London Hotel Review: Holiday Inn Brent Cross

My husband and I absolutely love to travel. We have been all sorts of places, especially since I seem to have a knack for winning trips. So, when I won two roundtrip tickets to anywhere in Europe from New York, we decided to visit jolly old England.

While perusing the different hotels available to us, we noticed that a lot of them didn't have the amenities we had hoped for: a private bathroom and air conditioning, for instance. We didn't want to share a bathroom or be uncomfortable at night, so we decided to go for a familiar hotel chain. May chains were well out of our price range. However, the Holiday Inn Brent Cross seemed perfect for us. The description said that it was located near a tube station and had a free shuttle back and forth to the tube. It also said that there was shopping nearby, as well as other attractions. Plus, the restaurant in the lobby was really appealing to us because we knew that we were going to do a lot of sight-seeing.

Well, my dear reader, don't believe everything that you read.

Staying in Brent Cross while visiting London was much like staying in western Long Island while visiting New York City. We had to take the tube absolutely everywhere. Taxis and mini-cabs were just too expensive. The location of the Holiday Inn Brent Cross is absolutely HORRIBLE for anyone visiting London on a vacation - especially if it is your first time. It's about a 30 minute train ride to the center of London (Leicester Square), where all of the cool things are.

Furthermore, there just isn't anything around the hotel. Yes, there is shopping... But not the tupe of touristy shopping that a person wants to do while on vacation. Rather than cute shoppes, you've got Barnes & Noble complete with a Starbucks, Toys R Us and a couple of other American stores. Why would I travel all the way to England just to go to a store that I can visit at home?