I'll be trvelling to London with a friend the first week of Sept. The tour company through which we booked our trip is offering excursions but we must book in the next week. I'd love some advice on whether these would be worth the time and money.<BR><BR>1. West End and City of London- Orientation drive through the West End, guided visit to Westminster, Changing of Guards at Buckingham Palace, guided visit of St. Paul's, Tower of London. Cost = $80<BR><BR>It seems to be that most of these sites are clustered together and we could pretty much do them on our own time, at our leisure, and save $80. What do you think? Is it worth having a guide? Could we take a double decker bus and see the city just as easily?<BR><BR>2. Mysteries of Jack the Ripper - I know, sounds cheesy, but this is a night tour to some of the sites "made infamous by Jack the Ripper" followed by dinner in a local pub and a drive back to the hotel "taking in the major sites lit by magnificent floodlights." Cost = $45.00<BR><BR>3. Bath and Stonehenge - we'd both really like to see Bath but aren't interested in Stonehenge. Would we be able to do Bath on our own without a car, or should we try to find a tour company (we're pretty independent and would rather not be tied to someone else's schedule)? If we do this with our tour company, the cost would be $95.00.<BR><BR>Thanks for your input!!

sorry, I should have checked my spelling before i posted this one! I'm sure many of you will have nice little posts to leave for me about that.

Michele, West End-City of London orientation drive can easily be done on your own -- most of it by walking or with the tube/bus. London Walks does the Jack the Ripper walk as well as others for 5 pounds (dinner not included). You can buy your own dinner and take the tube or taxi back to your hotel and probably have just as great an outing. Can't help you with the Bath excursion but I'm sure someone else will have info on that.

Hi Michele,<BR>In regards to tour no. 1 - you ae right you would be better off doing this one on your own at your own pace - just get a good guide book so you know exactly when to get there for the changing of the guard. In the Tower of London there are 'free' tours run by the wonderful Beefeaters - definitely do one of these.<BR>For tour no. 2, there is a London company that runs walking tours whose name escapes me (perhaps someone else here can help?) who run Jack the Ripper walking tours at night which my memory recalls as being a lot less expensive. <BR>And for tours 3., I would advise you catch the train to Bath & explore that lovely town at your leisure - there are commentary headsets available at the roman baths I think.

Ah yes, London Walks - thanks BettyK. I found the web site for you Michele... http://london.walks.com/index.html<BR>

From London to Bath,trains leave Paddington station every half an hour(15 minutes and 45 minutes pass the hour),it takes 1 1/2 hours to Bath Spa,return is the same. You could buy sameday return ticket after 9:30 AM,it is much cheaper.<BR><BR>Bath is a very walkable town,the train station is right at the edge,about 10 minutes walk to Roman Bath,Abbey..etc. It is nor necessary to join any tour.

The prices you mention are really high! You can easily see all of London on your own. I took the Big Bus tour which is hop on/off and saw everything and visited every major site. I even took the tour again just to cover more territory. Be sure it's "live" commentary. The cost was about $15 for 24 hours. I took the London Walks tour of "Jack the Ripper" (you meet at a metro station) and that cost about $8. Also, even tho' I drove as I was touring England, you can take a train to Bath and do it on your own. When I got to Bath I used the Guide Friday bus tour which is also a hop on/off deal (runs other than Friday)to get an overview, got off for a site we wanted to see and back on later to get to home base. These buses are a great invention!!

you can do this on www.walks.com<BR><BR>The Original London Walks.<BR><BR>don't spent 80 bucks plus. London Walks is magnificent and 5 pounds a person. <BR><BR>you can do Bath for something like 30 pounds a person, including train ticket and full day guided tour. you will love the guides, they have such a great sense of humor.<BR><BR>London is already expensive, don't make it worse on yourself!<BR><BR

Training to Bath is a good idea. It's one of the most difficult places to drive. It took us more than an hour to get to our hotel AFTER we got to town! If you want more than a day trip. I can highly recommend the Paradise House B&B, which is a short walk to heart of the city.

thank you all so much!! All of the advice has been very consistent, so I'm definitely saying no to the $80.00 tours!!