Help me group our London sights for maximum efficiency

London Zoo is on its own north of London, not near any others on your list. Nearby is Hampstead and hampstead Heath. Lat time we were at the zoo, we left by Canal boat which ended up in the Paddington, area, walking distance to Hyde park. Hampton court Palace is at the end of a short train ride (possibly half hour by memory) but will take most of a day, some time in late afternoon when you get back. Windsor is similar- but in a different direction from a different station (Pqddington). Westminster Abbey is also on its own, but near Trafalgar Square, Houses of parliament, Horse Guards, Pall Mall etc. roaghly one and a half to two hours, depending on how caught up you get in finding all the commemorative stones and plaques. Tower, London Bridge(three minutes) Tower Bridge is more interesting to St Pauls (two hours)are all in same direction, you can walk from Tower to St Pauls. Toy Museum (as i recall) is again, east of the Tower, reachable by Tube.
British Museum is also on its own. Most of these however, can be connected by Tube, but very few are convenient to others. Banquting hall is closest to St Pauls Are you sure you mean London Bridge- which is just a brifge, or Tower bridge which is the one you see in all the tourist postcards with the two tall towers. You can spend a good half hour to an hour there if you do the tour

I would group Westminster Abbey and Banqueting House together; they are in the same area. From there it is easy to walk to Trafalgar Square or Buckingham Palace. Since you have five days, I'd recommend spreading things out so you have some leisure time. The British Museum can take an hour or a year. The Tower of London could easily take half a day if you want to really see what's there. I think it is possible to take a Thames cruise to Hampton Court Palace. Windsor and Windsor Palace would be a separate trip, possibly worth a whole day if Eton is included. There is a Hop-on/Hop-off bus in Windsor/Eton. It's also a great area for walking.

If you start one morning with Westminster Abbey, it's then a l.5 mile walk to the British Museum. Enroute, you can stop off at St. Martin's-in-the-Field for lunch in the crypt.....Another good walk, starting at Parliament, cross the river, pass the London Eye and the Globe Theatre, cross the pedestrian bridge and you are very close to St. Paul's.....Or you can keep walking along the south bank until you come to the bridge right by the Tower of London......google maps has a pedestrian option, so you can tell exactly how far it is to walk from one attraction to the other.

I hate schedules, so I never make them. I do sometimes make lists in descending order of interest. That way, if I spend a lot of time at one place, the sky won't fall. (I spent full days at the British Museum the first two times I visited.)

I would skip a lot of those (toy museum, zoo, Banqueting House) and visit the Churchill museum- it was fascinating! We stayed for hours and learned so much about World War II

If you miss Banqueting House, you miss a wonderful ceiling painting by Rubens (use the mirror), and you will miss seeing where Charles I lost his head after the civil war.

Are you sure you want to visit the London Bridge Experience? http://www.thelondonbridgeexperience.com/ It's just an expensive, tacky house of horrors type joint with long entry queues. Are you confused between the London Bridge Experience and the much more worthwhile Tower Bridge Exhibition? http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/TBE/EN/ I don't mind if you visit the London Bridge Experience, some people love it, it just doesn't seem to fit in with the more deserving attractions in your list with no children involved.

I enjoyed Banqueting House for the Rubens ceiling, as noted above, but it is a very quick visit. When you plan your Abbey visit, be sure to allow a couple of hours and time it so you take one of their verger tours. Very, very worth doing that as opposed to self-guided or audio tour. (see their website for times) One really good use of your time: use one evening to join a London Walks night walking tour of The City, the old core of London.

The City of London is much more interesting about lunch time and early afternoon, during the week when the place is busy. Great old pub style lunches in spots only true City types eat in

Re Brian's point about City of London and seeing it during busy workdays versus seeing it at night or on weekends. Agreed about weekdays, but it's a good use of downtime in the evenings to see the City highlights without dodging the traders and bankers.

I'm in the process of doing the same thing. After I have a day pretty much planned, I go to Google maps and look up the 1st sight. By enlarging or reducing the map, I can get a good feel for what can be seen and in what order we should see them. For instance, the British Museum is close to John Soanes Museum and the Cartoon Museum. St. Paul's Cathedral is just a few blocks away from St. Mary-le-Bow (True Cockneys born within the sound of the Bow Bells) And, it has a good cafe in the crypt. If you take a Westminster Day, you can start out at the Abbey, take a look at Parliament and the Jewel house walk up Westminster, see 10 Downing Street, Horse Guards, the Banqueting House, and wind up at Trafalgar with enough time to take in part of the the National Gallery. If you start your day at Covent Garden, the RV1 bus will take you on a scenic route across the Thames and along the South bank and back across the Tower Bridge to Tower Gateway....and ready to see the Tower and The Tower Bridge Experience. Google "Tourist Bus Routes in central London". The printout will give you a good idea of the relative location of the sights and you will have the bonus of knowing which buses are handy to reach them. Have a great trip.

"Tourist Bus Routes in central London" If using that map, which is very, very good, be advised that while all the buses on it went where they say when it was created (and most if not all still do), they are only a few of the buses in London. Many more exist, and many are on the routes they show. At each bus stop there is a column showing the routes, the frequency, and some of the intermediate stops. There's usually a map behind the bench in the bus stop showing where all the local routes go.

Uh Oh. Nigel, might you know which of the Tourist Bus Routes are no longer running?

Hi Miff First, here's your starter for 10: For old time travelers who miss the old Routemaster buses, those are the one with the little motor at the front, the open doorway at the back and the very steep stairs upstairs, with a Conductor, they were banned by the previous Mayor in favour of the yukkie bendy buses. There are two lines, the number 11 and number 15, where they still run (and accept normal ticketing) over part of their original routes. "Modern" driver-only double deckers run on the full routes on the normal schedule. The routemasters are, by far, less frequent and only, I think -Londoners correct me please - run after the morning rush hour. The Tourist Bus Map (link in the post above) is excellent but purposely thin on options. To get the whole picture have a look at this Central London Bus Map which has everything in the central tourist area. Happy scrolling around.....

We have been to London twice, since 2009. We will be there again this coming August. We usually take advantage of "Gray Liine Tours", based here in the U.S. They offer numerous tours inside and outside of London. They are great. We have used "Gray Line" in New York, Boston, Bruges, Paris, Switzerland, London, Canada, Italy, etc. You can call or book on-line, here or in the country you are visiting. Elaine [email protected]