Travel in London; victoria coach to kings cross!?

Walk to Victoria rail station (it's next to the coach station) and either take the Underground (beneath the rail station) - Victoria line direct to Kings Cross St Pancras OR walk to the front of the rail station to the bus stands and take the 73 (it passes Kings Cross). The Royal Scott is a short walk from Kings Cross.

It's a straight-forward journey.

Get onto the Underground. Victoria line direct to Kings X takes about 20 minutes then a very short walk to The Royal Scot Hotel. A simple easy journey

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Its simple and should take less than 20 minutes.

Just walk from the coach station up Buckingham Palace Road to Victoria rail station (about 7 minutes walk) and go down to the Underground station there.

Take the Victoria line (the light blue one on the Underground maps) from Victoria, going northbound, to Kings Cross St. Pancras. It is only five stops from Victoria..

Victoria Coach station is easy walking distance to Victoria 'Tube' station. The "Tube" is what many londoners call the underground/Metro rail system here. Maps are readily available. The Victoria Line (normally light blue/CYAN on the maps) goes has stations both at Victoria (clue in the name!) and at King's Cross tube station, only four stops between the two and no changes required.

Some useful links below...

Get onto the Underground. Victoria line direct to Kings X then a very short walk to The Royal Scot Hotel. A simple easy journey

Welcome to London!

First you need to get from Victoria coach station to Victoria railway station. This is a shortish walk. From the main entrance to Victoria coach station (and you may arrive at the smaller arrivals bit on the opposite side of the side road, Elizabeth Street, so be careful here, but all the staff will know which way you should go), turn left up the main road, called Buckingham Palace Road. Keep going and when you see the Grosvenor Hotel on the right and the pavement bends away to the left into Grosvenor Gardens, cross Grosvenor Gardens to the triangle of grass, use the pedestrian crossing to the right to cross Buckingham Palace Road and you're there.

Normally you will see lots of red buses in the bus station in front of Victoria station but I don't know what it might look like at the moment as there's a lot of building work there to make the Underground station much bigger. It needs it! I DO know a lot of the buses are using different stops from normal. It's a couple of years since I've been to Victoria and the building work has shaken it all up but it shouldn't be too difficult to find the entrance to the Underground. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/victoria-un... is the latest map of what is where at Victoria.

Now we have the fun of tickets. An ordinary single fare is very expensive to encourage Londoners to use the Oystercard - nearly all of us have one. As far as possible you're meant to use the ticket machines so that Transport for London can save money on ticket office staff, so you'll probably find long queues at the windows. If you plan on making a couple more trips that day, get a one-day Travelcard, and you can do that at the bigger ticket machines, or else you can get a single ticket at any machine. You only need a ticket for Zone 1. To use a smaller machine, press the button for Zone 1 single or Zone 1-2 single (they're the same price) and feed in your money. If you don't have the exact fare, it gives change. The larger ones have a touch-screen - just follow the instructions and they take notes and debit and credit cards as well.

Having got your ticket or Travelcard, follow the signs to the Victoria line Northbound platform. To get through the ticket barrier, put your ticket in the slot brown stripe side down. It pops out from the top, take it and the gates open. The platforms are numbered but nobody takes any notice of that - the Victoria line colour on the tube map (everybody calls the Underground the tube) and on the signs is light blue, and "Victoria line Northbound" is what you need to be looking for. Get off the train at Kings Cross St Pancras. Same thing to get through the ticket barrier there, except that if you have a single ticket the barrier will probably swallow it and open anyway. http://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/269/London-Cent... shows you where the hotel is from there but no doubt you've already seen that.

If you're going to be around for a few days, and want or need to travel around a bit (central London isn't that small) I seriously would consider getting an Oystercard. You have to pay a £5 refundable deposit for it and you can order one online from https://oyster.tfl.gov.uk/oyster/link/0005.do You get your £5 back if you hand it in afterwards. Or keep it for when you come to London again. The deposit is because it has an electronic chip in it and TfL were losing money on giving free replacements to people who lose them! You can load a Travelcard for a week or more on to it, or just use it for pay as you go, which works just the same as pay as you talk mobile phones. I love it - you never have to think about fare Zones, you pay less than half the normal price for a single fare, it always works out the best fare for you, and you never lose out compared with one-day Travelcards. When the money runs out, go to a large ticket machine at any tube station and add more. To use it on the tube, touch it to the round yellow reader on the ticket barrier, and the same at the other end. The barrier always displays how much money you have left. On a bus, same thing when you get on and there's no need to "touch out" because all London bus fares are the same price. It really speeds things up and it's how Londoners get through the barriers so fast.

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/ has everything you need to know about getting around London, and for walking around the streets and finding things, http://www.az.co.uk/?nid=60&iid=7982 might be a good buy. I have an old version in black and white only and wouldn't be without it.

Walk north from Victoria Coach Station up Buckingham Palace Road to Victoria Mainline Station where you'll see the Underground Station entrance. Take the next available northbound Victoria Line Train to Kings Cross.

Map showing location (A) Victoria Coach Station

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=Vict...

Tube - Victoria to Kings X/St. Pancras

http://www.tubeplanner.com/search/result?from=Vict...

Kings X Station Plan

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://farm5.s...

Royal Scot Hotel website

http://www.travelodge.co.uk/hotels/269/London-Cent...

Map showing location of Royal Scot Hotel in relation to Kings X Station

https://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=ww#hl=en&gs...

You do not say what dates you'll be here in London in June - the most important date in June 2013 here in London is Saturday 15th June 2013 - The Queen's Birthday Parade and you can see the march on and march off absolutely free by simply joining the crowds in the Mall by about 9am or so.

Map of Buckingham Palace and the Mall

https://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=buck...

What you'll see standing with the crowds in the Mall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kEmWLM3QCE

You will be just feet away from Royalty - enjoy

Battle Standard - Duke of Normandie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU3JY34iDD4

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