Advantages: Excellent value, location
Disadvantages: Basic hotel

...I try to arrange a couple of days break for my husband and myself, away from the children, every Easter holiday and we like to visit London and see the sites. If you are looking for reasonably priced accommodation in central London then Premier Travel Inn is probably your best bet. I considered three - County Hall, near the London Eye; London Bridge, north side of the bridge and Southwark. I have to admit that I didn't know where Southwark was until I looked on a map and I was surprised to find out how central to everything it was, so I chose to stay here. The Premier Travel Inn Southwark is about eight minutes walk from London Bridge Underground Station - so make sure that your luggage has wheels! I struggled but had a rest in the grounds of Southwark Cathedral at the halfway point. Doctor Who fans may remember the episode... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Affordable, modern, stylish, quiet situation, good decor, friendly staff
Disadvantages: Compact rooms, average rooms, away from West End

...The Southwark Rose Hotel is a modern hotel on Southwark Bridge Road just across the Thames from the heart of the City of London. It used to describe itself as London's first budget boutique hotel, but although more attention might have been paid to the decor in the bedrooms and the common areas than in other hotels of a comparable standard, I think 'boutique' is going a bit far. The hotel is conveniently placed for business people working in Southwark/London Bridge areas or in the heart of the City - the Bank of England is about 10 minutes brisk walk away. The hotel does have the added advantage of a car park, which is usually fairly empty. Possibly the fee charged is quite high. For tourists, the hotel is one of the closest to Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe. There is a very interesting walk through the old dock buildings... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Cheap centralish location, Breakfast included
Disadvantages: None

...'s nice to know you'll be checking in somewhere that isn't a flea pit. Size of rooms does vary from hotel to hotel I've found and the HIE Southwark had perhaps one of the smallest bedrooms I'd stayed in, but this didn't mean it was a pokey or cramped room. One thing I have found when booking HIE in this country is the cheapest place to book them is the web site, which is extremely easy to use. After searching for a hotel in London I came across the cheapest option for my dates and that was the HIE Southwark. After looking on the handy map the site had along with other details of the hotel it didn't appear to be too far out of central London nor did it look to be a complete nightmare to find! In fact it looked perhaps a little too easy to find! With the link from my special offers email I booked the hotel for £59 for the night, this did... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Continental Breakfast included
Disadvantages: Nothing

...for all four of us for the two days especially as in the past we have had to pay more for inferior accommodation and had to pay extra for breakfast on top. The hotel is situated on the South Bank near to Blackfriars Bridge with the nearest underground station being Southwark on the Jubilee line and this was about a ten minute walk from the hotel. Alternatively you could cross Blackfriars Bridge on foot and use Blackfriars train Station. The Tate Modern was a pleasant five minute walk beside the river and after another minute walking you will come upon Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The Millennium bridge is here also and walking across(it doesn't sway anymore) it to the other side of the river you will arrive near to St Paul's Cathedral which is now free to the public although if you want a tour you still have to pay for that. ARRIVAL... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Reasonable deals on rooms, good facilities, nice spacious rooms, central location
Disadvantages: Prices of the extra items such as breakfast

...When it came to Pip's birthday this year I decided to make it special as it was her first while we've been together. So as a surprise I arranged a weekend in London, a decent hotel, show and a trip on the London Eye. Having consulted a number of websites and talked to a few people about the best places to stay I opted to try the Novotel as they seemed to have some very reasonable deals on. Once I'd decided that it was then choosing one to stay at and it made sense to get one near the London Eye and near to the Tube stations, so I opted for the Novotel in Southwark. I booked the whole thing using the Novotel's website and because of this there are some better rates than you might otherwise get. The standard price for a double room with a sofa is £195 and on top of that you need to add a further £13.50 for breakfast. In contrast I... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Shakespeare lives
Disadvantages: Not a comfortable theatre

...feeling and emphasis into the words which you would learn at school off by heart and therefore, with no feeling or passion. The story begins to mesmerise you and reel you in, so by the time the play has ended, you find that although you may not have understood every word, you most certainly know what has happened and why, and your emotions have been stirred. You realise why Shakespeare is known as our greatest playwright. Plus the setting – to see Shakespeare as he would have seen it performed (especially this year with Twelfth Night’s all male cast), is just so wonderful, somehow it helps you to see what he was trying to achieve in writing the play. How do you get there? It’s located in Southwark (South Side of the River Thames known as Bankside) close to Southwark Bridge. Personally, I think the best way, is to go... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Get to see the sites and sounds of the City of London and lose some weight too with all that walking
Disadvantages: It may rain on you

...shock absorbers were added. The Southwark end of the Millennium Bridge leads you to Tate Modern – built inside a former power station. The gallery is free and well worth a visit. Come down the bridge ramp and turn right and shortly you will come to Cardinal’s Wharf, which includes a house where Sir Christopher Wren reputedly stayed whilst rebuilding the City Churches and St Paul’s after the Great Fire. Immediately next to this is Shakespeare’s Globe – the project of Sam Wanamaker. The main Globe season runs from around May to September, but there is an exhibition which is open all year (admission charge). The Globe was built using traditional methods – joints are held by wooden dowels and not nails. At the corner of the Globe, turn right into Globe Walk and at the next junction turn left into Park Street. On your left as you... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: A night of pure magic
Disadvantages: You might get wet!

...At the very end of the 16th century, James Burbage was running a theatre company in Blackfrairs, London, of which William Shakespeare was then a member, an actor and a playwright of some renown, even in those days. Following James' death his two sons, as a result of a dispute over the lease of the theatre that they were then using, leased a plot in Southwark, south of the river Thames, on which to erect a new theatre. That theatre was the first Globe. It was close to the equally famous Rose Theatre, and rivalry between the two theatre companies was intense. That original Globe burned to the ground during a performance of Shakespeare's Henry VIII but, as with many such disaster in those days, they quickly rebuilt it and carried on performing. Fire in London was much more common in those days than it is now. The theatre was finally... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Unhurried, see more from a different viewpoint
Disadvantages: Takes an hour or so. Costs more than land travel

...was not given for waterfront buildings if the design contained a company logo. The architects/builders managed to persuade the authorities that it was just a pattern that LOOKED like OXO! Believe that? Hmm, not sure. The Blackfriars Bridge to Southwark Bridge section has a richer harvest though. You’ve got the Tate Modern gallery on your right (“they HAD to make it free….. it’s full of modern art” opined our guide, nailing HIS artistic colours firmly to the mast!), built from the shell of the old Bankside power station. Dead ahead you’ve got THAT bridge, you know, the one that sways! Once it’s sorted, it will provide a splendid link between the steps up to St Paul’s Cathedral and the art gallery, with wide river vistas as you go. Southwark Bridge is nothing to write home about, and it has... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Wonderful experience, excellently presented, combination of sounds, smells and sights
Disadvantages: Can be busy in summer

...reading this will have heard of Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of the well known Canterbury Tales. These are a collection of stories told by a fictional group of pilgrims, on their way to Canterbury in the fourteenth century to visit the shrine of Thomas Becket. Becket was the Archbishop of Canterbury who had been murdered in Canterbury Cathedral at the end of the twelfth century, for standing up for the rights of Church. Though if you ask me, and I studied this a couple of years ago, it was sheer bloody-mindedness which led to his death. Anyway, pilgrims immediately flocked to Canterbury in huge numbers after his death, some of whom made the trip as a type of ‘holiday’. The journey of Chaucer’s pilgrims, from Southwark to Canterbury was the occasion of much jollity and merriment, and they kept themselves amused, by telling... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful