ben and the House of Parliament) is worth the waiting.

In the opposite end of the timeline is Tower of London. The royal fortress has a 900 year old and bloody history. Many people have walked through the Traitors Gate; but few of them have returned. Torture, rats, and not least executions killed a lot of the prisoners.

Today the rats have gone; and the torture and executions stopped. And the prisoners have been replaced with tourists watching all the ceremonies. One of the most exciting is the Ceremony of the Keys. At exactly 9.52 pm the head of the guards hands over the keys to the head of the night watchmen.

There are many interesting places to be seen on a tour of Tower of London. This includes the royal apartment as well as the dungeons. But the most popular sight is the British crown jewels in the Jewel House. Here you can see the scepter of the sovereign with Star of Africa; the worlds largest diamond.

Other must see sights are St. Pauls Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and the 106 meter (348 feet) high Big Ben. For a relaxing stroll visit the centrally placed Hyde Park. And if you are interested in art, you should visit British Museum.

A must thing to do in London is people watching. In the city you can see everything from punkers with safety pins through their noses and cock’s combs to businessmen with bowler hat sand stiff upper lips.

Have you heard that English food is not worth eating? And do you think to have to eat fish and chips all day? Well, it does not have to be this way. Famous cooks like Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey have restaurants in London. If you like cheaper options, it is also possible. The city is a melting pot of multi-ethnic populations, so you can find cheap restaurants with exotic food from all around the world.

For shopping visit the famous department store Harrods; they brag about that they can provide everything. If you are looking for something for your home, you can find wallpaper and fabric in Designers Guild and minimalistic, Japanese design in Muji. Make the kids happy with a visit to the six story toyshop Hamleys of Regent Street.

Tags: Big Ben, Gordon Ramsey, Hamleys, Harrods, Jamie Oliver, london, London Eye, London Travel, nightlife, Olympic Games, shopping, sights, St. Pauls Cathedral, Tower of London, Westminster Abbey
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If you are visiting the UK and are not a resident of the EU, then you can claim back all the tax (VAT) that you would have paid on your purchases during your stay.

Therefore countries that are in the EU do not qualify for this. These countries and regions include: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, The Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, The Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden.

Different companies will usually offer different percentages of the VAT back and as the much valued international customer you will more often than not be able to choose how you VAT is refunded.

There are three easy steps to making your claim.

Step one: Pick up a VAT receipt when you make a purchase at any store.

Step two: When you’re leaving, present your VAT receipts, along with the actual shop receipts, the goods themselves and your passport to Customs so they can validate it.

Step 3: After validation from customs at the airport, collect your VAT refund from a cash refund office in the currency of your choosing.

As a non-EU resident you have a whole world of savings open to you with all of the UK’s leading brand names available free of tax, enabling you to generate massive savings.

The stores that use this tax free service also benefit in the following ways;

-A totally free tax refund service.

-Larger transactions through your cash registers.

-Increased profit because we return a portion of the VAT to you.

-Free online advertising and sales promotion.

-Easy and instant way to refund more money to your customers.

-Additional customer loyalty, the more money they get back, the more likely they will be to shop with you again.

-No VAT invoice we deal directly with HM Customs.

Tags: Britain, finance, legal, london, London Travel, misc, services, shopping, tax, tax free, taxes, Tourism, tourist, Travel, uk
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Are London hotels as expensive as people say?

Visitors to London often complain about the high price of hotels. Are they right to do so?

Expensive is a relative term. You can have a wonderful priceless experience or spend little and find it poor value. Value is not easy to define.

What then does the hard data say? London apparently has the 5th most expensive hotels in the world, after Moscow, New York, Dubai and Venice (source: Hotels.com survey).

Another survey by Hogg Robinson showed London hotel prices in 10th place (not as dear as New York, Mumbai and Stockholm among others).

London is only expensive because lots of people want to visit the city for business and pleasure, which naturally keeps prices high. That is the bad news.

But there is good news too. You can still grab value for money in London hotels but only if you search carefully. To achieve this, you should use independent blogs (such as London Hotels Insight) rather than hotel or booking websites which just want you to reserve any hotel as quickly as possible.

Ready for more good news? A separate survey (from the Economist) looked at the most expensive cities for all spending (beyond just hotel prices): this discovered that Paris and Copenhagen for example are a lot more expensive than London.

Hence although London (and its hotels) may appear quite pricey to visitors, this must be understood in comparison with other benchmark cities.

The most important advice is to always book your hotel in London after searching out the best price on the internet. If you book based on just one website’s pricing, you will almost always be missing out on the best rate.

Never be fooled by a best online rate guarantee. It is often hard to enforce this in practice (just try to read the small-print!) as well as being time-consuming.

This article’s writer is a London hotel market “insider” who personally meets hoteliers and regularly compares online hotel rates for London. There is no doubt that there is wide variation between London hotel rates between different websites so you can easily lose money.

There is just one way to ensure that you obtain the very best London hotel deal: you need to use a “meta-search” tool which compares lots of different websites at the same time (preferably more than 20 or 30 sites). It is now as easy to do a one-click search of many websites for the best deal as it is to search a single website.

For example, London Hotels Insight has a price comparison tool which checks more than 30 of the world’s most trusted hotel booking sites to find the best rate in one click.

A hotel meta-search engine lets you feel secure that you’re getting the best possible deal. It also means you’re left with more money to enjoy London’s amazing bars, restaurants and theatres!

Tags: Cheap Hotels, cheap travel, destinations, hotels, hotels in london, jobs in hotels, london, London accommodation, London hotels, London Travel, metasearch, price comparison, Travel
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London is a global city, being among the most frequented cities of the world the reasons for this is quite obvious. London has a history and tradition that is unsurpassed which makes it one of the hotspots for vacations and on the other hand it is also one of the most fashionable cities to visit in the modern world, whatever your purpose for visit might be whether business trips or a family vacation. London therefore has to cater to a global audience and the Luxury London hotels do just that. These hotels are some of the finest in the world and are suitable for people from all parts of the planet.

The city is large and there are innumerable luxury hotels in the city to choose from. Your choices can be based on the themes and design of the hotels as well. The diversity of these luxury hotels are enough to cater to all tastes as there are tourists in the city on a regular basis who travel from all parts of the world. Therefore there are those hotels that are maybe Victorian or traditionally themed an embodiment of the old traditional world of London while on the other hand there are those hotels that are designed with the modern tourist in mind with the best of modern architecture and design and furnishings.

The Luxury hotels in the city besides being divided according to theme are also varied in the types of hotels according to their style of services. There are those luxury hotels that have the international brand names and you can thus expect to meet the best in international luxury in these hotels which keep their reputation around the world in London as well.

Then there are the other unique hotels which are different styles of luxury hotels. You can choose a boutique luxury hotel that is known for their individuality. They maintain the luxurious standards of any other luxury hotel in the city but are themed and customized by the individual owner and are more private than the big brands. Then there are the special corporate hotels that are perfect in their services for the business traveler to London. These too are steeped in luxury as any other luxury London hotel but provide special service for the business traveler making their business trip to the city much more comfortable.

All the Luxury London hotels maintain global standard and would not disappoint you in their provisions and services even though one might differ from the other. They are staffed well and provide all the services and facilities that you are used to from any luxury hotel in the world. The purpose of these hotels is that they give you the best of luxury environments along with all the practical necessities of traveling. Thus a swimming pool and telephone services might be clubbed elegantly with marble staircases and silk linen.

The locations of these luxury hotels also make them even more desirable. Some of the best locations of the city have some of the finest luxury hotels. From Grosvenor Square to Piccadilly and other popular locations all have the best of the hotels in the city. Therefore these locations are perfect for the tourist as these spots make the rest of the city more accessible.

Searching for a luxury hotel for you to stay in the city with your family or without has become much easier with the advent of the internet. On the internet you can search for the kind of hotel you want and go through all the pictures of the place and services they provide and accordingly make a choice for your stay.

Another good reason why you should opt for booking your luxury London hotel online is to avail of special discounts. It is always probable that if you book your hotel way in advance before your arrival you will have to pay a discounted price and booking online makes this easier. Thus when you search for the perfect luxury hotel online, you must look for a detailed description of the location and the quality of services of the hotel. What previous visitors have to say about the hotels are also important and you could browse through some traveler reviews for the same.

Tags: apartments, business, destinations, Hostels, hotels, leisure, london, London Travel, luxury, motels, rental, time, Tourism, travelling, trip
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For most people, taking a trip will always be a top priority, even in these times of financial doom and gloom. If this is you, then you might feel as though you are stuck between your desire to go on holiday and what your budget allows. If you have less money now than before but still want to get a flight to London to have that British vacation you’ve longed for, then read on! We have compiled some expert tips on how to find your next holiday to England on the cheap.

Fly Smart. Traveling to England during the height of tourist season - typically during the summer months - is a great way to empty your bank account. If you’ve got a more flexible holiday schedule, book your flight to London for the spring or autumn months to enjoy beautiful weather and off-peak prices. If you’re particularly adventurous, take your British holiday during the winter months - it may be cold, but you’ll have your pick of flights at rock-bottom prices!

The Bigger Names May Get You The Best Price. Contrary to popular belief, it’s often the bigger airline names that can get you the best prices for flights to London, since all taxes and fees are included in the quoted price. Within smaller or budget airlines, taxes, fees and other services like baggage check and snack service can all incur costs, which will add up pretty quickly by the time you touch down in London town!

Take Advantage Of Visitor Attractions. Museums are a great place to take the kids, and most of the major museums have free admission during the day. The British Museum is high on the list of recommended museums - with so many fascinating exhibits to choose from, your children won’t ever want to leave! For other great daytime activities that the whole family will enjoy, visit the Tower of London and the London Dungeon for a thrilling trip back in time. Admission rates are a little high, but thanks to the declining pound, it’s more affordable than ever before!

Ask For An Upgrade. One of the best perks of scoring a cheap flight to London is the possibility of getting an upgrade to business or even first class. Ask your ticketing agent if there are any available seats in the business or first class cabins; if there are, you can request to be put on a waiting list for the chance of a luxurious upgrade. Not a bad way to fly!

Don’t let the potentially high price of a British vacation scare you away from taking the trip of your dreams! Just learn these traveler’s tricks and you’ll not only travel in style - you’ll spare the balance of your bank account!

Tags: Cheap Flights, Cheap Holidays, Flights, Holidays, london, London Travel, Travel, Travel Advice, vacation
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Is it really so hard to get a reasonably-priced hotel in London?

Visitors to London often complain about the high price of hotels. Are they right to do so?

Expensive is a relative term. You can have a wonderful priceless experience or spend little and find it poor value. Value is not easy to define.

So what does the hard data say? London comes 5th in the ranking of the world’s most expensive hotels, lagging behind Moscow, New York, Dubai and Venice (the source for this is Hotels.com).

Another survey by Hogg Robinson showed London hotel prices in 10th place (not as dear as New York, Mumbai and Stockholm among others).

London is only expensive because lots of people want to visit the city for business and pleasure, which naturally keeps prices high. That is the bad news.

But there is good news too. You can still grab value for money in London hotels but only if you search carefully. To achieve this, you should use independent blogs (such as London Hotels Insight) rather than hotel or booking websites which just want you to reserve any hotel as quickly as possible.

Ready for more good news? A separate survey (from the Economist) looked at the most expensive cities for all spending (beyond just hotel prices): this discovered that Paris and Copenhagen for example are a lot more expensive than London.

So while London hotels and London may seem expensive to tourists, this must be seen in the context of other leading city destinations.

The most important advice is to always book your hotel in London after searching out the best price on the internet. If you book based on just one website’s pricing, you will almost always be missing out on the best rate.

Do not be taken in by those so-called “best rate guarantees”. They are usually covered by plenty of legal wording to make it as hard as possible for you to enforce them.

The author of this article is an “insider” within the London hotel market and knows for a fact that some hoteliers charge different rates through different websites.

There is just one way to ensure that you obtain the very best London hotel deal: you need to use a “meta-search” tool which compares lots of different websites at the same time (preferably more than 20 or 30 sites). It is now as easy to do a one-click search of many websites for the best deal as it is to search a single website.

For example, the blog on London hotels linked below searches 30+ online booking websites to identify the best London hotel rate within a matter of seconds.

Everyone should use a hotel meta-search engine to get the best London hotel rate. By spending as little as possible on the hotel, it really frees up your budget to enjoy London to the max!

Tags: Cheap Hotels, cheap travel, destinations, hotels, hotels in london, jobs in hotels, london, London accommodation, London hotels, London Travel, metasearch, price comparison, Travel
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