S. Klein of Willow Grove, PA writes:

We are looking for a trip during the week of Christmas and we have American Airline miles for the plane tickets, any suggestions? Really like to go somewhere in Europe for the first time.

What would we do???

We would spend Christmas in London. Expensive? Ha. Especially if you have those American Airline miles. We checked this today, in early November. We would stay at the brand new Hoxton Hotel. Its very well run, and was started by the people who run Pret A Manger, the hip, deli-style fast food / convenience store. Rooms start at 59. pounds a nite, thats right about $100. And thats for a stylish hotel in the center of London. Its not just a hotel, its an "urban lounge".

For your plane rickets, we were able to find 40,000 coach seats all around Christmas. The 100,000 business class seats are much harder to score, that week or any week, we are finding.

With careful spending on a tourist transit pass for unlimited rides on all forms of London transport, as well as a museum pass, you should look pretty good budget wise. London is a great city to introduce yourself to Europe, and of course they do speak English there.