London Itenerary help

I'd have trouble keeping up this pace but I'm more than twice your age, so good luck! ;-) A few thoughts:

May 24: Many people would say to avoid driving on that first jet-lagged day, especially on the "wrong" side of the road. But I don't know of a better way to get to Bath if that's what you have to do on that day. I don't see how you could have time to see Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Avebury on the way to Bath, unless you literally drive by.

May 25: There's plenty to see just in Bath, but there are also tours to Stonehenge if you missed it yesterday.

May 26: Seems a bit light compared to the prior days, you could use this day for a morning Stonehenge and/or Salisbury and/or Avebury visit. It took me about 3-4 hours to see Windsor Castle and I was pretty thorough.

May 27: From Windsor to Paddington is by train, not tube (via Slough, rhymes with cow). You could see the castle this morning if you weren't locked into the bike tour.

May 28: Another ambitious day, but doable. Save your feet by taking a #3 or #159 bus from Westminster to the Imperial War Museum.

May 31: For an art lover I'd suggest the Wallace Collection in preference to the British Library, but I haven't looked at the geography involved so your plan may be more efficient.

June 2: Do any one of those day trips, not all three. If your energy is still high, you could go to both Greenwich and Hampton Court, but as you know they're at opposite ends of the city. Portsmouth would be a full day in itself.

You'll return tired but happy, I'm sure. But keep in mind that this need not be your last trip to London, there will be time for more I hope.

I also have an issue with driving on your arrival day. Driving in heavy traffic on the other side of the road while jet lagged is just a really bad idea. Even worse if the car has manual transmission. You could take the train (changing in Reading), and just site see in Bath for the rest of the day. Then pick up a car the next morning to do Stonehenge, etc.

Have you figured out where you'll store your luggage while you're on your bike tour,?

On Thurs, I'd suggest the Br Library first, and then the Mueum, since the latter can really eat up a day.

While most days look very ambitious, I don't think you can do everything listed on Friday. The V&A alone can eat up an entire day. If you were to limit this to the morning, then do the Natural History museum, then walk thru the parks, by the time you get to the Portobello Road market, they'd likely be closing up. (closes at 4:30).

As previously suggested, pick 1 place for your day trip on Sat. Hampton Court would be my pick.

We are just planning on doing one of the listed items on our last day. Sorry for the confusion. We are also tossing around moving Portobello Road Market and just do more shopping and such on our last day as well.

We drove from Frankfurt to Rothenburg last November on the day that we arrived. It wasn't too bad, so hopefully the "wrong side" driving won't be too much of an issue.

I think Saturday's a better day for Portobello Road.

I suspect you aren't allowing enough time for the major museums in London. Last year I spent at least 4 hours at each of the V&A, Imperial War Museum, Tate Modern and National Gallery and felt like I had seen an average of half of each place. I was in London for ten days and didn't even have time to set foot in the Churchill War Rooms or the British Museum, though I did take three walking tours. Perhaps, though, you are prepared to be selective about which exhibits you visit in the various museums.

I'd crash and burn after three days of your pace, but I'm almost twice your age.

Day 1. Please don’t contemplate so much driving, on some of the busiest roads in Europe after a long transatlantic flight. You may not care about yourselves, but please consider other road users. What you have planned is c4 hours driving or more if you get stuck in traffic, which often happens to me on this route.

You aren’t likely to be away from Gatwick before 11am or later and most spend c 2 hours at Stonehenge plus you also want to see Salisbury and Avebury, so that will be c7 pm in Bath. Far too long a day.

Can your accommodation be changed? It would make more sense to stay in Windsor day 1 then head to Bath. Having a car in Windsor and Bath is a disadvantage, as parking is difficult.

The weekend of 26 May is a UK Bank Holiday, so places will be busy and this is the time when you haven’t got your accommodation booked. Check, but there maybe rail engineering works being undertaken, which may mean a bus replacement service.

29 and 30 May sees you in the City and West End for part of each days. Geographically, it would make more sense to see the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery then walk down past Charing Cross Station to the South Bank and along the river to Tate Modern and the Globe Theatre. See all the City things the other day.

2 June. My choice would be Hampton Court.

I agree with the others that driving from Gatwick to Bath on the morning of your arrival is dicey. Some people take to driving on the left side of the road but others it takes a bit of time. If you still want to drive I'd go to Windsor and then go to Bath.

I am taking a similar trip with my mom in September, so I can't speak from personal experience yet. But originally I was going to go straight from the airport to Bath. But, at the advice of folks here I decided to reverse the plan and go from the airport to Windsor, and then from Windsor to Bath a couple days later and lastly end in London. I'm feeling a lot better about this pace considering we'll be tired after a long flight. Maybe something like that would work for you too? You'd probably enjoy Stonehenge and Avebury more if you weren't so tired.

PLEASE change the order of it and go from Heathrow to WINDSOR first. You'll literally be able to see the castle when you land, it's SO much closer than anything else, gives you all sorts of options if you're not tired for seeing the castle, history and art in one place, but also good shopping, other fun things with the theatre and the river. If you ARE tired, then it'll be much safer to be able to just go rest so close to Heathrow.

There's a Travelodge in Windsor that was pretty good when we went, but there's a trick to the building, that the parking garage's below the shopping level, where the front door is, so if you come in later you may have to use a callbox to get the front desk to enable the lift. You just need to nail them down on specifics about arrival if you book there. Or take the train to the station right near them, Windsor Central station, not the one north of it, Windsor Riverside. Just ask for exact station name, etc. Or go to Windsor last, before you plan to leave through Heathrow, it makes your trip SO much easier to be right nearby.

Windsor also has a nice hotel right near the castle, and many B&Bs too. Also the Windsor Castle tour has a way for you to validate your ticket at the end, and with that you can get back in for free for a year.

The last I knew, the chocolate shop in town was giving "tours" of their chocolate "factory." Small but tasty. The hop on hop off bus that tours around Windsor, to the Royal Farm Shop, and also through Eton, that was pretty good. Mostly the castle's the thing, for many reasons, gardens, art, everything. I brought a monocular, I bought it on Amazon by Celestron (the telescope co, it was just one half of a binocular) and I used it a lot inside Windsor to see the names on the artwork way up high, the celiings, definitely the tower and the grounds, and sometimes to see the train boards in stations at a big distance if we were running late.

There's a good, direct coach bus from Victoria station in London right out to Windsor, so if you decide to go there last, after your car's turned in and you're in London, it'll be easy. You don't need a car in Windsor, it's all within like 3 blocks of that Travelodge :) Some hills involved but not too bad. Good shopping, good prices at shops and at restaurants when we were there in Sept.

This part: "Windsor to London
•Tube from Windsor to Paddington Station"
is incorrect, the Tube's only in the City of London, there might be an overland train to Paddington from Windsor Central station; but I know the other train station farther north, Windsor Riverside, does go fairly directly to Waterloo. Easiest is the green coach bus, goes right to Victoria station.

You can get in to Westminster Abbey for free if you're attending a service.

Rick Steves and one tour guide were both saying they were disappointed in Portobello Road market recently. Maybe something changed back, though.

If you're interested in history, and going to the National Portrait Gallery near Trafalgar Square, you might want to also go to Ben Franklin's only surviving house, it's near there too.

I've found the schedules for both the tours at the Globe Theatre and the plays there but can vary quite a bit, and getting tickets in advance seemed to be fairly required when we went last time for both things.

The museums and galleries are REALLY LARGE, so you may want to consider an Oyster card or some hop on hop off bus options for London. Walking miles to go to a gallery might tire you out before your time inside the museum or gallery. Could be an option some of the time, especially if weather becomes a challenge. Little-known fact, that company London Walks also has a page that gives details on their taxi tours, if you do get tired.

Sounds like you're going to have a great time! Good luck!
-Alison

Again, don't try to drive from Gatwick to Bath on your arrival day. The best way to do it is to get the train from Gatwick to Reading and then Reading to Bath - it's quite slow from Gatwick to Reading but it means you don't have to transfer between stations in London.

You can get the train in Windsor right across the street from the castle. When you are at the street corner by the castle (beside the statue of Queen Victoria) you will see the Ye Harte and Garter Hotel, cross the street turn right and walk pass the hotel to the corner. At that corner turn left and walk down to the train station. You will change trains in Slough (very simple) the train arrives at London Paddington Station. It’s a 35 minute ride.

One of our favorite places to visit is the Borough Market. The full market is open Wednesday - Saturday. Just a fascinating stop and a great break from all the heavy-duty tourist stops. Here's the link: http://boroughmarket.org.uk
Have fun!

I agree with Rick on a lot of things, but I will always despise his, 'start off in Bath' advice. There's no way I could agree that it is a good idea to do any driving on the day of arrival, much less an extensive amount. I understand the desire to try to cram as much in, but jet lag is awful. I'd suggest staying in London the entire time and doing day trips to Bath and Windsor, avoiding the need for a car in the first place.