Here we go again: itinerary
 

We will be in London for the first time from June 10-17. What do you think of this 7 day plan? Problems? <BR> <BR>Day 1 (Wed): Arrive Heathrow at 7AM and then river trip to Greenwich. Thames Pub Walk that night<BR>Day 2 (Thurs): British Museum, hop on hop off bus tour, Westminster Abbey (evensong), Theater<BR>Day 3 (Fri): Tower of london; Tate Modern, St Paul's Cathedral (evensong)<BR>Theater<BR>Day 4 (Sat) Old Westminster Walk, Astral Travels to Stonehenge (inner circle tour)<BR>Day 5 (Sun) Bayswater Rd for artists' fair, speakers corner (brief) Victoria and Albert, parks<BR>Day 6 (Mon) National gallery, Trafalgar Sq<BR>St Martins-in-field, South Bank walk, Vinopolis, ceremony of the keys<BR>Day 7 (Tues) Hampton Court and Kew Gardens, London Eye if nice<BR>Day 8 (Wed) British Library (plane leaves at 4:45 PM<BR><BR>Thanks for the help, we are looking to add on a day if this seems too much day by day or even taking a day trip toCanterbury.<BR>

You have an ambitious itinerary planned, but you will, no doubt, have to pare it down once you arrive.<BR><BR>The whole idea of staying up late on the night you arrive, will go by the boards. You will be exhausted.<BR><BR>You are doing way too many things on each day. Please remember, seeing London is not an assault on the sites to see who can check off the most.<BR><BR>I regard Hampton Court by itself is enough for one day. Leave some time for eating meals and seeing some shows at night.<BR><BR>By the way, I often put way too much in my itinerary and then totally redo it upon arrival.

Have not been to London in awhile but, just on first day travel to Europe (anywhere), you might be a little pushing it. <BR>Depending on where you are flying in from, you will have been up a long time. Find out how late the Pub walk goes, if it is past 9pm you may want to reconsider. It is good to stay up the first day you get there, but how much you will enjoy things past 9pm may be questionable if you are not able (like many of us) to sleep well on the plane.<BR>Just a thought, sorry I cannot help with the other details.

I agree with Lauren that it's a hefty agenda but you'll figure that out once you're there. The first day is a tough one with jet lag. You'll be pretty loopy by late afternoon. If it's fair day, consider skipping the Greenwich trip and instead wander around Kew Gardens. Nothing too taxing, just keep moving. I seem to recall there's a wonderful pastry shop across the street from Kew Gardens<BR><BR>Our family's approach to visiting London is to identify the &quot;must see&quot; places and make sure they get scheduled for a time when we're fresh and unhurried. Everything else is loosely scheduled but no one gets bent out of shape if a place gets dropped because something else took too long, someone is tired or some wonderful piece of serendipity came along.<BR><BR>A perfect example of this occurred last summer when I announced the British Museum followed our Westminster Abbey tour. Our 11 year old dropped to her knees and begged &quot;Sweet Jesus please no more museums!&quot; We ended up having a picnic in St James Park and it remains one of our favorite memories of that trip.

Thanks for the responses; you brought me back to reality. I am now planning one main site a day and from there have a loose plan for the day and evening.

MarleneSusan: Lots of problems - as the others have said. Most days are pretty frantic. Especially day 1 - the boat trip to Greenwich, a long hike up to the observatory, a tour of the other bldgs, a walk around Greenwich and you will be totally exhausted. To attempt a pub crawl after that is just pushing it too much. I'd move both Greenwich and the pub walk to different days.<BR><BR>** As I was writing this I notice you added your post - so I'll quit piling on :-) <BR><BR>You really don't need to limit yourself to one thing a day - but don't schedule &quot;biggies&quot; on the same day. The tube is terrific but getting around takes a lot longer than you might think.

We are adding another day, but we want to visit all the sites I mentioned at first. What would I put on the first day, and then when to reschedule Greenwich for later. Can you help me here, Janis or anyone. Thanks.

Well - remember all the best laid plans . . . <BR><BR>But a general itinerary covering the things you listed might look like this:<BR><BR>Day 1 Arrive LHR and leave bags at hotel. Don't count on being out and about until 11 AM or noon. Hop-on-hop-off bus tour, Westminster Abbey including evensong<BR> <BR>Day 2 River trip to Greenwich (but not if it is a stormy day). St Paul's evensong<BR><BR>Day 3 Tower of london, British Museum, Thames Pub Walk <BR><BR>Day 4 Old Westminster Walk and/or Kew Gardens, (If the weather is nice go to Kew - otherwise hit the National Gallery, V&amp;A, Harrods or anything you've missed) theatre<BR><BR>Day 5 Bayswater Rd, speakers corner, Victoria and Albert, theatre - only a few theatres have shows on Sundays - but Complete Works of William Shakespeare abridged and Lion King are two that do.<BR><BR>Day 6 Hampton Court, ceremony of the keys<BR> <BR>Day 7 Stonehenge trip<BR><BR>Day 8 London Eye, Tate Modern, South Bank walk, (I'd skip Vinopolis but you could squeeze it in here, theatre<BR><BR>Day 9 British Library, go to LHR<BR> <BR>I'm not sure which end you added the day so the Sunday may not be day 4 - just flip the days so Hyde Park/Speakers Corner fall on Sunday.<BR>

oops - in the last paragraph I meant day 5 = Sunday. But you get the idea.

Thanks, Janis, I'll be redoing the itineray with your ideas in mind.

Really ambitious BUT you left out Shakespeare Globe Thatre. Don't even have to see a play for lack of time but a conducted tour is quite memorable.

topping so folks don't keep respondong to the other thread (this one had a lot of replies while the other duplicate one laid dormant for 2 days)<BR><BR>There has been a lot of give and take and MarleneSusan has modified some of her ideas.<BR><BR>