Upcoming Itinerary - thoughts?

That is quite a March imho. Only 2 hours for the British Museum? It could be an hour or more to go thru security as the cue can be quite long. I would opt to go to British Museum bef B library. We were at B. Museum at opening and only waited half hour.

You are looking at a 7 hours time zone change. Your body is going to be out of sync with local time in London, so why eat lunch at the busiest time of the day for lunch, 12-1? You could eat lunch at 10 or at 3 and it wouldn't make any difference to your tummy. Beat the crowds and reduce the stress by lunching at 11 and diner at 5.

Alternatively, if your hotel offers a breakfast buffet, pig out and skip lunch. Take a mid-afternoon food break at some sort of snack shop.

One hour is not enough time to allow for lunch unless all four of you are willing to buy sandwiches and eat them as you walk down the street. You may sometimes pull that off but should not count on it.

The Tate Britain and and Imperial War Museum are on opposite sides of the Thames, and the IWM is a healthy walk from the nearest Underground station. One hour is just not going to cut it.

There are four of you. Assuming you are flying into London from the US rather than from a previous destination in Europe, there is no hope that all of you will be in condition to see a play on Night 1. There's an excellent chance none of you will be up to it. I know theatre tickets are officially non-changeable, but I'd get on the phone to the theatre box office and beg.

Again assuming you have a transatlantic flight into London, if the flight is scheduled to land at 1:15, you will be pretty fortunate just to get out of the airport by 2:15, and a downtown hotel is a 1-hour tube ride from Heathrow. I don't know how much faster a taxi would be; probably the Heathrow Express is the fastest option if it's convenient to your hotel.

Your walking times--I presume from Google Maps--are for people who know exactly where they are going. That will not be you. I always have a hard time getting oriented when I leave the Tate Modern Museum and certainly would not expect to make it to the Borough Market in 12 minutes. Nor would I anticipate exploring the market and eating in 15 minutes.

One of the joys of travel is experiencing a new environment. If you walk at the pace suggested by Google Maps (3 miles per hour), you won't be stopping and looking at anything.

I like art a lot so I spend much more time than average at art museums and am not a good indicator of the time a typical tourist will spend. However, I find the Tate Modern very engaging and think one hour there is inadequate and not worth the travel time to and from. It's a fairly large place requiring a good bit of walking and stair-climbing. Pick up a floor plan to help you get around.

I don't know how old your children are, but this schedule seems over-packed. I'd drop a sight or two and plan to slot in a just-show-up London Walks tour if the weather cooperates.

Ambitious itinerary

I agree with everyone else about the first day.

For the rest of the trip, pick two big things to see each day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Identify a few good eating places at either (don’t forget, most museums & galleries have decent cafés that serve fairly speedy food). Also have a few “nice-to-see” places in your list.

Some places will take longer than you expect or plan for - you might want to stay at the Tower of London for four hours for example. Others might bore you stupid. Give yourself the flexibility to change your mind. Allow double the time to walk anywhere. Allow for queues. Particularly allow for queues for women’s toilets.

I think realistically you’ll end up doing about two-thirds of what you’ve planned, but also you’ll have given yourself time just to enjoy London. For example the South Bank of the Thames en route to the Tate Modern may have Street entertainers and food stalls and also great views. Give yourself time to enjoy it.

Thanks for all of the feedback so far... I will change what I can based on the comments. Flip flopping the British Library and British Museum is an easy fix. So, that will be the first change on my list. Thanks again!

If you want fast lunches, try Pret a Manger. It was our go to place on recent trip to London. Excellent premade sandwiches and salads and choice of staying (for more money or to go. We went the first time on our arrival day which I would much prefer to the tea you have scheduled. You really want to be outside and keep moving.

FYI, we arrived at 9 am at Heathrow and checked into our hotel (took the tube) at 11:30.

If you want to only hit the highlights of British museum, I would highly recommend London Walks. Excellent guide and perfect for a short visit. It is 10 pounds a person and you just show up to designated spot (as specified on their website) We met outside a tube stop where it was a 10 minute walk to museum. It was 2 pm on a Wednesday in June and no security lines but we used a different entrance with a group.

London Walks is fabulous. We also took a walking tour the day we arrived .

I don’t think you are taking into account information overload. You will enjoy your trip more if you do no more than two museums a day (and we didn’t even always do that) and mix in outdoor activities.

While Pret a Manger will be faster than a place with waiter service, note that at prime lunch time, there will be long lines at Pret as well, so you can't always count on a quick lunch even there. It is a good bet for a fast-er lunch, as they are ubiquitous (sometimes even across the street from each other). There are other competing sandwich places, and you can also get grab-and-go meals from supermarkets like Tesco, M&S, and Sainsbury's. Again, once you've grabbed, you still have to wait to pay before you can go, and the check out lines will be long at lunch, so even these "fast" options take some time.

I agree with all the other replies. You will quickly have to abandon this forced march schedule - and that's fine. But do try to reschedule your theater tickets for anything other than that first night, or you'll have a very expensive nap. I find that even the second night I can still get tired at a show, but the first night is guaranteed to be trouble.

My thoughts. I don’t think your itinerary is as difficult as others. Your biggest issue may be getting Times tickets for your time frames.

Day 1 - I don’t know about getting tea at that hour. May I suggest grabbing an early dinner at a “local” instead? But if you have researched 5:45 tea, then you know more about it than I do.

Day 2: Tower of London is doable in 3 hours if you’re ok prioritizing two things. May be able to do a self tour and a beefeater tour. The self tour more or less takes a path and once you’re on it, you have to go with the crowd. That could be two hours. You may not see the white tower or Crown Jewels. Prioritize your wants first before you arrive.

Westminster Abbey lines can make your 90 minute window difficult. Big Ben is under scaffolding.

Day 3: If you want to see the changing, you probably have to arrive well before 11 AM to get a view. From experience. Churchill War Rooms is doable in 2 hours. Getting a ticket for then right now may be tough.

Day 5: Doable. Again, it’s about making sure you can get Times tickets for your preferred times this close.

Day 6: if you are going to do a short tour of the British Museum, May I recommend you download Rick’s highlights of the British Museum podcast? You could spend weeks at the British Museum but Rick can get you through in a couple of hours. The British Library is doable in an hour. Just make sure they are not hosting an exhibit when you plan to visit. Their hours can change.

If you want to be adventurous, Rick has a terrific “The City” podcast that he does as well. If you’re planning on exploring anyway, it might be a good partner to the St Paul’s visit. Definitely get a timed ticket. The walk up is not easy btw. And you could spend 40 minutes in the Crypt if you wanted to really explore.

Day 7: Borough Market is open for lunch, not dinner I believe. But some of the restaurants may be open. If you’re going to do Borough Market right, it should be a lunch visit. And have a Scotch Egg.

The IWM is a beast. If I ever went again, I would do it to start the day. The sheer size of what’s on offer and the content inside is exhausting (in a good way). You’ll be doing a ton of walking just to get there.

You didn’t mention how old your children are. A London Walks tour might be a good complement in there somewhere.

Your days look busy, but doable. The main day that looks problematic to me is the last day. Trying to do three museums in one day sounds horrific. Also just throwing it out there but I thought the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace is supremely overrated. Unless you get there super early you can’t see a thing. I also agree with others that the potential of you getting to your hotel by 3:30 on arrival day is slim so I would have the mental attitude of it you may not be able to make your teatime reservation that afternoon.