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[normative_]

Ideally, we'd like to stay in an area with cafes and restaurants within a couple of miles of major tourist attractions and near public transport.  We'd be likely, for example, to spend a day like this: light breakfast at a cafe, take the subway to a tourist area, go to a museum, have lunch, walk around a bit, see something interesting, stop for coffee, wander through shops, dinner, subway or walk back to hotel, find a place near hotel for a drink, go to bed.

Some days, we might want to go back to our hotel for an hour between afternoon wanderings and dinner, so it would be nice to feel like it was possible (i.e., 20 minute walk or subway, not a 40-minute subway ride from the city centre to the hotel).

For Paris, the area around Trocadero Metro stop in the 14th is fairly well located. It's directly in front of the Eiffel Tower and has cafes, plus little convenience shops, bakeries and a good sushi takeout. 20 mins with the metro to either the Louvre or Montparnasse, and about 7 minutes by foot to the Arc and your shopping on the Champs. There are a few options, including a BW, but this one is rather new and quite nice:

http://www.hotelpalaisdechaillot.com/English.phtml?PHPSESSID=98617f5163216a0f100ae6dbd620cfe3

[egilson]

I'm cheap and not too picky, and I found staying at the University of London's Intercollegiate to be perfectly acceptable. It looks like rooms with double beds and en suites run £75-80 a night, in one case with breakfast included and in another in a room with what amounts to a kitchenette. The site is http://www.halls.london.ac.uk/

[kate44]

I think that Paddington is a nice area in London. It has some beautiful scenery and isn't a very long walk to Oxford where there are a lot of shops and cafes. Warwick Avenue is very pretty. I think that is the avenue with the cool canal located there.

I'm not sure what your budget is for hotels but you can find out the price for Hyde Park Premier on here http://www.tubehotels.com/Hyde-Park-Premier-London-Paddington-807.html which I believe is in Paddington? Looks like a nice hotel (never stayed there myself) but it might be too expensive.

[oddlyodd]

I'm cheap and not too picky, and I found staying at the University of London's Intercollegiate to be perfectly acceptable. It looks like rooms with double beds and en suites run £75-80 a night, in one case with breakfast included and in another in a room with what amounts to a kitchenette. The site is http://www.halls.london.ac.uk/

I second the call for staying at the University of London accommodation. Really central nice areas - in the Bloomsbury area, walking distance from St. Pancras, which is handy if you want to get the Eurostar to Paris. I've stayed at Connaught Hall [on Tavistock Square] and College Hall [opposite Senate House/Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts]. Cheap, with huge selection for breakfast. Not sure whether they have doubles, and as they're student halls they're not luxury.
Otherwise, most of the hotels on Gower St are o.k. - check tripadvisor first before booking.

If you want a budget hotel south of the river, then try the new travelodge opposite Waterloo station. I stayed there last week and it was pretty decent.

[tee_bee]

FWIW, I am spending two nights in Paris later this month. I decided to stay near the Gare du Nord, which works for me because (1) I am coming into Paris from Brussels, and then leaving via the RER train to CDG airport, and (2) because it's pretty close to Monmartre, where I think I will hang out this trip.

I mention this only because I got an amazing rate on a 3-star hotel (whatever that means) at about $110 a night on hotels.com. And this is for the cancellable rate--for a few bucks less, it would be the prepaid rate. I don't remember the place, although it's not the Mercure Terminal du Nord (I think), which is right across the street. I also think the Eurostar to London leaves from the Gare du Nord, although I am not sure.

After I go I will report back.

[ucprof]

I suggest to look for an apartment rental if you are staying the week.  Then you can cook some of the time it will save quite a lot on food and you will have alot more space.  I got a lovely London apt rental - 2br flat in a nice neighborhood, for the same price as a good hotel room.  This particular one was in Maida Vale on the Bakerloo line, but there are many good ones in different price ranges.  Both London and Paris have tons of weekly furnished apt options often with wifi etc.  But you have to rent them for a week typically.

For London hotels I like to stay in the univ college london area.  It's close to st pancras but not so close that you are in the less nice area.  Also close to euston station and many different tube lines.  You can walk to the theater district it's about a mile.  lots of cafes and shops nearby.  But relatively quiet compared to the really touristy areas.  I like to take the tube to the tourist areas then go home at night to my quiet hotel.

I will soon be in Paris in an expensive hotel I travel there less than London but people I talk to say that you can also get good apts there. 

[icicles]

I've stayed in the LSE dorms in Bloomsbury and those were quite nice as well. We usually rent a flat near Kilburn tube stop, which is fine, if not spectacular. A nice quiet neighborhood for two academics wishing to write up research notes and cook for themselves at night.

However, given that you want a centrally-located place where you can rest up at some point during the day, I'd suggest finding a good B and B in Bloomsbury, reading reviews on tripadvisor etc. While there are brilliant museums in South Kensington, the British Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, etc are very close to Bloomsbury, as well as the theatre district. This would be important for us, because we like to scope out the half-price ticket booth when possible, and that's certainly inconvenient when you're coming in from Kilburn.

Depending on how well you handle jet lag, you can always consider what my spouse and I do if we're staying in a hotel in London: we save money by spending the first or last night at the utilitarian EasyHotel (there's one at Earl's Court and one at South Kens.), because we don't care about having much to look at when we've just come off a flight and need to sleep. Then the next day, we check into our real hotel, having saved 50 pounds. On the way back, we just want to rest up before our flights back and often don't have time to sit for a full breakfast. Again, 50 pounds saved.

I suppose my main suggestion is to narrow it down to a couple of decisions, then when all things are equal, judge based on the tube stop. If several trains run to your stop from convenient places, this will help save you a lot of time if you do want to stop by your room during the day. Green Park would be fabulous, obviously.

[socsci]

tee_bee, you are right that the Eurostar leaves Paris from Gare du Nord.

OP, I'd like to go to London and Paris with my SO, too. I have been to both more recently than hu, and it would be a lot more fun together. If you go to just one city, I would suggest looking at air/hotel packages. I had good luck with Travelocity for a trip to Canada, but I don't know how well they cover Europe. I've never tried doing an air/hotel package for a multi-city trip, but perhaps there are good deals for those, too. I like the Iceland idea of an earlier poster.

If there's any chance of going more than a week, every extra day you can squeeze in gives you added flexibility. For example, for a trip to Brussels, we took Aer Lingus to Dublin and Ryanair to "Brussels/Charleroi," as they call it at Ryanair. You will need to pack super-light for Ryanair. The Aer Lingus website makes it easy to find the cheapest days to travel, and Ryanair is pretty straightforward, too. Taxes between the U.S. and Ireland are relatively low compared to the UK or France. Our Dublin-Brussels segments cost 1 euro-cent each, 37 euros with taxes and fees.

I would set up fair alerts for London and Paris with both airfarewatchdog and Kayak Explore, using both your hometown and the closest international gateway. Airfarewatchdog has had some really low introductory fares showing for Houston and Phoenix to London lately. And go to the Kayak Explore website and look at all nearby destinations to see if there is an unexpectedly low fare to somewhere near London or Paris. Last, I've never used it, but Gate One Travel often has good multi-city packages and is well-reviewed at Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel.

Good luck! Now if I can just get my SO to believe we can afford it this summer...

[wanna_writemore]

OP here.  Thanks for all the suggestions.  We're still trying to figure out what to do, and having some second thoughts about spending the money.  But I am determined that we will go in the near future :)

[mulerooster]

If you are going to London in the summer months I recommend staying at the London School of Economics in their vacation housing.  It's cheap, clean, minimal, includes breakfast, and is near many tube stops and the British Museum.  Imperial probably has vacation housing in the summer too once their students leave.  If you want to see all the other museums I recommend staying near Kensington/South Kensington/Earl's Court.  I almost always stay at the Montana Hotel in Kensington every time I go to London.  It's about a 2 or 3 star hotel (and the rooms vary a ton - some are nicer, others are crappy) but it's literally right across the street from the Gloucester tube stop and just around the corner from Hyde Park, all the major museums, Kensington Palace, Harrod's, Knightsbridge shopping, etc.  London is my favorite city! 
And as for cost, you should go this year.  It's only going to get more expensive and more crazy next year with the Olympics.  And the pound is at an all time low right now.  When I went to London it was always 1/2 pound to the dollar or worse.  Now it's way better than that.  If I could go now I sure would be spending more money shopping than I ever had before!

[wegie]

One thing to remember with renting from LSE or any of the London colleges is that our academic year doesn't end until the beginning of July, so if you want to visit in May or June, you'll have to find more conventional accommodation, or see if you can get a room at the Goodenough Club.