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20 somethings.... besides the war museum, I have no doubt that somewhere in London there are breweries/microbreweries that give tours & samples afterwards. Pret a Manger is ok... a chain restaurant for decent grab & go, nothing special otherwise, we have them here. I would check Time Out London for events or places that would interest them.
If you are staying near to Tower of London you could visit that and Westminster Abbey and the London Eye easily in one day. Water taxi runs along the Thames and makes it very easy to get from one to another. If you have purchased an oyster card you can use that for water taxi's also.
Camden market is good so is Portobello. Portobello is ideally situated to also visit the Kensington museums (V&A and Natural History) as well as Harrods as they are all within the same area.
Are you sure you're not confusing the Tower of London with Parliament? The Tower is not near either the London Eye or Westminster. But Parliament is.
ETA: I just saw that you mentioned the water taxis, so I guess that is do-able. Never mind
Thanks to all the previous posters who helped me out planning an upcoming trip to London.
We decided on the Doubletree Tower of London for a hotel. I did consider renting an apartment but many are already booked, our trip is set for May 5/27-6/3. May 27th is a fly day so we'd actually be arriving on Monday the 28th.
lol, now so far here are some of the things I think we'd like to do. I'm only 1/2 way through the guidebooks, God have mercy on my soul.
Are any of them really not worth the time or would you suggest maybe a substitute. I have not thought about an schedule yet. Is it too much? not enough. we'll have 6 full days.
Tower of london
Westminster Abbey
Buckingham Palace (changing of the guard)
London Eye
National gallery
War museum/Churchill war rooms
National Gallery
Camden Market
British museum
Covenant Gardens
West end theater show.
Thames river cruise
lol and I'm only 1/2 way through the darn books. I think I may need to be tranquilized.
With six days, you can experience a lot here. As for your list of attractions:
Yes to Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, National Gallery, Churchill War Rooms, British Gallery. Covent Garden is kind of fun to stroll around, but you don’t need to spend much time there.
No to Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, from all reports. It’s inexplicably crowded with people and you apparently can’t see much. A better option is the Changing of the Horse Guards, which is more centrally located to the other Westminster area attractions and you can actually see something. But even this was a little underwhelming for me. And you didn’t list it, but an emphatic no for Madame Tussaud’s.
No opinion on the rest, though haven’t heard much good about the London Eye.
There are several excellent things to do that you haven’t listed yet, such as the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and Victoria & Albert Museums.
Here’s what I did on my eight day trip there a few years ago. Bear in mind that I’m a voracious sightseer with a lot of stamina:
Day 1
Cortauld Gallery
National Gallery
St. Martin in the Fields Church
(Evening) National Portrait Gallery
Day 2
Regent’s Park stroll
Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum
Wallace Collection
Tate Britain
St. James Park and Green Park strolls
Westminster Cathedral
(Evening) Tate Modern
Day 3
Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens stroll
British Museum
Day 4
Westminster Abbey
No. 10 Downing St. walk by
Changing of the Horse Guards
Churchill War Rooms
Queen’s Gallery and Royal Mews
Southwark Cathedral
City center stroll to see architecture (Lloyd’s of London Building, The Monument, The Gherkin, Old Bailey, etc.)
Day 5
Tower of London
All Hallows Barking by the Tower Church
St. Mary Le Bow Church
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Dr. Johnson’s House
Banqueting Hall
(Evening) Parliament (House of Commons, House of Lords)
Day 6
Cambridge day trip (included various chapels and colleges, plus Fitzwilliam Museum)
Day 7
Oxford day trip (included Bodleian Library and various chapels and colleges, plus Ashmolean Museum)
(Evening) British Museum
Day 8
St. Etheldreda’s Church
Sir John Soane Museum
Temple Church
Victoria & Albert Museum (into the evening)
All the churches but Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s were fairly short pop-ins. I took advantage of evening hours where available, and got up early to walk the various parks and then arrive at the first attraction of the day when it opened. I also grouped attractions that were close by each other.
As far as food, definitely would recommend going to a fish and chips place at least once (I did well at Rock and Sole Plaice as well as Masters Super Fish). There are plenty of worthwhile Indian restaurants (enjoyed Moti Mahal, but sorry to report that the other place I went to, Mela, is out of business now). Also enjoyed Rules, an old classic British place with traditional food like meat pies, game, and sweet puddings — very good of its kind, but pricey. If your cholesterol can handle it, try a classic English breakfast as well; several places offer it.
Different strokes for different strokes- for us, there's so much to see inside Westminster Abbey that we've been there twice and spent hours looking at the architecture and crypts each time.
Agreed fully. Westminster Abbey is a must, and you can spend a good couple hours there seeing the interior, which is gorgeous: stained glass, frescoes, sculpture, fancy detail work, and scads of burial crypts for some of the most celebrated people in British history (you can spend plenty enough time tracking down your favorite royalty, authors, composers, and scientists).
St. Paul’s was almost as good, and chances are the famous person you didn’t come across at Westminster Abbey is buried here instead.
lol, Paris is actually how we came up with London.
We went to Paris in 2014, loved loved it. took the eurostar over to London, unfortunately the weather was lousy and we didn't get a good experience so we always said we wanted to go back
With six days, you can experience a lot here. As for your list of attractions:
Yes to Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, National Gallery, Churchill War Rooms, British Gallery. Covent Garden is kind of fun to stroll around, but you don’t need to spend much time there.
No to Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, from all reports. It’s inexplicably crowded with people and you apparently can’t see much. A better option is the Changing of the Horse Guards, which is more centrally located to the other Westminster area attractions and you can actually see something. But even this was a little underwhelming for me. And you didn’t list it, but an emphatic no for Madame Tussaud’s.
No opinion on the rest, though haven’t heard much good about the London Eye.
There are several excellent things to do that you haven’t listed yet, such as the National Portrait Gallery and the Tate Britain, Tate Modern, and Victoria & Albert Museums.
Here’s what I did on my eight day trip there a few years ago. Bear in mind that I’m a voracious sightseer with a lot of stamina:
Day 1
Cortauld Gallery
National Gallery
St. Martin in the Fields Church
(Evening) National Portrait Gallery
Day 2
Regent’s Park stroll
Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum
Wallace Collection
Tate Britain
St. James Park and Green Park strolls
Westminster Cathedral
(Evening) Tate Modern
Day 3
Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens stroll
British Museum
Day 4
Westminster Abbey
No. 10 Downing St. walk by
Changing of the Horse Guards
Churchill War Rooms
Queen’s Gallery and Royal Mews
Southwark Cathedral
City center stroll to see architecture (Lloyd’s of London Building, The Monument, The Gherkin, Old Bailey, etc.)
Day 5
Tower of London
All Hallows Barking by the Tower Church
St. Mary Le Bow Church
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Dr. Johnson’s House
Banqueting Hall
(Evening) Parliament (House of Commons, House of Lords)
Day 6
Cambridge day trip (included various chapels and colleges, plus Fitzwilliam Museum)
Day 7
Oxford day trip (included Bodleian Library and various chapels and colleges, plus Ashmolean Museum)
(Evening) British Museum
Day 8
St. Etheldreda’s Church
Sir John Soane Museum
Temple Church
Victoria & Albert Museum (into the evening)
All the churches but Westminster Abbey and St. Paul’s were fairly short pop-ins. I took advantage of evening hours where available, and got up early to walk the various parks and then arrive at the first attraction of the day when it opened. I also grouped attractions that were close by each other.
As far as food, definitely would recommend going to a fish and chips place at least once (I did well at Rock and Sole Plaice as well as Masters Super Fish). There are plenty of worthwhile Indian restaurants (enjoyed Moti Mahal, but sorry to report that the other place I went to, Mela, is out of business now). Also enjoyed Rules, an old classic British place with traditional food like meat pies, game, and sweet puddings — very good of its kind, but pricey. If your cholesterol can handle it, try a classic English breakfast as well; several places offer it.
Have fun planning and traveling.
This is a great itinerary (although I personally wouldn't bother with Madame Tussaud's). St Martin in the Fields is definitely worth a visit and if you can be there at 1pm on a Mon, Tue or Fri you will catch a free lunch-time concert. Well worth it!
I’d also save Paris for another time. It’s another world class city you can easily spend more than a week seeing. Doing it as a day trip from London shortens you a day there and barely scratches the surface of Paris.
This is a great itinerary (although I personally wouldn't bother with Madame Tussaud's). St Martin in the Fields is definitely worth a visit and if you can be there at 1pm on a Mon, Tue or Fri you will catch a free lunch-time concert. Well worth it!
What particular interests do your 20-somethings have?
Thanks for the kind words. Believe me, if I had it to do over again, I would exclude Madame Tussaud’s. Cheesy, grossly overpriced (in a city where most of the museums are free!), and full of exhibits simply not worth seeing (many of the figures didn’t even look like the person allegedly portrayed). Had never been to any of these and had heard London’s was among the best of them. All I can say is, if that was one of the best, I can’t imagine how awful the worst would be.
am I the only one that went to Highgate Cemetery? I appreciate the fact that I had locals as tour guides when I was there
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