First time to London, England August or September 2020

You should get a book about day trips from London-there are so many great daytrips. I have found I prefer to do some of them as overnights because it's a better use of time and hotels in London are very expensive. I would suggest you spend no more than 7 nights in London. Salisbury and Bath would be a great 3 nights, as would York and all of these destinations are easily reached by train from London. York looks far away but is only a couple of hours by train. Definitely don't rent a car-there are plenty of great places to see that are more easily and quickly reached by train. I would go as late in Sept as possible, so that American children are back in school.

London is not much like Paris (!) unless you are making gross comparisons like size.

I like the buzz of London but 2 weeks would do me in.

In 2 weeks you can see a lot of Britain. Book an open jaw into Glasgow, Edinburgh, or Manchester and explore, any direction will work, then return the car near London and spend several nights there and fly home.

Contrary to the open-jaw advice, personally I'd greatly enjoy 14 days in London. However, I would likely intersperse days spent within London and a few day trips to other towns/cities and outlying areas. There's no need to rent a car if your chief interests are in London and you choose day trips to any of the countless places easily reached by train. If you buy an Oyster card you can travel all around London on the tube (subway) for a flat fee.

The weather in late August and early September tends to be warm, but there's always a good chance of rain.

Some ideas for saving money in London are offered here

https://www.priceoftravel.com/1496/is-the-london-pass-worth-it-we-review-value-and-prices-here/

If traveling alone, I'd much rather stay in a bed & breakfast so that I could get acquainted with other tourists; many hotels also have a breakfast room somewhat conducive to meeting other people. Staying in an AirBNB would be very isolating, IMHO.

Even with 14 days you won't see everything London has to offer, so get yourself a good guidebook and do some You Tube research to identify the places and experiences that most interest you.

I love Paris! I love London! I don't feel they are similar at all.

For 14 nights I would spend a good chunk at the beginning in London (5-6 nights), then I'd move out to a smaller city via train for a few nights and then finish up in London for several nights. I, personally love Salisbury (local bus runs out to Stonehenge if that's of interest) and Bath (local tour company MadMax does great day trips) but you might have other interests.

I also could easily go with all 14 nights in London there is so much to see and do. I'm not particularly a city person but I do love both Paris and London for extended time.

I'd go with September. I've hit a heat wave the end of August and it was miserable until it rained. NOT saying that happens every year but it ~can~ happen!

Let me clarify my post.

I have heard London was amazing and some peoples favorite city.. After I said thought Paris was amazing. But not similar

I just really enjoyed the history, look and energy of Paris with small shops, cafes, museums and many public parks and spaces

I never really thought London would catch peoples interest like that of Paris. It sparks my interest.

I may be joined by my wife so even if I travel solo I wouldn't be concerned with that. I am pretty social.

We have don a lot of airbnb lately some great some lacking comforts. All in great locations. but I really need the comfort. Although we do enjoy the large format of an apartment rather than small european hotel rooms..

Thanks

I love London and I love Paris, each city is unique. But let's talk about London as that is where your going. You can easily spend 14 nights in London and not see it all and easy to do several day trips to get out of the city. I recommend you buy the Rick Steves London guide book. Weath of information and you can watch free YouTube videos on London and the UK. Rent a car in London is not necessary and unwise.

What to see and do in London, tons of wonderful museums, The British Museum, National Gallery of Art and right next door is the Portrait Gallery. Then there is the Tower of London, a day trip and boat ride up the Thames River to Greenwich. I loved the Wallace Collection and my favorite the Victoria and Albert Museum. There is the Tate Modern and the Tate Britian. The London Transport museum is cool and so is Covent Garden.

I loved my day trips to Windsor Castle, Hampton Court and seeing wonderful plays. Through the years I saw the Mousetrap and Mama Mia and Wicked and Aladain.

You may also enjoy the Churchill War rooms, I went twice and found it very interesting.

I spent a full day at Buckingham Palace and oh yes, I would go the beginning of September and the buses are great but I love the tube and the people that work there are very nice and very helpful. Buckingham Palace is very impressive and I also included in my ticket the Queen's Mews and the Queen's Gallery.

A great museum is Sir John Sloane's House. That was a feast for the eyes.

If your wife is joining you, go to Gordon's Wine Bar for a drink. I also enjoyed Kensington Palace. I liked St Martin in the Field church and ate at St Martin in the Crypt. I also had tea with friends at Forum and Mason. I enjoyed Harrods food hall too. Next year I plan to buy a ticket to a 2 hour concert at St Martin in the Field for one evening.

I love the London Walks, they have great walks during the day and fun pub walks at night. I have gone on two pub walks and three day time walks and next year I look forward to going on more day time walks and thee pub walks.

I am going back to London for 14 days and planning on not seeing most of the above because there is so much I have not seen yet.
I am going to try to go to Cambridge and Oxford for day trips with London Walks too. I also want to go to Kew Gardens and friends have recommended I go to the Imperial War museum. I also want to go back to Greenwich which I have not been to since 2005. London Walks has a walk there and you take a boat ride.

Don't forget to see St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey. Next year I want to go to Evensong at one of the two.

I also plan to get a free timed tkt to the Sky Garden this year as I did not make it there the last few years when I went to London.
I do want to walk across the Tower Bridge as I have not done that since 2005. There are also two house musuems I have not been to yet but plan to do on this upcoming trip.

So I have not finished telling you all that I have seen and all that I plan for next years trip with will be 13 full days not including travel.

If you find that this does not interest you to stay in London the full time, then Fly into London, take the train to Bath stay a few days and train into London. Stay for as long as you like and if you want train to York for a few days and then back to London and fly home. Up to you. So many different things and ways to do it. But the bottom line is, see what interests you, map out what you want to see and see things near each other. Map out your day trips and see if you want to stay in Bath or York or somewhere else. But If you have not been to London, then stay there and go on the day trips to break up being in a city for two weeks. I have done that even in my week long stays in London and found that to be highly enjoyable and nice to get out of the city.

Have a great time!

I doubt many people realize that PHL is one of the few American airports with nonstops to Edinburgh. Most American cities only have nonstops to Heathrow, and maybe Gatwick.

If you do decide to visit York, isn’t it more resourceful to fly into Edinburgh and visit that interesting city, train to York (halfway to London) then train to London, vs the rather unresourceful round trip from London? Same time on the train but 3 cities visited instead of 2.

Open jaw tickets really can make a better trip.

We stayed in Covent Garden last September and enjoyed it. Theatre district and lots of restaurants and pubs to choose from after a busy day seeing the sites. Easy access to the tube and bus system and walkable to places like Buckingham Palace. Covent Garden is quite lively at night though, so noise can be an issue well into the night. We booked an apartment through London Connections https://londonconnection.com/, and was very happy with the apartment and the service.

As for weather, we were there the last 3rd week of September and weather was fine. 1.5 days of intense rain, but the other times I was in shorts during the day and a light jacket in the evening.

You definitely don't want to rent a car for London or close-by day trips. The train can easily take you to Windsor, Hampton Court palace and Bath. From London we took a train to Bath for an overnight stay and then rented a car to tour the Cotswolds for a few days and then dropped the car off at Gatwick.

Can't help you with a place to stay in London, but if you wish to visit the wonderful British countryside, there are great places to see.

You have two weeks, some suggested visiting Scotland as well.

We did a 28 day drive tour of S. Wales and England in 2017 (October). Originally, we planned to visit Scotland as well, but the more research that I did, I decided to stick to Wales and England, since there is so much to see there. We had been to Scotland twice before and could go back again on a separate trip.

For exploring England, I suggest:
1) Northern England is great, we loved York and Durham. We also did Hadrian's Wall and the Lake District, but you probably don't have time for those places. Consider taking the train to York, spend at least two nights there. The Munster (Cathedral) is fantastic, also walk the walls and visiting the National Railway Museum.
2) Day trips from London are a great way to see Cambridge, Canterbury, Winchester, Windsor Castle, Salisbury (and Stonehenge), Oxford, the Cotswolds, Blenheim Palace, Stratford Upon Avon and Bath.

More tourists in August and September is still nice for the weather.

September will mean that the schools are back and places will be slightly less busy. The weather should be warm and on the whole, dry (less so if you head to Scotland). Avoid Edinburgh in August - the Festival makes it hideously busy and expensive.

I rarely stay in hotels anywhere, preferring to rent an apartment. I opt for Trip Advisor rentals, Booking.com or the local tourist board over Airbnb - much better value.

Anywhere in zone 1 of the Underground will be a good location to stay - the main sights are spread out, so one place isn’t suitable for all sights.

The trains work best between cities and a car is best for the rural countryside. Five or 6 nights in London would give you a flavour of the city. You could take the train to York and have 2 full days looking round the city itself. You could hire a car and spend a few days driving through County Durham and Northumberland before arriving in Edinburgh for 3 nights and fly home from there.

London and Paris are extremely different...you really can't compare the two. Both are fantastic though! We regularly spend time in both...
You can easily stay in London for a very long time and still not see everything...we've spent over 3 months there cumulatively over the years and continue to go back. Two weeks will be a nice amount of time to visit!
It could still be quite warm in early September but starting to cool off from the hear of summer. Weather changes a lot between sun, clouds, and scattered rain so just be prepared for anything.
I always prefer Airbnb, or an apartment that you find on any listing service, for more than just a few days - much nicer to come "home" to at the end of the day or if I just want to rest during the day.
NO...absolutely don't rent a car. London is not a driving city...use the Tube and bus system...you can get anywhere quickly.
There are so many great neighborhoods in town...my favorites are Holland Park, Highgate, Hampstead Village, Notting Hill, and Shoreditch. They are all very different from each other with their own personalities. All have good local life with pubs and restaurants...all are very accessible via the tube and bus. Just make sure when you reserve a place to stay that it's within easy walk of a tube station or bus stop. This is easily done by finding the location of the lodging and comparing it to Google maps.

Following up on Tom_MN's point, from Philadelphia you can get nonstop flights to London Heathrow, Edinburgh, and Manchester. So, if you want to focus on London and nearby destinations, you can fly roundtrip to London Heathrow. But if you want to see things further north, you can fly into London and out of Manchester or Edinburgh. Or, you can start in the north and work your way south. Manchester and Edinburgh airports have the advantage of being smaller and easier to manage than Heathrow. Manchester's has direct rail connections to many places in the north of England (no changes needed), and with one change you can get anywhere in the country.

Furthermore, Philadelphia is now served by Aer Lingus. By flying through their Dublin hub, you can get to LOTS of cities in the UK, and they often have good prices as well. Plus, when flying back to the US from Dublin, you go through US customs and immigration in Dublin (called "pre-clearance"), meaning your arrival in Philadelphia is like a domestic arrival, with all formalities already done.

In other words, decide what you want to see before booking flights, so you can avoid backtracking, and investigate all options before booking.

As for what to see, that's up to you. As the above posts indicate, there's tons to see and do in London, and lots of daytrips. There's also lots of other places to go that are better as overnights from London or on the way to Scotland, such as Liverpool and York. These two have lots to see, and as a bonus are VERY different from London. Edinburgh and Glasgow are different again (as well as being quite different from each other!).

Even with 14 days, you will have to make some hard choices. Start by reading guide books (Rick's and others) and watching videos (Rick's are here under Great Britain: https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/video/tv-show).

I have found Earl Steinbicker's book "Daytrips London" to be very helpful, even though it was published in 2003.

Catch a football match (easy to get tickets for Championship sides Fulham, QPR, Brentford, Charlton and my personal favorite to visit, Millwall).

Do a London Walks tour. Avoid the Jack the Ripper tour unless that’s tour thing. Do one of the WW2 specific tours.

Day trips are easy enough - Windsor and Stonehenge. Then you have the cathedral towns as well.

Booking tickets in advance is the best advice you can get. St Paul’s and the Churchill War Rooms fill up and have long lines.

Maybe throw in a visit to Parliament if that’s your thing.

The Imperial War Museum on the south side of the Thames is wonderful but a slog. Could probably spend two full days there.

My two personal favorite activities that I never miss are visiting Camdentown (note, the market beyond the Tube stop and not the awful vendors when you walk right out of the tube) and Borough Market for a lunch.

London is a great town. In terms of where to stay, consider staying somewhere near the river and the green/yellow tubes if you want to do the touristy stuff. We’ve stayed in Victoria (out newr Buckingham Palace) and found the extra 10 minutes of commuting into “the city” worth it for the quiet. That will out you near two big parks as well.

One more note - with 14 days in London, find a good “local.” If you do end up in a hotel, slip the doorman a 10 pounder and ask him where his local is. You don’t want to end up at a chain pub.

And eat a Scotch Egg.

If you do end up in a hotel, slip the doorman a 10 pounder and ask him
where his local is.

You can slip him a tenner (correct local parlance) and ask him, but it’s highly unlikely anyone other than a millionaire would have a “local” anywhere near a hotel that’s fancy enough to have a doorman... his local is probably miles from central London.

He’ll probably just tell you the name of a random pub nearby and pocket the tenner. /cynical

I’ll give a shout for the Weatherspoon’s breakfast with a pint

Have been to London more than 40 times- would go back tomorrow if I could. Hated Paris. I wrote an article for the Carolina's AAA's "Go!" magazine about 10 years ago about our favorite places in London and some of our favorite day trips by train. Would be happy to share - just PM me with your email so I can send it to you. Do try to see Kew Gardens and visit Greenwich. Windsor is an excellent day trip on the day(s) you have theatre tickets for the evening. Make a point to visit several markets- not just the famous/currently popular ones- we found small ones in church yards to be fun.

If you want to consider an alternative to hotels, check out the London School of Economics. They have their business students run several apartment 'complexes' and they also rent out spare dormitory rooms. depending on where you stay, you may have to share a hall bathroom, have kitchen privileges, etc. or you may have a 2 bedroom or studio apartment with ensuite and a kitchenette. Here is their website- https://www.lsevacations.co.uk/Home.aspx We have never used them, but I've heard good things. You could also check out Citadines- https://www.citadines.com/en/united-kingdom/london/citadines-trafalgar-square-london These are 'aparthotels' - studio or 1 or 2 bedroom 'apartments' with a front desk and weekly room servicing. They have multiple central locations - we used their Holborn location once when we took our children with us.