Snickles

I will be in the heart of London for two days and want to see it all. This is my first time and probably the last. I know this is not possible to do it all but I would like to see the main highlights. Can you help me with an agenda for Day 1 and Day 2. Not knowing London I don't want to run from one side of London and back. I would like to do one area and then another. Very active so moving fast is not a big issue. Just like to get the most in. Thanks

cynthia_booker

Are you more interested in art, history, shopping, or parks/gardens?
You could fill two days with any one category and any suggestions should be based on your main interests.

janisj

In two days you can only see a very small part of London so you must be VERY selective. We'd need to know a lot about your interests before any suggestions could be useful.

Also please clarify -- do you have 2 FULL days (in other words you arrive one day and leave on the 4th morning), or 1.5 days (arrive day one and leave the morning of day 3), or less?

jamikins

I would start with a good guide book and if you have two full days pick 4 things you really want to see and do two a day, grouping them together by location. Then if you have time you can add more things in those areas to fill up your days.

Snickles

I arrive on Wed morning and leave Friday evening. I am mainly interested in main attractions

ssachida

Ok, I'll play. This is what I would do, but like the others point out, there are more 'main' attractions than can fit in 2.5 days. So, it'll be better if we knew if you were a history buff or an architecture fan or loved art or liked people watching or markets or are a foodie or loved everything to do with royalty or a military buff or ... you get the picture:

My 2 days in London would be:
Wed: Check-in, get lunch/brunch: Start at Trafalgar square, poke my head into the museum, walk down to Parliament square, tour westminster abbey, walk across the westminster bridge to the south bank, walk west for a while for the beautiful views of the parliament, walk back towards london eye, gawk at the street acts, take a ride on the eye. head back, get dinner and fall flat after a fairly full and jet lagged day.

Thu: Tower of London, walk across tower bridge towards london bridge. Stop at St Katherine's docks 1st. Get to London bridge and the Borough market. Wander around and then head over to Tate Modern (poke my head in to the Turbine hall) passing and may be stopping at Shakespeare's globe. Cross the wobbly bridge, if its before 5pm, visit St Pauls, wander the city a bit: Guild Hall, etc. If you're still standing go to the west end and take in a show.
Or may be, skip the whole City bit and go to Covent Garden and Leicester Sq and Soho instead (see even for someone who knows what they love in London -- it's not easy)

Friday morning: One of the parks: may St James early in the morning (its beautiful before 7am, before the crowds arrive) and a walk to Buckingham Palace. Or may be Hyde Park. Or Regents Park if the roses are in bloom. Or if its foul weather, then the British Museum or the V&A or may be Somerset house for a smallish museum/gallery or ... or ... or.


I haven't even given you 50% of the 'main' sites above.

Good luck! It was fun playing pretend

dwdvagamundo

Snickles, you can see what you're up against here. Spouse and I are making our second visit to London soon. We'll have five nights and five and a half full day, and are still discussing what we can see and what we have to cut. And we are not revisiting anything we saw the first time!

ssachida has a good plan for a first time visitor. although I'd substitute Tate Britain for Tate Modern or, preferably, spend the time in the National Gallery if you're into art. That'll let you keep you from having to cross the Thames.

Spouse, who has advanced art history degrees, looked at collection of Tate Modern on-line and said "We are NOT going there." She wants to see the Turners at Tate Britain and I want to see some of what's at the National Gallery.

janisj

>>I arrive on Wed morning and leave Friday evening. I am mainly interested in main attractions<<

So you have 1 full day and perhaps 2 half days.

The "main attractions" would fill weeks. In 2 days you can get to maybe 4 or 5 of the 'major' sites, and perhaps one or two smaller attractions. Unless you tell us what sorts of things you enjoy/hope to see no one can really help much.

Why not read up 'Destinations' above, and a guide book or two. Then come back and ask about specific sites that sound interesting to you.

ssachida

dwdvagamundo, The bit I love about Tate Modern is not the art collection in it so much as the building itself. If you are in the vicinity, it's worth just going into the main level -- the turbine hall. There's usually installation art in there that's interesting, but the awesome bit is the dimensions of the hall itself. Takes 10 minutes and is fun

crazyfamilyof4

How about the hop on hop off bus tour . .I know it's expensive but that way you can just sit on it and see the attractions and then decide which ones you want a photo with and hop off etc. Not sure about the traffic etc so it is just a thought . . .the others will give better advice

janisj

No to the H-o-H-o. It would take most of one of your days to see the outsides of things and hop off to visit a site or two. But not any real majors like the Tower or British Museum or V&A or Westminster Abbey. Hopping off for one of those and completing the rest of the loop is about a day.