? for those recently traveled to London

Cindy: I was in London during the Olympics, and the newspapers said that not only was non-Olympics tourism down but the entire season would be written off as one where the usual tourists did not show up. At one of the few touristy sites that I visited, the Tower of London, I bought my ticket and walked right in - no waiting. The Rick Steves book give information on where to purchase tickets without having a long wait, but I found this information to be unneccessary. The National Gallery did not seem crowded for a museum with its high prestige level. One of the attractions that might have a wait is the Eye of London, but you can either purchase tickets in advance or pay for a higher priced ticket that minimizes the wait time. Have a good trip.

Okay, I was there just before the Olympics and I thought in general it was crowded. Not necessarily, unexpectedly crowded, but there were a lot of people. Walking along the Thames it wasn't quite as packed as Times Square, but it wasn't far behind it. I'm not sure, however that it's unusual. I mean this is one of the top tourist sites in the world. You just need to expect crowds. And if there aren't any, just give out a cheer. Pam

We were there right before the Olympics and were pleasantly surprised by the smaller than expected crowds. Kensington Palace, British Library, British Museum, Evensong at Westminster Abbey, and markets at Covent Garden / Old Spitalfields / Camden Lock were all relatively uncrowded. Portobello Road was very crowded on a Saturday morning, but that's typical. We went on the London Eye on a Thursday at dusk and the line was reasonable (on the order of a half-hour). The past two years we visited London in September and the crowds were also reasonable. Of course, we bought our tickets ahead of time for Buckingham Palace. Viewing of the Changing of the Guard was packed but we arrived there plenty early. Windsor Castle was not crowded at all, nor was the Churchill War Rooms, and we followed Rick's advice to get to the Tower of London early and headed right to the crown jewels and it worked like a champ!