Does this London itinerary work? (Part 2)

London is an infinite number of possible itineraries and you’ve clearly done your research to have this one.
Yes—your itinerary works if you pare off one or two attractions. In London, you basically do and see as much as you possibly can. The main limitation is time and how long you can stay on your feet!
You wrote “Tower of London ( take the Uber boat there?)”
It took several trips to London before finally, after three hours at the Tower, I crossed over the Tower Bridge to the south bank of the Thames and walked the riverside promenade. During a walk toward the Tate Modern Gallery, you walk past the World War 2 Royal Navy ship “HMS Belfast,” Shakespeare’s restored Old Globe Theatre. ,the 12th century ruins of the Bishop’s Winchester Palace. Nearby is the 12th century prison—the “Clink”—a name that became synonymous with jails.
It’s an amazing urban landscape of the past, the present and the future where you’ll see contemporary skyscrapers like the 1,000-foot tall one called “the Shard”
You’ll save time by taking the Tube to the Tower of London and that saved time will allow you to walk over the Tower Bridge up to the Old Globe Theatre.
The day of your National Gallery visit, be sure to visit the upstairs restaurant that has panoramic views overlooking Trafalgar Square. Reservations help skip the line.
Hampton Court Palace is incredible. It feels like the 16th-century while walking through the palace and its chapel and kitchens. The world’s first indoor tennis court is here. The gardens and parklands surrounding Hampton Court are a draw as well. But the best gardens are about 7 miles away at the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew.

If you can, plan only on Hampton Court the day you go there. If you’re still on your feet after seeing Hampton Court, take a taxi to Kew Gardens.

Schedule your Westminster Abbey and Churchill War Rooms tickets during the same block of time— they’re practically next to each other. If you can carve out a different day for Hampton Court, and possibly still have time for the British Museum afterwards. Or, you can visit the Royal Botanical Gardens if it’s a beautiful day and the British Museum if it’s a rainy one!

On Sunday or Monday night you really should go to a Theatre and see a London production. There is nothing else like a show on the London stage.
The best part after walking all day seeing London’s attractions is going to the Theatre and finally, finally being able to sit down.

No matter what you’re able to work into your itinerary, keep in mind there’s always more that you won’t have time for.

That’s the reason to return to London again in the future.

Have a great trip!

Same problem as in your other thread on the Saturday; racing across town after the London Walks tour to make a deadline. You'll be lucky to have 30 uninterrupted minutes in The National Gallery. The visitor assistants will start to herd people out at around 5:45. Just enjoy your London Walks tour without constantly looking at your watch and stressing about time!

Hi, Ashlotte, your itinerary looks pretty well paced to me, especially considering you've got someone with low stamina with you. They do have a nice cafe at Hampton Court Palace where you could get some tea or even lunch. And the gardens at Hampton Court Palace are lovely.

While I agree with Kenko that Kew Gardens is worth a visit, it can be exhausting. it's a lot of ground to cover so keep that in mind. They do have a sort of train that you can use to get around, so you might want to take advantage of that if you wind up going. But you would probably need to wait in line for it, which takes time.

If you decide on a Sunday Roast meal, I would strongly suggest making a reservation ahead of time. There are threads here that can give you some ideas.

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/best-pub-sunday-roast-in-london
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england/sunday-roast-in-london-74cbc966-a6c3-49a8-b252-1c8402d7c3b9
https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/england-reviews/london-restaurant-pub-recommendation-for-sunday-roast-dinner

I love the British Museum but that is another place that is VERY exhausting! Even my tween/teen grandkids were pretty wiped out by it, and they have a lot of energy. It's certainly worth seeing but maybe not after having been traveling to and seeing Hampton Court Palace.

One idea that you want consider for an early evening is Evensong at either Westminster Cathedral or St. Paul's Cathedral if you have the time. It's a low key relaxing yet beautiful way to spend 45 minutes or so. I took my two grandkids to the Westminster Evensong and they loved it. Both of them are are 5 pm each evening.

With regards to your last morning, have you thought about maybe visiting the New Globe Theatre? Or there is also Southwark Cathedral, which Shakespeare frequented and is a lovely place to visit. It has a nice cafe there as well. Both of those are in Southbank, which is near to the PI County Hall.

Hi Ashlotte!

GerryM is right. It is not worth the stress to try and get to the National Gallery after the tour. Dollars to doughnuts you won’t make it in time - and if you did have 15 or 20 minutes there, that’s not even a teensy squinch of enough time to see maybe, two paintings? I concur with GerryM.

Your Monday plan looks exhausting to me, even if your low energy travel companion sits out some of the activities. The British Museum is overwhelming and you'll be there in the middle of the day, busiest time. And agree with comments about the National Gallery - not enough time to fit that in.

Have you considered the London Eye for your evening activity? It's right by your hotel. You could also look into tickets for the Sky Garden for the views, it's a jaunt to get there but not a strenuous activity.

Tue: need to head to airport by 11:00. Can or should I fit something
near our hotel in here between 8:00-11:00? Would leave luggage at
hotel and travel to airport from there.

Please clarify that you need to leave for the airport at 11 or be AT the airport by 11. If the former, you may have time for a short walk near your hotel or a boat ride (Thames Clipper stops at the Eye). If the latter, nope go straight to the airport, especially if you have a US bound flight.

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback. Does anyone see a way to reconfigure the places within the days we have to make it flow better, without losing any and without adding in new ones? It’s hard when everything we want to see closes so early. The only thing that has a set time is the Pirate Walk on Saturday from 2:30-4:30.

I figured even if the Pirate people didn’t make it to the National Gallery, I could still go (coming from a 2:30 tea at The Library) for a little bit. But sounds like queuing eats up a lot of time beyond travel time?

Our flight to Ireland leaves at 2:40 from LHR, so I wanted to leave our hotel at 11:00.

This all feels like trying to fit a quart into a pint pot. As I understand it you are arriving from the Bath area on the Friday night. Could you not arrive a bit earlier that day, and squeeze some more time into the schedule - for the National Gallery?

The Sunday feels like a recipe for disaster, if there is an unscheduled problem with the trains. You are, in my opinion, wasting time that could be better expended in the Palace, by trying to get Sunday lunch as well. Having said that I have just been googling and there is the Six Restaurant at the Kings Arms, but there is plenty of catering on site to better use the time, especially if determined to make Buckingham Palace.
Visiting on a Sunday you won't be able to get into the Chapel Royal unless you attend said Eucharist at 8.30 or Evensong at 3.30- but for the latter you would have to lose Buckingham Palace.
If you went to the 8.30 service you could have a good breakfast somewhere, in lieu of lunch.

A few thoughts for you.

Keep in mind that the Ceremony of the Keys requires standing for about 40 minutes. Will that affect your low stamina kid? In fact, most everything on your to-do list requires a lot of standing and/or walking except tea and the bus.

On your Sunday, why not have a nice relaxing day. Head to Hampton Court Palace in the morning, book your roast nearby, take a Thames River Boat to Richmond and enjoy a pub stop or take the boat all the way to London. Your low stamina child will, hopefully, be recovered by the time your back in London. Then your evening bus tour or Ceremony of the Keys or a stop in one of London's historic pubs???

Does your tea need to be a 3 tiered affair? Would you be happy with a time and money saving cream tea?

I hope your family has a wonderful trip!

"This all feels like trying to fit a quart into a pint pot. As I understand it you are arriving from the Bath area on the Friday night. Could you not arrive a bit earlier that day, and squeeze some more time into the schedule - for the National Gallery?

The Sunday feels like a recipe for disaster, if there is an unscheduled problem with the trains. You are, in my opinion, wasting time that could be better expended in the Palace, by trying to get Sunday lunch as well. Having said that I have just been googling and there is the Six Restaurant at the Kings Arms, but there is plenty of catering on site to better use the time, especially if determined to make Buckingham Palace.
Visiting on a Sunday you won't be able to get into the Chapel Royal unless you attend said Eucharist at 8.30 or Evensong at 3.30- but for the latter you would have to lose Buckingham Palace.
If you went to the 8.30 service you could have a good breakfast somewhere, in lieu of lunch."

I thought about trying to arrive earlier on Friday to try to squeeze a museum in (since most of them are open later on Friday), but after touring Bath, Stonehenge, and driving all day, I think we will just want to get settled into the hotel. I also wanted to drive by Windsor Castle on the way to drop the car off that night (drop off at LHR).

With the Pirate Walk only on Saturday, the Tower of London being open an hour earlier on Satuday, and Westminster Abbey closed to tours on Sunday, the only day that made sense to go to Hampton Court was Sunday.

"Keep in mind that the Ceremony of the Keys requires standing for about 40 minutes. Will that affect your low stamina kid?"

I figured if I buy her a ticket and she doesn't feel like she can go (likely), it isn't as big of a money loss as some of the other places.

I don't necessarily need to have a fancy tea (although I do love to have fancy tea here in the US, so was excited to try it in England), but it seemed like a good sitting activity for while the other two are at the Pirate Walk.

10:00 Hampton Court Palace
(Possible midday roast dinner, or back to National Gallery, or visit to British Museum? Or nap)
(Edit: we will probably just prioritze downtime between the two palaces and not worry about fitting in a museum)*
5:15 Buckingham Palace Tour

I think you'll be fine. You are going to get a lot of responses here from those who think you are doing too much, or not visiting the right place. And that's fine (after all, you did ask for an itinerary review), but just keep in mind that this is your trip and you know best what you and your group can and cannot do. I realize you are unfamiliar with London but that's the joy of independent travel. If you're tired, you can slow down. If you're not, you can speed up or add in one more site.

If it's any consolation, I was there for 2 weeks with 2 grandkids (as I mentioned above). I can't tell you how many times we changed our plans or dropped certain places (and this was my fourth trip to London!). We completely skipped the Ceremony of the Keys, as we were tired out from the day's events and I was fine with that, even if I did lose £30 for the 3 pre-bought tickets. We added two different optical illusion museums, as my 11 year old granddaughter discovered them online and really wanted to go. It's part of the fun of travel. :-)

By the way, don't forget to allow time for shopping. My grandkids LOVED that! We stopped in many different gift shops of museums (and sometimes didn't even visit the museum). The V&A has a good one.

So my suggestion is plan what you want, but be prepared to change things while you are there. And that's okay to do. :-)

I don't necessarily need to have a fancy tea (although I do love to have fancy tea here in the US, so was excited to try it in England), but it seemed like a good sitting activity for while the other two are at the Pirate Walk.

Have your fancy tea—it's a fun experience and very tasty! It's true you can get a cream tea for less, but why wouldn't you go to London and have a wonderful afternoon tea? :-)

100% agreement with Mardee.

I was going to comment about only visiting the giftshop, too. Whether short on time or short on stamina, a stop to the giftshop will provide displays of items related to the special exhibits or well-known artifacts. One can also slip into the museum (particularly if free) to target specific items, if you have time. Review the website of the museum before the trip to see what may spark particular interest and to see what additional information is provided.

Your short visit will whet your appetite for many more. Enjoy!

Cheryl

Thanks, everyone!