If you are lucky, you could luck into a candle-light concert at St Martin in the Fields. You can stroll across the Millenium Bridge toward the Tate Gallery and then head past the restoration of the Globe Theater. The views of the city from either side of the river are very cool.

Do get a guide well ahead of time that has tube and bus stops so you can determine where you want to go.

I'm wondering if you would get in too late to catch a London Walks tour? We did a Pub Walk that was fun, and ended up in an area with good restaurants that didn't blow our budget to shreds.

Am I crazy (I know I'm lazy for not just going upstairs to get my London map) but did we walk from St Martin in the Fields to St Pauls and then across the M Bridge or was that first "walk" actually a bus ride? It was a couple of years ago.

We found it very easy to get around London by bus and tube.

You could easily walk it--I think most direct would be down the Strand/Fleet Street. I'm conservative, am not so sure it's such a great or interesting walk for two women at night. Lots of people sleeping rough and begging in doorways--usually not violent but unsettling. Could cut through Covent Garden but still a good portion of the walk would be on the street.

One has to be prepared for rain in London, so a non-rain plan is a good idea.

You could also catch the cheaper (and slower) Heathrow Connect service to Paddington and either pick up the NightBus or grab one of the #15 route buses, which more or less follows the tour bus routes a good chunk of the way.

But I would second the Tube/Eye or Night Bus option. Or take a guided evening walking tour (if you're both up to it).

If we elect to do the "london by night" tour, where is the easiest place to pick up the tour given our location at Heathrow Hilton?

You should probably ask the tour company directly, and tell them which day your are talking about. It's worth the e-mail, or even the phone call if it comes to that.

The bus route is here: www.london-by-night.net/timetable.htm

If you take the train to London, board at Paddington. If you take the tube, you'll be on the Picadilly line, so Hyde Park Corner.

but given that oasisboston is staying at Heathrow Hilton, is taking the Heathrow Xpress a better, faster (if pricier) option -- therefore boarding at Paddington Station makes sense?

One thing to note is how late oasisboston is arriving at Heathrow. I think he or she might want to get in as quickly as possible, and also get back as early as possible, since they haec a flight to catch the next day.

I vote for the do-it-yourself method, and recommend you acquire the following:

A six-zone, one-day Travelcard

This map of bus routes
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...al_bus_map.pdf

And this map of London sights
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/centlond.pdf

Both are available free at Tube stations. The Travelcard is good on buses, the Tube, and trains.

If you take the Connect or Express from Heathrow (which I don't recommend unless you cashed your oil stocks before leaving home), you will only need a TWO-zone Travelcard.

oasisboston and her mum have only a few hours in London before the tube shuts town. The Heathrow Xpress takes one-third the time getting in and out of London to Heathrow as the tube, and the tickets are simple to purchase -- as opposed to figuring out the arcana of the Oyster card. The night tour bus costs 10 GBP when booked online, a price that is hard to beat, and it includes all the sights.

That's odd - you're the first one to mention Oyster. We've been talking about Travelcards - which work like tickets except they cost far less.

If OP <u>doesn't</u> do the Night Bus Tour, Paddington Station is the wrong place to start. Tube service to the central sights (<i>e.g.</i>, Westminster, Trafalgar Square) is almost as fast as the trains.

3:30 is pretty late to arrive into Heathrow and plan to do much that evening. Your mother; is she 50 or 75? and is she quite fit for walking. ?
Also; what time of year are you going? The days get awfully short in the fall (as someone else mentioned,) or if you are going soon, at the end of summer, you would have light way late.
I was just doing research this morning about the Hilton Paddington,,so the Heathrow Express train would certainly be the quickest way into town,,, ony 15 min. to Paddington Station. The Hilton is right AT the station and you could wait in the lobby for the night tour to start.... 7:45, 8:45 or whatever it says on the website.
THe night tour sounds wonderful and the map shows it to pass most all the major sights.
Don't know where you are flying from,~~~ a tour, a hectic trip, a leisure trip or what.
I believe the Heathrow Hilton is close to terminal 4, and you would take a free HOTEL shuttle bus over to Terminal 5 to catch the Heathrow Express into Paddington station.
Getting into Heathrow not until 3:30 or possibly 4....I'd probably just take a taxi over to the town of Windsor close by...walk around the town and the outside of Windsor Castle, have a comfortable, reasonable dinner and scoot on back to your hotel to &quot;regroup and repack&quot; for your trip back to Boston the next morning.

Looking for a cheap day out in London? No problem.

By a tube ticket, get on the circle line and just keep going. You will see a great array of Londoners and get a good idea about how NOT to dress when you get back home.