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Advice on London daily schedule
We'll be in London for a short period of time and were wondering if you could look over what we have planned and see if there would be enough time to see what we are planning on doing. We have never been to London and have no idea how long it would take to see each visited sight. We are in our 50's and are in extremely good physical condition so walking is not an issue. The days I am listing are full days, neither the first nor last days are traveling days. This will a mid to late June stay. We already have tickets for the Ceremony of the Keys so that sight cannot be moved to an alternate day.
Day 1: Horse Guard Ceremony Houses of Parliament Tower Bridge Tower of London Ceremony of the Keys Day 2: Private tour Stonehenge, Bath and Lacock Trafalgar Square Day 3: Warwick Castle, Stratford upon Avon, Oxford and Cotswolds Piccaddilly Circus Shopping at Harrods Day 4: Westminster Abbey Big Ben Museum of London London Eye Thank you in advance!! AJ |
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Day 3:
Warwick Castle, Stratford upon Avon, Oxford and Cotswolds Piccaddilly Circus Shopping at Harrods> Is this on your own or a tour -if on your own simply impossible |
AJ
Are you actually touring the houses of parliament or just plan to see the building. Really, in either case, you could add that to day 4, probably the short Horseguards ceremony as well. Move the Museum of the City of London to Day 1 and be sure you see at least the outside of St. Paul's. So, spend Day 1 in the City and Day 4 in Westminster then you're not criss-crossing. Day 3--am assuming this is a bus tour, really difficult to do all that in a day on your own. What time do you get back to London? I believe Harrod's stays open fairly late so guess you can get there. You'll be very close to Trafalgar Sq on Day 4, it's a short walk from Horseguards. Where are you staying? That can be a big factor in timing. |
Just a quick note for now: While it would seem sensible to do the Tower the same day as the Ceremony . . . It really doesn't work well. The tower closes at 5PM and then you have 4 hours to kill until the Keys Ceremony.
And I don't see hoe day 3 is even close to possible. You will be lucky to be back in London before 7 or 8 PM. Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and parliament are all at the exact same location yet you have them on different days. More later . . . |
We were all posting at the same time (I'm between my mains an the cheese course so another very short note) . . . You are spending an awful lot of time outside London so you are going to see VERY little of the city and a lot of motorways.
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Made some adjustments. We're staying at the Strand Palace Hotel at 372 Strand in London We have an additional 4 days in the London area, but we're spending them with friends who live nearby and I imagine we'll go to other places with them as well. This is our list of must see places and we wanted to go without them.
Day 1: Horse Guard Ceremony Museum of London Tower Bridge Tower of London London Eye Dinner between London Eye and the Ceremony of the Keys Ceremony of the Keys Day 2: Private tour Stonehenge, Bath and Lacock Trafalgar Square Day 3: Private tour Warwick Castle, Stratford upon Avon, Oxford and Cotswolds Piccaddilly Circus Day 4: Westminster Abbey Big Ben Houses of Parliament Shopping at Harrods Hopefully this a bit more doable. Thank you AJ |
Horse Guard Parade at Whitehall, right? I would move this to Day 4, it's at 11:00 am and is between your hotel and the Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben. You will also get good views of Parliament from the London Eye.
On a nice day it's not a bad walk from the Strand Palace down to Trafalgar Sq then down Whitehall to the Abbey. Or take a bus down. You have too much on in day 1 to double back for the Horse Guard. On Fay 4 you should have time in the afternoon for Picadilly Circus maybe tea at Fortnum and Mason or the Wolseley, both are on Picadilly St. A lot depends on how much time you want to spend in the Abbey. |
From years of working in London and spending a lot of leisure time there, my rule of thumb is that doing anything in London takes twice as long as you were expecting. Be prepared not to do everything on your list else you will be sorely disappointed.
But good luck - I hope you have a great time. |
Day 1 is 'possible' but crazy.
You will not get to the museum of London until about noon, the tower about 3 PM (assuming you don't stop for lunch), the Eye by 6:30 or so, dinner by 7:30-ish . . .leaving 90 minutes to eat an travel all the way back to the Tower. Dropping Horse Guards helps that mess but you are still ziz zagging back and forth across london. |
Actually I think day 3 is one heck of a day.
Private tour Warwick Castle, Stratford upon Avon, Oxford and Cotswolds, is it by helicoptor? |
No - it is by an enterprising driver/guide who convinces <strike>gullible</strike> visitors they can 'see' 4 days worth in 10 hours.
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I would pick no more than 2-3 sights per day and then just fill in with whatever takes your fancy or catches your eye actually on the day and in the vicinity of wherever you are if you have the energy. I would also not take more than one day trip out of London either - you have very little time and it will be exhausting.
My London recs are:- Tower of London (you get Tower Bridge thrown in for free as they are next to each other!). One major museum or gallery - V&A has long been my favourite. Houses of Parliament. One really good food or antiques market. One park or area of parkland/heath. Something quirky - a cemetery (Highgate maybe) or ghost signs walk. Shopping British brands like Liberty, Fortnum, James Smith umbrellas, Smythson, Paul A Young chocolates etc. Modern European cuisine and indian food. Personally, I would scrap Horseguards and Piccadilly at an absolute minimum as just not worth the time. |
Cathinjoetown and janisj - Moved Horse Guard to day 4. So that day we'll be in the same area to do those day's activities. We're also eliminating shopping at Harrods on Day 4.
bilboburgler - Day 3 private tour of Warwick Castle, Stratford upon Avon, Oxford and Cotswolds is indeed via helicopter. Flying to Stratford-upon-Avon with a private driver on the way back. We're also eliminating the Museum of London on Day 1. |
AJB, only way to go.
But Oxford will be a bit under viewed, only 30 colleges, two world class museums and a small Library to fit in. There is very little in Stratford,I'd drop it. |
Even flying in you won't see much with this whirlwind and it is obvious you are spending a boatload to do it.
IRL Stratford (assuming you are interested in visiting at minimum the birthplace and Anne Hathaway' Cottage, will take a couple of hours even with a private driver, more if you want to visit the gravesite. Warwick castle is enormous and even a cursory visit takes about 2 hours. You won't see much of Oxford in less than 4 or 5 hours. . . . And the 'Cotswolds' is a region - my guess is what you will see is the road down from Stratford through Chipping Campden, Woodstock and to Oxford. That ain't seeing the Cotswolds. That is driving from Stratford to Oxford. But at least you will have ticked off the boxes. |
see, a grave and a cottage, you can visit them in the cotswolds.
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