Five days, not including the travel days to and from USA. Is this enough time to see a bit of the city, and then get out into the country? We are high-energy travelers, able to leap museums in a single bound. But I would want to see a bit of nature, too.
It would probably be in June or July.
Also, how horrifically expensive is it to stay in London itself?
All suggestions most welcome and appreciated.
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“Favorite Places” has discussions about places like London. For your first day I’d recommend the hop on/off double decker bus. 5 days sounds good.
There is a book, London for Less, that has discounts. This site is good for getting lodging within your price range:
http://www.a1tourism.com/uk/46.html
Good luck & have a fun trip! 
Five days to see London? You must be joking. I’ve been here six years and there are things I haven’t seen yet.
Firstly, here’s a useful (and reasonably objective) website you might like: http://www.londontourist.org/index.html.
Second, don’t overplan. You will not be able to see the entire British Museum in an hour (or even a day), no matter how high energy you are. Look at the map first and decide what you want to see; if you wander, you’ll spend a lot of time trying to find your way around. (BTW, the Forum cafe across the street from the BM does reasonably good sandwiches).
Those jump-on jump-off sightseeing buses are good value – you can get a day (or 24 hour) ticket to see the sights of the city, get off where there’s something you want to explore, get back on again later or ride a different route around. They should be easy to find.
If you want “nature in the city”, try the gardens in Regents Park, or make the trek out to Kew Gardens. Kew is bigger and better but further out and has an entrance fee. Hampton Court is also a quick journey from Waterloo Station and has lovely gardens (and a famous hedge maze).
If you give us some idea of what sort of things you’re interested in (museums, art galleries, shopping, theatre and musicals, music, touristy stuff, etc.), we might be able to make some suggestions for what to see and what to avoid. IMHO, for example, the Tower of London is a waste of time and money, but the galleries at the British Library (near St. Pancras) are a must-see for booklovers.
As for day-trips out of London, both York and Bath are nice (albeit tourist-filled) places to see. If you had more time, the Lake District in the northeast, northern Wales and rural Scotland all have phenomenal scenery and are worth seeing, but you can’t get there and back in a day and see anything.
And remember: relax! You’re on vacation!
Unfortunately, only five days to spare. I know that any large city needs years to fully experience the magic, but I don’t have that luxury.
Basically, couldn’t care less about shopping. Love museums. Cathedrals, take em or leave em. “Famous” landmarks not necessary. Quaint local neighborhoods good. No need for fine dining or pub crawling. Wouldn’t mind a concert or the theater.
Now, what about lodging? Are we talking $$$$$ per night to stay
in the city itself?
Thanks again.
If you’re interested in theater, you should definitely catch a performance at Shakespeare’s Globe. (Standing room is the best deal if your legs can take it – only five pounds to rest your chin on the stage.) It’s incredibly cool, even if you’re not a Shakespeare geek like me.
As for lodging, I’d suggest getting a copy of a budget-oriented guidebook like Lonely Planet. Mine lists a fair number of mid-range B&Bs; it’s a few years out of date, but things probably haven’t changed much.
Ahh… a subject dear to my heart. “When you tire of London…”
Although it was a while ago admitedly, I found two publications indespensible to planning my English oddessy-“Cheap Eats London” and “Cheap Sleeps London”. Amazon has both titles.
The latter helped us find a wonderfully central Fawlty Towers sort of hotel for about $125.00 a night. The room was very clean and had a private bath but lacked TV which was just fine by me. The hotel had a number of eccentrcities that could either drive you mad or prove quaintly engaging depending upon your perspective. “Cheap Eats…” never steered us wrong and lead us to a number of tucked away resturants that I might not have discovered on my own.
I’d start out with the muesum of London. It’s a great way to get a solid grounding on the history of the city. There are several room that replicate a particular era-i.e. the 1600’s as well as a diorama of the great fire. The Birtish Mueseum is beyoond description-suffice it to say you could probably spend years wandering the halls and not see all the exhibits. I also highly recommend the Tower of London.
With your time limitations, I think your best bet for a day trip is Hampton Court Palace. I
Ahh… A subject dear to my heart. “When you tire of London…”
Although it was a while ago admittedly, I found two publications indispensable to planning my English odyssey-“Cheap Eats London” and “Cheap Sleeps London”. Amazon has both titles available. The latter helped us find a wonderfully central Fawlty Towers sort of hotel for about $125.00 a night. The room was very clean and had a private bath but lacked TV which was just fine by me. The hotel had a number of eccentricities that could either drive you mad or prove quaintly engaging depending upon your perspective. “Cheap Eats…” never steered us wrong and lead us to a number of tucked away restaurants that I might not have discovered on my own.
For the sights- I’d start out with the museum of London. It’s a great way to get a solid grounding on the history of the city. We were there during a school holiday and one my favorite memories is of a very proper British matron explaining that Charles I lost his head because he “was a naughty naughty man”. The British Museum is beyond description-suffice it to say you could probably spend years wandering the halls and not see all the exhibits. I also highly recommend the Tower of London.
With your time limitations, I think your best bet for a day trip is Hampton Court Palace or Windsor Court. Both are easily accessible by train. I discovered that if you sidled up to one of the old geezers “guarding” a room-he would share little historical tidbits.
Have a fabulous trip.
Now how in the hell did that happen?
Mods oh mods…
Right.
Museums:
British Museum – this is the big one. Elgin Marbles, Rosetta stone, lots of other stuff swiped from other countries around the world…as I said, read the map first, find one or two exhibitions you want to see, and leave it at that.
British Library – a must-see for bibliophiles. The new exhibition halls are a great improvement over the old days when they were badly-lit glass cases stuck in a big room in the British Museum.
Sir John Soane Museum (on Lincoln’s Inn Fields, near Holborn station) – if you thought the British Museum was cluttered, you ain’t seen nothing yet. This man had a lot of stuff. Fortunately, it’s a lot of stuff in a small building, so you can see it all in a few hours.
Museum of London – like jlzania said, it’s the place to go if you want a quick and interesting history of the city itself. I found it a tad superficial for my tastes, but then I’ve already done a lot of reading on London history so I’m not coming to this fresh, as it were.
Victoria & Albert Museum (a.k.a. “the V&A”) – I may possibly be the only person in London who didn’t like the V&A, so I can’t tell you not to go there. If you do go, be sure to see the gallery of fakes they have, items acquired that later turned out to be forgeries or misidentified.
Natural History Museum/Science Museum – these two are right next to one another, right across the street from the V&A, and now free (!) to all and sundry. I confess I haven’t been to either, but they’re on my definite to-do list. Between the three Kensington museums, London has a regular little Smithsonian going.
If you’re of a more macabre bent, you might look around the southern end of London Bridge for the Clink Prison museum, the Old Operating Theatre (to see surgery as it was done in the good old days before anesthesia and good hygiene), and the historical amusement park ride that is the London Dungeon (a tad expensive, admittedly).
There are heaps of more specialized museums scattered around town – the Freud Museum in north London, the Crystal Palace museum down south (only open Sundays), the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich (currently running an exhibition on the history of tattoos)… you could see museums exclusively for weeks.
If you decide to do the art gallery thing, the relatively new Tate Modern is fabulous but gets very crowded, especially now that the Millenium Footbridge is open (again). The refurbished Tate Britain is nice too, and of course for the good oldfashioned stuff you can’t beat the National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery, and Royal Academy.
“Quaint local neighborhoods”? Greenwich, maybe, or Hampstead. London’s a big urban city; “quaint” is pretty much gone unless you rent a car and head off to Sussex. Which is not really worth it.
Concerts and theatre – buy a Time Out magazine when you arrive. It’ll have all the theatre and concert listings you could want, from The Lion King to tiny fringe theatres, and from Westlife to Penderecki. The half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square (now called something else, but still in the same place) will have West End shows and musicals pretty much exclusively, but fringe theatres are often significantly cheaper anyway, so take your pick.
If you want really cheap, look for hostels. I can’t promise you much in the way of clean, but it’ll be pretty cheap and centrally located.
A note from someone who has been to the Natural History Museum - it’s fabulous. There are huge dynosaur skeletons and any number of fascinating exhibitions. You could spend the entire five days in there. And it’s free!
Like jr8 (Hi!) said, the British Museum is a must-see but it’s so vast that you really can’t expect to just wander through in a few hours. Pick what you want to see and see it. I recommend the Egyptian section - real mummified people!
I would also heartily recommend the Imperial War Museum. I think it costs about ten pounds to get it, but it’s small enough to feel like you will have seen a significant portion of it in a morning, and it’s full of amazing permanent and temporary exhibitions as well as all manner of planes and cannons and war paraphanalia. There’s an excellent “Blitz Experience” with a reconstruction of war-time London.
I second the recommendation to see the new Tate Modern. Go early in the morning to avoid the worst of the crowds.
As for cheap accomodation, that’s tricky. Anywhere in Central London is going to be fairly pricey, although there are some well-located YMCAs which cut down on cost. The B & Bs in Kings Cross (very central) generally cost about £35 a night but they can be a bit grim and dirty.
As for “quaint neighbourhoods”… hmmmmm. I can’t think of any in London. Really, I can’t. You have to go to Cornwall or Devon for things like that. There are some Nice Areas, like Kew (pretty cottages near Kew Gardens - you could see the Gardens and then have a nice meal, although it is quite expensive). If you’re driving, I would recommend making a trip to Denham. Not many people know about it, but it’s a small village on the outskirts of London and going there is like stepping back a few hundred years. It really is a beautiful little place - if you were organised enough it might be a good place to stop for lunch.
As jr8 said, Time Out is the best guide to what’s happening in the city. It’s published every wednesday and it has listings for just about everything. You can check it out online here and book your concert/theatre tickets before you go. They also publish a City Guide which you might find helpful.
Hope you like London. It’s my favourite place in the world 
A few more items for the full London experience.
Transportation: Apart from taking the (crowded, dirty) Underground, riding in the top half of a double decker bus and taking a black cab, you might also try the Docklands Light Railway, especially if you’re going to Greenwich. Catch the DLR at Bank for Lewisham, fight with the inevitable crowd of little kids to sit at the very front, and get off at Cutty Sark stop. The view of the Docklands is fairly grand, and you can see the Cutty Sark, the National Maritime Museum, and Greenwich Observatory in an afternoon. You can also catch a boat up the Thames back to the West End from Greenwich Pier – either a basic riverbus or the full tourist shebang, complete with commentary.
Food: Ironically, if you want the full English culinary experience, you should go out for Indian food. The best is on Brick Lane in the East End, near Aldgate East tube station. Yummy. You’ll also pass by the Whitechapel Art Gallery, which often has something worth seeing. There’s also Chinatown just north of Leicester Square, consisting of what seems like a hundred Chinese restaurants crammed into four square blocks. Some people go to Wong Kei’s just to experience the rudest waiters in London; if you go, choose your food from the menu outside before you go in! But avoid the various steakhouses; many of them are less than hygienic, and only the tourists eat there!
Important tip: If you go see a play at the Globe and have a seat ticket rather than a Pit ticket, rent a cushion. Seats are hard wood benches. Your ass will thank you.
Beggars: Don’t give them any money. Really. Some of them are genuinely homeless, but many are not. Especially don’t give money to women begging with children; there are many resources for genuinely poverty-stricken families, and these women are exploiting their own children. And anyone who approaches claiming to be collecting for charity must have a charity licence and must show it to you upon request. If they don’t have the licence, they ain’t legit.
OTOH, I buy the occasional Big Issue off a streetcorner seller, who are homeless and recently-homed folks trying to work their way off the streets. It’s not a great magazine, but what the hell. And buskers (street musicians) you can tip or not at your whim.
And finally: watch out for pickpockets and pursesnatchers. They remain a big, big problem in London, and a little foresight and caution will save a lot of grief.
Oh and one more thing - you don’t have to tip bar staff. It’s generally not done here.
[sub]And I’d say the best Indian restaurants are on Drummond Street in Euston ;)[/sub]
Good hotel discounts (IMO - I’ve stayed in a gorgeous little townhouse hotel in Earl’s Court for £80/double room/night, so it can be done) can be found at www.activehotels.com/search/index.php? and www.hotel-london.co.uk. www.smoothhound.co.uk also has non-central accommodation, including some nice B&Bs in North London. Activehotels and hotels-london both have an online booking service.
I’d second jr8’s museum recommendations. There’s a v good little book called Harden’s London For Freewhich details all the free museums and attractions, and suggests some sightseeing walks.
Do go on the London Eye (the enormous ferris wheel). It’s fan-frigging-tastic. If you’re going in the summer, book in advance. If not, don’t. “Flights” get cancelled when it’s too windy.
Travel Inns are cheap (for central London) and clean. They have the basics (ensuite, kettle, tv, phone), and are £74.95 per room (i.e. regardless of the number of occupants, which is not the case for all hotels). County Hall is handy for the river and city, or there is South Kensington (actually Earl’s Court) which is handy for the various South Ken museums. I’ve stayed in both of them, and would happily go back to either, though County Hall is better located.
Having spent yesterday afternoon in the Natural History Museum, my advice would be not to go if your visit coincides with school holidays. It was two hours of torture - especially around the dinosaur exhibits, where you were forced to follow a particular route and weren’t supposed to stop and look.
I visited the Clink last year, and was unimpressed. I plan to try the House of Detention next time I go (a real former prison). The London Dungeon is fun an “experience” more than a museum, though many of its torture implements are real! The Old Operating Theatre is next on my list. (I also visited BodyWorld this week, so I guess I count as having macabre tastes).
The national museums and galleries are free now, so you could have a relatively inexpensive time.
This site :
http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/
has details of most.