London Vacation Rental apartment

Everything perfect. Wonderfully comfortable flat, well equipped and an excellent location for us. Olga welcomed us on arrival and guided us through everything with ease. Received information on local shops and restaurants - Waitrose an easy walk away. Our daughter found the tube ride from Kings Cross to Heathrow to be no problem. There was a bit too much rain! to enjoy the garden but enjoyed looking out onto it whilst chilling.

Our grown-up family - which is scattered, but we all hail from London originally - wanted to get together for Christmas in London, and we did so in this lovely, beautifully furnished and well-equipped flat in December 2008. We cannot speak highly enough of the helpfulness of the owners who were so accommodating for our arrangements - people arriving at different times and from different directions. We were able to entertain an elderly mother for Christmas dinner because the flat was so comfortable for her (it wouldn't have been possible in other smaller family venues) and we all valued the experience very much. One of our best Christmases ever. We know the Bloomsbury area well - and we can recommend this location to any out-of-town visitors. It is wonderfully convenient for tourist spots, shops, libraries, places of worship if you need them, train stations, buses - and it is in a real neighbourhood. During our leisurely stay we even discovered some corners that we hadn't known before - some nice little pubs and parks and pretty streets and neighbourhood stores. People who want to experience 'real' London - but still very close to 'tourist London' - could hardly do better.

Our family stayed in early 2008 and found our hosts welcomed us to quiet, secure (gated), spotless and extremely comfortable accommodation a very short couple of minutes walk from tube and national rail stations and bus, or a longer stroll into the city. The British Museum is a short stroll, easy for the odd free hour or so though deserving more..

The flat istelf was not cluttered or fussy but tasteful with good quality fixtures and art/ornaments and since our hosts stay there themselves as convenient, is fully equipped and feels like a real home- genuinely comfortable beds with quality bedding, all household equipment and the little extras including pantry basics to hand. Bedrooms, including the two spacious ones, are upstairs so you do need to be able to manage stairs. There is no real robe in the third (single) bedroom but some coat hooks and a bureau sufficed, and there is a coat cupboard understair with drying racks available. An ensuite as well as separate bathroom and a separate downstairs loo makes it suitable to family or two couples plus one other person.

It was too cold to use the small garden when we visited but nice to know it was there and not feel overlooked; and there is a good local supermarket a comfortable walk away with everything including semi-prepared foods if required. It does lack a full complement of TV channels but, really, you don't visit London to watch TV. Get a life! Go see a show or watch a video or read to veg out at the end of a busy day (there are books and travel stuff provided). Set your recorder at home if you are desperate for a particular episode of something! There is internet access.

My only hesitation in writing a review is that we hope to go back in late 2009 and don't want to find it booked up by someone who reads our review!