Starwood Preferred Guest - How do I plan a England holiday with Starwood hotels?

Hello Colleagues,

I am planning a 2 week summer trip from Montreal to England and I would like to make all by reservations through spg to maximize my points.

I am not too familiar with what there is good to do in England, so I am iffy on where I should stay.

Thanks,
Rischa.

Your best bet is to decide which cities you wish to visit in the UK. Once you have that down, use this forum (the search functionality) to read the in depth reviews of the various starwoods in each city.

If you still have questions about specific properties, post them in the thread associated with that property.

Honestly, you're not going to have success planning a trip in England using Starwood hotels. Starwood has a number of hotels in London. It has one in Edinburgh and one in Turnberry, Scotland. Other than that, it has no hotels in the United Kingdom.

Take a look at spg.com. Enter United Kingdom as your country. You'll see the list there.

Its easy: Start in the City of Westminster, continue to the City of London, maybe have a quick one nighter in the Royal Borough of Kensington and.....

SanDiego1K could not be more correct. Once you are outside London, you will not find an aweful lot (UK understatement) of Starwood properties.

Sorry, but it's impossible: Starwood has zero presence in the touristy parts of England beyond London.

The best you could do would be to have four or five nights in London and three nights at the Sheraton Grand in Edinburgh (which is in a different country, Scotland).

But you also need to ensure that you also visit the other major tourist attractions in England, which is impossible through Starwood.

The places I would be going to are:

1) The Cotswolds,
2) Bath (ancient Roman city)
3) The Lake District - consider a hotel like Sharrow Bay - google it.
4) Chester as a day trip from the Lake District if you didn't go to Bath.

If you just go to London and Edinburgh you will waste your trip.

I have to respectfully disagree with the other talkers. December 2007 (yes December) my husband and I spent 2 weeks in London and Scotland. We spent 5 nights at the Park Lane in London, and 7 nights in Aberfoyle, Scotland in a timeshare exchange. We never felt we wasted our time, and had a wonderful trip. I cannot wait to go back but for now we will just have to dream. The big advantage with Starwood points (and timeshare) is our otherwise very expensive lodging was free so we had the funds to enjoy our trip.

We had discovered in our two prior trips to London that they have the most wonderful and inexpensive walking tours (www.londonwalks.com) that cover not only London but many outlying areas such as day trips to Bath and the Cottswalds. A bus tour took us to Oxford, Stonehenge and Bath. This trip we took a pub tour, a Kensington tour, Beatles tour, and a DaVinci Code tour. Two of these we took because we enjoyed our guide (Tom) so much we took the tours just because he was leading it. We would have done more but we ran out of time.

We took the train to Edinburgh, and then on to our timeshare. We were disappointed we did not have more time in Edinburgh because there was so much to do. The people were wonderful. and the area so full of history and things to do (including some great scotch!)

My advice is to pick 2 hotels in London based on the reviews on this forum of the hotels, stay 5 nights in London, 5 nights in Scotland and then return for 5more nights in London before you fly home.

A few words to the wise and frugal. Coffee is not readily available in the hotels, and cost as much as $5.50US. Take coffee filters that you can dip in hot water to save yourself a lot of money. There are also many things you can do at no cost. The courts are open to the public and interesting to watch. As a lawyer I remain fascinated by the barristers in their wigs. The old neighborhood churchs are beautiful, and there to be seen. A trip to Harrods is an adventure in itself, and costs nothing to see. The tube is the best bargain around if you remember to buy a prepaid card at the station. The best bargains in food are found at the take away places, otherwise eating can break the bank.

Have fun. I wish we could join you.