London or Daytrip from London tours you’ve LOVED

How many nights do you have in London?

I recommend against the tours that try to do too much such as Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath in a day. Just too much travel time involved and too much to see in each to try and cram into one day.

Day trips on my own:

• Windsor Castle - quick trip by train and good for a half a day or more
• Hampton Court Palace, again a quick trip by train and getting on toward needing 3/4 of a day
• Kew Gardens - you don't mention gardens so this might not make your short list. It's easily done on the tube by taking the District Line to Kew Gardens. This too, to me is at least 3/4 of a day if not a full day.
• Bletchley Park - I've not done this one but it's at the top of the list for next April. This is where the code breakers worked and solved the Enigma code
• Greenwich - You can do this one by boat if you wish. It's got the National Maritime Museum, the 0 meridian point, the Cutty Sark
• Bath - Many do this as a day trip but to me it's such a cool town I go for 2-3 nights
• Salisbury - Another neat town but if you stay overnight you can do a trip out to Stonehenge on the local shuttle bus

There are literally dozens of day trips that are 2 hours or less away on the train that you can do on your own. To me it depends on how many nights you are in London as to how many you try to work in. I'd go for quality not quantity.

Thank you Pam! We have at least a week, hopefully more, and really enjoy group and also private guided tours.

I think that Rick’s Best of London tour fits the bill.I was amazed at how many sites we visited and the tour nicely divides time between organized activities and free time which allows you to visit spots not on the tour but which might be of interest to you. I felt that had I not taken the tour, I would have missed some of 5he sites and much of the info provided by the excellent guides.

Thank you, I’m looking for 1/2 day or full day tours, not anything overnight or for our whole trip.

Mary, for tours in London or day tours from London I can recc. London Walks. Fabulous itineraries and knowledgeable guides. We have only taken in London tours but I don't see why the quality of day trips would be any different.
London Walks

Nance thank you- I’ve heard of them, but wasn’t sure if they are reputable. I appreciate the suggestion!

a second for London Walks. I did their Westminster Abbey tour in June and it was great to skip the line and also have someone to talk through things. I've previously done several other tours and they've all been good quality and informative.

Rabbie’s is a great company. They do guided tours in small 10-12 people mini buses. I did a daytrip to the Cotswold and Oxford. We went to 3 different villages and then the driver surprised us with an additional stop in Bampton, a filming location for Downton Abbey. We had 2 hours in Oxford which I felt was enough time to see quite a bit of the university. I also did a daytrip with Evan Evans tours which RS recommends in his guidebooks but with them you are on a big coach with 50 people. I enjoyed both but would do Rabbies tours from now on.

I also agree with Pam (Hi, Pam!) that you can easily do some day trips on your own like Windsor Castle or Hampton Court Palace. The RS guidebook tells you exactly what do so I hope you’ve picked up a copy.

Yes to London walks. I have done a number of them and they have been uniformly good.
https://www.walks.com

London Walks also offers day trips outside of London. I have taken their Oxford and Cambridge day trips. (Separate tours.) Both were excellent.

You meet the guide at a train station in London and travel to where you are going. There a coach meets you for the day trip. But there is also a lot of walking. It's not that difficult.

I have also taken many London Walks in London and never had a bad one. Their schedule for next May/June is not out yet.

I've taken Rabbies tours in Scotland and they were excellent. Never did one out off London.

Bletchley Park ( went on my own ) Spent over 3 hours there.
Hampton Court ( went on my own ) was in Nov and other than a group of 10 students and their teacher no one else was there. Have a picture of the vacant gardens. Blissful.
Crystal Park Dinosaurs then a walk about Crystal
Park trails. ( went on my own ) An interesting fun thing to do.

Inns of the Court ( via London Walks ) informative.

Richmond main street then a walk along the Thames River path to the enormous Richmond Park. Got to see the red deer. BTW if you love cheese check online to see if Teddington Cheese survived covid. Divine soft bleu cheese. AND next door for meal and or a pint The Victorian Inn.

Walked The Line art Path https://the-line.org/
Stopped at the riverside Anchor and Hope pub (great traditional pub complete with snug)., then walked to the Charlton station and trained to Waterloo and where I took the tube back to Richmond where I was staying.
Cambridge ( went with friends)
Oxford ( on my own )

Older than you. Avid walker, ambler, meanderer. For me its the best way to experience London and its environs.

In July wandered around the Shoreditch neighborhood to see the numerous wall murals. Had a coffee at OAT. Then meander over to Spitalfields where I had lunch and took iphone pics.

Lastly, Check London Walks www.walks.com

Excellent, well run, inexpensive walks with knowledgeable leaders. Group size is a manageable 15. Never miss taking a London Walk.

I also loved Kew gardens but I recommend taking the boat from Westminster Pier and then tube to come back.

Definitely Kew Gardens. Very lovely and a cute town as well.

Go on the London Walks Greenwich tour. I went on this awhile ago but I loved taking the boat and having a tour guide the area. After the walk my family and I ate at Goddard's(is it still there?) having some pie and mushy peas.

I did the London Walks day trip tour to Salisbury/Stonehenge with my two daughters. We had a great time and the guide was great.

We also did the London Walks tours of Tower of London and Westminster Abbey. Both excellent.

In my opinion, Rabbies has the best tour guides in the business. I've been on two of their trips. If I were you, I would strongly consider the one to Bath, Avebury, and Lacock. We did a tour of Avebury from Bath(with Mad Max) and I think it's a worthwhile trip.