My vacation has snuck up on me and it’s now less than two weeks I’ll be leaving for my week-long vacation in London and I haven’t decided what I’m going to do there. Any suggestions?
For starters:
Tower of London
Kew Gardens
St. Paul’s
Tower Bridge
Well, what do you like doing. The options are endless!
Theatre? West End or fringe? Musicals or Shakespeare?
Art? Contemporary or classical? Greek sculptures or street art?
History? if so, what era?
Food? What kind?
Street markets?
Partying into the night?
Science?
Music? What sort?
Design?
Comedy?
Dance?
Drinking? Cocktails or grungy pubs?
Open air/gardens?
Shopping? High fashion or street?
You need to give us more to go on. If you can answer my hasty list, I can give you some options that match your interests.
In the meantime, here’s 101 things to do in London.
Not partying, music, comedy, dance, drinking, or shopping. Not that I dislike those things, but they’re not what I’m looking for on this visit.
I would love to check out a non-musical play, but I don’t know whether that would be within my budget.
Art, history, food, street markets, science, design all sound good. Gardens I can take or leave.
The Courtauld Museum. The National Gallery. The Victoria and Albert. Kensington Palace. Tate Britain. Portobello Road Market on Saturday. The British Museum. The British Library. Sherlock Holmes walking tour. Westminster Abbey. The London Eye. Walk through Hyde Park. Walk down the Strand. There are plenty of non-musical plays in London that don’t cost an arm and a leg. See The Mousetrap, the longest running play ever. Take a boat tour to Greenwich. Hampton Court.
There are a zillion things to do in London.
I would stay away from Portobello Road, but in October it’s perhaps not like it was when I passed there in August. We were just passing by and it was almost impossible to get through the crowds of thousands of people walking like lemmings between the underground station and the market.
Tate Gallery is great if you like modern art. Even if you don’t.
Ride the tube, just for the heck of it. It is quite an experience.
And don’t forget to mind the gap!
A cautionary word: if you have never visited a country where they drive on the wrong side of the road, be extremely cautious when crossing the street. Make sure you look RIGHT, not left, before stepping off the curb. Seriously. It’s easy to get distracted and forget where the cars are coming from.
London Walks! So much fun, and possibly the best way to learn about the city and its history.
I love the British Museum and the National Gallery.
Boating on the Serpentine in Hyde Park.
Now I want to go to London.
Me and the Family live just a short train ride away and often nip up for he day, This weekend we are going on Sunday as the little one has a school topic this term about ancient Greece.
Seeing as we stole most of it we may as well make the most of The British Museum. The other one has the great fire of London as a topic so we’ll also go up theMonument near pudding lane and visit the Museum of London. All good stuff (and the Monument is the only one that isn’t free)
London is a great city and, though accommodation can be pricey, transport, food and entertainment is not.
I was in London for 2 weeks in May so I am chock full o’ideas. Get to the Churchill War Rooms. Fascinating. The Imperial War Museum was closed when I was there but I understand it is now open and fabulous.
If you want a play suggestion, go see The Ladykillers. The cast knock Graham Linehan’s adaptation out of the park.
The War Museum IS fabulous.
OP If you go to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square on the day, you can get decent theatre tickets. Admittedly not all are discounted and they are mostly musicals but War Horse is awesome and Woman in Black is supposed to be really scary and it is discounted.
I second London Walks. I know you don’t want to shop but Camden Market is cool and if you’re a foodie, Borough Market is great. plus it’s on the Thames Path and you can walk all along the river, past the Tate, the Eye, Big Ben etc.
You might want to look into getting a London Pass. I had one in London and it was pretty useful. It’s rather odd in that it’s valid only for consecutive days and, despite some of the advertising, is not unlimited. Instead, you buy a card for however many days (1, 2, 3, or 6) at a set price. This price is lower than the amount of value loaded onto the card and the full value of the entry of a site is deducted from the card.
I was on Portobello sometime between Christmas and New Years. That was pretty packed and only really interesting if you’re interested in antiques (or watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks too many times as a child.)
Trust me on this: Drive on the left.
Love the suggestions! Keep 'em coming.
Oh, I’m not going to drive.
Go to Westminster Pier and get a boat to Greenwich. You get to see many of the sights on a relaxing boat ride plus the live commentary is usually very amusing. When you reach Greenwich there are several things to do - the Cutty Sark (an old tea clipper), National Maritime Museum but for my money the one not to miss is the Royal Observatory set at the top of the hill in Greenwich Park. This is where Greenwich Mean Time originally comes from. Great free museum plus you can straddle the east and west hemispheres at zero degrees longitude. Nice views too.
We have been considering that we might take a day trip to Oxford. Any suggestions there?
One thing that I don’t think has been mentioned is that all National museums are free. If you’ve got a week (and assuming you like museums) then I would concentrate on them.
Everything else is expensive.
Ah very good advice.