Please sign in to post.
Holiday Sale! Save 20% Storewide!

London Itinerary Help Please

Posted by (Canada) on

We will be spending 3 1/2 days in London in early September. We arrive mid-morning and hope to begin touring in early afternoon. We are staying near St. Paul's Cathedral. We are not museum people, and will only want to spend a short time in Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's.

Day 1 afternoon
depending on our time of arrival we will either:
1) do the 2:00 London Walk of Old Westminster, or the RS self-guided walk of the "City"
2) at 5:00 take the Sightseeing Bus tour for 2 hours from London Eye
3) Supper close to home - recommendations? (not looking for expensive restaurants or pubs)

Day 2
1) do a walk over millenium bridge - to walk by Shakespeare's Globe, Tait Modern, etc on way to Tower Of London, may have to tube it part of the way I expect
2) 11:00 tour of Tower of London
3) thames River cruise to Westminster
Is it worth taking the cruise to Greenwich with our limited time in London??
4) possible 2:30 London walk - The Crown - meet at Green Park exit
5) Westminster Abbey late day tour at 4:30 or if we are late we will do 5:00 service
6) Supper and theatre show - debating between Thriller and Motown - recommendations for supper or show?

Day 3
1) some sort of walking tour in the morning - destination unknown - suggestions?? or thinking of a bike rental (santander) for Hyde Park
2) walking tour in afternoon - Old Westminster if not done on day 1 or something around St. Paul's
3) tour St Paul's either late afternoon or for evensong at 5:00

supper and evening entertainment open for suggestion?

Day 4
Tour of Windsor Castle and Eton - full day
evening - possible thames pub walk or open to suggestions?

I know we cannot see and do everything - but are we missing anything really obvious? Are there any little stops that we can easily incorporate into our plan as we are "practically there anyway"? Also reasonably priced restaurants or pubs to grab supper or lunch in that we are close to in our travels? We do also enjoy want to take time to just enjoy our surroundings - like walking along the Thames.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you

Posted by
33992 posts

Do you know that if you go to either the Abbey or St Pauls for the Evensong you won't be allowed to sightsee inside? You will go straight to the quire (usual location) or the Crossing, participate in the Service and then leave.

Posted by
91 posts

Hi,
you travel like I do: Hit the ground running & pack as much in as you can while you're there! :) I like it!

Have you considered a bike tour one day instead of a walking tour? You see SO much more on a bike in the same amount of time as a walking tour and it's so much fun!. I did a bike tour with "Tally Ho tours" in April which was good, but there is also Fat Tire Bike tours (which I've taken in 3 oither cities & have been great). I've seen that Strawberry Tours also does City landmark tours split up by areas: East, West, and South if you wanted to see specific areas more than others. ALSO: If you Google "London Walks", it's a site where you can search by topic or time or date to find a bunch of other specialty tours of possible interest (we did an evening London Secret Village Pub tour). These are cheap & great bc when you find the one you like, you just turn up at that place & time...no pre credit card pymt or RSVP required, so it lets you be flexible in that you have a plan & can do it or not, depending on how you feel when the time comes. They also offer day trips outside of London, so peruse that site at length! www.walks.com
Millenium Bridge down to Tower bridge and then over to TOL isnt a super long walk, it's quite a nice stroll, watching the people and the boats on the river. Westminster Abbey and St Pauls are both fantastic, and deserving of time (I finally got round to those this past April as well!) Climb to the Whisper Gallery & dome of St Paul's if you are able to--unreal views of London up there! and then you can reward yourself with Victoria sponge cake in the cafe in the crypt! Speaking of crypts, St Martin in the Fields chruch (@Trafalgar Sq) has their "Cafe in the crpyt" (it's to the left if looking at the church/take glass elevator down) if youre near there & need to stop/rest with a spot of food/dessert or a beverage. Pretty neat to have a snack right over ancient gravestones!
Borough Market also should be on your list.... loads of tastings and delightful food stuffs/options. Also if youre in LDN on a Friday or Saturday, Portobello Road Market is also an absolute blast (IMO).
Hope this helps, have a fabulous time!!!

Posted by
1035 posts

Wow, you are going to pack in a full 3 days in London. Shelley provided some great recommendations. I just have a few things to add:

For planning and to see the latest activities and restaurant recommendation checkout TimeOut London: https://www.timeout.com/london. When I visit London, I will often adjust my schedule if there is a great exhibit or show on when I am visiting.

Day One: if you are arriving on a weekday, your 5:00 bus tour will be stuck in traffic as it will be navigating with the rest of the vehicles in traffic.

Day Two: I have been on the cruise to Greenwich and it is an interesting town, but there is so much to see in London that you may want to pass on it this trip. For the morning part of your visit, if you have the time, the Globe tour is fascinating. I know you don’t love museums, but the Tate is special and they always have something utterly surprising. If you go to the Tate, the cafe is wonderful. Great views of the Thames and delicious food. If you don’t stop at the Globe and/or Tate, your walk will take you past Borough’s market. You can pick up local picnic supplies and it is a great place for local souvenirs for your foodie friends.

Places to eat: the Salt Yard and Desha are both delicious (tapas style restaurants): https://www.saltyardgroup.co.uk.

Have a great trip,

Sandy

Posted by
1334 posts

I'd encourage trying to do as many of the London Walks as you can. I think I'd skip the cruise to Greenwich since you can't devote a full day to it.

I'm not a fan of bus tours, I think you spend too much time looking at traffic and bank buildings. But, to each their own and I know they have their devotees.

I enjoy the theatre but I'm not sure Thriller or Motown would be at the top of my list. If you're flexible, you can cosider TodayTix or LoveTheatre. With your aggressive schedule, I don't think there's time to stand in line at the TKTS booth in Leicester Square.

https://www.todaytix.com/x/london/shows

https://www.lovetheatre.com/

Posted by
18 posts

Thanks Ashley - for your great feedback. Yes we considered the bike tour with Fat Tire - the Royal London Tour - but wondered if we would be seeing the same sights as the bus tour we thought we would take. That is why we switched our thought there. We are also headed to Paris later in this trip - did you do a bike tour there you could recommend? Also we have looked into London Walks - and those are some we are considering. We are doing the Tower of London and Windsor day trip hopefully through them. I very much appreciate your other ideas.

Thank you

Posted by
18 posts

Thanks Sandy - your observation about our bus tour timing makes perfect sense - we just didn't know when to do it otherwise - as we wanted to see the "lay of the land" early in our trip. In case our flights arrive late we wanted to allow enough time to get there if delayed. I really like the idea of eating at the Tate and appreciate the restaurant recommendation. I had heard of the TimeOut London recommendation - hopefully will get some ideas from there closer to our trip for what is happening in London.

Posted by
18 posts

I agree Dale with your "musical" opinion - I have seen most of the other more popular shows and was trying to find something my husband might enjoy. Yes I agree - the London Walks look really good - just have to work their timing into our schedule.

Thank you

Posted by
3895 posts

"Day 2:
2) 11:00 tour of Tower of London"

Do get to the Tower of London when it opens. Otherwise, by 11 AM, the crowds will be huge. If you get there when it opens, there may be a dozen people going in with you. By 11 AM, that could be a hundred or more people. We were there the last weekend in April, passing by the outside, and there was a line from the gate to the tube entrance; several hundred people waiting to get in at 11 AM.
Get there early, see the Crown Jewels, take the Beefeater tour, then wander around.

Opening times:
Tuesday-Saturday- 09:00-17:30
Sunday-Monday- 10:00-17:30

https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/#gs.c1WeUB0

Posted by
52 posts

There is no way to get Hamilton tickets effectively until January.

Posted by
1162 posts

I saw “Everyone’s Talking About Jaime” back in May and I loved it! Find it on Youtube and you can see a couple of clips from the show. I saw Young Frankenstein as well but not sure if that will be around in Sept. If you’re Harry Potter fans you may still be able to get Cursed Child tickets. It will be premium pricing but is worth it if you’re a fan like me. Never had the urge to see Thriller but it’s been running for years so it must be good. I also subscribe to the sites someone mentioned previously and was able to get great seats at a good discount through them. This helped eliminate a trip to TKTS in Leicester Square to get a discount ticket the day of the show.

Posted by
141 posts

Great information! Going to London in November. (will probably be cold, but airfare was 262 from SFO and I couldn't resist!!) The London Walks site is perfect! I'm so grateful to have seen that! And I already purchased a ticket to Hamilton. Have some personal rules about the cost of theatre tickets and could never afford it in Los Angeles..tried San Diego with no luck....and even tried in New York City one night....tickets were available but 850.00!!!! Not MY budget. So, I am very happy with my 99.00 ticket for November. (although it does seem a little strange to see a completely American story in England!) I also will get to see Lion King and Phantom of the Opera for really reasonable prices...and in LONDON! I'm so pleased and looking forward to whatever London Walk works best for me. Thanks again.

Posted by
28247 posts

About Hamilton:

In order to foil scalpers, the producers require the purchaser to show ID (or maybe it's the credit card used for purchase) when picking up tickets at the theatre. Since they are forbiddingm ransfer of the tickets, there's a provision for getting a refund if you cannot attend. I assume those returned tickets are offered for sale on the website, so someone who checks persistently might be able to get a last-minute ticket.

Posted by
141 posts

This post was supposed to be about an itinerary so I feel a little like I'm interrupting. I just need to issue a disclaimer. Very low cost travel certainly has its inconveniences. But thank you for the Hamilton information, I double-checked my ticket order for authenticity, and it is from Ticketmaster. But DOES come with provisions, including showing the credit card I purchased it with. I may have left that card at home. Thanks.

This topic has been automatically closed due to a period of inactivity.