Best Bang for you Buck, er, pound
by erodrig5 about Alhambra Hotel
This hotel was the best deal I could find in London! They are very nice and have options fot a room with a bathroom and shower in it or not. The rates are quite economical. They include a continental breakfast and are incredibly nice! The lady owner was incredibly accommodating too. -Free Wifi
-Wash basins in EVERY room
-VERY CLEAN
-Very nice staff
-free continental breakfast (english breakfast or cereal/porridge) + tea/coffee and juice
-around the corner from king's cross/st. pancras tube stations (great place to go all over!); this includes the Eurostar railway station (st. pancras international)
-Very reasonably priced (everything in London is $$$$$)
Reasonable Cheap Hotel
by A TripAdvisor Member
The Alhambra Hotel is not much but it is very reasonable for London a very expensive city. The rooms are very clean though very small and they serve a very tasty English breakfast. Though the Alhambra is not in a main tourist area of London they are right next to Kings Cross Station a major tube hub in London where you can easily take the tube to practically anywhere you wish in the city. They will also provide rooms for four people.
The best stay out of our entire vacation
by A TripAdvisor Member
London was the last stop in our 2 week mini European vacation and my boyfriend and I wanted somewhere comfortable and pleasant to stay before our long journey back to California. Alhambra hotel made that wish come true. We stayed in room 3 which was a double (2 separate twins) with a sink for 45 pounds (about $80 USD) a night for 2 nights on July 29 and 30. Our room was located a little bit downstairs and faced the back of the building so our window was actually street level. The room came with a small color TV mounted on the wall, a good size closet, a dresser drawer, 2 glass cups, and a night stand between our 2 twin beds. There was no fan or a/c in our room but it was not necessary since the weather was partly cloudy. The hotel provides high speed internet access, a pay telephone, irons and iron boards, alarm clocks and travel adaptors upon request (from their website).
Location: This place is located a block away from the King’s Cross/St. Pancras Station which is all west of the center of London. This is extremely convenient if you don’t know your way around London. All you have to do is figure out the Underground system and walk a block to get to Alhambra. From Alhambra you can get a free tourist maps on their counter that is very detailed containing most of the street names even the smaller ones. The map only shows the west end and central London, though. There aren’t many attractions nearby. The closest tourist attraction was the British Museum, which has the biggest Egyptian section that I’ve ever seen. It’s about a 20 minute walk from Alhambra and may be better than taking the tube because the tube fares for 1 way is pricey, especially since the Museum isn’t way too far away. You can find restaurants/bars and a quick mart if you walk along Euston Road. There is also an STAtravel on Euston if you are a student/traveler and wanted to know what attractions you could visit or book a day tour with them. This neighborhood was pretty safe and didn’t seem seedy to me at night. Alhambra is pretty close to a main street (Euston) that I wouldn’t worry. Because of the recent bombing attacks at King’s Cross Station, certain lines are closed which may be inconvenient to some. But you can always take a line and connect to another line. If you want to be closer to tourist attractions then I suggest planning out what you want to see and maybe centralize your location. Alhambra was more north to all of the attractions we went to see.
Noise: Staying here for 2 nights, noise was not a problem at all. The only noise we got was from a couple of people using the toilet right next to our door at night. And since our room was at the back of the hotel, there was no noise from the main street or even the station. Everything was super quiet, almost too quiet that I turned on the TV for a little bit of noise.
Cleanliness: As I had stated previously, there is a toilet right next to our door. It is very small and the hard part is trying to shut the door without your legs touching the toilet. When you do shut the door, you have a little bit more leg room. The toilet was kept clean. Around the corner to the bathroom, there are stairs to the basement that lead down to the breakfast room and a hall that leads to 3 showers. There are 2 complete bathrooms (shower, toilet, sink) and 1 room with just a shower. My boyfriend and I used the 2 complete bathrooms to take our shower. While I got hot water, my boyfriend complained that he didn’t get any so he went to the other shower that did have hot water but it felt like he was in a dark cave. My shower was in the right-most bathroom and it did take several minutes for the hot water to come out. This bathroom seemed the most clean and brightest out of all three rooms. Our room was clean with clean sheets and a clean bath size towel. We were also given a small bar of soap with our towel. My twin mattress was okay. I was able to feel the mattress springs but was still able to sleep soundly. They make the beds after each night but don’t change the sheets. They do give another set of clean towels even though we still had our used bath towels hanging in the closet to dry.
Breakfast: Breakfast is included in your bill and is served from 7 to 9 am. It is served in the dining area located downstairs. There are lots of tables giving you a clue as to how busy it can get. I suggest going down to breakfast by about 8am before the masses of guests start coming down. You are seated at a table and given a small glass of room temperature orange juice. You have your choice of the English breakfast or Continental breakfast. The English breakfast comes with a sunny side up egg, bacon, grilled half tomato, sausage, and beans. The Continental breakfast is cereal and you choose from a variety of individual size cereal boxes. You are asked whether you want tea or coffee. There is room-temperature milk already on the table, a bowl of sugar for your tea/coffee, and butter and jam for you numerous halved slices of toast. If you’ve finished all of the toast, they will give you a few extra more if you like. The English breakfast was very good and hearty.
Service: The staff was great and friendly. Whatever you need, they will try to accommodate those requests. Check out was at 11:00am. There are phonebooks, travel books, leisure reading books on a shelf in the hall. Downstairs near the payphone, there are brochures for tours and attractions.
The place was cozy and made me feel comfortable. I loved my stay at Alhambra and whole-heartedly suggest this place to anyone wanting to visit London.
Small but immaculate
by A TripAdvisor Member
Stayed for two nights - Miguel the Night Manager was extremely helpful, even giving us a rundown on where to go in Portugal (tho' we ended up going to Turkey - maybe to your home country next time, Miguel!).
I'd read about the size of the rooms before booking, so was not expecting anything but a small room. Not "disappointed" as it was indeed compact (actually a little larger than I'd imagined - I thought I'd be able to lay on the bed and touch the walls either side simultaneously, but couldn't!). However, as we were out travelling all day it served its purpose as a place to sleep (comfortable bed, too!).
I WAS pleasantly surprised by the cleanliness and decor, which were both outstanding! Yes, the bathroom was also "compact" and we had to go "next door" to the toilet but this was only a minor inconvenience (pardon the pun!).
Hearty breakfast served in a delightful dining room - great way to start the day.
Overall great value for a superb location - so close to Kings Cross station and to the Thameslink to Gatwick, couldn't have been better!
P.S. If the Alhambra happens to be booked out (as it deserves to be!), then try The Apollo Hotel just up the road (43 Argyle St; ---) - marginally more expensive (GBP 65) but rooms are a bit larger and the hosts are tremendous (as is the breakfast, too!).
Not as good as everybody says
by TripAdvisor Member exciter101
We were greeted by an ice cold room along with a thick long black hair on the bathroom tiles and stains on the towels. The breakfast was poor in quality.
Don't get me wrong here: the place is cheap, right in the centre of London and the staff is exceptionally friendly. But I have been to cleaner youth hostels with a good breakfast for a quarter of the price.
Excellent value
by TripAdvisor Member chadstonegirl
After staying at the Travel Inn at Tower Bridge last time we were in London, my husband and I found the Alhambra to be much better value.
It is in a very convenient location. Within a few minutes walk of the hotel there are several fast food places, convenience stores and ATMs for when you need something in a hurry. Each day we walked the couple of minutes to Kings Cross tube station and caught the tube. Several tube lines go through Kings Cross so it is easy to get anywhere. We also did a day trip to Cambridge on the train, which we also could catch from Kings Cross.
I don't know how we got so lucky, maybe because we stayed 5 nights, but we got a triple room on the top (3rd) floor facing the street so we had two big windows. It must have been the best room in the place! We had only booked a double with ensuite requesting a quiet room, so we got very lucky! Considering how close the hotel is to busy Euston Road and Kings Cross, we found it to be very quiet at night and we slept well on the comfortable bed. I imagine a standard double room would be like any budget European hotel and only be slightly bigger than the bed, but we found our room very spacious with the extra bed in it. The bathroom is compact with just enough room for the shower and toilet. The basin is in the hotel room itself. We found it very clean and it was serviced daily. There was no phone or kettle or toaster, which was fine with us, but we liked having the little tv.
The breakfast was sensational! Two choices - cooked or continental. Cooked was one plate covered with an egg, bacon, a sausage, tomato and baked beans (lots of people chose not to have the beans!). Continental was a choice of cereals. With both you got unlimited toast with various spreads, tea/coffee and orange juice. Although you had to get up relatively early to get there (served 7-9am), it was a great start to the day. There were a lot of French people (and other nationalities) staying there while we were there, so it was fun sitting in the busy breakfast room listening to the languages being spoken.
We found the service to be excellent. Always cheerful and helpful.
Keep in mind that the hotel is in a couple of old small multi-storey buildings, so you need to be able to carry your bags up all the steps. As I said, we were on the 3rd floor so that was 6 flights of steps. There were 2 rooms on each floor. Good security because you get a key to get in the front door of the building as well as the key to your room.
We will definitely stay there next time we're in London. Enjoy!
Forum Posts
Cheap beds in the centre
by yanco
I will come to London on the end of December planning to stay for 8 nights. I am trying to find 2 beds, a room for two would be theright solution. I would prefer, if it could be in the zone 1-2 in London. Can you give me an advice? Thank you.
Re: Cheap beds in the centre
by snorkelman
How about the Ashlee House? http://www.ashleehouse.co.uk/
During the high season (summer) expect to pay £24 per person in a double, (price includes breakfast). They have 24-hour reception, no curfew, and a kitchen. It is located in an OK area (it’s well lit and plenty of people around). It is close to Bloomsbury and Russell Square, and near the British Museum. It’s about 300 steps from Kings Cross tube (which is serviced by 6 different tube lines).
Re: Cheap beds in the centre
by ellielou
In January, I stayed at the Alhambra Hotel, which I believe is very close to the place mentioned above.
I thought it was a fine place, and would stay there again.
http://www.alhambrahotel.com/
Re: Cheap beds in the centre
by josemaria
A good place is a Ymca in Barbican. Good prices and fine place.
Barbican YMCA
http://www.barbicanymca.com/
Look the prices!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sign in with Facebook
Comments