Help with my 4 day London Itinerary (1st time in Europe)

Well, one big problem I see is that you have a theatrical show scheduled on your first day there. I would STRONGLY suggest you put that off for a few days - with jet lag, your odds of falling asleep during the show are high.

In fact, on your first day there, I would mostly stick with outdoor activities - it's one of the best ways to circumvent jet lag. Keep in Parliament, Trafalgar Square (you can actually see Big Ben from the square) and Big Ben - they're not that far away, and maybe take a walk through Kensington Gardens to see the Peter Pan statue.

While you're at Trafalgar Square, check out St. Martin in the Fields church. You can also have lunch there at the Cafe in the Crypt. The food is good and inexpensive.

And don't forget to have afternoon tea someplace - I had it at Fortnum & Mason's, a wonderful store to visit (check out the clerks in their tailcoats and sneakers), but you can get at many places, including Harrods.

I also loved St. Paul's Cathedral. And the Globe theatre. And of course, Westminster Abbey (which you have listed). See if you can visit while vespers is going on.

A very fun (and very old) pub is Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street. It dates back to the 1600's (Charles Dickens among others frequented the pub) and has tons of atmosphere. You can eat and drink here, and it's well worth a stop.

I've been to London many times and it looks doable. The only thing I would suggest is not doing the West End show your first night. Likely, you will not sleep very much on the flight (remember, if you arrive at 6AM, that is about 1AM in the East Coast) and you will be exhausted by evening. If it were me, I would definitely fall asleep in the show!

You might be able to add an evening activity to Sunday, maybe dinner at Harrods? Also, like already mentioned, if you like music, a Vespers service is really nice. I throughly enjoyed the one we attended (Windsor, St. George's)

If the previous responses have not convinced you to postpone your trip to the theatre & remember that most of the seats for the good shows will already be gobbled up if you visit the tkts booth in the afternoon. Try to get in line before it opens in the morning for the best offers. (EDIT: computer errors in punctuation removed)

Rebecca, would you like to add a little extra flavour to your Tower Bridge experience? If you position yourself at the fence at the edge of the walk along the Thames, that is with the Thames in front of you and the Tower of London behind you, at the times below - -&#59&#59;yes, I know they dont match your planned times&#59&#59;, you can witness the Tower Bridge opening and closing. They do go off like clockwork, so these are accurate. Sat 18 Sep 18:45 SB Will Upstream Sat 18 Sep 19:30 SB Will Downstream Sat 18 Sep 22:30 SB Will Upstream Sat 18 Sep 23:15 SB Will Downstream Tue 21 Sep 13:50 Vessel + Tugs Downstream SB Will is a quite large Dutch coastal sailboat with drop keelboard. Upstream means left to right from the above position, downstream right to left. You could combine this with a visit to the bridges machine room, and the Tower of London. I agree with the others that, unless you do very well in the insomniac department, you are risking sleeping through a very expensive West End theatre nap. >>EDIT<< The boards have html problems this evening so formatting and paragraphs are misbehaving

Any suggestions how I could move things around to put off the theatre to another day? I think my brain is starting to swim with all of this planning. lol It seems I need to get to the tkts booth as soon as they open and then factor in a show in the evening and I'm really at a loss as to how to move things around. If anybody can help I'd be so thankful! I'm having such a brainfart over this! lol THANKS!

What about moving the show to Saturday night? Or Monday night? Also, did you get tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys at the the Tower? It is a wonderful ceremony that takes place at night. If not, it might be too late for you to get them, but you could try, I suppose. The information is here - http://www.hrp.org.uk/toweroflondon/whatson/ceremonyofthekeys.aspx

Rebecca, you can now get half price tickets at TKTS for some shows in advance rather than just the day of show. Go to www.tkts.co.uk click on what's on sale then the advance purchase tab. Some advance purchase shows are only available at full price but many are at half price.

Either Saturday or Monday would work well as theater night. Just go to Leicester Square that morning (unless you decide to get the tickets on line.) Be sure to confirm the Changing of the Guard days; that time of year, it is only done every other day. It is no longer necessary to purchase London Eye tickets far in advance. You can buy them before boarding, with minimal wait. Keep in mind that it is open all evening, so it fits in easily after 5:00 or 6:00 when other sites are closed. The area around the Eye is my favorite people watching zone in London, and has a spectacular view of Big Ben and Parliament when they are illuminated in the evening.

wow. you clearly did a lot of planning on this. it seems like a great plan, if you are ambitious. to add a story to everyone's suggestion of moving the theater date. we arrived at gatwick at 8am (having left JFK at eastern time 6pm) and dropped our bags at the hotel near victoria station by 10:00 (so, really, 5am our time). we had lunch and walked to westminster abbey, arriving right as a (fantastic) tour was starting (do the tour!) halfway through the tour i swear to god i started wondering if i'd get arrested sleeping in the park across the street. i have NEVER been that tired, and i've pulled more than my share of 'all nighters'. it seems you could fit a show in saturday night. if you are traveling with children, i understand the platform 9 3/4 photo op. if not (meaning only you would be disappointed, not your child. i wouldn't disappoint a child) cut that out and add a show to that night. if not, it might work on monday night, too. oh, and tip for the british museum. we LOVED the multi media guide. it was like a scavenger hunt through history. best four pounds we ever spent! have a great trip! EDIT: I had to go back and delete all of my dashes. They caused the word INVALID to appear within brackets. Sorry if my response is oddly choppy or poorly punctuated. That's never happened before.

The Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross has been removed because of the reconstruction of the station building - don't know if they'll do a new one when it's finished. I'd also say that Harrods is wildly over-rated - very crowded, away from other attractions, and the owner is IMO a nasty peice of work.

Thanks for the help! We decided to ditch the West End show. It just seems to be throwing a wrench into everything. Plus, we can see a Broadway show back home anytime. Also, taking Platform 9 3/4 off the itinerary helps with some wiggle room as well! :-)

Phillip..... Mohammad Al Fayed has sold out to a sheikh so only has some involvement with H****ds. I agree that it is so overblown and do not understand the appeal.