fuchsiapower

It will be our first time in London so can anyone please help us with our London itinerary? We are staying at City Inn Westminster and have 2 full days (Monday and Tuesday) on the third week of October to go sightseeing. We want to go to westminster abbey, big ben, london eye, st. paul's cathedral, British museum, Buckingham palace (changing of the guards), Tower of London, Tate Modern and Notting Hill. Where do we go first? How long should we allot for each location? Where can we eat? Did we leave out anything important in our itinerary? Thanks

Michel_Paris

Well, the first thing will be to place a value on the changing of the Guard. To really see it, you need to get there early, find a good spot to stand. So a good part of one morning will be taken up with this.

With two days, you are going to have to scrunch.

Tower should be done first thing in morning. After that, St Paul's, then maybe off to...British Museum.

Next day, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Sq, Westminster (guided tour?), Big Ben...Tate Modern? Dinner in Notting Hill area?

jent103

If you are dedicated to the Changing of the Guard at the palace, you should know that in order to get there early enough to see anything, you will be spending pretty much a whole morning there. So, with one morning at that and one morning/early afternoon at the Tower, that only leaves two afternoons/evenings for everything else. To <b>me</b>, it is not worth it.

Hopefully you have a good map; if so, you know that Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye are all very close to each other. St Paul's and the Tate Modern are nearer the Tower. The British Museum and Notting Hill are not in the immediate vicinity of anything else, but the British Museum is easy and quick to get to.

Without knowing your biggest priorities and interests, here's what I'd do: Forget the Changing of the Guard (you can see beefeaters at the Tower) and maybe Notting Hill. (Is all you want to see the blue door? That area is in central London, but relatively far from anything else you want to do. Michel's suggestion of dinner there would be good if you really want to see the area.)

Day 1:
Westminster Abbey (see Big Ben while you're there)
British Museum
London Eye (probably 30-45 minutes)
Walk by Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square areas if you like

The Abbey and museum close earliest, so that's why they're first. The Eye is open through the evening, and of course walking by things can be done whenever. I really enjoy London at night.

Day 2:
Tower
St Paul's
Tate Modern, *if* you have time (I wouldn't have time, but modern art's not my thing anyway - if it is yours, I'd skip something else)
Walk around Notting Hill/Covent Garden/wherever that evening.

Just one way to do it. How long you want to spend at each place depends completely on you - if you're history buffs you'll be at the Tower all day. Me, I'm done in 2-3 hours.

You can eat anywhere you like. There are restaurants, cafes, sandwich shops everywhere. If you want fine dining, there are lots of threads here with suggestions.

gh21

London Eye is a 30 minute ride in itself plus any wait time. I think you can but a ticket in the AM to ride at a specified time in the evening. You can buy the tickets in AM while doing Westminster and return later in the evening pre or post dinner for a lovely view of London at night. We ate at Oxo tower ( excellent food and views) and walked to London Eye after dinner.

fuchsiapower

@gh21: I like your suggestion of buying London Eye tickets in AM for evening ride. My cousin also suggested Oxo tower so i'll include it in my "must do" list.

@Michel_Paris: I don't think we have the luxury of time to allocate one morning for changing of the guards. We'll probably try to be in the area around 11am and pray we at least get a glimpse of something Dinner at Notting Hill area does sound like a good idea, we might actually go for it

@jent103: You are heavensent!!! Thank you for your inputs. I'll use your suggested itinerary as my working itinerary...i'll probably just tweak the first day's order of activities.

Thanks everyone!!! I really appreciate it

nytraveler

With only 2 days I would bag the Changing of the Guard since it will take the best part of the morning. If you want to walk by the Palace while you're in the general area you can get a photo with the guards - but I don;t think it;s worth 3 hours versus what else you could be doing (Tower of London, Westminster Abbey).

Find out the opening hours of things on the days that you're there and move whatever is possible into evening hours to make the most of the very limited time you have.

I can;t begin to make recos on what to see/do - since I don;t know your specific interests - but can tell you I've been to London 16 times (some as long as a week) and still have a bunch of things I want to see/do.