Planning my first trip to London First day arrive make my way to hotel with kids in tow Arrive at 1 or so in afternoon Stay awake Im told Take a walk to Harrods maybe do either the Science or History Museum which is near hotel Eat then go to bed early. Day 2 Get up early take the hop on hop off bus See changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace Cabinet War rooms Westminster Abbey Maybe do the tour of Houses of Parliament.late afternoon Day 3 Up early to Tower See Crown Jewels then take tourof Tower. Tower Bridge, See St Pauls and then take a boat down to Westminster Pier London Eye and Aquarium Day 4 Boat to Greenwich Pm do the British Museum then go back to Tower at night for the Ceremony of the Keys which i got tickets for.Day 5 Globe Exhibition tour lunch in the cafe and Midsummer's Nights Dream play at the Globe. Day 6 Mon. Windsor and Lego land Day 7 Tues Wax Museum Maybe do Hampton Court Palace Day 8 Tour to Stonehenge and Bath Day 9 Victoria and Albert museum early and home Does it seem a bit rushed? Would also like to fit in the Portrait Gallery

Monica, two little tips:<BR><BR>1. I read the first two lines of your message and gave it up due to the lack of punctuation, which is a big turn off. I suppose if I had been willing to tough it out, I would have then objected to the lack of paragraphs also. If you want to be taken seriously, please make your messages user-friendly.<BR><BR>2. If you had titled your message something like "First trip to London" more readers might open it. "How did i do?" is totally nondescriptive and inane.<BR><BR>Welcome to Fodors.<BR><BR>

It sounds very very full, but probably do-able. One thing I noticed is that all your out-of-town day trips are at the end of the trip and you might want to spread them around more (Windsor, Hampton Court, Bath). <BR><BR>The only day that really has too much is day 3; I don't think you can see the Tower (which opens at 10 AM), Tower bridge, St. Pauls, AND take a boat to see the London Eye and the Aquarium. Personally, I would skip the Bridge.<BR><BR>The boats on the Thames are lovely, but personally I think one would be enough, especially as they eat up time that you seem to want to spend on other activities.<BR><BR>Other activities that my family chose not to bother with, that I'd recommend you give a low priority to if the schedule turns out to be just too much, are Madame Tussaud's and the Changing of the Guard. For the latter, you musts be either very early or very tall, and as one person has said, it's just two guys getting off work. If your kids are young enough to enjoy Legoland, they're young enough to get seroiusly bored waiting for the Changing.<BR><BR>The British Museum and the V&A are each large enough to occupy several days all by themselves, so plan ahead what you want to see.<BR><BR>Some of the attractions (Brit Museum, Aquarium, etc.) are open some evenings, so you could use that accessibility to spread out your activities through the day, with a rest break or two. (Caution: on the evenings that the Brit is open, some floors are closed.)

Monica,<BR><BR>Do you talk like this too? Didn't you learn how to write in school? Ever heard of punctuation or sentences or paragraphs? I'm amazed you even got one response - this is unreadable. Have those kids of yours post for you - presumably they're learning to write properly in school now.<BR>

Folks, please give Monica a break, at least about her formatting. I've found that some types of punctuation, special characters, etc. just disappear when I'm posting. There's a good chance that each of her "Day" entries was supposed to start on a new line, or have tabs, or something. But I agree, the header is unforgivable.

Aha! Just as a test, I put a LOT of spaces between my sentences when writing the previous post, and they all disappeared in the posting. So I believe that Monica thought she had more formatting in there than it looks.

Formatting, maybe. But Monica has never heard of the period or apostrophe, which makes my eyes glaze over. There's more going on here than formatting problems. Monica's got ADD or something.

Monica, one quick tip on the Tower of London: you don't need to take the tour. You can get through the tower much more efficiently without it. As for all that good information? Well, you can eavesdrop on the groups in any of the areas you care to learn more about and then pass on others while the groups are left lumbering along behind you somewhere. Happy Contrails!

My God. Now people will only get a civil answer if they punctuate and paragraph according to the grammar police. I've resisted responding to the inane comments and questions on this board, believing that there are enough helpful people out there to make the idiots bearable. But I think the silent majority are losing the battle. When a first timer can't even get a helpful suggestion about her trip but has to endure immature tirades about her punctuation, it's time to go somewhere else. <BR><BR>Monica, I hope you have a great time. Don't less the cowards who won't even post their real names get to you. I've simply been reading their crap for too long. I've had enough.

First for Jen and Monica - you get ¶ by hitting return twice, not by adding extra spaces.<BR><BR>like that<BR><BR>now for the itinerary: You will probably get to most of the places you are planning but I have a few minor suggestions.<BR><BR>I agree that one boat trip is all you'll need - so pick one.<BR><BR>Dont do Harrods or the museums on your first day. Harrods is indoors (ofcourse) and very crowded and warm and the museums are too tiring for the first day. Swithc the hop-on/off bus tour to the first day. it will keep you outdoors, is not too strenuous and you'll get a good overview.<BR><BR>If you want to do Hampton Court Palace and Madame Tussauds on the same day - not a great idea, but doable. Take the train to HCP in the morning and then get back to London by 3PM at the latest.<BR><BR>I also agree that you should reorganize so you are not traveling out of the city 4 days in a row. Scatter your day trips throughout the 9 days.<BR>

I completely disagree with the advice to skip the guided tour at the Tower of London. The Beefeaters are a very special group of guys and their tours are always very entertaining and informative. They usually take only 30 to 45 minutes, then you can go back to the places that sounded most interesting. I guess it depends on whether you want to "get through the Tower much more efficiently" or actually enjoy it and learn something.

I too think that the Beefeaters' tour of the Tower is excellent.<BR>I'd get there early, just at opening time, and see the Crown Jewels first,if you want to, before that gets so crowded. Find out when the next Beefeaters's tour is, and return to near the entrance to join it. <BR><BR>The "Tower Bridge Experience" didn't do much for me, or for my nephews when we went with them (they were approx 11 and 8.) The walk across the bridge itself was neat, but the presentation we thought was dull and took too long.<BR>The same kids did enjoy the tour of the Tower however. <BR><BR>If you can, bring a flashlight to the Ceremony of the Keys.