Thanks to so many of you who have helped me plan our England trip, which is coming up in less than two weeks! I've got our itinerary mostly done, and would appreciate any thoughts before I start buying tickets for those sites / museums that require them. Our group will be myself, my husband, and our three young adult kids (ages 25, 21 and 20). I'm still working on restaurant ideas, and have read the thread on that as well as some suggestions made my prior post, but am open to additional suggestions on that too!

Day 1 - arrive LHR at 8:40 am
- Take TFL line to Paddington Station and leave bags at Left Luggage, or take car service to Airbnb flat in Bayswater area to leave luggage (owner will let us know week of if they have no booking the night before so we can leave bags there)
- Pub lunch
- London Eye
- Thames River Cruise
- Trip to grocery store and check into flat
- Dinner (probably just take out or something casual near Airbnb flat in Bayswater)

Day 2
- Early morning walk through Hyde Park and see (from outside) Kensington Palace and Diana Memorial Gardens
- 9:30 - English breakfast near Buckingham Palace
- 10:30 – 11:30 - Buckingham Palace for changing of the guard
- 12:30 - Lunch and drinks near London Stadium
- Soccer (football) match – 4:30 pm – West Ham vs. Manchester City at London Stadium
- Dinner

Day 3
- 9-10:30 am - Tower of London
- 10:45 am – 12 - St. Paul’s Cathedral
- Lunch
- 1:30 – 4:30 pm - Imperial War Museum OR London Rock and Roll History Tour
- Dinner

Day 4
- 9:30 – 11:15 Westminster Abbey
- 11:30 – 1 - Churchill War Rooms
- Lunch
- 2-5 - British Museum
- Dinner (somewhere near British Museum / theatre)
- 7:30 pm – theatre

Day 5
- Check out of flat and store bags at Paddington Station
- 9:30 - 11:30 am - Victoria and Albert Museum OR Imperial War Museum (if we do the music tour on Monday)
- Borough Market – Lunch and explore
- Mid- afternoon Train to Moreton in Marsh or Knighton, then taxi to cottage in Stow on the Wold

Day 6
- Day to rest and explore Stow on the Wold – shopping, day hikes/walks

Day 7
- 10 am - 6 pm - Private tour of the Cotswolds
- Drop off in Oxford Airbnb
- Dinner

Day 8
- Spend day in and around Oxford

Day 9
- Travel to LHR from Oxford (either by bus or book private care)
- Fly home

2 things I would not do on day one would be London Eye and a Thames cruise. I find day one in Europe from North America I want to keep moving. By all means, stop for a coffee or a pint but sitting on a boat is a sure way for jet lag to catch up with you and you'll find yourself asleep. YMMV

Thanks for this thought. I guess I was thinking we'll be so tired we won't want to do anything strenuous, but I see your point that the less active items may just add to our sleepiness. I'll have to think that through.

A few red flags

Day 2 is really tough. Just doesn't work very well. The Guard change is at 11AM and on a Sunday you'd have to be AT the Palace by close to 9:30AM to get a decent viewpoint. It will seem few people are there but the crowds grow quickly and then you're out of luck. The guard change lasts close to an hour and then it is a mob scene to get out to pubic transport. The game is out at Olympic Park in far east London. From the Palace the walk to Green Park stn, tube ride and walk to the stadium will take close to an hour.

Day 3 is near on impossible. There is no way one can do the Tower and St Paul's before lunch. First of all -- on that Monday the Tower doesn't open until 10AM. The Tower would take at least 2 full hours by itself. Most people plan on an entire morning there, a lunch break and then often more time. Most people I've taken to the Tower (and there have been a LOT) have spent until at least 1PM just in the Tower - not even counting Tower Bridge.

Day 4 would be a really really tiring day - three very major, vastly interesting, time consuming sites and then 2+ hours in the theatre straight through without a break except fo a quick lunch and dinner.

Day 5 has you trekking from the flat to Paddington to the V&A to Borough Mkt and back to Paddington - basically from one side of the city to the other twice all before catching a mid afternoon train.

I suggest you try not to over schedule, and group sites that are relatively near each other.

Thank you, janisj. You've be so helpful throughout this process, and I really appreciate your input. I'll go back to the drawing board and try to pare down our London activities. It's hard to give up any of the items on the itinerary as these are all things we'd like to do, but it sounds like we'll just have to save a couple of items for a future trip.

On Day 2, the soccer game is the highlight of the trip for the kids, and we've already bought the tickets, so that part of the itinerary is non-negotiable. We'll either rethink going to the changing of the guard, or just skip the breakfast and plan to get to Buckingham Palace a bit earlier. I'm also not sure we'll want to stand around at Buckingham Palace for an hour and a half before the changing of the guard, plus another hour to actually watch it (especially since two of our five have seen it before). Perhaps we can go to breakfast, get a good look at Buckingham Palace, then be on our way without watching the actual guard change. In any case, we'll plan for a late lunch near the stadium to allow for time to get from Buckingham Palace (probably Green Station to Stratford on the Jubilee line from what I can see).
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On Days 3 and 4, it sounds like I need to eliminate one site on each of those days. I guess I'd probably take out St. Paul's on Day 3 and Churchill War Rooms on Day 4. I think we can play Day 5 by ear a bit, and see how we're doing after the first several days and what we would most like to see or do that we haven't done yet. So much to see and so little time! I wish now we had done an additional day (or two) in London, and left off Oxford, but we've booked places to stay already so there's no changing that.

Just very quick -- I would forget about Buckingham Palace Sunday all together. You will be near the Palace / St James's Park when you are at Westminster Abbey and/or the War Rooms. so you can walk there on Tuesday.

I'd re-think Sunday completely . . . do the Tower of London first and then go straight to the Stadium. From Tower Hill to Stratford station takes little more than 15 minutes. This is an easy 'two fer' with plenty of time for the Tower, a late lunch, and the match.

That's an interesting thought. It looks like the Tower doesn't open until 10 am on Sunday, so we would need to decide how late we'd be willing to eat lunch. It we did lunch at 1 pm, then we'd have from 10-12:30 or so at the Tower. It sounds like some may enjoy having more time than that for the Tower, but I'm guessing 2.5 hours would be enough for my group.

Look at it this way - 2.5 hours is about 2 hours more than would have been possible with your original plan trying to do both the Tower and St Paul's before noon

first day do not sit down, so maybe a river walk or a canal walk outside in the sun, sitting isn't just for wimps it tells you body "time to sleep",

A first day walk could be through Hyde Park to Kensington Palace.

First day I would recast like this. Use car service or tube direct to Bayswater. If can't drop off bags at apartment find an even closer location through nannybags.com or similar. The pub and walk that day (and do keep walking, exercise and fresh air is best antidote for jet lag) stick to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

Second day I would walk by Big Ben, etc. to Horseguards (as alternative to palace changing of guards), walk through park behind Horseguards see palace

Third day would limit morning to Tower of London and skip St Pauls. Afternoon would be a good time to walk South Bank from there (past London Eye and even take the river cruise then as you may be ready for a sit down.

Fourth day consider one of London Walks Westminster Abbey tours. A tour gives a lot of good insight there.

Whatever day if you have to choose between Imperial War Museum and Churchill War Rooms, pick CWR. CWR is fantastic. And it is unique. And IWM is a bit out of the way of your other sightseeing.

Whatever day for V&A or British Museum they are free so you can just drop in and see a few things and leave if you want. At least pre-covid both V&A and BM offered free hourly docented tours on various topics and they were always wonderful. Also if you visit BM check what special exhibits are on that might interest you at the British Library as that is nearby. And if you visit V&A the Natural History Museum is also right there.

I personally wouldn't spend any time on day two anywhere near Horseguards/Westminster/the Palace etc because they will want to be in Stratford for the Match at least 1.5 hours before the match to absorb the atmosphere, eat, shop for gear/game souvenirs etc.

With the flat being in Bayswater the tube will be a schelpp from LHR so either a train to Paddington or, better IMO, a car service would be preferable.

I do agree that I'd prioritize the War Rooms over the IWM -- not because the War Museum isn't a terrific site, but because it is not as convenient as the War Rooms -- in a perfect world I'd 100% try to do both but with such limited time in London, the War Rooms just fit better.

Thanks for all the tips. How about this for a revised itinerary:

Day 1 - arrive LHR at 8:40 am
- Take TFL line to Paddington Station and leave bags at Left Luggage, or take car service to Airbnb flat in Bayswater area to leave luggage (owner will let us know week of if they have no booking the night before so we can leave bags there)
- Pub lunch
- Either walk in Hyde Park, see Kensington Palace, etc. and maybe do afternoon tea nearby OR Thames River Cruise and London Eye (I'm still tossing this around. I understand from comments that Hyde Park might be a batter plan, but my kids wanted to do a river cruise and London Eye, and this is likely to be the best day for that).
- Trip to grocery store and check into flat
- Dinner (probably just take out or something casual near Airbnb flat in Bayswater)

Day 2
- 10-12 - Tower of London
- 12:45 or 1 - Lunch near London Stadium
- 4:30 pm – Soccer match - West Ham vs. Manchester City at London Stadium
- Dinner

Day 3
- 10-12:30 - British Museum
- 12:45 - Lunch
- 2-5:30 London Rock and Roll History Tour
- Dinner

Day 4
- 9:30 – 11:30 - Westminster Abbey
- Walk through St. James Park and see Buckingham Palace (from outside - not a tour)
- Lunch
- 1-3 - Imperial War Museum
- 5:30 - Dinner (maybe at The Delaunay)
- 7:30 pm – theatre

Day 5
- Check out of flat and store bags at Paddington Station
- 9:30 - 11:30 am - will play the morning by ear - we're staying in the Bayswater area, so getting to Paddington Station will be quick and easy, and getting from there to the the V&A Museum would be an easy tube ride or a 30 minute walk through Hyde Park. We could put St. Paul's here since I took it off in the itinerary redo. But if we're starting to drag, we could also just store the bags and go straight to Borough Market.
- Borough Market – Lunch and explore
- Mid- afternoon Train to Moreton in Marsh or Knighton, then taxi to cottage in Stow on the Wold

Day 6
- Day to rest and explore Stow on the Wold – shopping, day hikes/walks

Day 7
- 10 am - 6 pm - Private tour of the Cotswolds
- Drop off at Oxford Airbnb
- Dinner

Day 8
- Spend day in and around Oxford

Day 9
- Travel to LHR from Oxford (either by bus or book private car)
- Fly home

Ok - the last two posts (the most recent one from Janisj and the one from laurie_ann) were posted while I was writing my re-ordered itinerary, so I may want to reconsider once again. I could change out IWM for Churchill War Rooms, which would work well in terms of location.

Re the Eye -- there is no need to schedule it during your normal sightseeing hours. It is open til 6 PM which is later than some of the museums and other sites so you can go there at the end of any day . . . other than football match day.

(It used to be open til 10PM but it is still limited due to not having fully resumed full operation post-covid)

For day 4 think about this:

Westminster Abbey; Walk through St. James Park and see Buckingham Palace; Lunch (the Wolseley would be good) ; Churchill War Rooms; Eye; Pre-theater dinner; Theatre

That looks like a good plan. The Wolseley doesn’t have any reservations for 5 at a time that would work that day though, so we’ll need to come up with an alternative for lunch.

That is simply not possible in a morning or afternoon - plus they only have 4.5 days in London. A commercial coach tour would take the entire day and arrive back in town too late to get to most theatres (none include just Stonehenge and most include Windsor and Bath). Or - if taking a train independently, from Paddington to Salisbury takes 2 hours each way with a change @ Westbury (It is a faster/direct journey from Waterloo but then they'd have to add in the time getting to Waterloo). A taxi out to the Stones takes 20 mins each way (or there is a local bus but its slower) - lunch plus spending just 2 hours at Stonehenge and no time at all in Salisbury makes this an 8 hour day minimum

I'll leave the complications to others but add a thought about a Premier League game with leading teams. These are mob scenes with great stress on public transport and other facilities. Lucky you for having scored top tickets. But it is likely to be physically exhausting and, depending on family members, need a quiet place to recharge your batteries.

Air BnB is a good idea in Oxford - The Old Bank hotel is lovely but the rest are just OK , this Christmas we stayed at a new apartment which had a great location and was part of the old prison complex - Mal Maison Hotel occupies the prison site - it gets good reviews but why anyone would want to stay ina renovated prison is beyond me.