8 Days London - First Time
 

Hi! I'll be traveling to London for the first time. My hotel is close to Victoria Sta. Any recommendations or suggestions of things I should do in London. Night life safety, Local bars or restaurants? Must see places? I'll be traveling by myself since first I'll be taking a class at Oxford. Thank you!

Yes, the first thing you should do is read the London Travel Guide on Fodor's
http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/england/london/
After that, there will be a quiz.

Bus travel: scenic buses: 11 from Victoria Station
Night life safe: very. There are video cameras all over the streets with facial recognition software. People do not carry guns. The police do not carry guns. Everyone just carries their bus pass.
There are local bars and restaurants, but not that many in your immediate area - which hotel is it?
What are your interests? There's something for everyone, but what do you like to do at home?

"<i>Any recommendations or suggestions of things I should do in London. </i>"

Oh, yes, hundreds. Clicking on 'Destinations' above and then searching on the Forums will give you (literally) hundreds of ideas. We can't plan your visit for you, but we <i>can</i> help you refine things.

>><i> People do not carry guns. The police do not carry guns. Everyone just carries their bus pass.</i><< :D

Suggest you get the Let's Go student guide to London and then have a look at the Thorn Tree section of the Lonely Planet web site. These will give you up to dte info on night life for young people in London.

As far as what to do and see - start with any reliable guide book to pick out the obvious. Then tell us what your interests are so we can make specific recos. London has enough sights to occupy you for many weeks - but without knowing if your interests are history, culture, architecture, fine dining, clog dancing, fishing or running marathons - it's hard to know what to tell you.

Thank you all for your responses, very helpful.

Interests:

Culture, Art, Photography and Architecture

A nice wine and Love to eat

Have a beer at a local bar

Love to see the nightlife of a city

I have the travel guides and all the basics, I'm just looking forward to have feedback from the members own experience at London

How old are you?
Where are you staying?
What kind of nightlife, specifically? Bars, theatre, classical music, musicals, pop concerts?
Are you into modern art?
Up for a bit of English historical sights, like Tower of London, or does that turn you off?
Churches? They've got a few
By the time you take your class at Oxford, you should have quite a few recommendations from your classmates, too.
If you answer all these questions, you'll get a lot of tips from us. Go ahead

NoCaliGal,

I'm in my early 30's. I'll be staying at St. Georges Drive, Pimlico.

Nightlife: Bars, theater, outdoors events and classical music (but I'll be doing the classical music at Oxford)

I definitively like modern and contemporary art.

Would love to learn a little about English historical sights(hahaha it doesn't turn me off)

Thanks!

We went last year, and of the touristy things, we loved the Tower (as does everyone!). Leave plenty of time for it.

We went to several theatre productions. I highly recommend seeing "War Horse" at the New London Theatre. There's nothing else like it.

We also attended musical services at both St Pauls Cathedral and Westminister Abbey. More than the religious service itself, we went to hear the boys' choir and just for the experience. Especially St Pauls was absolutely amazing.

You can get advance tickets to the House of Parliment for Saturdays. It was an excellent tour and not crowded.

Take a cruise on the River Thames to Greenwich.

To find out what's on in entertainment, culture and nightlife, get a copy of Time Out the minute you arrive: www.timeout.com/london

Classical music: not quite non-stop depending on the time of year you're here, but I suggest you check out

www.bbc.co.uk/proms

www.southbankcentre.co.uk (Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall)

www.wigmore-hall.org.uk

We enjoyed http://www.fabriclondon.com/ , if that's the sort of thing you meant by nightlife.

jarand, PatrickLondon and scouring:

Thanks for all your great tips!! I really appreciate it!

PatrickLondon,

I will definitively take a look to timeout. Thank you very much for the links!

jarand,

I will definitively take into consideration all your tips, they sound amazing!!! I can't wait to be in that gorgeous and exciting city!!!!

scouring,

Thank you very much for the website info, yes, great place to be explore!

Things to see that not everyone includes:

Museum of London (includes some ruins of Roman city of Londinium)

Hampton Court Palace - take a boat on the Thames at least one way - make is fantastic and they really bring the period to life with all of the docents actually showing life at the time

Or if you prefer - take a boat to Greenwich and see the old Prime Meridian (long walk up a hill) and a great naval museum

Visit the Royal Academy - always interesting exhibits

National Portrait Gallery - back behind the National Gallery - not that large but fascinating

Visit/view the Inns of Court - or check out the Old Bailey

Speaking of walking, there's always London Walks: www.walks.com. Lots of possibilities.

nytraveler,

Thank you very much for the tips, lots of interesting activities.

Mimar,

Thanks so much for the link, I checked, I will definitely take a few tours!

Thank you guys!

Isn't there a really good travel website like Fo--- something and doesn't it have pages and pages of information for people relating to highly trafficked and attractive tourist destinations and isn't one of those destinations London?

Why yes, yes there is: http://www.fodors.com/world/europe/england/london/

Unfortunately, Fodors.com has revamped what may have been the MOST useful tool for you - the itineraries section. It's more regional, not London-only.

In addition, do NOT miss www.londontown.com - lots of self-guiding tips including walking tours and ton(ne)s of nightlife, event, concert info.