Hello everyone! I need help with Itinerary.
We are comming with my husband for 7 days in September(6 nights in London near Hyde park -Westbourne Park Tube - Zone 2). Arriving in Heathrow 6.20 am Tuesday - leaving back 5 p.m. on Monday.
Well, I am looking for most economical
(hopefully on average $50 per person per day for traveling and entrance fees), but interesting trip probably with 2 day trips.
I want to avoid lines as much as possible.
I am not sure should we take any tours or not since bus tours are very pricy. We may consider doing everything by ourselves or take London Walk Tour. Do you have in London good tour books in Russian in front of major museums?(like Italy for example had).
In terms of tube - it seems that we need 7 day trip card for zones 1-2, and by extensions. Is it right?
I notice that some people suggest to go may be right from Heathrow to Hampton Court or Windsor. Is it good idea? What to do with luggage in that case - leave in airport and go back and forth and then to hotel?

I just want to take advantage of time in London as much as possible and need help with grouping , and planing trip and figuring how to get to places.

I have on my Must list so far:
Buckingham Palace visit with changing of Guards
Tower of London
St. Paul's
Westminster Abbey
Hyde Park
Covent Garden
House of Parliament
Walk along or Boat trip on Themes
National Gallery (Wednesday night)
British Museum
Stonehenge (with Salisbury)

I definetely want at least one palace. But divided between Windsor, Hampton Court and Blenheim.
People also suggested Greenwich - is it worth?

Any places to see suggested itinerary for 7 days?
Thanks.

Sorry, also forgot to ask- we want to see "Phantom of the Opera" - where is the best place to buy not very expensive tickets for FACE value?
Thanks.

I wouldn't do anything but go straight to your hotel after leaving Heathrow - you'll be tired and not in the mood for energetic sight seeing. After you are checked-in then you may go for a little walk around to familiarise yourself with the local area.

I find it unlike you'll be able to find Russian tour books/guides, but for your sake I hope I'm proved wrong.

Your list of things to see looks good, I'm sure you'll add/delete things once you are here which is a constructive process.

Hi
If you click at the top of this screen on Destinations you will find lots of information on London, including how to plan your visit. You will have several days, I don't see a need in your case to rush to Hampton Court or elsewhere right from the airport.

I've been to London a number of times and have not felt the need to take an organized bus tour. On a public bus, included in your transport pass, you can see everything you like and get on and off as well.

The following is from my London file; if you'd like to see the whole file, email me as [email protected]

On the #11 Liverpool Station bus you can go from Liverpool Street Station in the City to Fulham Broadway in Chelsea, or vice versa. Bring along your guidebook and map, and get on or off as the spirit moves you. Let?s assume that you start the bus ride at Liverpool Station, which has recently been renovated. On the east side of the station you area across from the Dirty Dick?s pub and across from Middlesex Street which on Saturdays and Sundays becomes the Petticoat Lane fleamarket. This is on the edge of London?s famous East End.
The #11 bus collects passengers on the west side of the station and heads through Threadneedle Street, passing the Stock Exchange and the Bank of England (?The old lady of Threadneedle Street?).
The bus crosses Bow Lane, one block from St Mary-le-Bow church . The bus turns onto Cannon Street, passing St Paul?s Cathedral. The rest of the ride passes near many other landmarks. If you like, get off at St. Paul's and transfer to the #15 bus to the Tower of London. The return #15 from the Tower will stop at St. Paul's, Fleet Street, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, and Marble Arch.

Two places with lines that come to mind are the Tower of London, and Westminster Abbey. Try going first thing in the mornings, or, for the Tower, later in the afternoon. Try and take a Yeoman Warder's tour at the Tower, it is very informative.

For your daytrips, I guess you've decided that Stonehenge is one, though on a first visit to England (?) I wouldn't put that as #1.
For a "palace" I think in order I would recommend Hampton Court over Windsor because I'm more interested in the history and it's less about fine furnishings. Blenheim is magnificent, but it is not a royal palace, just a private palace built for a Duke, and still inhabited by one. Blenheim is outside of Oxford which I do think is a wonderful daytrip.

London is a very expensive city, perhaps others will have some budget-minded advice. Luckily many of the museums are free of charge.

Best of luck.

There are hundreds of threads here about London and many describe exactly what you are looking for so s short search will turn up more info than you can imagine.

but a few comments:

Are you absolutely set on your hotel? The reason I ask is it is on one of the less usefull tube lines and is not that close to Hyde Park. The Hammersmith and City tube (metro) line will take you to Paddington Station but you will have to change lines 2 or 3 times to get to any tourist attractions from Westbourne Grove. But if you got a really good price it would be an OK location - just not the most convenient.

For just 7 days I would only think about 1 day trip at very most. Unless you really dream of seeing Stonehenge I would use 1/2 a day to visit Hampton Court Palace and not do any other out of town trips.

Buckingham Palace is only open to the public in Aug and Sept each year. Since you will be in London at that time I would definitely go there.

Some of the major tourist attractions do have guide books in Russian on for sale in their gift shops.

You are correct about the transport pass - you will need a zone1-2 weekly pas (if you stay near Westbourne Grove.

I don't know of many people who recommend going to Hampton Court Palace or Windsor right after landing. of course (if you are arriving from Russia) you are not flying overnight so you will be less jet lagged than many of us. But you will still be tired after the flight so I'd take one of the hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus tours. The ones with recorded commentary may have Russian tapes. I'm not sure about this but their web sites will probably explain this.

You will get to your hotel by about 9 a.m. and can leave your luggage there if your room is not ready yet. then you can go out to the park, take the bus tour, have a nice lunch or picnic and then go back to the hotel to check in.

You will have plenty of time to see all the things on your list - and a lot more too.

You should never have to pay more than face value for theatre tickets. You can often get Phantom tickets at the TKTS booth in Leicester Square for 25% less than face value.

One of the most important things to keep in mind is to plan your itinerary with logistics in mind. Try to minimize the need to travel from one side of London to the other on the same day. That will consume an enormous amount of your valuable touring time.

From the things on your list, you would probably want to plan Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Houses of Parliament in the same day. Also in that area are the Cabinet War Rooms, London Eye and St. James's Park. Other things in the area would be St. James's Palace and Clarence House (which I believe is open in September.) You could easily spend a couple of days in this area. Many of the Thames River cruises also leave from Westminster Pier. We just returned from London and the highlight of our trip was taking the clock tower tour (Big Ben.) You need to write for tickets, but it's a wonderful experience (nearly 400 steps, though) Here's the website for details: http://www.parliament.uk/directories...lock_tower.cfm

Covent Garden is in the same vicinity as the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square. The British Museum is not too far from Covent Garden.

St. Paul's is in the same vicinity as Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and the Tower of London and Tower Bridge is in that end of town, but a bit further out.

Salisbury is about a 1.5 hour train trip out of Waterloo Station. Once in Salisbury, you can take a bus from the train station out to Stonehenge (it's about 8 miles out of town.) Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and the town will definitely take up your whole day.

Hampton Court and Windsor are both about a 30-45 minute train trip from Waterloo Station. Both are fantastic. Blenheim is just outside of Oxford in the charming little village of Woodstock. It's also a very nice day trip but a bit further out than Hampton Court or Windsor.

my single favorite site in London is the British Library- Now in its own building (it was part of the British Museum when I last went in 1986) It houses in one large room the greatest written literature in the English language including 3rd century bibles, shakespeare, chaucer, kipling, the magna carta and the beatles- don't miss this.

Thanks a lot to everyone! This is great forum page.
Just to clearify things a bit:
We are living in US not in Russia but we are originally from Russia. This is the reason we would prefer Russian guide books, since can understand in it all details . I am also afraid that if we will take tours in English we may have some difficulty to undestand details since our ears trained only for American Enlgish and pronanciation is very different....
Yes unfortunately hotel is part of our air+hotel package and we got great price, but we are not scared for walking.
I did looked at destination, but there was only one itenarary, and my husband hates to go with map and follow directions. He rather be lost .
Thanks to people for helping to group attractions. Any suggestion in terms of key words for search to get some more info in terms how to plan it by days?
Again thanks a lot for help.

May be strange questions, but I need help..
What is "Ceremony of the Keys?" Do I need to book it and how?
Anybody nows how to register for Westminster Abbey Verger Tour? Does it allow you to avoid some lines?
Thanks.

You can find the times of the Westminster Abbey Verger tour here:
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/

To reserve, send an email to:
[email protected]
with date, time, number of people

I believe they generally respond in 24 hours. I reserved only a couple of days in advance. It both saved me a lot of time in line and also I doubt I would have gotten to take the verger tour if I had not reserved in advance but, of course, would have been able to do self-guided tour.

Considering how the Brits saved the Western world with virtually no help in 1939-1942, I'm uncertain that you can gain any perspective on London, Londoners and British character without visiting the Cabinet War Rooms (near Downing Street).

You should also visit the Imperial War Museum -- excellent stuff. The guidebooks do not rate it highly enough.

Hyde Park is nice, but ultimately you want to go for the freak show that is Speakers' Corner. That's on Sundays only.

Here's your info on the Ceremony of the Keys. It's a ceremony at the Tower of London which has been done the exact same way for 700 years. It's basically the "locking" of the Tower for the evening. It's at 9:30 each evening and lasts about 30 minutes. There is no admission charge. You can get tickets by sending a letter along with a self addressed envelope along with 2 international reply coupons (the post office will know what they are) to:

The Ceremony of the Keys
HM Tower of London
London, UK
EC3N4AB
England

You must provide your available dates of attendance along with the names and addresses of everyone in your party who will attend. Hope this helps. My family enjoyed this. susan

<i>&quot;I did looked at destination, but there was only one itenarary&quot;</i>

I would <u>not</u> suggest trying to follow the Fodors London itinerary. It is ridiculously over-planned. For a travel site, it's amazing they haven't created a more realistic, do-able plan. One day, they have 5 museums and a cathedral planned. You could maybe drive by all those sites in one day, but you definitely couldn't go in and look around

Thanks a lot Samejia. Do you know by any chance how long in advance should I request tickets for Changing of the keys ceremony? We will be in London September 7th-13th and I am not sure that it is enough in advance time to make request by mail. Is there is a way to do it by e-mail?

Also I trie by e-mail to reserve Clock Tower Tour. Should it work, or should I send request via reqular Mail. They say they need 3 months in advance.....

Couple more questions I read in some book that it is better to reserve ticket for Buckingham palace in advance. Any idea how?

If we want to attend also Yeoman Warder's tour should I use the same e-mail?
Thanks.
Irina

Just discover that House of Parliament will be closed for visitors during time we go (just miss by week). But it listed on some tours.
Does it mean they will just show it from outside?
Did anybody go with Original London Walks for London Explore day?
They list Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Banqueting House,old Scotland Yard. Do they actually enter any of these places or all is done from outside?
Thanks.

IrinaStan, it didn't take long at all to get the Ceremony of the Keys tickets. I think the turnaround time from when I mailed my request was about 7 business days. You don't need to reserve the Yeoman Warder's tour. I don't think you can actually. You just show up at the entrance (after checking out the Crown Jewels) and wait for the next one.
You have more than enough time for the Clock Tower Tour reservation. I mailed that out along with the Ceremony of the Keys. I received our confirmation for the Clock Tower shortly a few days after getting our Ceremony of the Keys tickets. In fact, I mailed out requests for my sister-in-law about 3 weeks before she was going and she still had her tickets before leaving. I would recommend not going on the Clock tour and the Ceremony of the Keys on the same day. We did both on our first day there and were exhausted. Susan

You can take a boat ride to Hampton Court. It is a little nicer than taking a bus or train! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Hampton Court. It is beautiful and the gardens are GORGEOUS!

You don't have to do a sightseeing tour - but since you only have a short time and I assume you want to see as much as possible, it is a good idea. I like the London Duck Tours the best. The bus actually goes in the water! So you have a bus tour AND a boat ride together!! (http://www.londonducktours.co.uk/flash.htm) Look at the website.

A lot of London is FREE (British Museum is a must!) so you won't have to spend too much money. I also like to save money by staying in charming Bed and Breakfasts instead of hotels. (I can recommend 2 really nice ones if you email me)

Also, don't forget to just enjoy being there. I mean, you don't have to be at an atraction every minute of the day. Relax and people watch at one of the MANY GORGEOUS parks (you can even bring a pic-nic!)... or just start walking. London is GREAT for just walking around!- You will also find nice inexpensive places to eat by just walking around too. Don't spend a lot of money on big expensive restaurants. (You will LOVE the fish and chips!)

If you do plan on visiting a lot of attractions, you will need a London Pass (http://www.londonpass.com/?wg=3) It really is a good value if you plan on using it. - and it also gives discounts on the theatre. You will LOVE seeing plays in London. It is an incredible experience. My advice is to buy tickets at the box office. My first time to London I bought tickets online from a ticket broker. BIG MISTAKE! You will save money and probably get a better seat if you just buy from the box office. You can even buy the morning of the show! They usually have seats. (no problem!)

Any more questions - email me. I LOVE England. I am planning another trip for May 2005. I can't wait!!!

Hello again!
Regardless London Pass- I am not sure it worth.
However I believe I did found good deal:
Combined ticket for Tower and Hampton Court - 17.50.
My understanding I can buy it at the Tower office but I want to avoid lines.
However, it was mentioned that it is possible to buy tickets in advance in Underground Tube Stations.
Does anybody know - Can I buy combine Ticket for Tower and Hampton at Underground?
Also I am thinking to attend Clarence House in addition to Buckingam. Do you think it worth it?
How about Queen's Gallery? Do they show only one exibition or there is also some permanent collection? Is it worth it, or it is better to focus on British Museum and National Gallery (those I will definetely attend).I am not sure about Roys Mews. I believe I can leave it for next trip.

IrinaStan,
Yes I would definitely plan on including Clarence HOuse AND Buckingham Palace in your London itinerary. You're lucky to be visiting during the small window of opportuity when both will be open to the public. I haven't been to Clarence House myself yet - this is only the second year it's been open to the public - but I would love to see it. It's right around the corner from Buckingham Palace so would be very easy and practical to do both the same day. I visited BP the first year it was open (1994) and really would like to visit again if I get back to London at the right time, there was just so much to take in that it's next to impossible to absorb it all in one visit. I suggest you order tickets for both ASAP to avoid disappointment - I believe BP sells out most years. There shoud be a link to order tickets at the Royal Family's website since they're both royal residences - go to www.royal.gov.uk. Have a great time in London!

Don't get your heart set on visiting Clarence House. I read the other day that ALL tickets for this year's opening are completely sold out.