critique itenerary for London
 

My sis and I are going to London in Sept.for 8 days. This will be her first trip. Our itenerary as follows:
Thursday--Take "Total London Experience"
Grayline tour.
Friday-- Take "Splendour of Paris" Eurostar
to Paris.. (She is elderly and
is afraid she may not see Paris
in her lifetime!!!
Saturday--Portobello Market and the theater.
Sunday-- Madame Tussauds, Waterloo
Bridge, Royal Mews, Cabinet War
Rooms, Evensong services at St.
Margaret's church.
Monday-- Stonehenge, Bath, Windsor Castle
tour.
Tuesday-- Shopping at Harrods, Harvey
Nichols, etc. Afternoon (5:30pm)
Tea at the Ritz.
Wednesday--"Catch-up" day and eat fish and
chips at Geales.
Thursday-- Fly home.
Any suggestions? I can maneuver the tube ok, but have trouble locating the right bus.
Thanks!

I'm surprised not to see sights such as Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, St. Paul's, and the British Museum on your list.

Personally, if it were my first trip, those would be much higher on the list than, say, Portobello Marekt, Madame Tussaud's (ugh!), the Harrods day, and Waterloo Bridge.

You really only have six or seven days (not eight), and you're spending two of those away from the city (Paris & Stonehenge/Bath/Windsor) - are you sure that's what you want to do? I suspect the Paris day is a REALLY long day.

If the itinerary is composed of the things that you each "must see," then I guess it's OK (although your Sunday locations seem to be pretty scattered).

I'd also highly recommend fitting in an evening walk or two with The Original London Walks - very informative and entertaining.

Just my opinions.

Gayle

Thanks, Gayle, Westminster Abbey, The Tower and I believe St. Pauls will be in the "Total London" tour. We will be staying close to the Victoria/Albert museum and will go there.
And yes, the Paris trip is a VERY long day, but she insists. I am going to re-think the Stonehenge day. But she does want to see the "DollHouse" at Windsor Castle....Could we do this on our own you think??
Thank you.

The wax museum is pretty disappointing as sights go, as is Stonehenge. I think both Bath and Windsor deserve their own day, so seeing them and Stonehenge in one day would be too fast for my liking (and I'm 23).

It depends upon your interests, but going to London without seeeing any of the art museums like the National Gallery/Portrait Gallery, Tate, Courtrald etc would be a shame IMO.

Total London Experience - www.goldentours.co.uk/tour.php?136

Only £79 - and you'll start at 8:15am

Does 2 long days in a row sound like a good idea especially the day after you arrive (it is the day after & not the day you arrive.)

I'd do the "total London experience" on Saturday to give you time to recover PLUS traffic is a lot lighter

Save the trip to Paris for Tuesday otherwise you'll be so shattered you won't enjoy anything else - or travel to Paris for your last day or 2 & fly to the US from Paris.

Forget Portobello Market, Mme Tussards & Waterloo Bridge (why?). And i

Do some of the World Class Museums like the British / Natural History and V&A

Any particular reason why you aren't going to St Pauls or St Martins in the Field for Evensong

Get a proper map of London - like this one http://www.tfl.gov.uk/buses/pdfdocs/centlond.pdf - as it tells you where everything is in relation to each other which Tube Maps & A-Z's don't.

Also plan your itinery so you go to one area per day otherwise you'll spend all your time going up & down stairs at Tube stations