Itinerary London - 7 days...... Good?!

I am tired just reading it all….

However, everyone travels at a different pace and this trip may well be just perfect for you. I would encourage you to give yourself permission to skip some things once you are on the ground and you know how you are feeling. Don’t think you have to do everything on your list.

Thank you! It sometimes feels like I have to see everything! But, yes, we have only scheduled a couple things and the remainder we will see if we can. I just wanted to get ideas to be sure I didn't miss something super spectacular!

Thames cruise? Thoughts? Holborn, Inns of the Court walk?

Thank you!

The art deco Blackfriar pub is across the road from Blackfriars Station.

The Anchor Tap is by Tower Bridge.

On Sunday when you visit the Palace try to visit the Two Chairman pub. Then turn right out the door and take the Cockpit steps into St James Park.

On the British Museum day try the Lamb Pub.

You do have far too much scheduled each day.

I’m taking the Inns of the Court walks this July. I’ll report back. I also do a trip report for London sojourns.

Remember to check opening and closing times for each place on your list.

In October sun will set by 6:30pm.

Great city. Enjoy your time there. Meander.

Claudia, thanks for recommending Two Chairman Pub. It’s now on my “eat there” list,

Julia, your itinerary makes me tired just thinking about it. I’m sure you’re younger and more energetic than I am, so I hope it works for you. As you said you can change things as you go. I noticed that you seemed to chose tour/sightseeing by area which is a good thing.
I’ll be in London for five days and my itinerary has about a third of what you have planned, after I cut it from wishful thinking to doable.

I would build in more time for walking around different neighborhoods, like Notting Hill (minutes from Kensington Palace). Also walk down Queensway and there are many fantastic ethnic restaurants, from Chinese to Indian and more. A real melting pot street, again right next to Kensington Palace.

Also, Hyde Park is huge, and nice for walking, but you are going to be doing a lot of walking, and the Marble Arch is not worth a special effort.

There are a couple of Beatles walking tours that are really great if that is an interest for you...someone else can post the link, I can't put my hands on it.

Also, I may have missed it on your list, but the British Library is a must-see. You want to visit the "Treasures" room for displays including the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Magna Carta, Shakespeare folios, to original drafts of Beatles songs...one of the highlights of a visit to London.

Your plan is very ambitious, and more than double what I would consider, but good luck.

I am loving this feedback! Super appreciate it!!! I am glad I have lots of time to tweak - I am hoping others get good information from this as well. Thanks....

Another treat we include on every trip to London is an afternoon tea. We have a favorite near Sloane Square, served in a lovely parlor in a boutique hotel called the 11 Cadogan Arms Hotel, but there are many others to choose from around the city.

My one suggestion for you or anyone: plan on fewer museums, or at least spend less total time in them, and schedule more experiences like walking around neighborhoods, ducking into pubs, and making discoveries along the way. I say this about most great cities, like Paris.

The older I have gotten, the less time I spend in museums...and I always plan to return to a city, and have done that with my favorite cities like London, Paris, and Berlin.

Hello from Wisconsin,
Nicely grouped places to visit. As others have said, other than the timed tickets, don't be too stuck in seeing all you have listed. I don't see where you have scheduled an ice cream cone or a cool pint of beer. And even the timed tickets...I remember skipping tickets to concert in Budapest because we went into a historic hotel for a drink. I know the concert would have been good, but we will never forget our night at the hotel and walk afterwards. Be open to opportunities.

Trafalgar Square. You might eat at the Café in the Crypt - St Martin-in-the-Fields; London's Hidden Café. It is a buffet style. The food is OK, very good for the price. And you are eating at historic St. Martins in the Fields. Maybe you can hear a performance before or after your meal.

You also don't have the British Library Museum on your list. Don't be confused. This is the British Library. And I have detailed in another post about what is on view inside. A modern library with some of the English speaking world's greatest artifacts. The Library is near St, Pancras Station and King's Cross.

wayne iNWI

I actually think your itinerary is pretty good, except for Wednesday which looks like too much to me. A lot depends on how long you stay in the museums. If you can be satisfied with the highlights in two hours or less, then you've got a shot at achieving your goals. I have no comments on any of the pubs as I haven't been to any of them. I usually look for someplace to eat when I happen to be hungry.

I know you don't need any more things to do, but since you asked... Two of my favorites in London are the British Library and Regent's Park. Not everyone loves the British Library like I do, so maybe it wouldn't be your thing. I find Regent's Park to be prettier and more charming than Hyde Park, but it may not be a priority for you. As for the walks, I have done a couple of walks (Beatles, and a literary one) and loved them both. But I don't know when you would fit them in. Perhaps you could pass on the Changing of the Guard -- too many people and too hard to see.

No one has asked: Do you land in London from the US on Fri 9/30, the first day of your itinerary? If so, you'll want to take airport time, transport time and hotel check-in time into consideration; it will take several hours. Plus by mid-day jet lag may hit you. Stay outside in the daylight, do a walking tour like London Walks or use one of RS" walking tours. If you're awake and want to do more you can always add a small museum.

Thank you horsewoofie! We are in Edinburgh for a couple days and take the train to London the day before. Thank you!

You wrote:
"The Mayflower Pub – Riverside by Tower of London"

The Mayflower Pub is not near the Tower of London. The Tower of London is on the north bank of the river. The Mayflower Pub is on the south bank of the river, but quite some distance away to the east, in Rotherhithe.
Scratch this off your list unless you want to put some effort into reaching it.
However you can see The Mayflower Pub on the south shore from the boat that will take you from London to Greenwich on your "Day 5; October 5 Wednesday" to see National Maritime Museum, Cutty Sark, and the Royal Observatory.

It's hard to grasp--until you've been inside them--just how large some of those museums are. I urge you to visit the websites of at least these museums ahead of time to decide which sections to focus on. It has taken me as many as 4 or 5 visits (in 2- to 4-hour chunks) to cover all the exhibits in some of these places. Best to focus on what's most interesting to you, because you absolutely will not have time to see everything.

British Museum
Imperial War Museum
Victoria & Albert Museum
National Gallery

The Natural History Museum probably also falls in that category as well; I haven't been there in decades.

For the V&A: If you have an interest in the (incredible) jewelry collection, be at the museum at opening time and go there first. Based on my two recent experiences, you will have a good bit of time (20 - 30 minutes most likely) when there's almost no one there except you, so you'll be able to move freely from display case to display case, making good use of your time. Then more and more people will show up, and your progress through the exhibit will be a lot slower. That's the only part of the V&A where I've found crowding to have a significant impact on my ability to see the items displayed. (Jewelry is by its nature rather small, which is a factor.)

The British Museum was massively crowded on my two recent visits. A tour guide told me the Egyptian exhibit always seems to be the worst, and rainy days are the most packed.

The Imperial War Museum was much more interesting to me than I had expected. The explanations posted beside the displays are very good. They're so similar to the audio guide that you really don't need to use both--that's just a lot of time-consuming, unnecessary duplication of info. Pick whichever source you prefer. The museum often has small special exhibitions that are quite interesting and don't take long to see.

I don't think a 2-hour tour of the Westminster area is going to take you inside either the Houses of Parliament (not sure how open they are to the public anyway) or Westminster Abbey (which I know many visitors want to see). The Abbey is a time-consuming visit and costly at £25 for an adult.

There's lots of negative info floating around about the Changing of the Guard. It sounds to me like a colossal waste of time. I suggest doing some research on that before spending precious vacation time on it.

As said above.....
Changing of the Guard = a colossal waste of time.

acraven is right (she always gives excellent advice) about looking closely at what each museum has (on their website), and deciding what you want to see in each one. The V&A Museum could take 3 to 4 days to see everything in it. A glimpse lasting 2 hours hardly will scratch the surface, but you could see the items you previewed on their website, going directly to them once you've walked into the museum.
The British Museum could take 2 weeks to see everything. Pick and choose from looking at their website, and go directly to that room, or to those rooms.

Travel as though you will return to London.
Enjoy the things you are able to do; put the rest on a list for when you return someday.

If you want to take the Jack the Ripper walk then do it on Friday, when you already in that locale. For that matter, having dinner at the Ten Bells between those events would make sense, they are not that far apart. I would recommend not doing the V and A and the Natural History Museum on the same day, they both require too much time, walking, and energy, and you will short-change yourself on both experiences. Similarly, the IWM and the Greenwich sites are both major time investments on their own, and then there is the time and distance spent transiting between the two. Spitalfields does not seem to make sense to visit from either of those.

I recommend that you look at the map of London and the London transport site and figure out logistics that will work easier. You also have not mentioned where you are staying and how much time will be spent traveling to and fro from there, you need to factor this in. BTW, we ahave found that almost any neighborhood pub with regular folk makes for a good experience.

I love your itinerary and energy! You plan like I do! :)

Acraven said it well. I took my family to London three years ago with a similar itinerary. Not only are the museums and castles very large, but London is large. The next sight might be three blocks away but it's a 20-minute walk, not 10, due to traffic and people. At one point, we were going from Westminster Abbey to Ham Yard and I literally sent my kids running ahead to tell them we are on our way in order to make our reservation.

That said, your Friday, Saturday and Sunday all sound wonderful and doable. London's Borough Market is open from 10-5pm on Friday, and you are "kind of" right there. Also, your Westminster Walk on Saturday will probably show you St. James Palace, the Royal Mews and the Horse Guards Parade (which isn't exactly the Changing of the Guards but will provide a lot of pomp and circumstance.

Monday feels busy to me. They are all amazing places but you could cut out the Marble Arch. It's across the park opposite Kensington Palace. The V&A has a highlights tour at 10:30 am that perhaps you can take:https://www.vam.ac.uk/event/R5y4BEVgDvG/v-a-highlights-tour-2022

I don't have anything to offer about Wednesday as I haven't been to those places. I love these pubs though:
Princess Louse Holborn (British Museum)
The Mayflower Pub – Riverside by Tower of London
The Harp – Covent Garden Chandos Place

Have an amazing time! :)

The last time I was at Borough Market was in 2019. I don't remember what day of the week it was, but the stands were packing up or had already packed up by late afternoon. It's best for lunch. I'd be cautious about making a special trip over there after around the middle of the afternoon; it might be disappointing.

I forgot to mention earlier that some of the museums have late hours one night a week. It's often Friday. It's worth checking to see whether that's the case for the places you're interested in; it could give you a few extra sightseeing hours. However, in some cases only part of the museum is open late. For the V&A, it used to be just the ground floor.

I liked the Jack the Ripper Tour offered by Walks of London. I know there are other options, but I think WoL is more likely to provide accurate information rather than spinning tall tales.

What about Windsor Castle? We loved the charming town of Windsor and seeing the palace and St. George's Chapel. You have planned a wonderful trip! You may wish to go to Windsor on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday for more of a living history museum feel than some of the other museums. Great job on your trip planning. We enjoyed tea at the Orangery by Kensington Gardens and Kensington Palace years ago.

I LOVE these responses! The advice is so appreciated. I will cut back some and revise and I think Windsor instead of Hampton Court. I hope some of you are getting great ideas as well. Gotta keep my husband moving!! Thank you!!