please send me any info on london first time traveler.

Wow, where to start! First of all, you will have a good time! The people over there are quite friendly and the crime rate is low...Before you go, consider getting a pass for the Tube/subway. They must be bought over here, via the British tourist office. A 3/5 day pass is really worth it. They will give you a voucher that you exchange for a dated pass at Heathrow/ Victoria Station/Euston Station,etc...The tube will take you from Heathrow into central london, or if you prefer there are British Airways buses that stop at several central london locations (hotels,etc...)Have some british pounds in case you arrive late...Hotels/B&B: I have done both. I reserved a hotel through a British airways package deal. You will find that rooms are not cheap. I have also gone the B&B route, staying in the Bloomsbury area of london. This is blocks from the British Museum, and a fairly close wal k to "downtown". I paid roughly 45-50 pounds for a single....What to see? I recommend to start with an open double decker tour. This will allow you to see where the major sites are and plan your days! I know that you can catch one from Marble Arch amongst other places. At some point you will probably want to go on a walking tour. There are two or three companies that offer these: like "Sherlock Holmes'London" or "Ancient Pubs of London", that sort of thing. They cost around 5 pounds, usually last ~2hrs, the guides are usually quite talkative, and they leave from tube stations. The best thing you can do is buy the weekly magazine "Time Out" It lists everything that's going on around London. They also have a pretty good travel book...Also buy a good guide like Fodor. Also, be wrned that there are probably no straight roads in London! It is easy to loose sense of direction. I recommend the "ABC Map of London"...worth its wait in gold....TO see a play, you can either go to the box office, or the half price ticket booth in Leicester Square (but they won't have every play)...things to see: Covent Garden (nice shops/restaurants, street performers)Tower of London( get there early! The Beefeaters offer tours, there will probably be line upsfor the Crown Jewels, the tower in the middle has quite a collection of armour..)Regents Park is a nice park, near Holmes' "house", and they have summernight plays here. Madame Tussauds is famous, very busy, and not too bad if you like that sort of thing.

Tragalgar Square (central point of london): around the square you have the church St Martin in the Fields with Summertime classical concerts in the summer and a good restaurant in the basement along with brass rubbings, the National Gallery is also there. From this point you can walk down to Parliament Square to see Big Ben, the Parliament Bldgs, Westminster Abbey, the Jewel Tower, etc. Or if you go theother direction, you can walk up the Pall Mall, via St James Park, to St James Palace (home of Queen Mum) and of course Buckingham Palace. Changing of the guard is not daily (I think) anymore. It is ok. If you go, go early and stand at the monument in the centre. You can form here go on a tour of the palace, or off to Kensington Palace (Lady Di's old home). Good museums: British, Victoria and Albert, Tate. Good shopping: Oxford Street, Convent Gardenand area, Harrods(a must see), Bond Street (upscale). Try also the Portebello Market for all sorts of odds and ends/antiques. Food: pubs are a neat/cheap/filling place to have lunch. Most pubs have a "meat and potatoes" kind of menu. And the beer is good too! Covent Garden area has many restaurants, it being close to the theatre district.
Hopefully this helps. I will think of what else I can tell you. Have you booked accomodations? I can offer some B&B info ....Cheers!

I have a wealth of information I can send you via Email. (Don't want to take up space here; it's probably double the size of Mike's useful information. A few questions though: when are you going? For how many days? Are you traveling alone? Are you looking for budget accommodations?

Vanessa,

Where to begin? The more I think about it, the more I feel, first of all, you should re-post your message on the Fodor Forum. Indicate when you are going to London, for how long and what your interests are and what kind of information you are looking for. Are you on a tight budget and looking for bed and breakfasts or youth hostels or do you have more money than God has angels and looking for a palatial suite in a luxury hotel? Are you nineteen years old or ninety? Would you prefer afternoon tea or the action in a lively pub? Are you interested in art, theater, history? Are you traveling alone or with family? In the mean time, check out some of the other postings for London and Englandand their responses. You'll pick up a lot of info there. Email me and I can provide you with a load of info.

Vanessa and Wes,
A minor correction: best map book: "London A to Z", availabel at newstands and bookstores. Wes, I would also be interested in any e-mail commments you may have. I have been to London 4-5 times, but I don't pretend to be an expert yet....
Cheerio!

Vanessa,

Where to begin? I think, first of all, you should re-post your message on the Fodor Forum. Indicate when you are going to London, for how long and what your interests are and what kind of information you are looking for. Are you on a tight budget and looking for bed and breakfasts or youth hostels or do you have more money than God has angels and looking for a palatial suite in a luxury hotel? Are you nineteen years old or ninety? Would you prefer afternoon tea or the action in a lively pub? Are you interested in art, theater, history? Are you traveling alone or with family? This information will allow a lot of forum users to give you meaningful, relevant advice. In the mean time, check out some of the other postings for London and Englandand their responses. You'll pick up a lot of info there. Email me and I can provide you with a load of info.

I just returned from Scotland and London, and I have a couple of recommendations. We stayed in the Bloomsbury area, on Cartwright Gardens, at the Crescent Hotel. It was a wonderful location (easy to find, which is important!), spotlessly clean, with a couple of pubs and restaurants around the corner. Using the Russell Square station, walk straight out, up the street (6 blocks??) and you'll come to the crescent. Just turn left around the corner. There are other hotels in the crescent, too. We found it and others through infotel.co.uk, a free hotel booking service. Give it a try.
Next: Take some walking tours. This was my third trip to London, but my first opportunity to take the tours. Jack the Ripper and the Shakespeare & Dickens London was really interesting. They're only 4 pounds each,last a couple of hours, and you see places you probably wouldn't on your own. Also, go to your bank before you leave, change enough currency to get you through a few days, so that you don't have to worry about changing money right away(although it's easy to do). And purchase tube passes for whatever period you'll be there. They're worth it for the convenience, alone (and remember to keep your tickets handy to put through the machine again as you leave the station!) E-mail me for more info. Have a great trip!

Vanessa--One strong recc--do not buy your tube pass in the states from the BTA. What they sell you for big bucks here can be purchased at a much lower price there. They offer a tube pass for all seven zones the tube covers when you will rarely go outside of Zone one to see most of what you want to see.If you are going to get a seven day tube pass, you need to take a passport sized photo. Take a snapshot and cut out a head and shoulders 2 x 2 sized picture. After you are acclimated (over your jet lag) go to any major tube stop and present your picture and get a one or two zone pass. Very simple and very easy. You only need a photo if you are getting a weekly or longer pass. If you are getting just a 3 or 5 day pass, no photo needed. Hope this helps. CS

wes fowler,
-please do post such good info on this site! (isn't that the purpose, to share the info. with the rest of us?) I'm going alone to London (for the first time) June 1. - 7., and are looking for budget accomodation and fun neighborhoods.

I'd like to also agree with Colleen...I also stayed at the Crescent, and can highly recommend it and its neighbour, the Harlingford. They, along with several others, are on a low traffic street. This is a neighbourhood with many B&Bs, and also hotels such as the Royal National (large, basic accomodations), and the Russell Hotel (better), St Giles (via a British Airways package, large, modern, noisier, in a busier area,near Oxford st) For convenience, there is a shopping mall close to the B&B that has the basics: pharmacy, laundramat,etc... The Airport bus stops/picks up beside the Royal National hotel.
Russell Square tube is only 3 blocks away, Euston Station tube about 3 blocks also. Couple of pubs, restaurants between tube and B&B, and many more on Southampton Row...Hope this helps

I'd like to also agree with Colleen...I also stayed at the Crescent, and can highly recommend it and its neighbour, the Harlingford. They, along with several others, are on a low traffic street. This is a neighbourhood with many B&Bs, and also hotels such as the Royal National (large, basic accomodations), and the Russell Hotel (better), St Giles (via a British Airways package, large, modern, noisier, in a busier area,near Oxford st) For convenience, there is a shopping mall close to the B&B that has the basics: pharmacy, laundramat,etc... The Airport bus stops/picks up beside the Royal National hotel.
Russell Square tube is only 3 blocks away, Euston Station tube about 3 blocks also. Couple of pubs, restaurants between tube and B&B, and many more on Southampton Row...Hope this helps

I'd like to also agree with Colleen...I also stayed at the Crescent, and can highly recommend it and its neighbour, the Harlingford. They, along with several others, are on a low traffic street. This is a neighbourhood with many B&Bs, and also hotels such as the Royal National (large, basic accomodations), and the Russell Hotel (better), St Giles (via a British Airways package, large, modern, noisier, in a busier area,near Oxford st) For convenience, there is a shopping mall close to the B&B that has the basics: pharmacy, laundramat,etc... The Airport bus stops/picks up beside the Royal National hotel.
Russell Square tube is only 3 blocks away, Euston Station tube about 3 blocks also. Couple of pubs, restaurants between tube and B&B, and many more on Southampton Row...
In regards to subway passes, I stand corrected. Whne you arrive at the Russell Square tube, there is a big panel on the wall. On it you cn select what tube station you want to go to, and it will sell you a ticket for there. However, there is also a choice for a day/three day/5 day...zone/multi-zone (Central London is one zone so it works out well) tickets. As someone mentioned, you use the ticket on the way into the tube, and on the way out. Someone please correct if I am wrong...Hope this helps

I'd like to also agree with Colleen...I also stayed at the Crescent, and can highly recommend it and its neighbour, the Harlingford. They, along with several others, are on a low traffic street. This is a neighbourhood with many B&Bs, and also hotels such as the Royal National (large, basic accomodations), and the Russell Hotel (better), St Giles (via a British Airways package, large, modern, noisier, in a busier area,near Oxford st) For convenience, there is a shopping mall close to the B&B that has the basics: pharmacy, laundramat,etc... The Airport bus stops/picks up beside the Royal National hotel.
Russell Square tube is only 3 blocks away, Euston Station tube about 3 blocks also. Couple of pubs, restaurants between tube and B&B, and many more on Southampton Row...
In regards to subway passes, I stand corrected. Whne you arrive at the Russell Square tube, there is a big panel on the wall. On it you cn select what tube station you want to go to, and it will sell you a ticket for there. However, there is also a choice for a day/three day/5 day...zone/multi-zone (Central London is one zone so it works out well) tickets. As someone mentioned, you use the ticket on the way into the tube, and on the way out. Someone please correct if I am wrong...Hope this helps

I guess I made my point...oops..sorry

Lots of advice - a few things I'd add. When we took Jack the Ripper walk they don't take you back to start point so there we were in middle of London, late at night, with a few pints in us from the pubs we stopped in along the way. Was kind of scary (and not in a way I think they intended.) Would also recommend Cabinet War Rooms, where Churchchill ran WWII from. Loved the Impressionist paintings at the Courtauld Institute and spent a whole day at the National Portrait Gallery, their gift shop is great, too. Really enjoyed Miss Saigon.

For all the info you will ever need about the London transit system, go to www.londontransport.co.uk. You can compare the prices of all the different types of passes, see what's in what zone, and find out a whole lot more fascinating stuff. I have looked into the Visitor Travelpass, which must be bought in the states before departure, and though some things I have read say it is associated with some discounts on various attractions, when I went to the travel agent and asked about it, she said there are no discounts associated with it. It is more expensive that a 7-day Zone 1&2 pass purchased there. You do need a passport-sized photo to get the 7-day pass in London, but I recommend when you get your passport picture taken, you get two extras done, one for your travelpass, and one to have in case you lose your passport.

Need information on visiting Eurospace Center Belgium.
Any information will be apreciated

<BR>My main piece of advice is: take your time and savor the moment. Too many first time Londoners get in a hurry and miss the boat! Also, get a book and read about the London neighborhoods, some can be better than others, especially at night. If you are minding your money, it will pay off big time by investing in a couple of books, "Cheap Eats in London" (eating in London without forethought can burn a hole in your pocket quickly, also "Cheap sleeps in London" have some of the better hotels for much better prices. A must is to get the "London from A to Z" you will definitely get lost at least once a day, and this has saved me many a mile and headache. Hope you have a lovely time, I go at least twice a year and am planning on going back the end of July. Cheers!