London on the Fly

Perhaps a good place to start would be the London pages under the Explore Europe section of this site: https://www.ricksteves.com/europe/england/london

Then get a current copy of the RS guidebook. Or any other reportable guidebook. That will give you an idea of sites to see as well as logistics while you are there. Then if you have any specific questions, the forum members can try to help.

I vote for the RS guide book as well unless you know what sights might interest you! Do you plan to do any day trips OR even better, do a couple of overnights away?

First, I'd look at hotels. I like The Lime Tree on Ebury Street although they did a reno over Covid and their prices have really shot up.

Then look at what sites will interest you and your travel style. My style has evolved to just do 1 or 2 big sites a day, especially now that many need timed entries booked well ahead.

Do you have any particular interests? WWII? English HIstory? Art? Theater?

The sites I love for a first timer include:

British Museum
Tower of London
Westminster Abbey
National Gallery
Churchill War Rooms
A walk with London Walks (www.walks.com)

Day trips:
Bletchley Park (where they broke the Enigma Code in WWII)
Kew Gardens (if you enjoy gardens)
Windsor Castle
Hampton Court Palace

Overnight or 2-night trips:
Salisbury for Stonehenge, Old Sarum and Salisbury Cathedral
Bath for Roman Baths and Georgian Architecture
York for Gothic Cathedral, Roman ruins, Viking influence

What a fun time you will have!

Within London, I’d suggest spending a bit of time at Greenwich. As well as the British Museum, The Natural History Museum, Science Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum are all free. The last 3 are very close to each other but you may need to book a timed entry ticket.

Other day trips - Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury, also Portsmouth dockyard for The Mary Rose and HMS Victory.

I love looking at the scrapbooks of people who have been on the Rick Steves tours - they can give you a lot of ideas when you are planning on your own. Here's the link:

https://www.ricksteves.com/tours/scrapbooks/tour-alum-scrapbooks

Have a great time!

It's hard to ask questions because I don't know what I should really be asking.

YouTube is actually a great travel resource. You can find how to videos on practicalities such as getting into the city from the airport, riding the Tube, British pubs, and the major tourist sights. Rick Steves has his own channel, where you can find all of his shows covering London as well as day trip locations.

As others have suggested, a guidebook would be the best place to start.

I'd suggest you talk to your friends who've been to London, and find out what they loved. Reading is well and good, but start with hearing what other people enjoyed most, decide if you resonate with that, and then reading/videos are good to tell you the mechanics and planning steps. But start with the WHY you want to go.

You should also get used to using some apps for transit and routing. I generally use TfL Go and Citymapper. You can plan from home or on the spot.

The transit system is not hard but it’s helpful to have a notion of where things are relative to other places you want to see to organize sightseeing. Credit card tap and go works great, others prefer purchasing a dedicated transit card. Oyster, that you “load” with money.