GREAT VIEWS (FROM SOME ROOMS) Premier Travel Inn, County Hall: £85

MAKE sure you ask for a room with a Jubilee Gardens view — across the Thames, past the London Eye and the Royal Festival Hall to the Savoy on the North Bank, St Paul’s and beyond. Not bad for less than £100, for two adults and two children under 15.

Rooms are basic, with a not-so-lovely tan and orange colour scheme. The ground-floor restaurant serves steaks, salads, fish and chips and curries for £7-£10 a course.

Details: Premier Travel Inn (0870 2383300, www.premiertravelinn.com), County Hall, South Bank. From £85.

QUIET AND CENTRAL

Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury: £58

FOOTSTEPS away from Russell Square Tube station, and close to the British Museum, this Holiday Inn has an admittedly ugly exterior which is softened by a calming spectrum of interior browns. The lobby opens to a bar and restaurant (Med style) and there’s a discreet entrance to Callaghan’s, the pub next door (big screen sport). The 313 rooms are well insulated against the traffic.

The British Museum and British Library are near by, and Covent Garden is two Underground stops or a 15-minute walk.

Details: Holiday Inn, Bloomsbury (0870 4009222, www.london-bloomsbury.holiday-inn.com), Coram Street, WC1. From £58, two adults plus two children under 12.

STONE’S THROW TO SOHO

Regent Palace Hotel, Piccadilly: £49

Dirt cheap — as in low prices, and a bit scruffy around the edges. The Regent Palace is a Piccadilly institution, opened in 1915, with 888 rooms. Initially, it was a hit with officers returning from the Western Front — who, it is said, got up to all sorts of mischief.

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