I love London, though I cant afford to live there.
A lesser known gem is Neal’s Yard, a tiny shopping market. Go there. Go there just for the cheese shop.
One more thing: if you are relatively fit, the vast majority of central London is better walked than taxi or bus. You may bump into oddities, like a street you read about in a Charles Dickens book, or, as I did one evening, the actual Scotland Yard. It is a deeply fascinating city.
(Later ETA: do not bother with the Thames “booze cruise” boats - I worked on one. Prices were outrageous, safety standards as lax as UK law could be stretched, and the staff are underpaid foreigners.)
Stamford Bridge: check out this advice thread - as stated above, it’s neither easy nor cheap for random visitors to get into Premier League matches. There are other London teams in the lower leagues, but I’m no expert:
We last went at Thanksgiving and all the winter markets are in full swing, the lights, etc. In addition, we visited Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland and Christmas at Kew. Both were a lot of fun.
We lucked out with excellent weather two years ago, only one day of light rain, mostly sunny skies for our outdoor activities.
The simplest hack when visiting the BM is not to have a bag with you. If you don’t have one, the security staff at the Montague Place entrance will usually let you walk straight in, ticket or no ticket.
And get there a half an hour before it opens, while people are still having a bite to eat and getting caffinated. This is true of just about every major attraction in the world. When you leave you will feel vindicated as you breeze pass the line coming in. I had the Palace at Versailles practically all to myself by doing so.
Tour the Royal Albert Hall if you can, better yet see a concert there if you can. And look for repaired holes on the outside and count them.
I’ll repeat my recommendation for the Out of Hours tours that let you in at 8:50 for a guided tour of certain areas of the museum. Once the tour is done you have a few minutes to be alone with whatever exhibit you want. We did the Ancient Greek world tour.
No, don’t go to Croydon. But I’ll second the recommendations for Windsor Castle and Hampton Court Palace.
My experience with Winter Wonderland is that it was distinctly overpriced and underwhelming. Kew, on the other hand, is always lovely as long as the weather holds.
True, but it was a good activity on the day we landed. We bought our tickets in advance (including food) so it really wasn’t that expensive. We had a ferris wheel car to ourselves and that was an enjoyable ride.
Absolutely true. I’ve seen it while travelling with a 2 yr old… parents will know that time waits for no toddler. It was an amazing experience touring Portugal with a young child, because A) we were up really, really early, and B) the custom is to allow parents with young children to the front of the line.
I woke up at about 04:00 when in India (sans child) because we stayed in Agra on some religious holiday, and the local muzzein had been praying all night. He caused me both a bad night’s sleep, and a glorious dawn at the Taj Mahal before the rest of the tourists arrived.
Shukran to that gentleman.
(Veering very off topic!)
Back on topic - the various curry houses in Brick Lane are worth a look, for a weird but delicious British-Indian meal. It is neither authentic to either, but is unmistakably delightful, and pure London pleasure.
Oh, and because I used to live near there (well, relatively near) how about the Aldgate pump?
From Wikipedia:
Served by one of London’s many underground streams, the water was praised for being “bright, sparkling, and cool, and of an agreeable taste”.(Aldgate Pump - Wikipedia) These qualities were later found to be derived from decaying organic matter from adjoining graveyards
We’re contemplating a London (or more generally England→Scotland) trip for next May, so I’m spying on this thread for advice too.
If @HeyHomie doesn’t mind me tacking on a specific question, do folks here have any thoughts or experience with Oxford as a 1 day destination for someone who is an immense Tolkien fan? Or are there other smaller cities that would make better destinations for a couple looking for a mix of museums/food/walks/history/local vibes? My wife is also moderately interested in Bath because of Jane Austin connections. It’s farther away but looks like it might be a more interesting destination than Oxford?
I’m going in January and am currently wrangling my itinerary, so this thread has been helpful for additional things I hadn’t come across! I have no answer to your question though.
I’ve adopted Wrexham as one of my three British football teams that I’ve chosen to follow*, ever since I started watching Welcome to Wrexham. In a way, I feel a bit of kinship to Wrexham because it’s a lot like Joplin, MO (a city where I lived for several years, and is very close to my heart). Both have similar populations (c. 60k people), both are rural (by the standards of their countries), kind of poor, and have suffered devastating tragedies (Wrexham a mine disaster, Joplin a deadly tornado). So I figure I’ll support the city by renting an airbnb, watching a match, and having a few pints.
As regards the difficulty of getting an EPL ticket, I know that I’ll be paying a king’s ransom for a ticket on the resale market, and I’m fine with that. I’m preparing myself for sticker shock (I expect to pay in the low four figures).
*Wrexham, because of the show; Chelsea, because they won the FIFA Club World Cup in the US and the President of the US saw fit to steal their trophy and some of their medals, and I feel bad for them because of that; and Aston Villa, because they came through St. Louis and played a friendly against my home team, St. Louis City SC.
