Air conditioning in England in July/August?
Hello,
We are traveling to England end of July. I'm discovering that a lot of accomodations there do not have air-conditioning. For that time of the year, should we be looking for places with air-conditioning?
Thank you.
Annie
Somewhere in California 3/8/13
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On rare occasions would you even be hot enough to need air-conditioning. They have experienced hots spells...but the Marine Climate generally cools things off at night. Most of the cosmopolitan hotels probably have air-conditioning but they also tend to be more expensive and less old country quaint.
Yes, we would rather not stay in expensive chain hotels. Just want to make sure we won't be uncomfortable if we book places that don't have A/C in July/August in England.
No, don't bother. If it is hot enough to want ac you can count yourself very lucky. More likely it will be muggy and you want ac. But really, I wouldn't worry. As said above we have weather not climates. AC might be useful, I sometimes use it in my car, but for a hotel it is not a deal-breaker.
OK, thanks, that's reassuring.
I think you might find AC useful in London hotel rooms. We have been there a couple of times in the summer when the temperatures were in the high 80s. Hotel rooms can get very stuffy and often the windows either don't open or the outside street noise if you open the windows is excessive.....I agree that you don't need it in most English towns, but it could be handy in London.
OK, that's good to know. Shoot for A/C in London, but not necessary in the small towns.
When it is hot or muggy at night we use a fan and find that makes it comfortable enough to sleep. Hotels are usually able to supply one on request or do what we have done once or twice, buy a cheap one locally.
I know that in London the base2stay hotel is air-conditioned. It's reasonably priced and all rooms have nice sized bathrooms plus a mini-kitchenette with sink, fridge, microwave, dishes, cutlery. The hotel doesn't have a kitchen or dining room which is how they save costs. You can check their rooms/rates at http://www.base2stay.com/kensington.shtml. The hotel is within walking distance of the Earls' Court tube station and there are lots of shops close by, although it's on a quiet residential street. I've stayed there, and appreciated the a/c during an unseasonably warm September week. It's just one possibility; check tripadvisor for more.
I've seen Hyde Park with brown grass and temperatures in the 90s in London. Such extremes rarely happen, but you could have a hot spell.
I have lived in London and visited there many many times over the past 40 plus years. There are years when you could do with A/C in both London and out in the country; however, on average you wont need it. A lot of hotels do have portable electric fans- others you just grin and bear it... or hope you can open the windows
fact of life.
When I can, I now choose hotels with A/C
I was in the UK in July 1995 and was unlucky enough to experience an almost history making heat wave. I was on a tour of the UK and Ireland and found several hotels without airconditioning and windows that couldn't be opened. No much point, as there was very little breeze anyway. In view of this experience, on our subsequent 4 trips trips to Europe and the UK we have never travelled there at this time of the year. As a born and bred South Australian, I am well and truly used to very, very hot weather, but I really struggled with the conditions and lack of air conditioning in our accommodation, transport etc.
We were in England the month of July, 2006 when they had a record breaking
heat wave. We got by during a week in Oxford with a fan purchased at a local
store for about $20. But in London it would have been unbearable without
the ac in our hotel. That being said we've been there other years in the
summer and it was quite pleasant.
New places will probably have some AC. Whether it is on or not is a different question.
Old, "quaint" places probably won't. Remember, too, that "quaint" is often a British euphemism for leaky, drafty, cramped, and uncomfortable.
Typical English summer weather will have temps in the 60's and low 70's. London will be warmer, especially at night, because it is a huge urban area, Still, the weather in the UK has been pretty freaky recently, so who knows? I was last in London in late September 2011 and it was in the high 80's. People were stripping down along the South Bank.
If AC is a particular health concern, then, yes, in July I'd make a point of looking for it.
That's scary to think of. So if Rick Steves describes a bed-and-breakfast as "quaint" we have to be aware that it may be leaky and drafty and cramped and uncomfortable? Because I am drawn to inns described that way...
This is a subject really near and dear to me. I am very warm blooded and have in the past, had a hard time with finding proper AC in London. Keep in mind that just because a hotel says they have air doesn't mean its going to work properly. I used to stay at a very up market four star place in London where the air might work and it might not, what made it worse is they lied about it and told me this is as good it would get, even though I stayed in a room where it worked fine two weeks before. Now I stay at the three star London Lodge hotel where the air works great, I can get the room down to 60 or so. What I look for is a hotel with a wall unit ac instead of centralized. I've never ran into it in England but in Italy and Spain there are hotels that can control the ac in your room from the front desk and they turn it off when they think you have gone to sleep.
As I mentioned before, we stayed at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, South Kensington, three years in a row. We spent a total of sixw weeks there, during the three trips. We had great rooms all three times. We could adjust our A/C any way we wanted it. One week it was extremely hot outside. We were there in May or June all three times. During one trip, one week was cold; one week was roasting.
Thanks, we were seriously considering the Crowne Plaza because of the two double beds in one room for a family of 4, plus A/C. But we amazingly found a less expensive alternative--beds for 5 in one room, A/C, 4 out of 5 tripadvisor.com rating, recommended by Rick Steves, in Victoria area next to the Tube, and a really good price. We were this close to reserving Crowne Plaza, though, and would have preferred to stay in South Kensington, but given the price, this was too good a deal to pass up.