Want to go to the Summer Olympics in London but wary of hotel prices? There’s still rooms to be had but prices are going up and even cabinet ministers like Bev Oda may find costs a little steep. The Cadogan Hotel in London which celebrates its 125th anniversary this year has availability still for the Games. Oscar Wilde stayed in room 118 when he was arrested in 1895 and charged with gross indecency. For $300 for a single room to $731 for a junior suite, these prices are decent for London in the summer.
A better option is to stay outside of London and maybe even outside the country. The rail system in Britain is handy enough that an hour or two train ride away from the heart of the city can pay off with big savings. Here are a few of our favourites:
BATH
This lovely town made famous by Jane Austen novels could from some angles be trapped in the 1700s with its elegant town square and towering cathedral. Just 90 minutes from London’s Paddington Station, Bath is a sophisticated, modern but architecturally preserved town well worth the jaunt. The Queensberry Hotel, set in the centre of Georgian Bath has a beautiful design with a slightly eccentric layout where rooms can be found from $200 to $350. Another choice is the Carfax Hotel, a trio of houses in an impressive Georgian terrace with the cultivated greenspace of Henrietta Park directly behind the hotel. Rooms from $150 to $250.
OXFORD
Since medieval times, this town in south central England has been a place of major learning. Two rivers, the Cherwell and Thames, run through the town which is about 80 kilometres from London and a 50-minute train ride from Paddington Station. The Oxford Spires Four Pillars, a 25-minute walk from the centre of Oxford is set in acres of tranquil parkland. Rooms are available from $360 to $400. For a cozier stay, an option is the Galaxie Hotel, a family-run bed and breakfast accommodation close to the centre of the historic university town where rates range from $115 to $140.
CAMBRIDGE
This other medieval town of university fame is just 30 minutes away from London via the Kings Cross station. The Royal Cambridge Hotel, a three star hotel has rooms available in late July from $168 to $271. There’s also Archway House, a bed and breakfast that just a five minute walk from the river and 20 minutes to the very centre of Cambridge. Rooms from $72 to $112.
BRIGHTON
This seaside resort town is just an hour away from Victoria Station, with trains departing every 20 minutes or so. At Blanch House, owner Kerry Turner greets guests with a glass of champagne. Prices in the $310 range. There are 12 rooms, with descriptive names such as the Galaxy Room and the Harlequin Suite, which has a view of the domed, coppery Brighton rooftops. At the Sea Spray Hotel, owner Neil Boyce injects his suites with whimsy. There’s a Geisha room and an Elvis room complete with a wig and a sequin white jumpsuit. From $109 to $345.
COTSWOLDS
This region which is a range of hills in the southern and western part of the country was described once as the Disney version of England. Here you’ll find the enchanted images of English villages right down to ducks quacking in rivers and vine-covered cottages. It’s a two-and-a-half hour train ride from Paddington Station to Cheltenham Spa Station, the main train stop for the area. The Hotel Du Vin, located in the Montpellier district of this spa town, has 49 bedrooms and swuites and a showpiece spiral staircase and wine glass chandelier. Rooms from $231 to $530. At the Cheltenham Guest House, a grand Victorian house in the town centre, rooms are decorated around themes including Old Scandinavian, Greek and the Highlands. From $64 to $115.
CARDIFF, WALES
From Paddington Station, Cardiff is a two hour train ride away and football matches will be played in the city’s Millennium Stadium. The elegant Park Plaza Hotel is located in the heart of Cardiff city centre and within walking distance of the stadium. Rooms recently were available from $160 to $255. For an out-of-the world experience, there’s also Miskin Manor Hotel, a four star hotel that’s just a little over two hour drive from London and a 20 minute drive from Cardiff and Swansea. The manor dates from the 1100s and has beautiful grounds with fruit trees and a rose garden. Rooms from $217 to $379.
Petti Fong is the Star’s Vancouver correspondent. Her trip to England was partly subsidized by VisitBritain. Email her at pfong@thestar.ca
London 2012: Tickets For Olympics Opening And Closing Ceremonies Go On Sale - huffingtonpost.co.uk
More tickets for some of the most popular events at the Olympic Games go on sale today.
Thousands of tickets for the opening and closing ceremonies, as well as for athletics, swimming, boxing, table tennis, volleyball and football at Wembley Stadium, will be available through the official Olympic website from 11am.
Prices range from £20 to £720 across the 96 available sessions, while tickets for the two ceremonies start at £995.
All the remaining tickets, both for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, are on sale on a first come, first served basis, and more will be available in coming weeks.
As with previous tickets, they can only be bought using a Visa card.
Locog, the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, said more than eight million tickets have now been sold across both games.
But there are still about three million tickets left up for grabs, including more than half a million Olympic tickets, 1.2 million Paralympic tickets and 1.25 million tickets for Olympic football.
Locog commercial director Chris Townsend said: "There are still plenty of ways to join in and be part of London 2012.
"We are at advance stages of venue planning and these represent the final release of ceremonies and other sport tickets tickets.
"Over the next few weeks we will release further tickets for other Olympic sports and keep people informed when tickets are available.
"We are delighted with ticket sales to date, and have sold another 1 million tickets in the last four weeks, prioritising people who were unsuccessful last time around."
For more information or to buy, visit www.tickets.london2012.com.
London close: Spain in focus after bailout rumours - Life Style Extra
- Fitch downgrades Spain to BBB
- Investors look ahead of Chinese data this weekend
Rumours about an imminent recapitalisation of Spain's banking sector and concerns over global growth were doing the rounds on Friday, yet the Footsie still managed to pare losses by the close.
According to a Financial Times article this afternoon, Spain may ask for bailout aid for its financial sector as early as tomorrow during a conference call with European finance ministers.
Fitch Ratings said last night that the "likely 'fiscal cost'" of restructuring and recapitalising the Spanish banking sector would be between 60bn and 100bn in a worst-case scenario. This came as the ratings agency downgraded its sovereign debt rating for the country from A to BBB.
Also weighing on sentiment today were yesterday's comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke who "performed his usual trick of depressing the markets", according to Craig Erlam from Alpari. Analysts were hoping for hints of imminent stimulus measures but Bernanke failed to say whether the Fed would be embarking on QE3 any time soon.
"The positive sentiment from earlier in the week has been knocked over the last 24 hours. With the ECB, BOE and Fed all deciding against further QE or rate cuts this week, it's surprising that the markets have held up as well as they have," Erlam said in an emailed note.
This afternoon, President Barack Obama said that the ongoing crisis in Europe could have a "potential impact" on the US economy as he urged Eurozone leaders to act: "The sooner they act the more decisive and concrete their action, the sooner people and markets will regain some confidence."
Investors will still be digesting the recent interest rate cut from China, which initially spurred impressive gains for equity markets on Thursday. However, ahead of some key inflation and industrial production figures due out this weekend from the world's second-largest economy, some analysts are questioning whether the rate cut was a pre-emptive move ahead of what could be some disappointing data.
FTSE 100: Miners down, defensives up
Vedanta, Kazakhmys, Antofagasta, Xstrata, Rio Tinto, Glencore and ENRC were among the worst performers of the day as investors fled from risk.
BHP Billiton was also among the fallers after Bank of America Merrill-Lynch reduced its profit forecasts for the group on the back of lower oil prices estimates. Kazakhmys announced late on that it has signed an agreement with JSC RusHydro, one of Russia's largest power generating companies, to consider establishing a hydro-electric power joint venture.
The defensive utilities sector benefited from its 'safe-haven' appeal today with Severn Trent, Centrica, United Utilities, SSE and National Grid making gains. Credit Suisse raised its target price for National Grid today after saying that Ofgem's new RIIO regulation presents a 2.5bn opportunity for the group.
Capita was a strong performer after JP Morgan Cazenove reiterated its overweight rating on the outsourcing giant.
Pharmaceuticals leviathan GlaxoSmithkline was also in demand after extending the offer period for its hostile take-over of US sector peer Human Genome Sciences (HGS) by a further three weeks.
FTSE 250: Bumi leaps on mining contract
Mining firm Bumi leapt into the top spot on the second-tier index after reportedly signing a contract to sell 50m metric tons of coal. According to Dow Jones Newswires, the coal will be sold at an average price of $80 per ton this calendar year. The firm's Resource Director, Dileep Srivastava, was quoted as saying: "The sales contract is 67% of our 75-million-ton output guidance for 2012."
Heading the other way was energy markets-focused engineer Lamprell which was battered after sneaking out a profit warning on Thursday after the London market closed, saying that it now expects to make a half-year loss of between $15m and $20m, compared with earlier guidance of "a small loss". The group also said that Chairman Jonathan Silver would step down.
"We continue to believe that management's credibility has fundamentally deteriorated," Nomura said in a research note this morning.
FTSE 100 - Risers
Capita (CPI) 649.50p +2.85%
Severn Trent (SVT) 1,782.00p +2.71%
Centrica (CNA) 315.20p +2.20%
British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSY) 696.00p +2.20%
Standard Life (SL.) 220.40p +1.90%
United Utilities Group (UU.) 680.50p +1.80%
Vodafone Group (VOD) 171.50p +1.51%
Shire Plc (SHP) 1,879.00p +1.51%
Kingfisher (KGF) 279.00p +1.31%
Reed Elsevier (REL) 493.40p +1.31%
FTSE 100 - Fallers
Vedanta Resources (VED) 935.50p -5.07%
Rio Tinto (RIO) 2,869.00p -4.84%
Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. (ENRC) 423.80p -3.94%
Evraz (EVR) 279.20p -3.19%
Kazakhmys (KAZ) 705.00p -3.16%
BHP Billiton (BLT) 1,767.00p -2.91%
Anglo American (AAL) 2,074.00p -2.77%
Petrofac Ltd. (PFC) 1,535.00p -2.66%
Schroders (Non-Voting) (SDRC) 976.00p -2.59%
Antofagasta (ANTO) 1,060.00p -2.21%
FTSE 250 - Risers
Bumi (BUMI) 365.00p +11.93%
Atkins (WS) (ATK) 694.50p +6.27%
New World Resources A Shares (NWR) 326.10p +4.19%
Bellway (BWY) 770.50p +3.56%
Ophir Energy (OPHR) 615.00p +3.36%
Grainger (GRI) 90.00p +2.97%
Synergy Health (SYR) 887.00p +2.60%
RPS Group (RPS) 202.00p +2.54%
Bovis Homes Group (BVS) 432.30p +2.32%
Brown (N.) Group (BWNG) 233.60p +1.96%
FTSE 250 - Fallers
Lamprell (LAM) 84.50p -22.26%
Kesa Electricals (KESA) 49.81p -7.93%
Afren (AFR) 108.40p -7.51%
Lonmin (LMI) 747.50p -5.62%
Essar Energy (ESSR) 117.40p -5.55%
Anglo Pacific Group (APF) 238.80p -5.50%
Ocado Group (OCDO) 94.90p -5.10%
Imagination Technologies Group (IMG) 487.80p -4.17%
Avocet Mining (AVM) 157.00p -3.98%
Hays (HAS) 72.25p -3.73%
BC
London hotels persist with Olympian price hikes - Daily Telegraph
This week JacTravel, which provides wholesale accommodation for inbound tour operators, said its London bookings were down by 35 per cent during July and 30 per cent during August, compared with the same months last year. By contrast, it said that bookings for summer holidays to Barcelona and Berlin had grown by more than 100 per cent.
JacTravel found that some four-star London hotels were charging up to £415 per night for stays during the Games, nearly four times more than usual.
A second hotel booking website, Hotels.com, found that the average price for a room during the Olympics had fallen slightly by five per cent since March, to £202. However, this is still 93 per cent more expensive than the same period last year.
A spokesman for Hotels.com said that some cheaper rooms could still be found if travellers were willing to look to outlying districts.
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