I am wanting to stay, at short notice, for just one night on south side of London..not too far away from Reigate and Caterham. I can only think of Travelodge (they have a handy site at Dorking) but there must be other chains that I cannot remember.
I would prefer not to be just off the main runway at Gatwick!
Suggestions would be appreciated. Many thanks in anticipation.
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Travel inns, slightly better than travel lodge, similar price
(in fact one took over the other!)
www.travelinn.co.uk/TI/index.jsp
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Travel Inns are, I believe, tied in with Brewers Fayre pub/eateries, so the food should be tolerable too.
There's one in Epsom (on the A24 Dorking Road about half a mile from the town centre) at the Haywain Public House (used to be a convent school there in my day!). Or there's a Premier Lodge on the A240 Kingston Road in Ewell - at the Queen Adelaide pub. That's a carvery restaurant iirc.
Don't know if these are too far north for you - there is another at Redhill, but that is a bit close to the flightpaths!
Terry
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Not very specific here, but a thought.
On my UK trips I move around quite a lot and after a lifetime of travel in cookie cutter hotel type places, I tend to go for the B & B pubs. Invariably the company's better, the food is real and you don't wake up wondering whether you're in Beijing or Bradford this morning.
Last year I spent a week touring in the Sussex/Kent area doing exactly this and the most I think I paid for a night plus a good solid Brit breakfast was £34. I think I got the addresses off the Tourist Board site or somesuch.
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Something a little different: there's an Indian restaurant in Bromley called the Tamasha. It's listed in the top 100 restaurants in the curryholics web directory [www.curryholicsdirectory.com/Top_100.php], as well as the Time Out London eating guide and I'm sure many more, and I can personally vouch that the food is the best of this kind that I have ever tasted in this country.
Point is, they also have a hotel attached! Cost is IIRC about £60 per night, and it's pretty handy for London and not a long way from Gatwick (I reckon an hour, tops).
Helps if you like curry, mind.
HTH,
Alex.
PS recommended if you are around Bromley and want an Indian meal par excellence. I can especially recommend the 'green' chicken starter (marinarted in yoghurt and mint so long it goes bright green!), and the rum chicken main. Sublime! Not cheap though.
--
Dr Alex Mears
Seat ibiza Cupra
Mazda MX-5 1.8iS
Yamaha RD350YPVS
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Guess the details would help. D'oh!
Tamasha
131 Widmore Road, Bromley BR1 3AX 020 8460 3240
--
Dr Alex Mears
Seat ibiza Cupra
Mazda MX-5 1.8iS
Yamaha RD350YPVS
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Old bikers motto:
Never listen to any advice from anyone who owns an RD350, they are all nutters.
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Thank-you for all the recommendations. I shall have to make it more than a one night visit!
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Incidentally Mikhail Gorbachov's flight from Gatwick was cancelled/ delayed one day and so his driver recommended he should visit the "Hinchley Wood" in the eponymous Surrey green belt suburb. The paper said he had a great time drinking lager (though Russ and Jono said if it had been Yeltsin the pub would surely have run out of vodka).
That once pretty and comfy pub is now long gone and the residents are happy it is only having flats built on it rather than a McDonalds....
There is a lovely country house hotel right next to Gatwick called the Russ Hill Hotel www.russhillhotel.co.uk/. Looks like a room starts at £55 and it's only a couple of minutes from Gatwick.
And Gorby might be at the bar next to you there now the Hinchley Wood has been knocked down!
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That once pretty and comfy pub is now long gone and the residents are happy it is only having flats built on it rather than a McDonalds....
The locals campaigned to stop McDonalds. I think it is still the world record for the longest fight against a new outlet.
It is still suprising that the only pub in a large prosperous catchment did not thrive and survive.
The Eteam gave valuable advice on how to get the protest rolling and then the locals took it from there to Downing Street.
If you are interested in some more details
www.eteam.freeuk.com/hinchley.htm
alt.venus.co.uk/weed/roads/r00/r0006163.htm>
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yes henry, you're right to point out that "resident" power stopped the McDonalds unlike at New Malden and then Surbiton.
It's sad that we take it for granted that pubs WILL be knocked down, the suburb of Hinchley Wood had a purpose built centre with attractive shops (still there and actually mainly still selling stuff!) with that pub as its focal point.
pubs have taken the punter for a ride for too long as well, the new boss lady at Eldridge Pope is trying to "unconcept" her pubs and turn them into individual places again...and the Hinchley Wood had got grubby since its last concept relaunch some time in the 90s...
then again, maybe "use it or lose it" is the theme!
pat
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