British Museum to Tate Britain

To minimize connection walking, I'd stroll 3 blocks to Euston and take the Victoria Line
to Pimlico, from which it's a 2-3 block walk to the Tate.

That is, of course, assuming you do mean Tate Britain and not Tate Modern.

The way I would do it, personally, is to walk to Southampton Row, catch bus #68 for 3 stops to Aldwych Stop S, free transfer to bus #87 leaving from Stop H.
You could walk to Warren Street, Victoria line to Pimlico then walk from there but for my liking that is too much walking after all the time on my feet in the British Museum.

Hi! So, shoeflyer is 100% correct, but I will always recommend the bus when possible. So for me, isn31c wins.

On the bus, you can see the sights while getting where you’re going. Can’t do that on the tube.

I was curious as to which was actually the closest Victoria Line station to The British Museum. It's Warren Street, according to Google Maps.

Warren Street - 16 minutes
Oxford Circus - 18 minutes
Euston - 18 minutes
Kings Cross - 21 minutes

Not much in it. Oxford Circus probably wins because that's the least amount of stops to Pimlico once you're on the train.

If you use an app like citymapper, it will do all the planning for you and give you multiple options for getting from A to B.

https://citymapper.com/london?lang=en

It worked great in London when I was there last October. It even tells you which entrance and exit to use at the tube stops.

This is a classic example of why I would not use Citymapper. Goodness knows I have tried and too often found it wanting in basic information terms. In this case it ignores bus 68 and says to walk the 18 minutes to Aldwych. As the 68 runs on a 10 minute headway you'd be pretty unlucky to need to do that. If you are so impatient then live bus tracking at the stop or on TfL's own app will tell you the wait time.
Citymapper only repackage TfL's own data.
And yes the tube is nominally faster by around 8 to 10 minutes.
But the bus is a chance to give your feet a rest, a bit of "me" time, and to actually see London.

I got stuck in Liverpool a few weeks ago. when rail tracks were blocked and had to scramb!e for a bus. It never even crossed my mind to use Citymapper, but rather an actual map and local on line sources I know I can trust as being right.

Stuart, I’m curious about your thoughts on Google and/or Apple Maps for on the spot usage in London and elsewhere in the UK. Any experience? I wondered if you noted the same shortcomings as you have with Citymapper.

I tend to use those rather than Citymapper. Sometimes I find Google Maps app better than Apple.

I have seen Citymapper recommended frequently, several sites. I’ve not used it enough to be able to assess.

If I was wanting to use that type of mapping in the field, as well as for planning purposes, my preference would be for Google maps, or for the TfL website (or similar in other cities).
Google and TfL seem to be to be pretty good, and reliable.
I also, even in London, use GPS tracking on bustimes.org if a route has unplanned service gaps.
I'll be honest in London, I have paper maps of the full rail network, an A to Z and a paper all London and Central London Bus map.
They have together got me out of some very sticky transit situations.
But I fully accept I can also fall back on just years of knowledge when it goes really pear shaped.
This type of question is always really hard to give an absolute answer to because there are always multiple routes and personal preferences.
So many equally correct answers.
I'm not one for taxis, full stop.
But here, for a visitor, possibly tired after a morning in one museum and going to another, is just hailing a cab on the street another way? It can't cost an arm and a leg for maybe a 3 mile journey, if that.
But a lot of trying to use Citymapper in various cities leaves me underwhelmed. In one case in WA it tried to send me to a long closed Amtrak station, then on a long term suspended bus route. OK that was in planning, and I could smell a rat. But in actual field use that could have been a bit unfortunate.
On the positive side further research did give me a route for that journey I wouldnt have thought of, so not all negative.

Last night all I used was paper bus maps, nothing high tech at all, and well knowledge of the network.

there are always multiple routes and personal preferences. So many equally correct answers.

I think this is the big thing in London. There's almost always four or five different routes to get from A to B. Even using Google Maps (my preference) experience plays a part in choosing from the options it suggests. Just thinking on a technical level, the development clout Google has must surely give them an advantage over Citymapper. It's been years since I tried Citymapper in London, so I don't know where they're at just now with the app.

If I were making the OP's journey this afternoon, I'd go on the tube. Any option with a Victoria Line train in it usually wins for me. It's often impressed me how quickly you get places on the Victoria Line. Although I worked out that it might be quicker from Oxford Circus, I'd walk to Warren Street because it's a nicer walk and a nicer station. Oxford Circus is one of my least favourite stations, often overcrowded and one where I'd be on the lookout for "chancers". So that experience plays into it too. I might well take Stuart's suggested bus route another day, but I may walk to Aldwych rather than taking two buses. I may walk to Oxford Circus and take an 88 bus actually, as I've used that between Tate Britain and the west end in the past.

No right answers.

just tried it for a 2 hour journey in northeen England

I think that's your problem there. There's just so much more data to plan journeys in London for these sort of apps to get their teeth into. When it's wrong it will be 10x more obvious up north. I would imagine Citymapper to be much more intracity-orientated than for making 2 hour journeys in northern England.

Thanks to the Brits for the comments. I’ll keep Google maps as my go to!

I have never been able to get Citymapper to work for me. I get along with Google Maps just fine.

I'd probably add, since it may have been lost in my rambling:

I'd take the Victoria Line on the tube from Warren Street to Pimlico.

Other options are available :)

I have found the Citymapper app to perform well in London, Paris, Edinburgh and more in Europe. I've used it in various cities in the US.

It may not be 100% perfect, but neither is Google Maps or any other transit app I've tried.

I'd never heard of Ciymapper until this so just tried it for a 2 hour
journey in northeen England (first rule of testing any App or
guidebook is use a question you already know the answer to!). The
results were incomprehensible garbage!

That’s because citymapper is designed to work in the major cities, hence the name citymapper.

It’s worked great for me in London, Vienna, Lisbon, Dublin, Reykjavik to name a few.

Some are resistant to technology and that’s perfectly fine. No one has to use apps when traveling. But, I can’t imagine traveling without them.

Some are resistant to technology and that’s perfectly fine. No one has to use apps when traveling. But, I can’t imagine traveling without them.

I don't think it's a resistance to technology or the use of apps, just this specific app.

There is nothing wrong with the Citymapper app. It seems the people disparaging the app haven't used it much in real time situations.

I'm sorry but if Citymapper has an area called North West and Yorkshire it should work in the whole of the stated area. That covers the not insignificant cities of Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and others.
But if you ask it for Skipton to Grassington (both of which are in Yorkshire, an off requested route on here) you get an out of area message.
It knows Preston to Skipton by bus (times but not the £3 fare), but only by train via Colne (then bus), not by train all the way via Lancaster.
So being fair I keep to urban areas I ask it for Leeds to Bradford. Yes, results but the bus fare is given as £2. No it isnt, it has been a £2.50 cap since 1 April in West Yorkshire. The week before last I asked it for an urban journey - Leeds to Hanging Heaton and got mythical bus times.

This is why people think public transport doesn't work, or are mystified when supposed buses don't appear.

It is not resistance to technology, it is that what claims to be the answer is badly programmed. Actually worse than having nothing.

I lived in London for nearly 30 years and progressed from a dog eared AtoZ in my handbag, a wing and a prayer, to using Citymapper and the TFL website
As a local, Citymapper was absolutely my go to when I was out and about, the TFL website when planning journeys.

For those criticising Citymapper, the hint is in the name. It's designed for cities. It is also dependent on the quality of the data it is able to access. In London this is TFL data which is comprehensive and reasonably accurate. From my experience public transport information is nowhere near as good elsewhere so Citymapper or other apps, won't work as well. I have tried to help my mum plan journeys in and around Chester and on Merseyrail and its polite to say the experience has been 'clunky'.

When Citymapper has struggled for me it has been because of the TFL data not the app. If, for example, a bus hasn't started on its journey it relies on the timetable to estimate when it will arrive at a stop. But if there is a delay in the timetabled departure, say the driver is late, times at later stops are inaccurate until the bus gets moving. Similarly if there is a delay on the journey. The app knows where the bus is, knows the speed it is travelling so provides an 'accurate' arrival time at a stop. But on one of my bus routes drivers often change over a couple of stops before mine meaning the app says arriving in 5 minutes for maybe 15 minutes. I struggle see how ant app can solve the driver tea break issue!
This is not to blame the TFL data or the Citymapper app. 95%+ of the time it is as accurate as it need to be and it is quick and easy to use.. If it wasn't locals wouldn't use it.

If I want to plan a journey in advance I use the TFL website. I find it easy to use and I like the filters eg 'no stairs' or 'less then 10min walk'. A word of advice if using this site to plan a trip. It defaults to the time in the UK so to get an accurate result if you are searching from the US you need to set the day and time to avoid getting inaccurate results eg night buses if you are searching when it is after midnight in the UK.

Obviously people have a range of opinions but I say don't knock it til you try it.
Citymapper is only as good as the information it can access from the various transport companies. For me it is definitely better than the alternative.

I used Citymapper while traveling in London and some other major cities, and I had a hard time using it as well (and I am pretty tech savvy). So I just stick with Google maps, which works very well for me. I figure, if it's not broke, why fix it with an unfamiliar app? :-)

I do know enough people who use Citymapper and like it, so I'm sure there is value in the app. I just prefer Google Maps. :-)

And this argument over technology and apps is moot.

OP has stated in another post that she will be traveling without a phone, so no app needed.

OP's preferred method of getting from A to B appears to be this forum.