While it is possible, it sounds like, to use public transport from LHR to your hotel, I would suggest you contact a car service like justairports for a price quote to see if that would be worth it for you. It would still be a long drive time wise, but upon arrival would be mentally easier to do as compared to figuring out the tickets and transports and changes. I think. (and you don't mention amount of luggage--for 7 week, wintertime trip I wouldn't imagine you've just got small carry-ons! Do you really want to slog luggage around on the Tube and sidewalks/pavements?)

You are so far from central London, depending on when you arrive and get to hotel, you might not have much left of arrival day, so don't count on anything. (Arrival "stuff" could take 30-45 minutes or close to 90--we've averaged less than an hour--then you have what sounds like a 1.5 to 2 hour ride to hotel, so that means somewhere between 2 and 3.5 hours after landing, which you say is afternoon, so you might not be arriving at hotel until dinner?) But then you have 2 days, it sounds like, and if you purpose to get up early, there's no reaso why you can't comfortably do Westminster Abbey (and Big Ben and Parliament just to walk by, if you didn't already) and the British Museum one day and the Tower and St. Paul's the next. And maybe a bit more.

Huge city, sites spread out, short day light hours--but I think you have a reasonable idea of what is possible. Enjoy what you enjoy!

trouble is - a car service out to Excel will likely cost a fortune and take maybe 2 hours except early on a Sunday morning

didn't see texasbookworm's post.

Chantelle, you missed out a step in repeating back my notes on using the tube to get from Heathrow to the hotel: better print them and the tube map out if that's the route you're going to use.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...itor-guide.pdf

But don't be too apprehensive about using the public transport - the signage is pretty good and people will usually be quite helpful if you ask for directions.

Just be aware you really will need to make sure your fiance understands that he'll need to carry what you're both going to need for each day, as it won't be practicable to go back and forth to the hotel during the day. But you'll be living like real London commuters for a couple of days.

Your first day plan sounds very manageable. From Westminster Abbey to the British Museum is walkable: quite a long walk, but it would take you up Whitehall, through Trafalgar Square, the edge of Soho and "Theatreland". Or you could take bus 24 to Tottenham Court Road station and walk about 5-10 minutes from there.

It may be great to fit in the London Eye as well, within this short trip.

It will take you about 1.5- 2 hours on public transit to get to your hotel. Its not difficult, just long. It will cost about £50 + parking for a car service (I just checked justairports). But you need to drive across London so depending on the hour it may take just as long. We take public transit - Piccadilly line to Green Park, then Jubilee to Canning Town, then DLR to Custom House. There are stairs at Green Park (there is also an elevator).

>>There are stairs at Green Park (there is also an elevator).<<

Hence my suggestion about changing at Hammersmith and then Westminster: but that's the thing about the tube - there are often as many ways to go as there are people.....

I agree Patrick but we just hate changing so many times, so suffer the flights of stairs at Green Park haha :) Preferences vary, so true!

I recommend the red double-decker bus that takes you through these most important sightseeing locations that you mention. Then you can get off and visit a museum and get back on the bus to see the next one. It's an idea for optimizing your time.

<i>Priceline and hotwire bidding zones are clearly laid out and there was no reason to get a place that far out.</i>

But the problem here is that "Docklands" encompasses a large, fairly diverse area. A hotel at Canary Wharf, for example, is actually well connected to the centre of London on the direct Jubilee line, and there are a good selection of restaurants etc in the area. The lower price of a hotel in this location (especially true at weekends) <b>does</b> justify the slightly greater inconvenience. The same applies for the O2.

But over at Excel (in exactly the same PL zone), you have all the problems mentioned above with poor connections and lack of facilities in the area. It's precisely this ambiguity which causes me to distrust these auction sites.

"<i>But the problem here is that "Docklands" encompasses a large, fairly diverse area.</i>"

Exactly - that is why most folks would not bid that zone . . .

Although you are not in the best location ( in terms of distance from the major attractions) you will still have a great time. And although there are indeed a number of connections to navigate to get into the city or west end, it isn't difficult at all. Get one of the little pocket maps from a tube station, or print one out from the Internet. Look at your routes in advance, so you know where you are going. Lines are all colour-coded so very easy to follow on a map. At the station, platforms are generally labelled by compass direction eg 'westbound' , 'southbound' etc. It's harder to go wrong than to get it right! And everyone who lives within 50 miles of London knows most of the network by heart and will be happy to help (ie show off!).

Since you are all sooo helpful... I am going to pick at your brain on another thing... renting a car. A car rental from Heathrow for three days (we could drive it onwards to Bath, our next location.. although I already purchased train tickets) is only 120$ Can.. which would make it cheaper than the car hire and perhaps getting trains to the hotel and to Bath. Given we would still use public transport in london.. just wondering how driving in London is. My better half has driven all over Australia and some in Europe.. but never in the UK. He thinks it's a foolproof way for an adventure.. (I say this could cause us grief).. he says at least I wouldn't have to take my luggage onto the trains.. Your opinion?

OK --driving 2+ hours across all of greater London from LHR to Excel . . . <i>after</i> an overnight, likely sleepless flight? 100% not a good idea! An absolutely dreadful idea in fact . . .

Driving is never foolproof, anywhere where there are other drivers. In London, not only is the volume of traffic very heavy, but (for the same reason) so is the level of regulation and restriction. For one thing, to drive through the city centre requires you to pre-pay £10 a day; then you have to find somewhere to park (also very expensive). And don't, I beg you, even think of driving on the "wrong" side of the road while jetlagged. Not only will the experience be miserable for you, it will be a positive danger to you and everyone else around you.

I don't see why taking luggage on a train is any more of a problem that putting it into a car. If you can't carry it, don't bring it.

There used to be an advertising slogan "Let the train take the strain". Please, please, do so.

Absolutely agree - the train takes a while, but its super easy. The trains from Heathrow have space for bags and you can just put your bags in the space by the doors and stand next to them on the other lines.

Cars are expensive with the price of gas (not cheap), parking (££ and not readily available - plus check the price of parking your car at your hotel, you might be surprised at how expensive that is), and on the other side of the road. Absolutely take the train to your hotel and if you already have the train tickets, to Bath as well.

Just a thought on trains: I'm wondering if Canada does it differently enough for that to be confusing the issue. I remember being a bit mystified at how complicated it seemed to be just to get a train from Toronto to Niagara Falls - everyone corralled into a specific waiting area, airport-style, and steered into a specific doorway on a specific coach. Well, ours are nothing like that. You turn up, find the platform for your train and get on it and find a seat where you can; if you have a specific seat reserved, you'll need to find it, but it's really no more complicated than that. (And the steps up into the coach are much less daunting, too).

To be honest Patrick trains are not really used in most of Canada for travel or commuting - with the exception of parts of Ontario and Quebec. They are used for mainly transport of goods in Western Canada. We do have a few (Rockie Mountaneer for example) but thats a tourist train.

We do have sky trains (Vancouver), C trains (Calgary) etc similar to the tube/dlr which run the same as the tube/dlr here although on a much smaller scale!

I would like to visit a small, picturesque village near London. Ideally, the whole trip should take about half a day. Any idea? How far is Cotswold from London, btw?

'Cotswold' is not a village. The Cotswolds is a region west of Oxford. And it is most certainly would take more than 1/2 a day.

But your whole criteria is not realistic. Any small village w/ be a fair distance from sprawl of Greater London.