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SAN DIEGO TO LONDON THE EASY WAY Hotels vary from the new, trendy and hip, such as One Aldwych, which opened in the theater district in July 1998 (with doubles starting at about $440) to, in old gracious London, Brown's Hotel in the heart of Mayfair whose first guest for afternoon tea was Queen Victoria. |
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Favorites? The recently opened or newly renovated luxury hotels offer the best deals. The Athenaeum Hotel and Apartments, also in Mayfair, (116 Picadilly, with doubles starting about $450, telephone 800 335 3300) reopened in 1994 as a 120-room boutique hotel whose club atmosphere immediately charmed the glitterati. Rates are sometimes lower for special packages: for example, a Picasso Package with full English breakfast and two entry tickets to the Royal Academy of Arts was recently priced at $365 per room including tax. |
| Although January and
February are the only slow months in London, August can be relatively
quiet for luxury hotels when many of their business travelers are
on vacation. Green Park, the closest Underground tube station is a
ten minutes' walk. |
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The Royal Garden Hotel
is as attractive and slightly less expensive (2-24 Kensington High
Street, with doubles starting at $350; telephone 800 987 9317). It
has 400 rooms and, like all luxury hotels these days, a health club
and an excellent concierge service. It's on a street with great shopping
and many small restaurants and the Kensington High Street tube station
is five minutes away. |
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| Five minutes walk from the
Athenaeum, brings you to the 450-roomed Grosvenor House on Park Lane.
One of the Great Old Dames of the city (doubles starting at $450,
telephone 800 543 4300) it had a summer "Pounds for Dollars"
promotion that may be continued this year. With the pound sterling
ratio always favoring the pound, this is huge savings. For example,
if the double rate is £255 and you get it for $255 (and not the $450
by conversion) you've saved $200 for shopping-and two blocks from
the hotel, in Mayfair, lie some of the most attractive specialty shops
in London. ATTRACTIONS |
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Check your guide book. Must visit places are the Tower of London
where the Crown Jewels are on show; the British Museum which has
arguably the finest display of Egyptology in the world including
the Rosetta Stone; and Westminster Abbey where the greats in British
history lie in state. The Imperial War museum is worth the task
of finding it across the river and Madame Tussaud's Waxworks is
worth a visit too although many of the figures are British celebrities.
But how often can you be saluted by comedian, Benny Hill! |
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION British Tourist Authority (800 462
2748)
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