Must-do things in London or within an afternoon’s drive?

In My Humble Opinion
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When Mrs. Homie and I have some money, we’re doing to do a once in a lifetime dream trip to England and Wales. We’ll start in Wrexham for a day or two and then on to London, where we’ll stay based for 8-10 days. We’d like to do the must-do things in and around London, or within a few hours’ train/bus ride. We have a partial list of things we consider must-do’s, and we’re open to suggestions for others. Here’s what we’ve got so far:

A match at Stamford Bridge. I support Chelsea FC, so when I plan the trip, if the EFL gods are smiling on me, Wrexham will be playing at home on a weeknight and then Chelsea at home the following Saturday or Sunday. If this isn’t possible, I’d try to see another London team that’s playing that weekend.

A musical at the West End. We’re both nerds for musicals so I’m sure there will be something we’d love to see.

Michelin 3-Star restaurant. Because London will probably be the last city we’ll ever be in with a 3-star restaurant. Go big or go home, as they say. We’re thinking maybe Gordon Ramsay’s flagship place.

Coach tour of Bath and Stonehenge. Yes I know Stonehenge has been widely panned as underwhelming, but the tour goes to both places, so why not? Looks like it’s £115 per person round trip from London by coach, which seems quite reasonable to me. Or should we just take the train to Bath and figure things out on our own, and skip Stonehenge?

Local cheap takeout, like fish & chips and chicken tikka masala, because that’s what you do when you’re in London.

Mudlarking on a beach. Any recommendations?

Perhaps a prehistoric site that isn’t Stonehenge?

A few pints with some locals/Dopers.

One of those touristy open-air bus tours that shows you the main highlights, because we want to, however briefly, see the main highlights.

Any other recommendations?

Also, we have no interest in seeing (beyond the tour guide pointing it out to us as the bus drives by) Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Buckingham Palace, etc.

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This was probably one of the singularly most impactful experiences of my life. I would’ve watched five more if we had the time and money. Totally amazing and worth it! Might want to buy your seats ahead of time.

We also took the express train to Brighton on the sea for an overnight stay. Amazing Indian food and some fun local shops & restaurants, along with biking along the coast and some fun karaoke at one of the many local LGBTQ bars (even though we’re cishet). Super friendly people everywhere, and nowhere near as crowded as London proper. Beware the seagulls though… they’ll grab the samosas right out of your hands (literally)!

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I’ve been to London a few times and one of my favorite moments was randomly walking into the St. Martins-in-the Fields church on the side of Trafalgar Square (a location you will very likely visit not least cuz of the museum) and their choir/orchestra was practicing. Completely free…just wandered in and and POOF…music! Wonderful music in a beautiful and very old church.

Not sure if you can plan for it. I got lucky…twice. But if you do get lucky it is pretty special. And the area is great, again the museum, so a trip there is worth it even if you don’t get lucky with a free concert.

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This guy has fascinating videos on all the nooks and crannies in London: https://www.youtube.com/@Joolzguides

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Kew Gardens, home of Temperate House, the world’s largest Victorian glasshouse

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Keep in mind that you need to have a permit to do this from the Port of London Authority and there is a waiting list.

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Oh. Did not know this. Thanks for the heads up.

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I forgot to mention…the museum is The National Gallery. Perhaps the premier museum in all of London which is saying a lot. Definitely worth a visit (IIRC it is also free although they are keen on donations when you walk in).

ETA: Also, the very excellent and well regarded restaurant Fallow is nearby. Ain’t cheap though. Read: Expensive.

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I’ll throw some stuff at the wall and you can decide if any of it will stick:

Sir John Soane’s Museum

Sky Garden (get a reservation at one of the restaurants – the Garden is free then)

Tower of London – this is the one touristy place that really is a must-see

Borough Market or Covent Garden

Westminster Hall/Parliament building

Victoria and Albert Museum (there are a lot of free museums in London and this is my favourite -there’s also the V & A East and the East Storehouse now)

Fuller’s Brewery Tour

St. James’s Park

Kensal Green Cemetery

Day trip to Oxford or Cambridge, or Hampton Court Palace, or Windsor Castle

London Science Museum

Natural History Museum

RAF Museum

Highgate Cemetery

Maybe a pub theater? Pub theatres in London

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They have free lunchtime concerts.

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If you want to rent a car I would suggest a drive to Oxford. That said, you can take a bus in the same time and probably costs less.

Honestly, London can easily keep any visitor busy for a week. If you really want to see other places consider taking the Eurostar high-speed train to Paris (3 hours I think) and spend a few days there. Plenty to do there too.

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We really enjoyed a trip to see the Prime Meridian in Greenwich. It’s a quick boat ride on the Thames, and a lovely area to spend some time. As a bonus you get to see the Cutty Sark.

The tour of Shakespear’s Globe was really quite interesting. We wish we could have caught a play there.

We loved the early morning hours tour of the British Museum. You get to see some of the very popular exhibits by yourself - when the doors open to the general public everyone goes straight to those. Having the Elgin Marbles and the Rosetta Stone to yourself was a pretty cool experience.

One oddball thing we really liked was the Waterloo Graffiti Tunnel.

What time of year are you going?

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Ideally, November-ish, we want to avoid the summer crowds. I know your weather in the winter can most charitably be described as “usually unpleasant,” but it’s the same where I live and I know how to live with it. But it will all depend on the football schedule, because I want to see Wrexham and Chelsea in the same week.

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Unfortunately, the Prime Meridian is in the wrong place in England. All the other nice stuff you mentioned is there though!

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The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. I know you don’t care to see the Palace itself, but the changing of the guard is spectacular.

Also I would go and cross Abby Road and drink at the Hard Rock Cafe London. Yes, I know Hard Rocks are cheesy, but London has tons of legitimate rock and roll legends and there is some of the best memorabilia there, like Pete Townsend’s suit of money.

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My largest travel regret to date, is a Coach tour of Bath and Stonehenge.

Bath is lovely, take the train. Stonehenge was a disappointment, and couch tours are awful on their own right.

Add a short train ride to Windsor

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Bear in mind in November it won’t only be cold and wet, it will be dark early. You’ll only be getting daylight from ~8am to 5pm, and many things, especially tourist attractions with an ourdoor component, will close early. If you can make it before the clocks change end of October, that would be much better.

Are you really only going to see Wrexham in Wales…? I mean, I assume there’s a justification, but that’s not an itinerary I ever thought I’d see.

If you don’t already have a plan for getting there; assuming you’re flying in to London, on public transport, to get to Wrexham the fastest route is probably on the train via Chester which is worth a stop, having a lot of historic bits- Roman and Tudor. On the way back, instead of going straight back the same way, you could loop back on the slower scenic train through the Welsh valleys, changing at Shrewsbury, which also has a nice historic centre, good for an afternoon look round. You then change again at Cardiff, which is the capital of Wales, which has castles, museums, rugby and things. From there, the train from there back to London goes through Bath, so you could stay at Cardiff for the night then visit Bath on the way back. Just a suggestion. Chester, Cardiff and Bath have hop-on-hop-off tour buses to the main attractions, I don’t remember if Shrewsbury does, but the centre’s tiny, you can’t get lost as it’s in set in a loop of the river and the nice bits are largely cobbled back streets so I wouldn’t bother even if there is.

If you do decide to do this, then I would highly recommend checking if there is a rugby match you can get tickets for at Cardiff, and prioritise that. Even if you’re not a rugby fan at all, the atmosphere at Welsh rugby matches is great. And I loathe sports.

There is a train pass- Britrail pass- you can get as an overseas visitor which could make this easier and cheaper. Unfortunately, I’m not sure, as UK residents without a VPN set elsewhere can’t get it or even get to the damn page where you can see the prices.

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Stonehenge is only disappointing if you think of it as some random stones in a field. Understood as part as a vast ritual landscape, it is fascinating.

Bath really deserves two days. A day trip means that you see only the innermost parts of the centre. But exploring some of the streets further out is just as rewarding. A bus tour combining it with Stonehenge compounds the problem. You’ll probably find yourself having to choose between visiting the Baths or seeing anything else. Yet the Baths always strike me as perhaps the most evocative archaeological site in England (even although they are mostly Edwardian reconstruction).

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Yep. From Victoria Coach Station (which is around the back of Victoria Train Station) you can take the Oxford Tube coach. It’s quite affordable, takes about 90 minutes from London to Oxford, is usually pretty comfortable and leaves like every 15-20 minutes. A day trip to Oxford is worthwhile (and if you’re a book person, definitely go to the big Blackwells on Broad Street).

Be sure to bring your firstborn child, because that’s what a ticket will cost. :wink:

Or you could go watch Bromley F.C. play for £20, for that delightful League Two experience - standing on concrete risers in the Visitors end, or sitting on wooden bleachers at the home end. I saw Wrexham play there back when they were in the same league.

No end of options there. Outside the obvious ones like Hamilton and Wicked and Book of Mormon, I can strongly recommend SIX. It’s quite short - less than an hour and a half with no interval - but every song is a banger.

I can recommend a few worthy places but I haven’t bit the bullet and been to a Michelin star place, although I’ll note that Ramsay’s lustre has faded somewhat after some of his restaurants were found to be preparing food offsite and transporting it in. Also, Ramsay has now leant into the burger chain thing, so his name is everywhere.

Not a Michelin place but if you’re a big fan of meat, I can recommend Temper, especially the one in the City (tucked in right behind the Bank of England). Their beef marrow is insanely good.

You might also like Dishoom - the House Chai is lovely, especially in miserable November, and the menu is very nice indeed.

Or, on a similar note:

Chippies are everywhere and of variable quality. I can recommend the Rock & Sole Plaice in Covent Garden - can be tourist-ridden but it’s still reasonably authentic.

No recommendations on curry houses per se.

As noted you need a permit to properly mudlark but if you walk along the South Bank when the sun’s up and the tide is out the gates down to the riverbank are sometimes open and you can go poke around in the sand and chase the seabirds.

Anyway - N.B. Plenty of museums and art galleries but please note that post-COVID most of them will have timed ticketed entry. In most cases the tickets are free and you can book on your phone, but you can’t just turn up and go in anymore. The British Museum in particular can have long lines even for ticketed people.

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I can strongly recommend Les Miserables or Phantom of the Opera. Both excellent productions.