I am going to be in London on the 15-18th…
Being a student, cost is somewhat prohibitive, but really, what shouldn’t I miss?
Ro
"Elmo knows where you live! – Elmo, after Homer stiffed PBS for $10,000
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Greenwich.
A boat or the lightrail will take you there from Westminster in about 30 minutes. The first thing you’ll see is the clipper ship Cutty Sark and the Royal Naval College. A short walk up the road past some great pubs is the National Maritime Museum, the greatest nautical museum in the world and Queen’s House, the mansion that the White House was modeled on. A walk through beautiful Greenwich Park and up a hill takes you to the Royal Observatory where you can stand astride the 0 meridian and see some fine Christopher Wren architecture. You can tour the house that Edmond Halley and other royal astronomers lived in as well as check out tons of antique telescopes, navigational and semaphore equipment and chronometers. On a clear day you can see for miles up or down the Thames.
All in all, very pretty with not nearly the numbers of tourists you’ll find around Westminster, Buckingham Palace, Trafalger Square, Covent Garden, Picadilly Circus or the Tower. Other places of interest that most tourists seem to miss are the Embankment and Hyde Park.
A fast train through the Chunnel should get you into Paris in a coupla hours.
Uke
At least three hours, Uke. And a second class ticket will cost you about $100 each way.
Yeah, but then he’d be in Paris, as opposed to…London.
Well worth it at twice the expense, if you ask me.
I love London. I spent two weeks there in 1998, bumming off my cousin who lives there. I’m not even a big-city person, but I really liked London. I think my favorite thing was just walking around and people-watching. Very cost-effective. Get a day-pass for the Underground (it’s a few pounds, definitely worth it - you can also ride the bus with it) and just go crazy. If you like museums, check out the British Museum and the National Gallery, both of which are free. Walk around Westminster (quite a large area and chock-full of famous sites), check out a play if you can get student tix. Take the tube to Leicester and just walk around. It’s touristy, but fun and there’s a lot of stuff to see. I love walking, and I don’t mind getting lost, so I had a great time. Oh, and go shopping in Camden Town! (There’s a tube stop for it, very easy to get to.) It’s like a giant flea market, excellent stuff.
~Harborina
“Don’t Do It.”
Paris wouldn’t be so bad if it just wasn’t so full of, uh…,Parisians. If you’ve seen the Eiffel Tower or the Mona Lisa once you’ve seen them a million times. (I like their onion soup and bread, though.)
I’m leaving on Thursday for the same location.
Can anybody recommend any good book stores…besides the already well known ones?
Studi
When I grow up, I want to be the Minister of Silly Walks.
OK, a serious answer, apart from Ursa Major’s advice, which was excellent. As far as mor touristy things, I would not miss the Tower of London, though it costs about twenty bucks to get in. Still, it’s a visit worth several hours. Also, the British Museum, which is free (don’t miss the Assyrian section, stuck between the Egyptian rooms and the Greek sculptures) and the National Gallery, one of the world’s great art museums, free, too. Go to Westminster Abbey and take your time. Check out the Imperial War Museum if you can. Hang out in Leicester Square for a while and just check out what’s going on.
One of the things that I enjoyed most about London was that I stayed in a working-class area south of the river and hung out with the locals in the pub. Doing something like that gives you a really different perspective on the way the city is.
Sorry, Kyla’s advice was also excellent. As for bookshops, try Charing Cross Rd.
There seem to be a lot of antique book stores north of Covent Garden on the way to the British museum. I picked up several wartime issues of Punch in one of them for a pound each. I also recall one that specialized in science fiction and comic books on the road between Hyde Park and the British Museum. Sorry. I can’t remember the names of the streets.
I recommend you start with a double decker tour of the city - you’ll want to be on top which will probably be pretty chilly this time of year, so dress warm.
After that, it depends a lot on your interests. There’s over a thousand years of history in London, so there’s a lot to choose from. Remember the statues in “True Lies”? There’s statues just like them in the British Museum. Probably half of the authors you’ve ever heard of lived and/or were buried somewhere in London. The Tower of London has nice a nice grotesque history. Madame Tussaud’s is pretty cheesy, but has a rogue’s gallery of famous murderer’s and other vile people that you might find interesting.
…in a state so nonintuitive it can only be called weird…
Madame Tussaud’s is on Baker Street. If you have the notion, stroll down to 222B. Upstairs there’s a restaurant or tea house called Hudson’s (get it). Down in the cellar there is some kind of cheesy Sherlock Holmes giftshop.
Actually, the price of a ticket to Paris by Eurostar is cheaper if you stay over a Saturday night - check out the Eurostar.com web page…
But, OY!, London is brilliant, too! The bus tour is good for the first day to get a little bit orientated and it is a good way to see things that interest you when you see them - like touring the Tower Bridge sounds really cool but you see it and that’s really enough.
If you are a student, try the Earls Court area for a cheap place to stay and lots of OZ’s and NZ’s - it’s fun to party around there at night. Or Russel square (for accom’s not nightlife). I would strongly strongly recommend going to at least one musical or play while you are there - it is one of the defining characteristics of London’s West End and it would be a shame to miss it (whichever play you chose).
The other thing that I would recommend is Kings Road - walk from Sloane square down to the Man in the Moon pub (one or two streets past The Vale (a street)) - this is a great shot of life in London. Stop at the farmers market (dismiss all the preconceptions that the name might carry, it is THE place to be seen on a weekend) along the way and have lunch in the sun at one of the restaurants there - not too expensive either!
I lived there for 2 years, had many visitors and those are the things that they thought were “London” - aside from all the normal (and amazing) tourist attractions.
Have fun!!
Even if I had a signature, I doubt I’d have room for it.
You’re in for a treat (ignore UkeIke; he may be having a bad day)…
The usual tourist things can be found in any guidebook. But my suggestion is to buy a pass for the Underground (cheap, clean, and efficient) and go exploring.
Wear comfy shoes. Follow your whimsy. The parks and pubs of London are a joy. (At the main tourists spots you’ll meet…tourists. Not a condemnation, but they’re out of habitat and looking for exactly the same things you are.)
Wander. Walk. London is genuinely wonderful. It’s more human than Paris for the visitor, if you get off the beaten path. Frankly, The Major Sites you can see better on video, without the aggravating tour groups in your way. But taking pictures of Major Sites isn’t as there as walkin’ around, talking with people and learning the city where actual people live.
Veb
I know it’s a bit of a cliché, but make sure to take the tube to Notting Hill and walk around. It is the most beautiful area of town, with great Victorian architecture. Plus, it has Portobello Road - where one can buy anything imaginable.
Coldfire
Voted Poster Most Likely To Post Drunk
"You know how complex women are"
Tower of London, yes. British Museum, yes. Bus tour yes. Also try the Burlington Arcade (still with an-I-don’t-know-what-you’d-call-him-maybe-usher? in top hat and uniform), and if you seriously like perfume/afteshave go to Penhaligon’s try the stuff and learn a bit about the technical side of scents) and absolutely try the Anthropological Museum nearby.
But the best thing we did was a walking tour. There are oodles of these - famous murders, Sherlock Holmes, ghost sites etc. We did an historical one. The guide was a gentleman with a couple of history degrees who loathed the idea of using them the usual way - teaching in a classroom, so he taught (effectively) on the street.
I’d definitely do another one, probably history type again.
They’re not overly strenuous - heck if I can do it anyone not actually in a zimmer-frame or on crutches can do it.
I’m in London two or three times a year, and I usually manage a free day for myself.
My suggestion: start with one of the bus tours, there are buses (coaches) that allow you to get on and get off all day long, they drive around the West End and the City and hit the major tourist spots. You can get off at Tower of London (say) and wander around, then get back on when the next bus comes by. That will give you a good overview and quickie tour, and it’s fairly cheap.
I love the walking tours, the guides are such fun, and some of them are just a hoot… the Jack the Ripper tour, frinstance.
There are a couple of guide books that set up walking tours for you to take without a guide, just on your own.
Bookstores? Antique and used, try Charing Cross Road, around Cecil Court (! I’m not making that up, London obviously recognizes greatness).
The tube day pass is cheap, and it’s easy to get around.
The Museum of London is also wonderful, not so well known as the others. And be sure to eat in one of the Indian restaurants.
Get a guidebook (Fodors or some other one) and do some planning. There’s way more to see than you could manage in a week, let alone in three days. Have a great time!
I agree with CKDextHavn about the Museum of London.
You m,ight alos like to visit the South Kensington Museums: Natural History, Science and Victoria and Albert.
Contrary to what the others have said, my advice would be to avoid Leicester Square. There’s nothing there other than large groups of tourists. I will regularly walk an extra half a mile just to avoid the damn place. Same goes for Oxford Street: you can probably buy most of that stuff at home.
If you are going to go to the theatre, try the RSC at the Barbican: it’s in the same building as the Museum of London so you could combine the two in one trip.
If you fancy getting out of central London, Kew Gardens (30 mins on the District Line) and Hampstead Heath (20 mins on the Northern Line) are both worth a half-day visit.
Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle (a ways away), Speaker’s Corner at Hyde Park, all the museums, riding the tubes (queue up nicely, now)…it’s all great fun.
There’s a pub across the street from the Tower of London that was built something like 500 years ago. That’s where I ‘ad me first pint a’ Guinness.
Neat.