Me and my boyfriend are going to London for a week at the end of October.
We’re going to spend some time with friends, but it’s friends who live there, and no-one is as bad at giving tourist advice as locals. Sure, they’ll show us the best and cheapest pub in the area, and that’s interesting for a tourist too, but when going abroad for a spot of vacation you want to (or at least I want to) see some things in front of which I can take a goofy picture.
What should we see? Why? We’re not against touristy things, not looking for a “unique and genuine experience”, but it’s good to get insight from other people who’ve already visited the place instead of blindly trusting brochures.
I can’t think of any must-see attractions, just see-them-if-you-get-a-change ones. But you may want to take a ride on an old double decker bus. Those are still in service on a couple of short lines. A walk along the Thames can be nice and a hair less busy than many other places.
Charles Babbage’s brain. Half of it is in the Science Museum, the other half is in the The Royal College of Surgeons’ Hunterian Museum.
The great thing about London is that it’s full of weird stuff that you just kind of bump into. For instance, I absolutely loved the exhibitions at the British Library. I went there a while ago to get a look at Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, Lewis Carroll’s hand written first version of Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately, it was taken away for restoration work, but I did stumble over a temporary exhibition of the original scroll of Keruac’s On the Road, which was there on loan. Also, things like Beethoven’s tuning fork and samples of Shakespeare’s handwriting. And original hand written Beatles lyrics. Among other things.
Greenwich is a really good day trip. Get the boat down the river (you’ll get the informative talk along the way), the Naval Hospital is quite stunning and Greenwich Park is gorgeous.
Cabinet War rooms are good.
And an extra vote for the British Library Treasures.
Take day long bus tour away from London. There are several to choose from. The one we did left from London in the morning went to Stonehenge, then to the Cotswolds, Bath, Avon, and back to London. Each place we got off the bus for about 90 minutes. In Avon, we got to tour the birthplace of Shakespeare.
I wholeheartedly second (third?) Greenwhich. Recommending it as a day trip makes it sound like it’s somehow far away, though, which it isn’t. It’s in the city, and going there is zero hassle. Sure, you can go by boat, but you can also simply jump on the Underground and then hop over to the Docklands Light Railway (which is also a cool experience in its own right, if you ask me, but I’ll admit to being something of a public transit fetishist).
I’ll just second this as well. Tate Modern is awesome. Don’t miss theRothko Room.
I may be a stuck record on this but when anyone asks about visiting London I have to point out that it is probably the best city in the world for visiting free museums and art galleries.
There isthis thread which I posted into that lists many of the best ideas.
As for eating, you can eat very well and very cheaply in London with just little bit of pre-work, Time-Out is a good source of ideas.
Greenwich is lovely, but by the end of October it’s going to be pretty cold so dress up warm. Make sure you visit the Painted Hall whilst you’re there.
Those city sightseeing bus tours are a bit cheesy, but they can be a good way to get a sense of the geography of a place and the attractions. plus, of course, it’s a hop-on, hop-off ticket so an easy way to get some one attraction to the next.
How about going to see a show one evening? There is some great theatre in London! Mathilde or Wicked if you like musicals, or how about going to The Mousetrap - it opened in 1952 and has been running since!
By which Mangetout means…“rescued from developing countries and held in the safe bosom of Mother England until such time as said developing countries can be trusted to look after them…unless they forget…or unless we say no”
Jump on one of the many hop-on-hop-off open top tour buses. They cover all the highlights and if you spot something you want a closer look at just get off. The tickets are valid all day and the buses very regular. If the weather is bad the top deck is partially covered, or you can sit downstairs but the view isn’t as good.
If all else fails, Chinatown is excellent and cheap.
On the subject of Chinese food - if you’re visiting the British Museum, there’s an excellent all-you-can-eat Chinese buffet restaurant just a couple of streets away - here: Google Maps
(across the road from that, there’s a very posh umbrella shop that I am too scared to enter)
Where? London is chuffin’ massive and the transport can be dire, so you’ll get a lot more out of your time if you look for stuff that’s either close to where you are, or close to some place you are already going.
E.g. if you are travelling to visit Greenwhich then maybe you can squeeze in Eltham Palace on the same day, or if staying in south-east london you can easily do separate visits. However that area is a long way from Kew Gardens, which is easier to get to from west or south-west but is also within easy reach of Ham House if you want to do two in one day.
The caveat to this is that the really central bit of london is actually fairly small and easy to walk through if you are in reasonable shape. If the weather is good a walk along the river from the Palace of Westminster to Tower Bridge is a good bet, you can cross back and forth as you prefer but I normally suggest the South Bank, that way you miss seeing most of the architectural horrors there and can pop into that funny little cathedral in Southwark that no-one seems to know about before hitting up the food market next door.
Do you like new stuff, old stuff, really old stuff or extremely old stuff? Paintings, sculpture, buildings, parks, antiquities, gardens? Hordes of other tourists and tons of brand-name shops or peculiar little local attractions no-one else is much interested in? There’s more of everything than you can see in a decade, so pick and choose.
It depends what you like… me, my favourite bits in London were the aforementioned Tate and British museums, the Shakespeare’s Globe replica, Little Venice and from there, a waterbus trip to Camden Lock Market, Hamleys, theV&A Museum, the Science Museum and The Museum of London. Seriously, you could spend months just in the museums and galleries…
