We are spending Thanksgiving week in London and England. Looking for some advice on itinerary, and seeing the sites off season.
We have 10 days, looking at spending 3-4 nights in London. The rest of the time is open. Any suggestions are much appreciated!
How many people? Ages ? What are your interests?
is this your first visit to London/England?
If so, I would recommend taking one of those on/off bus city tours the first day you arrive. Stay on board for the entire circuit as you will see some major sites that you might not get to and give you a sense of the geography of London.
There are many easily acessible excursions (partial and whole day) from London:
Windsor/Eton Windsor a charming town very close to London where Windsor Castle. The castle is worth visiting as is strolling
across the river to visit Eton one of the foremost Public School in England.
Kew Gardens
Oxford or Cambridge (Full day) If you go to Cambridge do visit King's College Chapel where the world famous King's College
Choir sings.
Dulwich - A charming leafy town just south of London. Dulwich Picture Gallery is worth going to.
John Murphy
Lexington, Massachusetts
A few more details:
2 boys, age 13 and 11, mom has been to London once, first time for the rest of the family.
We like to mix tourist stops with outdoor adventure/hikes (cold in November)!
Thank you,
And don't forget shorter days.
Sunrise about 7:30 AM and sunset about 4:00 PM.
Your other nights you could stay in Salisbury or Bath and not only see those cities but do day trips to Stonehenge, Avebury, the Cotswolds, Wells, Glastonbury etc...
For the boys, and you, the Tower for sure. Also there's a Harry Potter studio tour or some such, if they're into that. A cruise up or down the river (bundle up). The Cutty Sark at Greenwich and/or Golden Hinde near the Tower. Hampton Court is good, especially the older Tudor part. The Imperial War Museum and/or the Churchill War Rooms. The Eye, on a nice day if possible. The Sherlock Holmes Museum if they like detective stuff. There are fine museums and galleries but maybe not of so much interest to the boys.
Bath and/or Salisbury+Stonehenge would be good day trips. And/or Windsor Castle. But there's enough to see and do in London, and weather may make you want to stay in the city.
Things will be open, daylight limited, dress in layers with something waterproof outside. No turkey unless you go looking for some sort of expat celebration.
Peruse a good guidebook and have the kids look through and find what they'd like to do. Give each person a day or two to call the shots. They'll enjoy it more, and roll with the punches better, if they've been part of the planning.
Take them up to a rooftop garden, perhaps. London Transport Museum, too.
See if you can get them lost on the Tube, and give them top--deck front seat rides on iconic red London buses.
Let them figure some stuff out and tell you....
From my completely personal point of view it is not very cold in London in November.
I live in Boston now and spent my youth primarily in the Finger Lakes region of New York state.
Even in late November I have found London to be quite temperate. I've experienced daily temps as high as 65. While cold snaps are very possible, and a wet day feeling colder than the thermometer implies, the average daily high in late November is 51 F. With overnight lows above freezing.
I don't know where you live now and how it compares to London climate, but I've always found temps there in November to be no barrier to outdoor activities. Hop that helps!
Adding: Wind & wet are bigger downers in the winter in England than the temperature, usually, so dress accordingly - warm sweater, hat, gloves, waterproof & windproof jacket & I'm good to go for an entire day outdoors.
If you are cold you can always head down into the Underground where you will likely quickly warm up quickly (if you aren't blown over by the wind coming in the door).
By the way, by rooftop garden in November I didn't mean 1 New Change but rather the great enclosed and roofed - and warm with no wind - SkyGarden at 20 Fenchurch Street.
Stay put in London the entire time and make five day excursions outside (every other day).
The possibilities I would recommend ...
1. Bath
2. Salisbury & Stonehenge
3. Oxford or Cambridge
4. Brighton or Canterbury
5. Windsor or Hampton Court & Kew
