10 Days in London (Our First Time)—A Trip Report

DAY 1, MONDAY, SEPT. 30: We had tickets for 9:30 am at Westminster Abbey and 10:30 am for the Queen’s Galleries. What a gorgeous church!!! And it was bigger than expected. This place was packed. It was the only time during the trip where we felt London was crowded. After our time there, we headed over to Covent Garden for lunch. I had seen on the London tourism Facebook site that there was a giant cloud installation at the market building and today was to be the last day. What’s not to love about 40 giant, 4 foot tall, smiling inflatable clouds?? We had lunch at Hooray’s German hotdog stand. Those were some good hotdogs!!! We were disappointed though as there were no street performers/buskers. I had promised my sister we would see jugglers and all sorts of things. There was nothing. We did come back a few other times (it was just 2 tube stops from the hotel) and did see a mime one time. I was expecting more entertainment. Perhaps they were all on holiday after the busy summer. Next, we headed back towards the hotel as we had 2:30 pm tickets for the Churchill War Rooms. I purchased these tickets a few days before the trip, deciding we should see it since it was so close to the hotel.

DAY 2, TUESDAY, OCT. 1: This was our Tower of London day. We had tickets for 9 am and headed straight for the Crown Jewels, where there was no line. We had some good treats at one of the cafés. Later, we headed back to the hotel and then walked over to see the Westminster Cathedral. This evening, my brother-in-law and I headed out after dark to get some nighttime photos of the Abbey and Parliament building.

DAY 3, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 2: I headed out early this morning to walk around Buckingham Palace. My sister wasn’t feeling great, so my brother-in-law and I were off to St. Paul’s Cathedral. We had tickets for 10 am. Unlike Westminster Abbey, we almost had the church to ourselves. We returned to the hotel to pick up my sister. We hung out at Leadenhall Market while we waited for our timeslot to see Sky Garden (35th floor of the Walkie-Talkie building). We really enjoyed the views from Sky Garden. Tickets are free and released every Monday 3 weeks in advance. I’m glad I planned ahead and was able to get tickets.

DAY 4, THURSDAY, OCT. 3: Today was our big Stonehenge day. This is something my sister and brother-in-law really wanted to see. I had read about the Stonehenge Tour on the forum and it really worked well for us.

https://www.thestonehengetour.info/

It involved walking to the Waterloo train station to take a 1.5-hour train to Salisbury. I had booked us open return train tickets in advance. There are no seat reservations on this particular train. Then right outside the Salisbury train station, the bus picked us up and took us to Stonehenge. The bus ride is not time specific, so you can take any bus you like. We took the first one at 10 am. The check-in process was a little slow as it seemed most people had not purchased tickets ahead of time. (I bought our bus and Stonehenge tickets ahead of time from the tour website linked above.) The bus dropped us off near the visitor center where we had to show our tour tickets to get a Stonehenge ticket. We then took the free shuttle out to the site. We had a fantastic day!! Blue skies!!!! It was not crowded at all. And much to my delight, there were sheep all around. I had originally planned for us to see the Salisbury Cathedral afterwards, but it was a long day and so we decided to just head back to London. Later that evening, we headed to St. James’s Park for some sunset pictures. There’s a blue bridge in the middle of the park. Look one way and you have Buckingham Palace. Look the other way and you have the London Eye and Whitehall Court. Great views wherever you look. This was a perfect night as you could see the pink clouds reflected in the lake.

DAY 5, FRIDAY, OCT. 4: Today we went to Notting Hill, Covent Garden (still in search of jugglers), Neil’s Yard, and then to watch the Horse Guards.

DAY 6, SATURDAY, OCT. 5: We all got up early to walk to Buckingham Palace before breakfast and before the crowds. We beat the crowds, but we also missed the guards, which were not out yet. I thought they were there 24 hours a day. Apparently, they had the morning off. After breakfast, my sister and I headed off to a Sainsbury’s grocery store. We wanted to stock up on some treats—Walker’s punchy paprika crisps/chips, Cadbury chocolate, tea, etc. The cashier would not let us check out until someone let us use their store card so we could see if we had any discounted items. She was so nice. We were like, no that’s ok, we don’t want to hold up the line. We finally got our borrowed card and our discount. The highlight of today was our 2:30 show of Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theater. My sister and brother-in-law were so excited to see this. I am not a musical person, but even I really enjoyed myself. We had great seats—3rd row in the dress circle/balcony. It was really a great show and I’m glad we were able to experience it. I don’t think I’ll ever be a “show a night” person, but I would definitely see another one.

DAY 7, SUNDAY, OCT. 6: We went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and had Sunday roast at the Sherlock Holmes Pub.

DAY 8, MONDAY, OCT. 7: We had originally planned to go to Windsor today, but we were enjoying London so much, and I thought it would be easier on my sister to skip the train ride, so we decided to skip Windsor and stay in London. We went to Fortnum & Mason to stock up on some biscuits to bring back home. We stopped in at their ice cream parlor and had the best ice cream!! We then walked along the South Bank and stopped at Gabriel’s Wharf for a late lunch. We had tacos and quesadillas at Hola Guacamole. So good!!

https://holaguacamole.com/

DAY 9, TUESDAY, OCT. 8: We had 10 am tickets for the Van Gogh exhibit, Poets and Lovers, at the National Gallery.

https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/van-gogh-poets-and-lovers

The exhibit was so well done, and we all really enjoyed it. And then we made it to St. James’s Park in time for the pelican feeding. We all loved this park so much. It was just steps from our hotel and a great escape from the city. So many different kinds of birds, beautiful flowers, lots of benches to sit and relax. The pelicans were a hoot to watch.

https://www.royalparks.org.uk/visit/parks/st-jamess-park/pelicans-st-jamess-park

DAY 10, WEDNESDAY, OCT. 9: For our final day, we went to Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral, and a final return to St. James’s Park to watch the pelican feeding.

THE PEOPLE: Everyone was so incredibly nice. We’ve never come across any mean people when traveling and we’ve always received help when we asked, but in England, people seem to go out of their way to help. Just a couple of examples: 1) At the Salisbury train station, I was telling my sister I wasn’t sure if we were at the right platform and a woman turned around and said she was also headed to Waterloo and we were in the right place. 2) My sister and I were at the park trying to figure out what these purple flowers were and some nice lady stopped to let us know they were the autumn crocuses.

THE WEATHER: For London, we had near perfect weather. We were really lucky. It was in the 50s and 60s every day. We had a few days of London mist, as my sister called, but never a heavy rain, and many days with blue skies.

THE FOOD: We’re not big foodies and don’t need expensive meals. In addition to the few meals previously mentioned, we also had good meals at the Two Chairmen Pub—our favorite pub of the ones we tried. We went to Pizza Express 3 times!! They loved us there. The second time we got a free dessert and the third time we got a free appetizer and dessert. At first, I thought they were just being nice because we’re American and they wanted our big American tips, but we just tipped what’s standard for the area, 10 to 12 percent, and they were still super nice. We loved Pret A Manger for sandwiches (my sister raved about the roast beef and horseradish) and they had really good smoothies.

THE T-SHIRTS: How many souvenir t-shirts did I buy on this trip? 10!!!!! One for each day. :-)

CASH OR CARD: So, it’s always card only, until you need cash. We needed coins for some of the toilets as the card readers never seemed to be working. Luckily, I had some coins left over from a previous trip to the UK because no one seemed to have coins. I thought for sure I’d be able to trade some of my paper British pounds for coins at the post office, but they said they couldn’t do it. The hotel had no coins to trade us as they are cashless. So, if you get your hands on some coins, keep them!

THE TUBE: The tube was really easy to use. Tap in and out with the credit card. Good signage at the stations. I think the longest we had to wait was 3 minutes. I used the citymapper app and it was great, telling you which tube to take, in which direction, how many stops, which station to get off at and which exit to take.

https://citymapper.com/london

WHAT DID MY SISTER AND BROTHER-IN-LAW THINK: I thought it would be interesting to hear from my sister and brother-in-law, so I asked them for their top 3 favorites: Brother-in-law picked Stonehenge, Big Ben/Elizabth Tower, and the night lights. My sister picked Stonehenge, Wicked, and tied for 3rd was St. James’s Park and the Van Gogh exhibit.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS: While I didn’t fall in love with London, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. It really was a great trip for the 3 of us. I’m sure I’ll be back. Perhaps in the Spring next time.

NEXT UP: I have a big travel year planned for next year. Vienna and Prague with my sister in March. May will be a solo trip to Ireland. June will be a short trip to Iceland with my sister and her husband. And finally, I’m in the process of planning a trip around this 3-day Rabbie’s tour of the Lake District for Sept.

https://www.rabbies.com/en/england-tours/from-edinburgh/3-5-day-tours/the-lake-district-3-day-tour

Kudos to you for giving it another shot with your sister and her husband! It's fabulous that it went so well!

You've given me a few ideas to add to my list for my own next visit to London, so thank you for that!

10 tshirts!! With the trips you have planned, it sounds like you had better start a travel tshirts drawer. Or two :-)

Carrie, nice report, and it sounds like you really made your sister and brother-in-law's trip very meaningful. You would make a great tour guide! And definitely a far cry from your last trip with them. I remember that thread. ☺ Your day at Stonehenge sounded just about perfect—always a plus when you get blue skies.

Btw, I loved your photos taken at sunset in St. James Park. Those were lovely. I'm going to try and plan an outing there around the same time as it really gives a unique view of London.

I’m glad you had a great time.

Re street performers in Covent Garden - firstly, I wouldn’t expect to see a lot going on on a random Monday in October. But also there’s been an ongoing controversy over licensing. I don’t know the outcome though: Covent Garden acts warn new laws could stop buskers https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-67482978

Edited to add: apparently the council ran a public consultation during the spring this year but I can’t find anything about a final decision.

Great trip report. It looks like you really covered the range of what London has to offer. Your sister and BiL were lucky to have such a great guide.

Great trip report Carrie! So glad you did your homework and that all turned out well…..sounds like you enjoyed yourself and your pictures are great! We thoroughly enjoyed Switzerland and got home 2 weeks ago….planning our next trip to Amsterdam in April with Pat’s help!

Hi CWsocial, I had to give it another try. For the sake of the family. :-) These London t-shirts are great quality. Nice and thick.

Hi Mardee, I bet the grandkids would love St. James’s Park. Friendly squirrels, ducks waddling around, the pelicans. If you’ll be in Covent Garden, the London Transport Museum has a great giftshop, lots of cool things for kids. I got the best tube t-shirt there.

Hi Golden Girl, I guess it was unrealistic to expect the buskers to be out all the time. We were just so looking forward to them. Next time! If they aren’t banned.

Hi Laurie Beth, I feel like there is still so much to see. I had 18 pages of notes.

Hi Jane, I’m glad you had another great trip to Switzerland. I’m already planning my next trip there. I am sure that you will love the Netherlands. That is another country I can’t wait to get back to. So easy to travel there. My trip report might give you some ideas:

https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/trip-reports/solo-in-the-netherlands-and-belgium-my-trip-report

Or maybe you should just invite Pat and I along. :-)

Great report, Carrie. I'm definitely bookmarking this one, as I hope to return to London soonish. We spent a week there in 1999 with our daughters (12 and 15 years old at the time) and my mother-in-law. It was great.

I just read your previous thread on the issues with your Italy trip. What do you think made the difference this time as compared to your last trip with family?

Fun trip and trip report. I too remembered your other thread about your family trip. Happy it was a success. Also bookmarking your report for my next trip to London.

Thanks for your report Carrie and wonderful photos! I love London! Since you are the travel planner and purchase tickets in advance, how do you keep track of the money? Do you use Splitwise or another app?

Great report, Carrie. I am so glad to hear you enjoyed London, and in particular the Sanctuary House Hotel. I feel like I “discovered” that hotel in 2003 when my husband and I went to Venice and London to celebrate my successful cancer treatment. It was brand new then, and not on the RS list of hotels, but the location seemed perfect (which it is).

I particularly like the proximity to St. James Park, our favorite for walking, with the pond, water birds, and lovely plantings. And there is a very nice and friendly playground in the park that our grandchildren enjoyed very much when we spent a week in London together a few years ago.

Carrie, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your trip report and it was great that this trip with your sister and BIL worked out nicely (compared to a previous trip). You made it happen and should pat yourself on the back for being a wonderful tour guide. I too loved St James Park on my visit 2 years ago. Your photo of the two pelicans tossing a fish is priceless. Also, is that a Dale Chihuly glass exhibit I see?

Anyway, thanks for the fabulous TR.

Hi Barbara N, That is such a great question. I felt like we were all determined to not have a repeat experience. For my part, I made sure not to schedule anything too early (except for the Stonehenge day) so everyone could have the hotel breakfast. I had to be more patient and try not to get embarrassed when my brother-in-law spilled his glass of orange for the third time. :-) And the fact that the UK does not require one to carry ID was a big plus. I told my sister she can carry the passports or keep them in the hotel room. I wasn’t going to make an issue about that again.

Hi Barbara (Brooklyn), Thanks! We were all relieved to have survived the trip. And making plans for future travel together.

Hi Tammy (aka Diveloonie), I did have to edit my photos. I figured no one would want to see the 300 pictures of pelicans I have. :-) For this trip, some of the tickets I used my overtime money for. I treated for Wicked and the Van Gogh exhibit. For everything else, I keep track in my little notebook and give my sister a total. She’ll either write me a check or send an Amazon gift card for the amount. For meals, we don’t keep track and just take turns paying. I figure it all evens out in the end. And for this trip, my mom had given us her scratch off lottery tickets to cash in. So, we started with $400 of “free” money for our meals.

Hi Lola, I ‘m sure I must have seen one of your posts about the Sanctuary House on the forum. RS does not have any hotels in the Westminster area in his book, probably because of the higher price. That is too bad because it is such a great area. I did see that playground. It had the cutest “kids only” bathroom.

Hi Linda, We were sending pictures back to my parents and my mom said that my dad asked her why we were taking so many pictures of the pelicans. They were very entertaining and it doesn’t take much to impress us. Good eye on the Dale Chihuly. My parents are huge fans so we had to go see that chandelier at the Victoria and Albert museum. Harrods also has a Chihuly sculpture, but we did not make it to see that one.

Hi Mardee, I bet the grandkids would love St. James’s Park. Friendly squirrels, ducks waddling around, the pelicans. If you’ll be in Covent Garden, the London Transport Museum has a great giftshop, lots of cool things for kids. I got the best tube t-shirt there.

I think they will, too, Carrie! And that's a great idea about the Transport Museum. I have it on our list to visit but I forgot to add the cool gift shop. And they're both into t-shirts so I'm sure will love that!

I wanted to mention for Mardee and others that the giftshop of the Transport Museum can be reached outside the museum. The shop is worth a visit even if one does not have time for the museum.

Great report Cherrie. Thanks for sharing.

I return next month for a long stay in my favorite City on the planet.

FYI having spent a career as a film and TV location manager, I’m aware that Queens Anne Gate is a street often used in filming.

Have you booked your return flight yet? :-)

Love the picture with the sheep!

I smiled big when I saw this Trip Report was up; I've been eagerly anticipating it! I'm SO happy you three had such a successful (redeeming!) trip together and that more trips can confidently be planned. What a relief!

What'd you think of Sanctuary House Hotel in addition to loving its location? Any other tips specifically as a London first-timer?

Also, just a note to say I could've easily looked at 300 pelican photos lol

I enjoyed this and so glad this trip worked out well. We took our niece to England this past May so all is recent for us. You always see things a bit differently than you otherwise would when you travel with others.

Hi Claudie, Definitely some nice houses in that area. My brother-in-law was fascinated by the nice cars parked out front some of them. I’m not sure what it is about animals in foreign countries, but I always find them and I always love them. I’m almost tempted to add London to my Scotland trip next year, but I think I’m going to stay up north. Enjoy your trip!

Hi Hannah, Everyone at the hotel was super nice. The food was very good in the restaurant. It did seem to take some time in the morning for the water to heat up. And I think my room (208) was above some bottle recycling plant or something. I would often hear clanking bottles. But that’s the only noise I ever heard. Not a sound from the other rooms. I think we had the deluxe double rooms. A good size and super clean. The rooms have washcloths if you use those. I always bring my own just in case. Free Walker’s biscuits and Cadbury hot chocolate in the rooms.

I would download the citymapper app and don’t worry about transportation at all. The app really tells you everything and the signage in the stations is so good. I always get data for my phone and often use the maps app on my phone for walking directions. I worried a lot before the trip, but once there, I didn’t have to worry about how to get anywhere. Language isn’t an issue and everyone was so nice. I think that really made a difference for us. We didn’t have some of the stress that we had in Italy.

One thing that helped me was to set expectations. I knew we weren’t going to see everything. So, I made a list of the things we wanted to see and made sure we had tickets ahead of time. And then I had a list of second tier things we wanted to see if we had time. And then a list of 5,000 other things if we had time. I did not over plan. I didn’t want us running from reservation to reservation. Include some downtime to just wander.

For someone who says they don't like cities you did a great job of taking advantage of London's services and sights!

You also seem to have the charms that soothe the savage breast -- I've never gotten freebies at Pizza Express. ;-P
Probably didn't help that I took the time to explain to them that the fresh cracked-black-pepper grinder is the wrong kind of pepper for pizzas.

Carrie, what did you think about the Victoria & Albert?
I will be in London next month for a long weekend. I've been several times, but never made it to the V&A. It looks like something I'd enjoy, but it also looks like a visit could easily last the whole day, and with my limited time, do I really want to tackle it. What did you see, and how did you like it?

Thanks Carrie for a great trip report! You've given me several ideas for my week in London next June before the RS South of England Tour and 10 days in Ireland after that.
You have a busy travel year next year. Have a great time!

Kayla- I am not Carrie but spent several very enjoyable hours at V & A in May. They have a number of free tours and I took the architectural tour. It had only about 8 people in it and two of them were regular visitors to the museum. Both commented that the tour went to sections they had never seen. I really enjoyed the tour because it focused on the history and design of the museum.

It is huge and I did some wandering around otherwise but found that a tour provided some focus.

Hi BethFL, so true that you do see things differently when traveling with others. This was a good trip to have my sister and her husband along. I can also see it being a great solo destination.

Hi avirosemail, I am trying to keep an open mind when it comes to cities. The ease of getting around London was a huge plus for me as was being so close to St. James’s Park. Having that bit of nature so close was wonderful.

Hi kayla.p., I do prefer to be outside and not in museums all day. We really just popped in the Victoria & Albert museum to see the Dale Chihuly, the café (the world’s first museum café) and the gift shop (my sister got some beautiful earrings). We did see the jewelry collection for my sister who loves jewelry. The nice thing about this museum is that you don’t need tickets. You can just show up anytime. So, you don’t have to decide ahead of time if you want to see it. It might be a good option if you have a really bad weather day. If you’re having great weather, you might want to stay outside instead. The architectural tour mentioned by BethFL sounds interesting.

Hi Horsewoofie, Sounds like you have a great trip planned. If I liked people, I would definitely take that South England Tour. Too bad they don’t have a my way version.

Carrie, we just got back from London ourselves yesterday afternoon. I really enjoyed reading your report. You did such a great job planning for this trip, especially given the necessary accommodations you were able to ensure and I am so happy you enjoyed yourselves!

I am still at my daughter’s apartment without laptop access to start my trip report, which I will post in the coming days, but I will start with the the biggest takeaway we had (again) by echoing your sentiments about the loveliness of British people. So helpful, kind and polite. It really makes one think, why can’t everyone be as nice?

Thanks for taking time to write about your experiences!

I wanted to mention for Mardee and others that the giftshop of the Transport Museum can be reached outside the museum. The shop is worth a visit even if one does not have time for the museum.

I agree, Carrie! I actually visited the LTM gift shop earlier this year without visiting the museum (I wanted to save the museum visit for next year). I think that is true of most museums. Usually the gift shop is off to the side before you get your ticket. I make regular trips to the American Swedish Institute gift shop without going to the museum, as they have the most wonderful items for sale. :-) I had forgotten about the t-shirts, though, and I think the kids will love those!

A lot of the V&A's space is dedicated to exhibits organized by medium--glass, ceramics, wrought iron, furniture, etc. The place requires more than one full day to see in its entirety, so I always recommend that folks look at the museum diagram ahead of time to figure out their priorities.

The jewelry exhibition is fabulous. For those interested in that section, I highly recommend arriving just before the museum opens and seeing the jewelry first. I've done that twice, and on both occasions the jewelry area was nearly empty for the first 20 or so minutes, making it easy to hop from one showcase to the next. As the hour wore on, however, more people arrived, and it was no longer possible to move around completely at will. It never got crowded to a problematic degree, but jewelry is small, so you really need to belly up to each showcase if you want to see it. I've never encountered any degree of crowding in the rest of the museum.

The V&A is open late on Fridays--till 10 PM currently. That's a great opportunity to stretch one's sightseeing hours. However, there are two caveats:

• Unless something has changed, only the ground floor remains open late; ask at the information desk if you arrive before standard closing time so you know where you should start your visit.

• It seemed to me the lighting in the central part of the ground floor assumed there would be daylight coming in the skylights. After the sun goes down, you have only the artificial lighting, which seemed skimpy to me. (Yes, I realize fiber and paper have to be protected.)

Merely going to add that the V&A has a great gift shop and a lovely cafe where you can enjoy tea and cake.

Hi Mustlovedogs, I always think that too! I wish everyone could be that nice, and helpful, and welcoming. I can’t wait to read about London from your perspective.

Hi Claudia, We thought the V&A café was gorgeous, but our cakes and scones were all stale. We always get 3 or 4 different treats to sample. Sad to say, these were the worst of the trip.

The London cabbies are fabulous! You know it takes several years to get a licensed to be a cabbie, they have to study and take lots of tests….its called the Knowledge. There are hundreds of hotels in London so it’s impossible to know where every single one is, but they would know by the post code (zip code). I’m surprised tat you didn’t fall in love with London. Glad you had a great trip.

I also had not heard that the cafe at the V&A was a first - maybe those stale triangle sandwiches would have seemed better if I'd known they were historic. :-P

In addition to tours, they also do little workshops -- I once made salt-print photographs there that became great souvenirs, until they faded. Speaking of which, don't wear your favorite clothes when developing chemical photographs.

Hi Robin Z, I’m not surprised I didn’t fall in love with London. I’m happiest when I’m in the Swiss Alps with the cows. :-) It was still a great trip and I know I’ll return.

Hi avirosemail, the workshops sound like fun.

For Mardee and Hannah and anyone else headed to London soon, if you find yourself in Covent Garden, be sure to stop in at the Jubilee Market and look for the photo cutout boards. This post describes them:

https://blog.photocutouts.co.uk/photo-cutouts-enhance-visitor-experience-at-jubilee-market/

I’m working on my photobook for the trip and these pictures with my sister and brother-in-law are cracking me up!! So fun!!!

“Coven Garden”——sounds like a great place to spend Hallowe’en!

Yes, please keep your eyes out for any witches that may be roaming the market. :-) I correct my typo.

...find yourself in Covent Garden, be sure to stop in at the Jubilee Market...

One tradition i have at work is to bring a load of candy back that gets dumped on the break room table. I'll head over to Jubilee Market to visit Toffee Nose of Covent Garden to get a supply of candies that aren't found in the States -- have to get Coltsfoot Rock, dandelion and burdock, and kopkops.

We’ve never come across any mean people when traveling and we’ve
always received help when we asked, but in England, people seem to go
out of their way to help.

London may be the friendliest big city I've ever been to. Your experiences are similar to what we encountered. In 2018 I was there with my wife and mother-in-law and we didn't take a tube ride where people weren't jumping out of their seats to offer it to my mother-in-law and wife. I can't wait to get back, we're investigating how early the Christmas decorations go up and possibly time a visit for November 2025.

*My only disappointment in your TR was not more details on the V&A museum. That's near the top of our list for next visit.

Hi VAP, How did we miss that candy store?!?!? Putting Toffee Nose on my list for next time.

Hi Allen, Sorry, I try to stick to my strengths and reviewing museums is not one of them. I like to get in and out as quickly as possible. :-) I’m tempted to go back next month to see all the Christmas decorations as I still have vacation days I need to use. I bet it’s fabulous!

The London tourism Facebook page is a great source for all the latest around the city. It gave me several ideas for my trip. You don’t have to have a Facebook account to view it. I bet they will start posting once the Christmas decorations start to go up.

https://www.facebook.com/visitlondon/

I knew you'd fall in love with St. James’s Park! :-)

Hi Mary, It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip for me. I was explaining to my dad yesterday that having that park so close made London seem not so city-like.

Carri, oh my gosh I am loving this trip report (Sorry, th button for th fifth letter n th alphabet on my Bluetooth keyboard has apparently given up - autocorrect is adding it back into most words — but not into your nam — i’v also lost th exclamation mark and th (other letter that has a tail and is th nam of Jams Bond’s guy who dos all his technical uipmnt — yikes a blind section on my keyboard)

Anyway, i cam to say how much I enjoyed your trip report - you rally did a great job planning for you, your sister, and brother in law and gav yourselves a nice long tim. I am so glad y’all wr abl to hav a nice Tim together to overcome th last trip.

i rally rally lik how you put together this trip — and th trip report And oh my gosh so much travel you hav planned for your trips next year it’s impossible to bliv that you we a novice travel only a couple of years ago (exclamation mark, exclamation marK)

Sorry I am missing th keys - autorply doesn’t fix vrything so i know this is annoying to rad

Hi Kim. No worries on the missing Es. :-) When I first discovered and started reading the RS forum, back in 2019, there was a thread along the lines of things you have learned or wish you had known or done differently. So many people had commented that they wished they had started traveling earlier. That has really stuck with me. So, I’m trying to squeeze in as much travel while I can, limited of course by needing time off from work and money.

So many people had commented that they wished they had started traveling earlier.

This is the first thread I bookmarked on this site: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/general-europe/travel-while-you-can

Hi Mary, Thanks for finding and posting that link. Now I want to squeeze in even more trips!

Carrie, what a great trip report! I completely loved reading it, you have a gift. And the family dynamics issue was an interesting side line to it all. And it’s something we can all relate to. I remember the previous post, you are to be congratulated for getting back on the horse!

Thanks for all the info especially about St James Park, the pelicans, the Blue Bridge etc. I’ve got a big trip to London coming in February so I definitely bookmarked this. I’ve also loved reading about your Switzerland sojourns, it always makes me want to go. Thanks for sharing it all.

Hi Lyndash, I appreciate the kind words. I hope you have a great trip and get a chance to see the park and pelicans. And I also hope you get a chance to visit Switzerland one day. It really is such an easy country to travel around in.

Wonderful TR Carrie, thanks so much! I have a vague recollection of someone's awful trip to Venice, insisting people wear their passports around their necks, maybe it was you? (HA it WAS you, just checked your link. The 3 of you did amazingly well this time around.)

Well done managing expectations and adjusting as a group, I think it brought out the best in all of you. And your sister did a LOT with steel rods in her back, gosh. Hey, there are numerous specials right now on BA, if you decide to hop on another plane with that extra vacation time...

I feel like there is still so much to see. I had 18 pages of notes. Yep, that helps so much too! Gives you a chance to check in with the group, look at priorities, etc. I will be saving this for the hotel recommendation, after many trips to London on business and not, a great hotel is to be treasured. Thanks again!

Hi Sandancisco, That Italy trip seems like a lifetime ago. I’m glad we were able to put that behind us and have a more successful trip this time. My sister’s mobility issues are on a gradual decline, so I’m trying to make sure she’s able to see a lot while she can still travel. Those long flights and cobblestone streets can be pretty rough on her.

Sounds like a fabulous trip and itinerary. Thank you so much for sharing.

We returned a week ago from Italy. Had an absolute blast! The travel bug has me wondering where to next. I'm considering our options with London at the top of the list.

Hi wanderlust, The travel bug is very contagious. :-)