Help with 4 day London itinerary

Hi, Melody. May I suggest you post this under the "To the North" blog so you'll get more responses? That being said, we leave in about a week for a trip with the same amount of time in London. A few thoughts: Several of your stops seem like whirlwinds to me - Tower of London, for example, seems like it needs more than 2 hrs. Same with Buckingham Palace. For what they cost, I certainly don't want to run in and run out. For our trip, I have set up Westminster Abbey so that we can catch evensong at 5 PM. I am also expecting that we're going to be dead tired on the first day - we're taking my 80 year old mother, so this may not be a fair comparison - so we're doing the London By Night bus tour the first night, then using our Oyster Cards for buses and the tube from there on out. Maybe you want to use the hop-on/off bus for transportation....that's fine. Finally, I wanted to make one day trip out of London, so we're going to Windsor on Day 4. In any case, if you'd like to compare notes, PM me.

Melody, you've got a good list of things to do and see but I would remove all of the set times. You've decided what you really want to, now just flow with it. Some activities should be adjusted according to the weather - not set to a certain day. Indoor activities when it's raining and walks if the weather is nicer. Setting exact times (even when to eat) can only lead to disaster and tension. Loosen up your program and then go and enjoy yourself - there is no time clock!

Eliminate the set times. Absolutely great advice. Allow yourself time to enjoy what you are seeing and doing- if something is boring - cut it short, if you are enjoying- linger. Nobody (including yourself) can tell you what you are going to enjoy ahead of time. London is a great experience. But when you are at Westminster you have got to see the Horse Guards. Changes: Day 3- have lunch in a pub in the City. Very different, patrons in City suits and ties, traditional old English meals. I would linger in the lanes in the City in preference to London Museum, but thats your call. Day 4- nice cafe/lunch room in National GalleryDay 2- Covent garden for lunch - good opportunity for Indian, or Chinese (Chinatown has great dim sum). Shopping- I would do Regent Street, Piccadilly, Bond Street (even window shopping) over Soho. If you enjoy Museums, do British Museum, not London Museum

Youll need more than an hour at the Tower of London. Also you have 11:30 for Buckingham palace, but youll have to be there by 9:30 to get a good view. I think this is too tight of a schedule. I would pick either portrait gallery or national gallery, not both. Plus you are too spread out from Tate to V&A museum. V&A is in Kensington nearer to Kensington palace, Hyde park and Harrods.

Too regimented- make a list of your top attractions 2 or 3 a day and what you can do from there scheduling yourself to the minute is not a way to enjoy your vacation. London is a big city.

A couple of suggestions: one day start with Westminster Abbey (long queues and don't drink any coffee for breakfast!), then walk through Belgravia to the Victoria and Albert, then enjoy Hyde Park. Another day, start with the Tower of London (also long queues), then walk along the south bank of the Thames past the Globe Theatre (has a good lunch pub), cross the pedestrian bridge and admire St. Pauls and enter if you wish, return to the south bank and stroll along towards the London Eye; Parliament is opposite. Another day: British Museum and other nearby museums if you aren't museumed out. St. Martin in the Fields has a lovely casual restaurant in the crypt. Remaining day: river cruise to Greenwich, another museum if you like. I would skip changing of the guard. Unless you get there at least an hour early, you won't see anything. Watch it on a video. Plays: any night except Monday. Sherlock HOlmes pub in that area is fun for dinner.

Re Cynthia's suggestions immediately above- after St Paul, i would stay North of the river, walk back toward Westminster past the Inns of court (good to look around, also the Templars church), back along "the Strand" through traditional London scenery, end up at Trafalgar Square and are then close to Westminster or whatever. lots of little side alleys, pubs, places to eat or whatever. good sense of London. (Or walk along the thames on the North bank to Cleopatra's needle, but I prefer the Strand trip); or catch a double decker bus going in the same direction- Sit upstairs at the front for the same effect but easier on the feet