Where to Stay in London: 12 Best Areas Compared (Pros, Cons and Who Each One Suits)

Covent Garden or Kensington, South Bank or Shoreditch? Where to stay in London is one of the questions we are asked most in the Facebook group and in our itinerary consultations. In episode 220 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy and Doug take you around the 12 areas of London we recommend staying in, with who each one suits, what is on the doorstep and the pros and cons worth knowing before you book.

This is the companion to Episode 68, which covers how to choose your area: why staying central usually pays for itself, budgets and how close you want to be to a Tube station. Here, we go area by area, with the train stations each one puts you near, the hotels we have stayed in ourselves, Tracy’s three favourite areas, and three things to check on any London hotel listing. Every area has its own guide on London Travel Planning, all linked below, along with our full guide to where to stay in London, which has hotel picks at three budgets and a map.

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What you’ll learn in this episode

• Why Covent Garden, Charing Cross and Trafalgar Square are hard to beat for a first visit, and the trade-off: busy, lively in the evening and often pricey
• What staying by Tower Bridge and in the City of London is really like: packed with office workers in the week, quiet in the evenings and at weekends, and handy for early and late visits to the Tower of London
• South Bank, Bankside, Southwark and Waterloo: the wide, flat riverside path past the London Eye, the Globe and Tate Modern, the Christmas market from late November, and how busy it gets around the London Eye at weekends
• South Kensington, Knightsbridge, Belgravia and Chelsea for museum lovers and families: three free museums, the pedestrian tunnel from the Tube station, the Piccadilly line from Heathrow, and the price tag that comes with the area
• Greenwich for a second or third visit: a village feel, more room to breathe, the DLR, the Uber Boat and a 10-minute train to London Bridge, plus the steep last stretch up to the Royal Observatory
• The East End, Spitalfields and Shoreditch for food, markets and street art, and why light sleepers may want to look elsewhere
• How King’s Cross has changed, the three stations in a row (Euston, St Pancras and King’s Cross), and why it is Doug’s go-to area before an early Eurostar or a train north
• Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia: central London with a calmer feel, often better value than Covent Garden or Westminster, and why to check for small rooms, steep stairs and no lift in converted Georgian townhouses
• Mayfair, Marylebone and Oxford Street: where to look if Park Lane is out of budget, Marylebone’s village feel and Chiltern line trains, and why Tracy would not stay on Oxford Street itself
• Westminster and St James’s for landmarks on the doorstep and quieter evenings, and why Victoria is a popular, slightly cheaper choice with trains to Gatwick, Brighton and the south coast
• Soho for theatre lovers who want to walk back to the hotel after the show, and the tip to ask for a room at the back of the building
• Notting Hill and Little Venice for couples and photographers, what to know about Portobello Road on a Saturday and the Notting Hill Carnival, and where Paddington fits in
• Three things to check on the listing before you book any London hotel: a lift, air conditioning if you are visiting between June and September, and room size, plus a word on UK bed sizes
• Tracy’s three favourite areas to stay in London, and the one at the top of her list for next time