Friends elected me to plan a 1 week couples trip to London in Sept 2012. None of us have been to London and I don't want to dissapoint. Our group of six have been looking into sharing a 3 br flat somewhere in the range of 2,500 GBP.

I've been researching the options but would greatly appreciate your suggestions for details including: itinerary; transfers from Gatwick; week long transport to possibly include 2 day trips (Oyster?); theatre tips; and most importantly lunch and dinner suggestions. Our budget beyond flights and flat is about 1,000 GBP per couple for the week but is somewhat flexible.
Thanks

<i>transfers from Gatwick</i>

Take the train to Victoria, it doesn't have to be the Gatwick Express as the much cheaper Southern Trains service is only a few minutes slower. With a large group you can get Groupsave tickets - 4 for the cost of 2.

But both the train ticket into and back to Gatwick at the same time. Don't put tickets into automatic exit barriers as you can use them to claim the massive savings on daysoutguide.com

Oystercards (and Travelcards) are for travel within London. Each get a 7 day Zone 1-2 (central London) Travelcard on arrival. For once I'd say use the Underground station ticket office as it will ten come on an Oystercard and you can easily add money (PAYG) onto it for travel outside zones 1-2 - eg Hampton Court, Kew Gardens.

As you will be coming into Victoria consider renting in the Victoria area - it's within walking distance of several sights and saves the hassle of organising several people.

Have you ever travelled with this group before, as a group? Do you know each others' habits and interests?

A trip like this could be wonderful or a complete disaster.

Things like one person always waking up and ready to go at six and another wanting to sleep until ten will mess up the schedule.

Are you all in reasonably good health? It will not be fun if you plan a nice walk around and someone gets exhausted after ten minutes. I also remember reading a trip report here on Fodors where someone had planned a trip on the London Eye and some members of the group where too scared of heights to go.

If you are going to share an apartment, how many keys will you get? It could get irritating if the only person with a key was off somewhere when another member of the group needed to go back to the apartment.

If you have never done this sort of group trip before:

1. Decide if you are going on all outings together or if you will separate sometimes. It can get expensive if you book a daytrip or pay entry fees to somehwere and one couple decides not to go.

2. If you are going to restaurants together, decide how to split the cost. Separate checks for each couple will avoid some nasty arguments over who ate what.

Gatwick has train services to London Bridge, and through to the other side of London, which may be more convenient, depending on where your accommodation is. But the basic point is, from Gatwick, take a train.

For transport within London for a week, everybody should get their own 7-day travelcard for zones 1 and 2, which will cover Underground and bus within central London. This can come on an Oystercard if you get it from the Underground station, or you can get one issued on paper from a National Rail station (as it might be, Victoria or London Bridge), whose companies have a 2for1 promotional scheme for people holding their tickets.
www.daysoutguide.co.uk

For theatre, check out Time Out magazine when you arrive, and the official TKTS half-price ticketbooth in Leicester Square:
http://www.officiallondontheatre.co....-tickets/tkts/

YES! Definitely buy return (round trip) train tickets from LGW to whichever station is best for your flat. Find the flat first - then we can tell you which station/train to use.

The savings from the days out vouchers can be massive w/ a week's stay. The savings will totally pay for the cost of the train tix and probably more. By getting return tickets, you will be covered for the Days Out discounts for the entire time you are in London.

Despite some of the bear traps one falls in to when traveling w/ a group (and my trip report about the 'issues' 6 of us had in London and the Cotswolds has sort of become famous/infamous ) Things are not as bleak as anyegr paints them.

"<i>Things like one person always waking up and ready to go at six and another wanting to sleep until ten will mess up the schedule.</i>"

Hopefully you 'schedule' is not so regimented that this poses any sort of problem. Plus it is best that you are all not attached at the hip 24/7. If someone wants/needs to sleep in -- Why the heck not? It is their holiday too. Leave them and go off and do what you want.

Most flats (especially large ones like you will be renting) will have 2 sets of keys. I'm usually asked how many keys I need. Sometimes there is a small deposit for extra keys. You might make a special request of the owner/agent that each couple can have keys. If you can only have 2 sets --then a bit more coordination is in order.

And <B>NO</B> -- in London they generally do NOT do separate checks (back to the trip report to read about separate checks problems )

Workout ahead of the trip how you want to handle things if just splitting checks 6 or 3 ways isn't how you want to go.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...in-england.cfm

theatre tips: If you all want to attend the same shows -- AND sit together, then you'll want to book ahead. Especially for the big hits like Singing in the Rain or Wicked or some others.

If you are less set on all doing the same things at the same times -then you can wait to get tix in London. Either at TKTS in Leicester Square, or from the individual theatre box offices.

Lunch and Dinner suggestions: There are literally thousands of restaurants in London - so where you will eat will mostly depend on where you happen to be at meal times.

Your budget is not all that generous. £500 pp for a week - that is just a bit over £70 a day and you don't get too many plays/dinners/lunches/drinks out of £70. Count on about £35pp for transport for the week.

So definitely take advantage of the flat/kitchen and have some meals in.

And most any day trip out of town by ANY of the tour companies will cost more then £70 just for basically the bus ride. Look to see if London Walks has any out of town tours on your dates. That will save you £££. walks.com

Thanks for the excellent and detailed advice. It will be factored into our plans.

Is it reasonable to plan one day each at Bath and Dover via the train?

We are close friends and recently traveled 8 days to Central America together and had a wonderful time, but we did have seperate hotel rooms.

While we will do some high points together (theatre, day trips etc.), we have discussed each couple needing alone time on the town. Staying in the same flat with anyone has it's downside risks and 24/7 togetherness seems to be at minimum a recipe for tensions.

Some here at Fodor's say plan a trips cost then add a multiplier for reality. Looks like we may need to increase the daily budget a bit.

Thanks again!

Dover, are you going for the tunnels or..?
Bath good choice, one day very possible take a train look at www.nationalrail.co.uk to understand the system though you can buy from a franchise or website (all explained at the last site or www.seat61.co.uk). Book early to get the best prices.


Anywhere else you want to go to?

Both Dover and Baths are definitely worth a day each - and very easy to do by train. But that is also a lot of time taken from London.

Maybe some of you will want to spend more time in the city and some take the day trip(s).

Bath is easy --but you'll want to book train tix in advance since walk up fares can be double.

For Dover - generally a bit cheaper than to Bath - <u>take a taxi</u> from the station up to the castle. It is a nasty slog of a walk. The castle will take 1/2 a day at minimum. Not much else in Dover, but nearby Walmer and Deal castles are very interesting and VERY different.

That should be >>Dover and Bath . . .<<

Does your 1 week include travel days? Do you actually have 7 WHOLE days or more like 5.5? It does make a difference.

One or at most 2 day trips will be plenty--maybe even just one or as janisj suggests not everybody on all.

Dover castle is absolutely spectacular--and yes, it's quite a slog of a walk. Our days in Dover also(2 different years) included a walk along the White Cliffs. "People" say the best way to see the Cliffs is from the Channel on board a boat; well, may be, but walking along them on the (two different ones, actually)lovely days was definitely a highlight of the trips. You can see them nicely. If you care to read any Trip Reports, and if you want to read how we saw Dover, here are two links.
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-day-trips.cfm Dover is Day 7

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-and-wales.cfm Dover is day 13

Bath is wonderful. My FAVORITE day trip is Oxford. (Oxford figures in both trip reports mentioned above.)

BUT you could spend the whole time in London.

You might want to get a list of "what to do in London" stuff (like the one in the front of Rick Steves London book "what to do if you only have one day in London") and then have the group rate the sites. Make a group plan. Then plan some free-time when you can each go off and do the things you liked but the others didn't.

London has a LOT to offer and a LOT of choices to please everyone. You mike be dying to see the Elgin Marbles at the British Museum and someone else might be set on a shopping trip to Harrods. Make sure you each get to have the experience you are looking for.

We have 7 full days on the ground in UK (direct flight) arr 10:30 am Monday dep 11:25 am the following Monday.

Dover and Bath were just suggestions since we really have no clue what day trips would be best for us. Oxford or Cotswolds may be preferred. Any other suggestions are welcome. I prefer a "countryside" sort of day trip.

Would an organized day trip like this be a smart move? http://www.londontoolkit.com/tours/p..._stratford.htm

We will take your good advice and discuss up-front who wants to see what and split-up when needed.

Texasbookworm, loved the trip reports!
Thanks to each of you for for the taking the time help make our trip a success.

I may not have been clear, our group consists of 3 couples.

Best day trip from London IMHO is .... Paris. Take the early chunnel train to Paris, spend the day than take a late teain back to sleep in the same bed. Bon voyage.