akshay2801

Hi All,

We are a family, visiting London for the first time...hence need to plan a trip to remember....dates mid june....

we have already booked day 3 to visit edinburgh (all day) so basically need to plan the first 2 days and last 2 days.....

can someone please suggest a good itinerary.....interested in visiting the following:

British Museum
National Gallery & Trafalgar Sqaure
Buckingham Palace - change of gaurds ceremony
London Bridge & Tower of London
Westminster Abbey & Big Ben
Windsor Castle
St. Pauls Cathederal

I also wanted to know if I can fit in a visit to Greenwich/Oxford/Bath -. any one?

Thanks for your responses in advance....

Cheers,
AK

OReilly

How old are the kids?

Add: V&A and London Eye

Take the Thames Clipper to Greenwich:
http://www.thamesclippers.com/


Regards Ger

akshay2801

All are adults basically.... since you asked 21 & 26 .... they are taking us for a holiday!!!

akshay2801

Is LONDON PASS worthy buying???
Also, what about travel, do I get a 5 day oyster card?

OReilly

So much easier!

Do the Shard:

http://the-shard.com/

texasbookworm

To give you any sort of actually practical advice, please tell us this:

Age of kids

Where are you staying

Do you actually have 4 WHOLE days or are you arriving and leaving on the first and last

You need to know it's the TOWER Bridge that is the iconic bridge with towers that is near the Tower of London. Not the London Bridge, which is now just a modern non-descript road across the Thames.

With short time I would not waste time trying to see the Changing--you have to stand around hours ahead of time if you want to see anything much, and if you aren't near the front, then you won't see much. Too much else to see.

The Tower takes 3-4 hours, Westminster Abbey takes about 2-3, St. Paul's can take about that, the British Museum at least 3. And that's once you travel there and have tickets and are inside.

Consult a map, group your items within proximity of one another, understand that London takes a LONG time to travel around in. The Tube (and buses although I've never used them) system is tremendous, but time-consuming; it's a very walkable city, but many major sites are very far apart.

It's good to plan. Don't over-stuff your days. 2-3 major sites per day is all you should try. And if there's any travel on a day, then better just plan one. Light lingers long in June, so depending on your kids and your stamina and where you are staying, there's much to see after dinner (even if it's not inside something).

You could spend 4 WEEKS in London and barely scratch the surface. I would not suggest for the first visit, especially with a very long trip to Scotland in the middle, that you go anywhere else like Oxford or Bath which take long whole days. Greenwich and Windsor are both half days, but whether you go there depends on what else you want to do in London (and how much time you actually have in London.)

lincasanova

wow.. you are going to Edinburgh day three there and back in one day? PLUS hoping to go to Bath or Oxford? ( and enjoy London?)

Sounds rushed to me.I'd skip Greenwich and dedicate the first 2 and last 2 days to the museums and sites you have mentioned. Churchill's War rooms are also quite interesting. Get paper travel cards to be able to get 2 x 1 discounts. I don't see a possibility of going to the other cities unless you just want to skip things in London itself.

texasbookworm

ok, I was posting as you were answering about ages. So YOUR stamina may be the limiting factor! Ha!

NO DO NOT BUY THE LONDON PASS!

Whether you should use the Oyster Card or paper travel card is a complicated answer, dependent upon where you are staying, how you are getting from an airport (I guess) to hotel, and whether you want to use the 2 for 1 vouchers, which is whole other thing that you may want to research here on the Forum. The simplest answer is probably to get Oyster cards. Not necessarily the cheapest (by probably not a whole lot) and not the only way to go.

yodababe

I would say that no, Greenwich/Oxford/Bath are not feasible. Focus on London because with what you have listed, your time is already full.

Have you visited the transit website for the city of London? It gives you all the information on travel in the city you want, there is a rate calculator there and you can pre-order whatever option you choose. Here is the site. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/

I would skip the National Gallery unless there is something specific you want to see. The British Museum is the most out of the way of the other attractions, and you can spend days there. You may want to go to their website and see what specific collections you wish to view, keeping in mind that they can change. That will help you make efficient use of your time.

Take a snack to Trafalgar Square and organize the rest of your sightseeing according to area. You can do it if you are willing to put in a very busy few days, and if the crowds are not too bad. Remember that in the high tourist season, everything will take much longer--esp the Tower.

janisj

Pease tell us you haven't prepaid the 'day trip' to Edinburgh !!

W/ five full days in London you will barely have to e for your basic wish list let alone all those other places. London is HUGE and places like the Tower take tine to get to and several hours to even scratch the surface. Windsor takes more than half a day, the British museum se real hours, etc. you simply don't have tine for you in-town list let alone bath, Oxford, even Greenwich might be a stretch and it is in town. (BTW - it is Tower bridge, not London bridge you'll want to see)

How are you getting to Edinburgh? It is more than 4 hours each way on the train, much longer by bus and flying involves getting out to the airports - simply makes no sense as a day trip.

janisj

And I meant to ask - do you really have five full days? Not counting your arrival day or departure day. If not, you won't have timo for more than maybe half of your list. The logistics just get in your way . .

historytraveler

Definitely skip Changing of the Guards. Not really worth your time even if you had more. Edi nburg as a day trip will be absolutely exhausting. It 's a 4 1/2 to 5 hour train ride each way which means you'll be spending most ( if not all ) the day on the train.

aduncan

If you want to see a guard changing, do it at the Horse Guard parade. We could actually see what happened and it was much more fun than the one at the palace.

janisj

Sorry for all the typos in my posts - I'm posting on my iPad mini and it keeps auto correcting things. I try to catch them but some slip through.

europeannovice

I recommend if you want to see changing of the guard go join one of the London Walks that does that. They used to have a tour called Royal London that combined the changing of the guard with a 45 min tour of Westminster Abbey. That was a few years ago so not sure if they still do the same walk.

There is so much to see in London and everything takes time. We spent 5 hours at the Tower of London and we didn't see every last nook and cranny of the place either.

Agree about leaving Edinburgh as a separate trip. Edinburgh deserves 2-3 days by itself. And then of course, there is York midway between London and Edinburgh which is also definitely worth a stop.

yodababe

In your original post I thought you had put aside 3 days for Edinburgh, not that you were going there and back again within a 24 hour period! Even if you fly, that is not enough time--and as other people have said, the train takes all day just to get there, I agree because I have taken that trip twice. Stay in London and enjoy getting to know the city!

jane1144

If you are going shortly, I imagine that your flights are already booked. For next time, though, consider flying "open jaw" ( into London and out of Edinburgh or Glasgow). It buys you time and doesn't cost much , if any, more.