Discount travel blog

It was an urgent call to find a free bed in one of the London hostels as quick as possible. Not hard to picture that at this time of the year all the hostels in London are pretty much booked up but I needed to find a hostel place to stay with yesterday afternoon. So I searched around on the Internet for 2 hours. And what I finally came up with was some spare bed at the Smart Hyde Park Inn Hostel (www.hydeparkinn.com). As the name says, it must be close to the Hyde Park, which means close to the city centre, just south of Picadilly in fact.

That didnt sound to bad at all so I booked a bed for two nights to the price of 20 pounds roughtly $40 US equivallent. I thought that was a reasonable price for that area so at first I was quite pleased also with the fact that I got anything done just a couple of hours before I arrived at the Heathrow Airport in London. That cheap flight there is another crazy story. But lets stick with the hostel story for this time. So that was cool too, since I did not feel like carrying a 25 kg back switching tube lines several times and so on, you know what I mean. Having arrived at Earl’s Court underground station it was only a 3 minute walk to the Hyde Park Inn Hostel.
So I arrived in London Heathrow and it was a straight 1,5 hour tube ride from this airport to the hostel metro stop which was called Earl’s Court. The receptionists where friendly and explained everthing, the hostel rules etc., to me in detail.

Just next to the Inn’s reception there was a little common area with a big flat screen TV, and some of the guys were watching a DVD, the State’s Enemy movie. I thought that was one of my favourite movies, however thinking also, why would I visit London, pay the price of the most expensive hostel rates in the world, and and stay inn on a Saturday night to watch DVD. Hmmm, funny backpackers i suppose.

So I went up to my room, just quickly dorpping of my big bag with the intension to move out very soon to discover area a little bit more. In fact, this area counts as one of the more classy areas in London. It’s save, nice little houses, else as brick houses which is rare in the UK I thought, and tones of little indian shops, cafes and snack bars. Great!

Just next to the hostel is also the Kensington Gardens, really nice area all togheter. I recommend to stay there even if you don’t go for the same hostel. There is plenty of choice for budget hotels, around the 60 pounds mark.

The Eurostar is really cheap and now even faster. If you book only 2 weeks in advance you usually snatch up a cheap ticket for 40 Euro single. And the trip now takes you to the brand new station in London Kings Cross San Pancras in less then 2 hours, instead of the 2,5 hours before to Waterloo. Yes, its unbelievable but the English finally managed to speed up their railway system in the UK such that the Eurostar can rise to its full speed even on the UK side. It’s a cheap and easy trip, faster than queuing at the airport and mostly cheaper as well. If you buy the ticket online there is no hidden taxes or fees involved to pay what you see on the offer. And two or three weeks ahead is not that much to plan in advance. The London station Kings Cross San Pancras is all brand new and I was amazed! When you get off the train you are also much better connected to the rest of London. The northern line and circle lines get you to Oxford Street and Tottenham Court road in no time.

In the Eurostar there is a little bar area and I was delighted to meet a bunch of friendly and chatty French service people there. The saying the French don’t know how to do friendly service is a myth. Although in Brussels I sometimes experienced otherwise locationally. You have comfortable seats in the Eurostar, more spacious than in the plane (except first class). The train is also very quiet and air-conditioned. All in all, I must say, it was one of the most relaxed trip I ever did on such a high speed.