Premier inn hotel wembley

Is this hotel quite far from central London that fares are much higher? I'm comparing hotels centrally located but it's got a $250-300 difference plus parking in this location is only £2/24 hrs. We're staying for a week in London in summer. Thanks!

The London Wembley Stadium Premier Inn is right by Wembley Park Underground station with the Metropolitan and the Jubilee lines which run in parallel to Central London, the Metropolitan Line is only 2 express stops to Baker Street while the Jubilee Line is 8 stops to Baker Street. Definitely worth the trip for the savings over central London prices. You need to get yourself an Oyster Card (see www.tfl.gov.uk), as the cash fare from Wembley Park (zone 4) into central London (zone 1) is GBP 5.70 while with an Oyster Card it is 2.70 (except during the morning rush hour M-F 6:30-9:30 when it is 3.80). With an Oyster Card you will pay no more than 7.70 for unlimited one day travel in zones 1-4 (except if you travel during the morning rush hour M-F 6:30-9:30 when it is 10.60) or you could pay 45.00 for a weeks unlimited travel in zones 1-4 (no rush hour restrictions).

Thank you for your response. Does each of my family , 2 adults and 2 kids ages 9 and 15yo need an Oyster card for travel ?

Too me not a great place to stay not much there in the evenings. It says you are from the USA so why have a car? I would personally go for some where more central with a nicer neighbourhood. IF you are hiring a car lose it for your time in London, not only will you not need it for London, if you are planning on day trips it is nightmare getting in and out of London.

To get an oyster card for children you have to apply 4 weeks in advance minimum, probably better just buying a daily pass, adults have to have their own. This applies for anywhere you choose to stay in London.

Not sure where you have looked for hotels but booking.com is a good place to look, the difference sounds as lot to me. Both Premier Inn and Travelodge have more centrally based hotels.

Yes we're planning to rent a car esp for day trips. Someone had suggested this from the forum. It this a bad suggestion you think? We want to see as much attractions that are day trips like Stonehenge , Stratford upon Avon , Bath, oxford, Windsor castle etc..etc.. during our week stay in London.

It sounds like you might not spend much time in London so why stay there for a week, what you have written will mean pretty much 5 day trips, so why not stay in central London for a couple of nights and visit London then base your self somewhere else to do the other things, anywhere within London (even Wembley) comes at a premium you will find cheaper places outside of London.

Not sure who advised you to rent a car to do day trips in and out of London each day, yes it might be cheaper than getting a train or bus to these destinations but I would not want to be travelling in and out of London every day with a car, traffic is bad and can easily add 1-2 hours on to each trip plus the stress of driving at 2mph for miles!

To answer your questions about Oyster cards: the two adults each need their own Oyster card,
the 9 year old can travel free without an Oyster Card, the Transport for London website (www.tfl.gov.uk) states:
Your child only needs a 5-10 Zip Oyster photocard to travel free on Tube, DLR, London Overground and some National Rail services if: They're travelling without an adult or They look older than 10
for the 15 year old the website states: An 11-15 Zip Oyster photocard allows free travel on buses and trams, and child-rate travel on Tube, DLR, London Overground and most National Rail services in London.
which means cash fare from Wembley Park (zone 4) into central London (zone 1) is GBP 2.80 while with an Oyster Card it is 0.75 (except during the morning rush hour M-F 6:30-9:30 when it is 0.80). With an Oyster Card you will pay no more than 1.50 for unlimited one day travel in zones 1-4 (except if you travel during the morning rush hour M-F 6:30-9:30 when it is 5.30) or you could pay 22.50 for a weeks unlimited travel in zones 1-4 (no rush hour restrictions) and the website gives details of how to apply for it online if you do not live in the UK and you pick it up when you arrive in London.

I guess I have to start processing our Oyster cards online and we'll just pick it up when we arrive. Thank you so much for sharing valuable info.

There are much cheaper hotels closer to Central London than that and some have free parking. Just Google cheap hotels in London and hotels with free parking - London.

Adult Oyster cards do not need a photo (unless you want them for monthly or annual tickets) so you can buy them online or wait until you arrive, but the 11-15 Zip Oyster card does require a photo so you will have to get that online, or they can use an adult Oyster card without any child discount.

Hello marka55...I sure want my discount so I'm gonna go online and apply for my sons' Oyster card. I hope there's a pick up station at London heathrow airport so we can just pick it up from there when we arrive.

Stonehenge , Stratford upon Avon , Bath, oxford, Windsor castle

Stonehenge will maximum hold your attention (once you've finally got to it) for about 30 minutes, so consider doubling up on it with Bath or the Avebury stones. A car would be ideal for this.

For Stratford Upon Avon simply walk to Wembley Park station (which is not the tube station, it's in the opposite direction) and then take a direct train to Stratford Upon Avon with Chiltern Railways if you want the easy life (2:34) or drive (1:40-2:15 depending on traffic)

For Bath public transport is a couple of minutes quicker on a good day, and considerably quicker on a bad day. Take a tube train to Baker Street, then change there for a tube to Paddington, then change there for a direct train to Bath via http://www.firstgreatwestern.co.uk (tickets with them are considerably cheaper if booked way in advance, like now).

For Oxford, same as Bath - get a train from Paddington.

For Windsor Castle, take a train from Waterloo (get there by tube) or sometimes you can take the much quicker route via Paddington yet again, changing in Slough (but these connections are not very frequent).

Refer to http://www.transportdirect.com for a UK wide public transport route planner, http://www.tfl.gov.uk for route planning specifically in London.

As for the car, bear in mind that fuel in the UK is very expensive. Currently gas prices in Houston TX for example are around the $3.29 per US gallon. The bad news for you is that currently gas prices (or fuel prices if you want the British term) are £129.9 per litre. There are 3.785 litres in a US gallon, and £1 = $1.68, so that's 1.299 x 1.68 x 3.785 = $8.26 USD equivalent per US gallon.

Stonehenge , Stratford upon Avon , Bath, oxford, Windsor castle

So - rent a car from Heathrow airport and drive to Windsor on your arrival.
Stay in or near Windsor the first night and next day, exploring the town, the castle, Eton, etc
Next day drive to Stonehenge in about one hour to one hour 30 (a saving of over an hour if leaving from Windsor rather than London) and visit the site before lunch You can eat in the town and spend an hour there if you like.
Then drive on to Avebury (less than an hour) and spend the rest of the day there; overnight too - I believe there's quite a nice old pub in the village.
Next morning you can drive to Bath, which will take about one hour, and spend the day there.
Last day, to Oxford via the M4, then the A419 to Marlborough(?) followed by the A420 at Swindon This route will take you through pretty Cotswold towns and villages to Oxford in approximately one and a half hours.
In the early evening it will take you just over one hour to drive back to Heathrow airport, from which you can take a tube (London underground) into central London or anywhere on the network - even Wembley.

This route will take you only four days, save on drive time and gas, and give you cheaper hotel options into the bargain. It gives you more time at each site and, as a bonus, also includes Avebury which is a much more interesting site than Stonehenge

Yikesss!!! $8 per gallon.... did not realize UK gas prices are way too expensive! So comparing to transportation fares vs. Car rental, car rent may still be cheaper? Am I correct? I live in San Antonio Texas and that's right with the current gas price, same as in Houston.
Mother courage-- we've already booked a non refundable stay at premier inn wembley for a week and we cannot make any changes or else we have to pay so although it's more convenient and practical to just spend the night at Windsor, we can't bec of the non refundable booking.

Given you're a family, the family car is likely to still be cheaper, but you need to double check the tube fares (http://www.tfl.gov.uk) plus the train fares against what the car hire would be for the day + the fuel you'd need for it. http://www.viamichelin.com can rapidly calculate those costs for the car for you.

If the public transport is cheaper, book way the hell in advance (tickets open 12 weeks from memory) - the earlier you book the better and substantial (>50%) savings can be had on some routes (but not within London).

Thanks fwoggie! We will surely look into that. We're building a 7 day itinerary and once we know exactly our dates, then we can book ahead of time.

Organised day tours are not everyone's cup of tea. I certainly don't care for them but they do have their value. There are tons of organised tours that collect tourists in London for day trips that include stops in Oxford, Stonehenge, Bath, maybe Salisbury and sometimes a country house like Blenheim Palace. They are not cheap, even by London standards (I just checked a few tour companies online and was surprised at the price) but they can be a convenient way to see some of your top destinations outside London.

Even if the tours are pricey, when you factor the cost of hiring a car + petrol + any parking expenses + trying to navigate the traffic / getting out of London + driving on the other side of the road, the organised tours suddenly look much more appealing.

Having said that I'd still prefer taking the train if you can book the tickets well in advance. You can take lovely day trips via train from London and I'd say the top three destinations would be Bath, York and Oxford. (note that Oxford can also be reached by the cheaper Oxford express busses). York and Oxford would probably be more interesting for your kids, although Bath is a lovely albeit quiet town. York has a phenomenal cathedral, medieval city walls that kids love walking on, a charming and historic city centre around the cathedral with ancient houses and shops, including the infamous shambles, and several good museums. The Jorvik Viking Centre museum is always hugely popular with kids. York is only two hours from London via Kings Cross Station.

Oxford, of course, has all the colleges. Not all are open to the public but some are and the college chapels, libraries and refectories/dining halls are usually viewable. It's a great place to see a wide range of historic British architecture in a very British environment, and Oxford also has the Ashmolean museum and several other museums. Oxford is about 1.5 hours from London by train (Paddington) and two by bus.

Stonehenge, to be frank, is only mildly interesting and for about 15 minutes at that. You can't walk around the stones themselves and are held back quite some distance, and there's a busy motorway in the distance as well. Quite a few people just pull up alongside the motorway and see the site from the distance to avoid the stiff entry fees (about 14 quid per person). And Stonehenge looks exactly like what you see in the pictures, so it's not a great loss to miss the Stonehenge.

Look at National Rail for day trip ideas and costs from London. Note that the earlier you book the much cheaper it is. Pricing can be quite bizarre so often prices radically change from day to day and time to time, so don't necessarily be too shocked at the first quote. Keep prodding around at different days/time.

Tallybalt-- thank you very much for the details! Those are very helpful info indeed!😊👍 Tips like buying train tickets in advance to save money are different from what we're planning to do which is to buy tickets during the trip, at the counter. Since you mentioned it, we'll buy tickets in advance to save some ££.

Have a go at searching out Premier Inns and Travelodges nearer to town (Central London).
You might find some good bagains.
Also check-out booking.com too. There are some absolutely great deals out there that are generally cheaper than booking directly with a particular hotel or chain.

Thanks Lenny! Bec of your suggestion, I asked my husband if our hotel is refundable and he said yes so hooray!!..😊☺️😄 We booked at premier inn London city tower hill which is centrally located. They said it's a 5 min walk to the station and also to the Tower of London.

It is, I walked past it yesterday.

Somebody told me that travelcards are better if you're using the 2:1 for the attractions. So I'm thinking of getting it. What do you think?

If you're using travel cards for the 2-1 attractions you MUST buy them at a train station.
That's a mainline train station, not the London underground!
But please, don't take what 'someone said' as your guide - read up about it and fully acquaint yourself first. Otherwise you're just throwing money away.
I sometimes used to buy just a single ticket from a previous station to take advantage of this, but now I get free transport and 'senior's reductions everywhere so am not up to date with how this may currently work.

If you really need a paper train ticket to take advantage of some of the 2 for 1 ticket offers, it is not exactly hard to find many discarded train tickets lying on the ground. My experience when using the 2 for 1 ticket offers is that most of the time you just present the coupon and they never even ask to see the ticket.