I want to thank everyone on the England thread for the great advice you shared while I was planning our trip this November. I'm mostly a lurker so I wanted to contribute a few thoughts to try to pay the help forward.
Grange Strathmore Hotel was perfect for us, a block from the Gloucester Rd tube station, a bit faded but not shabby The hotel accommodates mainly British and European tourists, not tour groups. This is not a budget hotel but we got a good deal on a decent room. This is an old building and every room is different. Some rooms are very small. The staff was wonderful and very helpful. There are at least 20 restaurants within 3 blocks of the hotel making it easy to find dinner if you are not venturing out in the evening. You can take the Piccadilly Line from Heathrow right to the Gloucester Rd tube station.
We picked one location to visit each morning (after rush hour) and then had other places queued up if we wanted to move on. I marked up a map to show all the sights we wanted to visit so I could group activities each day and not spend the whole day traveling.
Greenwich and Hampton Court Palace were each worthy of a full day.
London Walks provided three great walks in Greenwich, Tower of London and V&A Museum. I'm ready to explore with them again the next trip.
London Pass worked for us this trip. We saved more than I expected as the Pass got us discounts at the shops and cafes at every site we visited except for St Paul's. Even sites without fees had extras with the Pass including nice guidebooks, entry to paid exhibits and tours. You must run the numbers to see if it works for your trip. I won't be using London Pass next trip but this trip it saved me money and time.
Sign up for emails and watch the discount offers roll in.
Oyster Card is brilliant. Easy to use, easy to top up. We kept ours with a small remaining balance for the next trip.
Best meal was at Bombay Brasserie near the Gloucester Rd tube station.
Best advice I received which I pass on - don't rush, savor the places you are visiting, plan to return to see more. This was my 15th trip in 40 years and there is still more to see.
Posted by
franktown, colorado
2252 posts
Wonderful report, lots of good and very useful information. Your "best advice" is exactly that! Thank you, Susan.
Posted by
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
91 posts
London walks is a great way to see parts of London " some natives aren't familiar either with the area either " & Jack the Ripper is very interesting walk. You actually pass by the hospital where the " elephant man stayed ".. can't remember his name at the moment.
Hampton Court is just amazing , the Windsor Castle tour is not to be missed. Just across from Windsor is the Crooked House Tea shop where all the walls are crooked and the tale goes their is a tunnel leading from the castle to the house. If you get out and walk along the Thames " Tate museum to pedestrian bridge " you'll get to enjoy wonderful small churches , cafe's even a shop or two. My daughter who rides bikes , run's found a shop perfect if your into this. We then walked across the Thames back up to Westminster Abby. They have benches , places to sit along the river.
Posted by
London, England.
662 posts
Glad you had a great trip Susan 😃 Amazing that there are still things on your 'to see' list after 15 visits.