joschwin

We will be arriving in London on Thurs. April 8. Friday will be Good Friday and then Sunday Easter. We have a flight home on Monday morning. Am I going to be in a bind as to finding touristy things open during this time? How about Restaurants?

Thanks
Joan

Alec

Most things should be open except stores on Easter Sunday. Restaurants will be open as usual. As for attractions, there will be a lot of church services during those days and obviously you cannot visit then (esp Good Friday afternoon/evening and Easter Sunday), but museums etc should be open as normal, with Good Friday as per bank holiday.

tgowen

Thanks for asking about Easter. We also are traveling those same dates.
Any suggestions on how we should approach the site seeing? It is our first time and we will want to try and see all the sites.(good luck right!)
Should we take guided tours or just
adventure out on our own?
This is a special mother daughter trip so I really want to make the most of it. Hard to beleive but I'm also considering trying to fit in one of the day trips to Paris.Am I nuts????
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.

david_west

There is more than enough to see in London to last four days. However the eurostar day trips are good, and cheap, you could be in Paris for aboput 10.30 and get the train back at about 9pm, and could see most of the major sites (from the outside!) in that time, and treat yourselves to a really nice lunch..

sandykins

My holiday in London includes the upcoming Easter weekend, and I have found three destinations on my itinerary that are CLOSED on Good Friday:

Portobello Road Market
Windsor Castle
Wallace Collection

In addition, Kew Gardens is open late on Good Friday: to 7:30 PM (glasshouses to 7:00PM), same as Saturday and Sunday hours of opening.

Also, the British Library is open for fewer hours on Good Friday: 11:00AM to 5:00PM, as on Sundays.

This is not an exhaustive list of all Good-Friday deviations from regular opening times, just the ones I noted on my itinerary.

If in doubt about a destination's hours on Good Friday or Easter Sunday, try googling it. Lots of London destinations and restaurants have their own websites.

GeoffHamer

Traditionally in the UK, Good Friday was a religious holiday along with Christmas Day, and was subject to different laws from the Bank Holidays introduced in Victorian times to give workers a break from their toil. Easter Monday is a Bank Holiday and is a day for going out. Good Friday was a religious holiday when nearly everything was closed, but this has changed over the years. There will still be lots of touristy things to do on Good Friday, including boat trips on the river. Most things will be open for the rest of the weekend, and it's normally a busy time for tourist attractions.

tgowen

Thanks for the great info!
I contacted [email protected]
(they answered me the same day) and they sent me a listing of site seeing, churchs and other event
hours for the Easter Weekend.
Hope this helps.

tcreath

We arrived in London on Easter Sunday two years ago. While there were some tourist attractions open, the hours were shorter. For the most part the city just felt kind of empty. Basically like driving through any city in the US on Easter Sunday. It isn't quite tourist season yet so you probably won't see many tourists as well. We spent most of that Sunday doing our own walking tour of the city and taking in various sites that we planned on visiting later on that week (we were there for a week). I would try to find websites for some places you are planning on visiting to check on the hours if possible.

Good luck!
Tracy