a cab’ll cost you a fair chunk - particularly if you want him to drop you off in Central London somewhere as the driver will have to pay the Congestion Charge (Because he’ll be going into the CG Zone in the Centre of town).
My advice would be to train the whole lot - get an all-zones one day travel card from Watford and get the train into London.
That one day travel card will then cover:
Your journey into town
Your journey to Heathrow
Any travelling you want to do when you are killing time (it gives you unlimited tube and bus travel).
Depends on where you are going from. If we assume that you’re in the Centre somewhere (say Holborn) then probably about 35mins.
With regards to what to see, it depends on what you are into.
Watford is actually on the London Underground - tag end of the Metropolitan line - so catching a tube train into the centre of the city is probably quicker, and certainly cheaper, than taking a taxi.
Metropolitan line feeds in via Baker Street station, which IIRC is handy for the Planetarium, or you can change onto the Circle line (or a bunch of others, why stint yourself?) and go pretty much anywhere you like.
As to latex beefeater costumes, I regret that I am unable to advise you.
Leicester Square (Pronounced LIE-Sester. Honest) and the surrounding streets is the place to go for your trully tacky souvenirs - make sure you pick up at least one Princess Diana tea-towel.
I had less than a day in London last year and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I went on the London Eye, drank cask ale (Young’s and London Pride) and snacked on oysters after browsing through Harrods’ amazing food hall. I wouldn’t bother with the Museum if I were you - 5 hours is just enough time to realise it’s not enough time to scratch the surface.
The Piccadilly line to Heathrow takes almost an hour. There’s the Heathrow Express, from Paddington, which takes 20mins, but is pricy (£13 one-way, IIRC).
The overland train from Watford Junction will be faster than the underground, somewhere around 30-40mins. It’ll bring you into Euston, which links with many underground lines. There’s a PDF of the underground map here: http://tube.tfl.gov.uk/content/tubemap/images/tm_quad_2h_0309.pdf
The Tate Modern gallery has to be recommended - nearest tube station is Southwark, but it’s a pleasant walk from St Pauls cathedral (accessed by St Paul’s station, funnily enough), across the Thames by a footbridge. Westminster Abbey is a fabulous building, and you can get plenty of tacky souveniers from the stalls around the area.
I’m spending a month in England this July (for a UC Berkeley extension course at Merton, Oxford) and I’m definately planning to visit the WW2 cruiser HMS Belfast.
OK, you have **very ** little time. Depending on where you are going you will have to arrive at LHR at least an hour before your flight, even without luggage.
So **don’t ** get the tube from Watford (how the hell do you start in awful Watford?!?) - get the main line trains (google for timetables in advance) which brings you into Marylebone or Euston Stations I think, much quicker.
And **don’t ** take the tube to LHR, take the Heathrow Express from Paddington Station (western side of the Circle (yellow) Line) - oh and the rail card does not pay for the Heathrow Express (as owned by BA). It’s more expensive (GBP 12 if buy in advance, 15 onboard) but takes about 20 mins versus well over an hour on the Piccadilly tube line.
Google for a tube map and plan your journey - and use streetmap.co.uk for finding where stuff is in advance as sometimes things in the centre are very close and much quicker walking. The tube map is vastly NOT to scale - London is **full ** of tourists making one stop tube journays and finding they can see the station they left from when they get there.
Try and pick things you want to see which create a sensible route Euston - X - Y - Paddington. Check out Time Out - available online - and buy a copy (it’s London Listings and has all the latest stuff happening including what show is on where, what special events each day etc).
There is some stuff around Euston (including the Sherlock Holmes Museum in nearby Baker Street, the Planetarium, Madame Tussauds Waxworks Museum or Regents Park - which is lovely to unwind for 20 mins before hitting town) but little around Paddington.
Without knowing what interests you it is hard to advise but the London Eye at Waterloo is cool (prebook your “flight” though - online), and you can cover the Palace of Westminster (Parliament and Big Ben to you) with a short walk. Alternatively head downstream to The New Tate (modern art gallery) which is also handy, you can cross the infamous wobbly bridge over to St Pauls - really worth going to and free! You could also take a river bus from Waterloo or Embankment Stn down to the Tower of London if you wanted but takes a good half hour.
Forget going to a show, get out a see the City if the weather is half good - but have a plan B in case it pisses down all day!
If you post back with the sort of thing that interests you I am happy to post more. Which day of the week/month will you be there?
Assuming it’s this coming Friday that you’re in London, the weather forecast looks wet. So I guess we should forget about the open-top buses and walking tours.
Have spent a, frankly, twisted ten mins google searching London for latex Beefeater costumes. Introducing the word latex heavily twists (in every sense) the results - if I were you I would either be flexible about the latex angle or be prepared for the open-crotch version. :eek:
I kinda wish I still had my UK trip web page up, so I could show you pictures of what I was talking about.
The Tate Modern is free, but I still felt like I was ripped off after I walked out. While it’s nice to be able to say you’ve seen work by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, you’d think they could get a little more relevant art into a seven story building. If art’s your kick, the National Gallery near Trafalgar Square was much better, IMHO.
You could take it all the way to the Victoria & Albert Musuem, but it sounds like you wouldn’t have enough time. The V&A’s corridors stretch on for twelve miles, and five hours isn’t nearly enough time to see it all.
I must have missed the part, APOC, where you said what day of the week you’d be there. If big ferris wheels are your thing, the London Eye is a definite must-see. I found that riding it during he week was a breeze, but every time I passed by the Thames on a weekend, the line for it was around the block.
You can take pictures of Big Ben and Parliament, or buy post cards - it’s your call. I have plenty of both. I even sat in on the House of Commons and the House of Lords - think C-SPAN with British accents - but I wouldn’t recommend going that far with so little time to kill.
If you want to visit a historical castle, I’d recommend the Tower of London. Built on the remains of an ancient Roman fortress from the time of William the Conqueror, the Tower is as old a chunk of civilized history as you’re likely to see. My advice: buzz straight in to get in line to view the Crown Jewels. After you’re done, return to the front gate and join the next Beefeater tour so you can learn about the history of the different buildings and the significance of the local raven population.
As to the other fabulous historical buildings that GorillaMan mentioned, I’ll second his recommendations of both St. Paul’s (best known here in The States as the place where Princess Diana was wed to Prince Charles) and Westminster Abbey (resting place of the majority of monarchs from waaay back). The architecture is nothing short of fantastic, and on a clear day, you can get a great view of the city from the dome atop St. Paul’s.
The British Museum is thoroughly impressive. If you ever wanted to translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics using the actual Rosetta Stone as a cypher, here’s your chance. Me? I couldn’t (and didn’t) spend less than six hours walking around in there, but some of the sections may not be to your liking. If you have an affinity for ancient Greek or Babylonian artifacts - or, if you consider Sid Meier’s Civilization games to be the best games ever!- then you may never leave!
Like Paul in Saudi said, the Imperial War Museum is a nice one-stop attraction. I found that I spent too much time at the Holocaust exhibit, though, and while I thorougly enjoyed the collection of military hardware there, the Holocaust exhibit upset me so much I eventually had to leave. As a bonus, a house just down the street was once occupied by William Bligh, commander of the HMS Bounty. I don’t know… maybe you could get your picture taken in front of it?