I’m finally starting to actively plan my trip to England. I’m going to be there for two weeks, spending the majority of the time in Cornwall with friends, but saving the last part of the trip for London.
I’ll be able to manage four full days in the city (pretty much all I can afford and still be able to play). My issue seems to be in the planning. I have a list of things I want to see and do, but don’t seem to have the ability to organize them into certain days. What I want to do is figure out which attractions and places are in the same areas, and plan accordingly. Seems easy enough but I’m finding that I suck at it. Its painfully obvious that I’ve never really traveled before.
My list (mostly typical tourist fair):
Trafalgar Square/National Gallery
Hyde Park, and possibly St. James Park
Tate Modern
Tower of London
Buckingham Palace
Big Ben
House of Parliament
Westminster Abbey
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill
Madame Tussaud’s
The London Eye (maybe)
Natural History Museum
I’d also like to drop by Abbey Road and possibly Lee Ho Fook’s - if that’s even recommended.
I am very open to suggestions. Since I don’t have a grasp on the size of the city, I understand that my list could be very lofty and might need to cut it down.
Any suggestions and pointers are very much appreciated - recommendations on where to eat would be great as well.
One of my favorite websites is The West Virginia Surf Report. The guy who does it recently took a family trip to london, and wrote about it here. Maybe it’ll be helpful, it’ll definitely be an entertaining read for you…
I second the British Museum. And I would definitely plan on spending some time there. As I walked around and saw all the amazing artifacts, it suddenly dawned on me: in all those old movies, where you saw the english explorers with pith helmets excavating places like Egypt - where did all those artifacts end up ? Bingo.
One thing that might help with your planning is to get some estimate on just how much time you’ll spend at a given site. YMMV based on your interests, but from my experience I can let you know how much time I spent (approx.):
Trafalgar Square - enough time for some pictures - not more than 1/2 hour
National Gallery - One could spend a LOT of time here. I opted to kind of breeze through (only about 1 1/2 hours)
Tower of London - There was a decent line for the crown jewels, and I enjoyed the museum in the center building (multi-floors). I seem to recall about 3 hours.
Big Ben - pictures only (1/2 hour tops)
Westminster Abbey - visited as part of a bus tour. Only about 1/2 hour.
Madame Tussaud’s - this actually took a while: line to get in, museum was quite large, and caught this show as part of the package - about 4 hours total.
British Museum - Didn’t allocate enough time (I spent only about 2 hours). I’d recommend half a day at least.
Other things I’d recommend:
Greenwich - take a short boat down the river to Greenwich, and visit the observatory. (Read Sobel’s “Longitude” and you’ll want to see the famous clocks).
Camden Loch - on the weekends, they have this huge outdoor flea market. Lots of cool stuff.
Covent Gardens (old) - for more touristy shopping. But some fun street performers as well.
Windsor Castle - I’m sure you could find a day excursion to the castle (just past Heathrow airport, outside of town). Really cool.
Food:
There are GREAT chinese and indian restaurants all over the place (remember where the british colonized ?). Unfortunately, I can’t name anyone in particular, but I had great chinese food while I was there.
Use the tube ! (Underground) Very easy, and very convenient. My only issue was that some lines/stations were uncomfortably warm. Not sure why.
For the life of me I cannot understand tourist’s fascination for Madam Tussuad’s. It’s overpriced, you always have to wait a long time to get into the place and most of the models look nothing like the people they are supposed to represent.
Instead may I recommend the Museum of London. This is one of the hidden gems of the city, detailing the history of London, starting in Roman times, including a fascinating exhibit on the Great Fire. Web-site here :- Museum of London
The absolute “must sees” that I recommend are The Tower of London, British Museum, St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster. Scrap the wax museum - it’s expensive and lame, IMO. I can spend an entire day at the British Museum - try to go on a weekday as weekends are insane there because it’s free.
I’d say, definitely the Tate Modern, the British Museum and the Museum of London. I’d personally chop the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Hyde Park, just because you’ll be spending so much time at the National Gallery, it isn’t even funny.
I’ll second or third the recommendations for the Chinese/Indian food in Chinatown. It’s absolutely fantastic. If you’re not traveling alone, I’d definitely recommend the many-dish menus. They’re fantastic. (I can’t remember the name of my favourite, but it has a white and pink facade and two dining stories and a basement. Chinese place. Lovely, lovely food and good customer reps)
The wax museeum . . . eh. Good for photos, not much else. I’d can it seeing as it takes two and a half bloody ages to get in.
It may be of use to check out some maps to get an idea of what is near what. St Paul’s is just down the road from the Museum of London with Postmans Park along the way. That’s a beautiful little park tucked away between some churches.
Parliament is adjacent to Westminster Abbey and both are about a half mile south of Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Downing Street is between the two. So is Churchill’s wartime bunker, a great little tour. THAT is on the eastern edge of St James Park, which has Buckingham Palace on the western edge and the Wellington Barracks with attendent Guards Museum on the southern side. I think that this paragraph all by itself would constitute a full day and then some.
You may want to look into getting a London Pass. But I’m not sure if it’s financially compatible with a four-day stay.
I was going to make this point - if you wanted to be efficient you could do the following in one day:
Trafalgar Square (half an hour tops is all you need once you’ve taken some pictures)
National Gallery (as others have said you’d need a lot of time to enjoy this properly but it’s just next to Trafalgar Square)
Hyde Park, and possibly St. James Park (St James I heartily recommend - it’s just next to where I work - as it’s pretty and has nice things in it but ultimately it’s fairly small and when all is said and done it’s a park. Hyde is nice but it’s very large and not much to it, so you could skip it)
Buckingham Palace (this is in St James Park - do you want to go inside and take the tour which runs seasonally? If not half an hour tops, if so as long as the queues take and probably another couple of hours)
Big Ben/House of Parliament - really worth having seen but unless you’re planning on going inside (which you can do, quite a lot of the main House is a public area and on Fridays they do a tour which I’ve been on and recommend - you could even take in one of the Parliamentary committees whilst you’re there!) all you need is time to take pics - half an hour at most
Westminster Abbey - next to Parliament, again if you’re not going inside you don’t need long to take pics
The London Eye (maybe) - I’ve been on it and it’s good (and not too expensive) and it’s only across the bridge at Waterloo from these other attractions. The actual ride is half an hour and you can buy a ticket for a set time rather than having to stand in line which is a bonus.
All the other things you list are in different parts of the city so would take longer to do and of them I’d say Natural History Museum was the best, but that’s just me. If you asked me to break your trip down as you have it I’d do it as follows:
Day 1
Trafalgar Square (take pics) then go in National Gallery for 2-3 hours followed by lunch then head to Covent Garden piazza for a quick mosey, and then down to the Embankment and walk across the bridge to the London Eye for the afternoon
Day 2
Go to Westminster tube stop and take some pics of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (see how long the queue is to go in and if it’s short go through, check out Westminster Hall and Central Lobby, have a quick wander around the corridors if you like (police will stop you going anywhere you’re not supposed to) and then exit pronto - at the very most an hour), then cross the road and do the same for Westminster Abbey but don’t go in as it costs money and isn’t really worth it. If you wanted to you could walk around the corner into Great Smith street and come visit me in my office as I’m just around the corner from the Abbey.
Cross the road and go into St. James Park, do a circuit of it circling from the bottom right hand corner up past the back end of Downing Street and Horse Guards, along the Mall to Buck Palace, take some pics, maybe wait for the guard to change if you’re really keen to see that. Now, lunch time! Go out of St James park on the North Side and up St James’ street to a restaurant half way up on the right hand side called Just St James. It’s not a cheap place to eat (lunch would be about £25 per person for two courses) but the food there is amazing, the venue fantastic and the service second to none - it’s my fave London restaurant and it will leave you with a great impression of London dining.
After lunch walk the rest of the way up St James Street to the Junction at the top and turn right and walk along until you get to the Royal Academy of Art on the left hand side of the road. Pop in and if there are any exhibits that take your fancy then check them out (they’re usually not that pricey and you can do them in about an hour) but if not then exit and carry on along Picadilly to Picadilly Circus and Leicester Square (yes they’re tourist traps but they’re worth having seen). Don’t buy anything there unless you want to be ripped off. Whilst you’re in that area check out the multifarious theatre outlets and see if there are any tickets for shows you’d like to see that night that aren’t a complete gouge (not likely but you never know).
Day 3
In the morning go over to the Tate Modern and have a look around, 2-3 hours is the most you really need. After that walk over the bridge to the City and pretty much a straight line north to St Pauls. Go in and have a look around for an hour, but I don’t recommend going into the belfries if you have even a mild fear of heights. For lunch probably just best to grab a sandwich from a Pret or Eat! or something.
This next bit might sound very strange but bear with me: you’ll now be in the City of London which has some of the most amazing arcitecture in the world and is effectively a maze of streets some of which are nearly 1000 years old. Put the map away and just walk around and take in the sights, it’s really worth it. Once you get tired of doing this stop at the next tube station you find (there are a lot in that area) and take the tube to Tower Hill where the Tower of London is. Go in and have a look around, as cormac262 said you can do this in 3 hours at the most. It’s one of the most historic sites in London.
Day 4
Head to Natural History Museum at South Kensington in the morning. I recommend 3 hours there and then that leaves you the afternoon to check out the British Museum.
Don’t forget to take in some theatre while you’re there. There’s a half-price ticket booth in Leicester Square (I think it’s still there).
Abbey Road is kind of out of the way - we got there by hooking up with a walking tour (London Walks - see www.walks.com ) of the Beatles sites (like the Let It Be building) and the tube to Abbey Road. After that we hit up Madame Tussauds since you end up on that side of the city. Definitely look up some of walking options with London Walks - I’d make more use of them next time.
Get an Oyster card as soon as you arrive, and put about £20 on it - this will get you all around London with huge discounts on the Tube and the buses, and if you put some extra on it and use it to pay for the Eye, you get a discount too.
The Eye should NOT be a maybe - it’s superb.
Definitely do a boat trip, too. There’s a good one that leaves Westminster Bridge by the Houses of Parliament and goes down as far as Tower Bridge before returning - just over an hour. It’s an excellent way to see London, and you can get a big discount if you combine it with an open-top bus tour.
There’s a deal where you can get a discount on the boat trip
I second the disdain for Madame Tussauds. Apart from about three ancient death masks, it’s a total waste of time and money - and if you want to see it you can go to Vegas.
I second the London Walks. I did one and it was great. Got to see The Monument, the Stone of London (a bit of a joke, there), Diagon Alley, Leadenhall Market and other sites. The guide was full of great info and showed us details that I never would have thought to look for.
Seriously, do not bother with Madame Tussauds. I went there with a friend who was visiting because she really wanted to go, but it’s just not worth the entrance fee, and there are so many other, much cooler things you could be doing.
And it actually has nothing specifically to do with London or even the UK. The place could be located anywhere in the world. So don’t waste your time there.
I’ve been to London three times, the longest for a semester abroad in college. I met my wife there and have many great memories.
In addition to everything mentioned above, I’d add these to the mix:
Imperial War Museum - On the south bank of the Thames. If you like military history, it’s a must.
The Cabinet War Rooms - As mentioned by Hypno-Toad. It’s amazing to see where Churchill worked and lived; it really looks just as it must have when he was there. You can still see the pushpin holes in the military maps!
By all means go to some live plays. The London stage is far cheaper than Broadway, even given the weak dollar nowadays. If you ever watch PBS (Masterpiece Theatre and the like) you’ll be pleased by how many familiar faces you’ll see.
**Illuminatiprimus ** - THANK YOU. I didn’t expect someone to actually lay everything out like that for me, but I love that you did. It will be very useful.
Thanks to everyone for the advice, and also for helping remove something from my list, which will be the wax museum. I’ve actually been to the one in Vegas, so I don’t know why I thought the one in London would be any different. shrugs
The Oyster card sounds like a good idea, as well as the walking tours…definitely something I’m going to look into.
I’ll try to fit in a play, and I’m adding the British Museum.
One of my mom’s friend’s has told me to avoid Picadilly Circus because of the crime. Is it really that bad?
Well if it’s useful you can, as I said, come and thank me in person when you’re over here can’t you?
Seriously I’m happy to oblige. As for Picadilly Circus, crime there isn’t any worse than it is in any busy city centre IMO. Central London is actually on the whole safer than the suburbs because of the far greater police presence and the bigger number of tourists (who aren’t there to commit crime). Obviously you should do your best to protect yourself from pickpockets but other than that I’d say it’s fine.
For the record I’ve gone to Picadilly Circus hundreds of times, day and night, to shop, eat out, come home from clubs etc and never had a sniff of a problem.
Ditto on the Oyster card. Just spent two weeks in London visiting offspring, and the Oyster card made using the Tube and busses a snap. Not to mention cheaper.
I had about 3.5 days there, and two of those days were New Years Eve & New Years Day, and I managed to see Hyde Park, Trafalgar (missed the national gallery and buckingham palace for that matter), Tate & Tate Modern, Big Ben, Tower, the Eye, and the British Museum (a must). I also got to the National Library the Victoria & Albert Museum. I went to services in St. Pauls & Westminster and even got lost somewhere in the countryside on a side trip to Grenwich. It can be done, it just requires planning.
Check to see what is open and when. Figure out what is near what, what is on the way to what, and how to get from point A to point B. The tube (if you come from somewhere with horrible to pathetic public transportation) is amazing.
Also, if you want to do theater in London, theatres there are closed on Sunday and not on Monday (as God intended). That was the one thing that I didn’t bother to check before I got there and completely caught me by surprise.
