Travel Tips – How to Enjoy your Holiday in London

The build up to Christmas is in full swing. The preparations are visible in every street. The energy of the festival season is travelling everywhere and catching up with one and all. So making a visit to London will be an experience of a life time on this occasion. 

Professional Help

In case you have not planned your holidays so far you can take assistance of some agencies or professionals to get the right holiday tips to arrange a trip to holiday places including London to celebrate Christmas in all grandeur in London. Their suggestions will be valid to be part of the mayhem irrespective of your age. It will definitely help you to make the best out of your holidays with family and friends as Christmas comes only once in a year.

What to Do in London ?

Among the things to do in London, the first priority will be to see the best London attraction.
There is a lot to see in the capital. Some of the must see London attractions are free and some need admission tickets.

•    Buckingham Palace

•    Royal Museums Greenwich

•    Houses of Parliament

•    Palace of Westminster

•    Big Ben

•    Whitehall

•    Tower Bridge

•    London Eye

•    Royal Opera House

•    British Museum

Kew Gardens: Head to the Kew Gardens as Christmas is the best time to see it. You will have free entry to the Royal Botanic Gardens from 22nd December to 4th January and kids will enjoy it nicely with its numerous entertaining activities such as face painting, a carousel and fun with Santa.

Ice Skating: Enjoy ice skating at Somerset House skating rink and find yourself in awe of the 40 feet giant Christmas tree. The giant tree in the grand courtyard of Somerset House will be another attraction.

Shopping: Your holidays are incomplete until you shop souvenirs of the place you visited. Shopping is no fun during the festive season. The Westfield Shopping Centre is recommended to make the best of collections in the city but also capitalize on the ongoing Xmas sale season.

Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland: This you cannot miss if you are in London. Winter Wonderland is a great place to soak up the Christmas spirit. But you have to pre- book tickets to see the long list of varied attractions. Too many stalls, lovely attractions and rides in the Giant Wheel will put you in great awe.

Royal Albert Hall:  Attend the Christmas carol if you have a preconceived notion and be awe- struck. The highlight is that the candlelight carol at the Royal Albert Hall is performed by a famed Orchestra wearing 18th century costumes and delivering a breathtaking performance.  So enjoy the Christmas cheer to the hilt with family and live it up to the spirit of the year to come.

Stay in London

Your stay in London will be most comfortable if you stay in apartments like serviced apartments.  It will offer you not only cost advantage but freedom and privacy and the feeling of being home away from home. Compared to staying in hotels they are economical by at least 30 percent. These well furnished apartments have elegant living room, lounge, bedrooms and all entertainment options including TV and Internet. Fitted with a good kitchen they help you to make your own meals.

Thanks to the location of these serviced apartments at the central London locations you do not have to travel a lot to see the various city attractions and the Christmas cheer. There are very good holiday apartments in Kensington, Bayswater, Hyde Park areas which you can book in advance through credible letting agencies.  

London’s Chinese New Year Celebrations to be a Grand Affair

Cross-posted from the Official Short Let Apartments Blog

This year Chinese New Year in London is going to be a spectacular event with 300,000 people supposed to take part. The Year of the Horse in 2014 is considered more auspicious. The Chinese horoscope says those born in 'horse' years will be cheerful, skillful and prosperous.

The New Year falls on 31st January but the London celebrations have been scheduled for the Sunday, 2nd February 2014, with a number of activities in Chinatown, Trafalgar Square, Shaftesbury Avenue and Leicester Square.

Programme

The core of Chinese New Year Celebrations will begin at 10 am with a parade starting from Duncannon Street and will move along Charing Cross Road and Shaftesbury Avenue.

The opening ceremony will be in Trafalgar Square. After the ceremony the main celebrations will kick off with performances such as dragon dancing, music and mimes on the Trafalgar Square stage. You can join the Chinatown for fun and can watch firecrackers around Gerrard Street, Lisle Street and Shaftesbury Avenue with impromptu parties, food stalls and lion dancing adding to the joy.

London annual Chinese New Year has been billed the biggest Chinese New Year celebration outside of China. Thousands of people will turn up in the festivities and traditional dragon dancers can be seen wading their way through the crowd.

Mythology

For the Chinese community the New Year is the largest annual festivity signifying the start of the new lunar calendar year. The joyous celebrations that traditionally extend for 15 days are marked by the purchase of new clothing and a tidy haircut. It is also an occasion of family get together and dining together.

The mythology of the New Year is inspired by the sufferings of a little village where every lunar New Year eve a dragon called Nian used to torment the villagers. One year the villagers decided to adorn their village with red buntings and decorations, wear red attire and blow firecrackers to create a loud noise to scare away the dragon Nian from terrorizing them. That is how the red color became widespread with the celebrations.

Visit London

So, this is a great occasion to visit London and watch the Chinese New Year spectacle besides watching London’s major attractions. For your pleasant stay in London you can choose some of the best holiday apartments in the heart of the city. There are well furnished serviced apartments you will love as they are less expensive than hotels. You can call up or contact any of the top letting agencies online and book the apartments in accordance with your travel dates.

The Merge Arts Festival 2013: Confluence of Many Creative Arts

Cross-posted from the Official Short Let Apartments Blog

The MERGE Arts Festival 2013 started on 19 September is set to culminate on 20 October. This annual festival has exhilarated the art lovers. It promotes exhibitions, performances, events on the basis of the contemporary culture of London Bank side.

Well described as the most impressive art project, Merge is the coolest arts festival you can spot on the calendar.

The Merge Arts Festival in Bankside is the third edition this year. Here the arts and music celebration brings to life many performances from all over the place. It pulsates with the energy of museums, parks, bars, cafes and open air performances of artists from every creative spectrum.

Tradition

Every festival brings joy. Etymologically the word festival comes from the Latin word Festus meaning ‘be happy’. So the festival is an ancient tradition with its roots in the celebrations a closed community almost exclusively religious. But nowadays all festivals are community based and do not make any demands to join in.

Highlights

This year the Merge highlights are the award-winning artist James Capper turning a Victorian hydraulic powered machine into a sculpture. Then you have Dan Wilson and Chris Weaver executing a sound show within the Kirkaldy Testing Museum and Candy Chang recreating her famous ‘Before I Die’ piece as onlookers scribble their feelings.

Ultimately the festival gives the opportunity to get involved and immerse in all fine arts and be happy.

One of the organizers, Print some is a renowned T-shirt printing company in London. It boasts of awesome customer experience and a full complement of printing techniques.

You can enjoy this Merge festival with a London Tour in the company of your family or friends. There is no need to splurge money by staying in hotels. Rather you can enjoy a stylish stay for a few weeks in London at the well furnished serviced apartments London in central locations. It will help you to stay relaxed and you can make your own meals and stay healthy, watching London’s attractions at your own pace.

This year the Merge highlights are the award-winning artist James Capper turning a Victorian hydraulic powered machine into a sculpture. Then you have Dan Wilson and Chris Weaver executing a sound show within the Kirkaldy Testing Museum and Candy Chang recreating her famous ‘Before I Die’ piece as onlookers scribble their feelings.

Ultimately the festival gives the opportunity to get involved and immerse in all fine arts and be happy.

One of the organizers, Print some is a renowned T-shirt printing company in London. It boasts of awesome customer experience and a full complement of printing techniques.

You can enjoy this Merge festival with a London Tour in the company of your family or friends. There is no need to splurge money by staying in hotels. Rather you can enjoy a stylish stay for a few weeks in London at the well furnished serviced apartments London in central locations. It will help you to stay relaxed and you can make your own meals and stay healthy, watching London’s attractions at your own pace.

Halloween Hocus Pocus in London-2013

Cross-posted from the Official Short Let Apartments Blog

Come Halloween Day, Londoners have an amazing way of celebrating it and perhaps no one celebrates Halloween with such gusto as Londoners do. Plenty of events rock Halloween in London on that day exciting both adults and kids. Halloween is celebrated on October 31 with people looking forward to Halloween parties on this date. There the hosts and guests dress up as skeletons, ghosts or other scary figures. So there is heavy excitement, thrill and fun going with the day.

Great Thrill

In London, Chessington World of Adventures is getting ready to offer you some spooky experience disguised as family fun in the Halloween Hocus Pocus 2013. So, you can enjoy thrill rides in the dark and Zoo to discover a whole lot of haunted adventures! In detail, if you describe it, Halloween Hocus Pocus 2013 will have a Dracula in a forgotten Transylvanian village braving the ancient Egyptian curse at a forlorn mansion and battling all the slapstick characters.

At the Chessington World you can expect Halloween Hocus Pocus 2013 taking you to the world of grotesque monsters, vampires, wicked goblins, roaring witches and creepy characters. The Halloween extravaganza in parks will be creating an ambience that may scare the hell out of you and your companions.

Mystery Element

For kids, the Haunted House specially set will engage them in solving the Hocus Pocus Mystery by sharing spine chilling stories. They will be discussed at the Market Square and you will have Castle Dracula from the Transylvania village of the Black Hollow haunting you!

Visit London

So join the Halloween excitement in London with your friends by making a short trip and see the autumn laden London in all its glory and attractions. Do not worry about having to spend a lot on your accommodation. You can have a great time in London by staying in short let apartments where the prices are 40 percent less than an expensive hotel. Just call up a reputed letting agent in London and inform your possible dates of arrival, he will book you the best serviced apartment in the central location from where you can cris cross all parts of London with ease. With its self catering facilities serviced apartments will give you an experience of a life time with its comfort and lots of savings.

Best Mobile Apps to Download in London

Cross-posted from the Official Short Let Apartments Blog

Downloading mobile apps (and you definitely know that “apps” means applications!) is one of the in-things nowadays with a splurge of smartphones in the market. These apps include almost everything you can download for information, entertainment and fun. Not only these apps help you to socialize and connect with your friends easily, but also prove to be very informative with almost every piece of information available at one touch.

Some of these informative apps can even help you find all the local information you need about the area you live in or you are visiting, especially useful when you are travelling to a new place. So this summer if you wish to go to London for a vacation, then here are some of the mobile applications that can come in handy:

London Underground - When in London, this mode of transportation is going to be an everyday affair for you. So you can download this app which tells you about the Underground, Overground and DLR lines and works as a brilliant journey planner. You can check routes, estimated journey time, and the current 'Departure Boards' as well. This also works very well for you when you have to decide your place to stay in London. You can check if the hotel or the short let in London that you have booked has convenient transport links around or not.

Bus Countdown - Another extremely useful app is the Bus Countdown where you can get to know all the details of your bus options. Just enter your bus number and bus stop and view the real-time rota of the next arrivals at the bus stop. It’s that simple!

Top Table – All foodies please download this app! It tells you about almost all the restaurants in London, customer reviews, ongoing deals, and also allows you to book a table online. You must check out the special offers and discounts as they sometimes really give excellent deals that are easy on your pocket!

Time Out London – This extremely popular online magazine gives you an insight into practically all kinds of tourist information. Specially check out their “Top 10” shortlists and the must-see and must-do around the capital guide. Very handy indeed!

London City Guide – Perfect for tourist and frequent travellers, this app provides comprehensive information about the tourist attractions, restaurants, shopping venues, ongoing tours, events & activities, and much more. For instance, if you want to know where all you can go in close proximity when you step out of your London apartment or hotel, this is where you can get to know it all!

For more information, Speak to a customer ad-visor now to enquire or book a Serviced Apartment in London. Call us on +44 (0)20 7433 6677 or email us at sales@short-let-apartments.com for rates and availability.