Just Returned from London
 

I am so grateful to our Fodors friends for being so helpful in making our recent 5 day trip to London so flawless. Here's what you taught us:
1. Travel light. We took everything we needed in our carry on bags and stowed another one under our seats in the size required by our airlines. We needed nothing more and I packed in the "bundling method" as mentioned in this forum at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdRl3dBGxRs
(We didn't buy any of the supplemental containers from this luggage salesman but just put everything into our suitcases. We put our shoes in newspaper wrappers, one in each.) Saved us lots of time waiting for airport carousels. We will do this again.
2. Take proper shoes. I have minor issues with arthritis and I found that most walking surfaces in London, while quaint, old and beautiful, were not pedestrian-friendly. There are cobblestones and sloped sidewalks, as you would expect in an old city. And oftentimes the surfaces are wet. We went to a home town running company and bought well fitting shoes and never got a blister. We stressed comfort over style. In addition, there are some places where you just can't have an elevator. Tower of London with its medieval treasures, isn't handicapped friendly, so you will be going up stairs. FYI.
3. Pros and cons of pre-purchasing vouchers to attractions. We came to London as part of a package and loved what we got for our money. We also bought several other vouchers for other tours and found that this saved us money. Con? We bought one voucher for a four course French meal on Groupon and didn't have time to use it. So we gave it to a darling, doorman that we liked. Hope he and a guest can use it when he's not working.
4. Go on an "overview" tour right away when you arrive. You will get the lay of the land and find things that you want to see more in depth later. Helps for planning what to see when, based on close proximity. After our double decker bus tour, we booked an amazing two hour black taxi tour with Michael Bloom at www.affordablelondontyaxitours.co.uk and he took us to "secret sights in London." He also does a Harry Potter tour, and a few others, but he was a riot and found out what we were interested in and then took us to the most amazing and surprising places! We were enchanted by him and felt he was a true ambassador for London. It was a bit pricey, a bit over $200 for two of us in his cab for a bit over 2 hours, but we felt it was well worth it.
5. Pubs aren't just bars. We only had three meals that weren't part of some tour or another and for those meals we always went to a pub. While they do serve liquor, they have amazing food (like fish and chips) for a reasonable price. Fodors had recommended Minories for their Toffee Sticky Pudding, so we were surprised to see that it was very close to where we were staying, right by The Tower of London. It was fun to taste the pudding, but their fish and chips had the most amazing tartar sauce that I've ever tasted. So that was a good spot to us. When going into a pub, you place your order at the bar and then they bring it to your table when it's ready.
5. Plan taking "loo breaks". When you are at your hotel or restaurant, use their facilities because when you're in mid city, it costs you 30 pence to use a public restroom. (Ask for a "restroom" and they might not know what you mean. The word there is, "toilet." THAT got some getting used to.)
6. Get some British currency while you are home, before you leave. We avoided trying to get cash of any kind in London because we brought both American and British money and then used my new CitiBank credit card that I got expressly for using in London because it's one of the few cards that charges no foreign fees. (That came from advice mentioned in this forum.) We charged everything we could and used currency as needed. Some taxis take credit cards, but watch for the sign that says using it generates a 10% "convenience fee." Our newspaper today says that some London ATMs are running out of cash, so this is something to prepare for if you are going there during the Olympics.
7. Go to attractions early. We got this advice here too. But in the five days we were in London, we never stood in a line. We'd enter palaces or castles or the Royal Mews early and find that we'd be in a tour group of my daughter and me and one other person! When we left, after a few hours, there were long lines.
8. Have a good time. We were blown away by the friendliness of the people we met. Our tour package put is in a somewhat remote eastern London hotel (Grange Tower Bridge Hotel) but they treated us like royalty! Nearly everyone did. We saw "royal oriented sights" but loved Westminster Abbey as well. If you're interested in obscure royal things, go to The Royal Mews where you will see carriages that are used by the royals for big events. Really interesting. We loved having high tea in the Kensington Palace gardens on The Orangery outdoor porch. (18.95 pounds each. Pricey but an amazing experience.)

This trip was a trip of a lifetime and we are still thinking almost non-stop about our experiences and what we saw. There was not one glithch because we had read fodors.com and did a lot of preplanning before we left. Good luck on your travels.

Great trip report and so glad you loved Londno - its always nice to hear that the people here are friendly and helpful!

I am surprised by your comment about ATMs running out of cash - I havent heard anything about that and as I live and work here I would expect to! Nothing in the papers here, nor have any friends mentioned it today so I dont think its a concern.

Its much cheaper to use your ATM than buy currency in N America.

Here is the AP story I was referring to from our newspaper this morning.
http://www.omaha.com/article/20120719/AP0409/307199940

Thanks for that!

I have to laugh at this though because I have not seen one word about this in the press here (someone please correct me if I am wrong) and didnt hear anything about it over the Jubilee weekend!

The Jubilee weekend was a 4 day weekend - hence the machines were not topped up for 4 days and some may have run out (although like I said I didnt hear anything about this). There are no such problems with the Olympics and I assume (maybe wrongly so) that the banks plan to refill the machines on a regular basis.

Of course Britain only accepts GBP.

And yes, as in Vancouver for the 2010 Olympics, only Visa is accepted at Olympic venues and Olympic stores.

Thanks for posting the link!

jamikins, I hope you and other wonderful fodors posters realize how you help my family in planning our trips. We are naive travelers and had never been to anywhere in Europe before and had some anxieties. But help from folks like you make it so much better and less overwhelming. Our two best vacations: to London and to New York City were both guided by fodors people, such as yourself. Thanks for taking your time to help us.

It's a couple of years years since I read Omaha.com (I worked with an American business based there).

As Jamikins says, no news about ATMs running in London in the UK press, but I guess during Sports Day all the kids get so excited anything can happen.

Glad you had a good trip

Huskermamo - thank you so much, that just make my day! :)

I am so happy to help out and I really hope they have a great time in London.

Glad to hear you had a wonderful trip!

great tips. glad you enjoyed it :-)

Huskermamo, glad you had such a great trip. London is amazing.

Just wondering, what type of a "package" did you have? Was it connected with an airline?

I'm doubting that this board told you #3, #4 or #6. ATMs are easy to use and get you a better exchange rate than whatever you received at your bank when you bought pounds in the US.

This board is a HUGE proponent of the daysoutguide.co.uk two for one deals and each of those vouchers are FREE.

And only a small minority here advocates orientation tours in London because the Hop on Hop off bus is hideously expensive.

It's a pleasure to read your enthusiastic report about London, I have the feeling you and your daughter would get the best out of anywhere you travelled.

What a lovely thing to say, tarquin!
We came on a Living Social "deal" arranged by Premier Travel. Our first day the package included a red bus tour which helped us drive by things that we knew we wanted to visit later. We also bought some vouchers for Kensington Palace (no wait line), half day to Windsor and buffet at Harrods, and the Black Taxi tour. Those were through AAA but some ended up being delivered by Premier Travel as well. We opted not to use ATMs because our bank had a percentage fee to use it, but brought the card anyway, in case of emergencies. We could get any amount of currency for London at our bank for a flat fee of $5, so we did that and found that it worked well for us. We had bought an Oyster card while still in the U.S. so didn't do the two for one deal. Folks are welcome to glean whatever works best for them from this forum, so it's a win-win!

"We loved having high tea in the Kensington Palace gardens on The Orangery outdoor porch."

I suspect that was "afternoon tea", don't know if any places do high tea any more (it now tends to be called dinner):-)

Great report! You obviously enjoyed the trip.

One thing though . . . "<i><blue>We opted not to use ATMs because our bank had a percentage fee to use it, but brought the card anyway, in case of emergencies. We could get any amount of currency for London at our bank for a flat fee of $5, so we did that and found that it worked well for us</blue></i>"

For future reference (and for anyone else reading this TR) - the $5 fee you paid your bank is only part of what those £££ cost you. The exchange rate was much worse than you would have paid using an ATM. So too late for this trip - but next time you will save $/£ if you use ATMs

Enjoyed your report. Ate at Minories Pub my first night in London last trip - see my report for remarks:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...rip-report.cfm
This forum has been my go-to instead of travel books.

Sounds like a fun trip, Husker. Thanks for sharing your tips.

thanks for sharing... i am returning to london in september and will write down several of your recommendations. oh-- when you say AAA tour, do you mean like the AAA insurance people?

Yes, janisj is right about the exchange rate you get through a US bank vs the exchange rate when using an ATM at your destination.

While we do like to have a few dollars worth of local currency in hand before we leave, the majority of our cash needs come from our ATM card. Even with fees, it is still better than our local bank exchange rate.

I believe she's referring to the AAA motor club.

Glad to see you had a great time in my favorite city.

Glad you had a nice time but I agree with Janisj and the others. The $5 fee you paid was in addition to the exchange rate you were charged at your bank which was significantly higher than the exchange rate you would have paid by taking the money out of an ATM once in London.

Did you enjoy Kensington Palace? When we were there they were undergoing rennovation and they had some silly theme going on for visitors to keep them occupied which was a waste of time. The gardens outside were nice but the inside of the Palace was not that great. Unless the rennovations are complete now.

Yes, you're right the AAA motor club folks.
Kensington Palace was AMAZING! They have cleverly blocked any view of the construction for Will and Kate, but the renovations on the tourist area is complete. I think the most gorgeous display I have ever viewed in any museum or tourist attraction was the area devoted to Queen Victoria's childhood and falling in love with Albert. If you love understated, GORGEOUS displays, don't miss it. The different apartment rooms had quotes from Queen Victoria as a girl and as she grew older and they were subtly inscribed on a representative carpet where she crawled as a baby, on walls by displayed items, on lit pull out surfaces by jewelry. You had to actively participate in learning there because the quotes were golden and you had to adjust your vantage point to read them all. Quotes tucked here and there. It was quite simply a brilliant (I love how the Brits use that word more widely than we do in the States.) and innovative way to show items to the public. There is a huge "sculpture" when you enter the doors to the palace, and you'll have to decide if you like it or not. But we loved Queen Victoria's room and the small, temporary space given Diana. The hall to this area is wallpapered with watercolor paper, depicting, quite honestly a less than rosy life that Diana lived there. Very interesting.

Then the "afternoon tea" was one of the highlights of our trip. There was some type of tree or bush that was surrounding us as we ate and drank that sent a scent wafting around us that made the experience even more magical. And to see small children playing on the amazingly manicured grounds made me wonder if Diana would be happy that the public was having such a nice time on the grounds that she borrowed from the public for a short time, raising her children.

As we looked over a tall wall there by us, we understand that there were cottages over there where Will and Kate stayed recently and would have loved to have known more. Do any of you know about those structures? We assume that some of the cottages are for the employees, but we weren't sure.

At the Royal Mews we were fascinated to see flats on the second floor of the courtyard where grooms and their families lived. Our wonderful American tour guide helped us understand that many of jobs held in connection with serving the royals were those coveted by future generations of that family member and that oftentimes several generations would hold the same job within the royal service. That gave us an interesting perspective that hadn't occurred to us before. Once again, blowing us away at how young the States are in comparison to how old the UK is. The juxtapositions of old next to new fascinated us time after time.

Nice report, huskermamo, thank you. Diana was alive when we visited London in the 1990s and I don't believe there were teas then--another reason to go again. Our hotel was across from the Royal Mews and we too enjoyed peeking at the activities there.

Agree with you about the perspective shifting for we American "youngsters". It's just another thing that makes traveling so broadening.

I think the fragrant hedges near Orangery at Kensington are boxwood. The really tall ones just across the yard from the patio?

What was it about the watercolor paper that seemed unrosy? Or am I misunderstanding? I don't think I'd tour that palace, but when we walked around the grounds several years after Diana's death and eavesdropped on other groups, everyone there seemed to have assigned the culprit role either to Charles or to her. Theirs was one of the interesting stories of our time, bless em both.

Huskermammo, thank you for your detailed description of Kensington Palace – very interesting….

Did the price of tea at the Orangerie include visiting Kensington? I am going for 6 weeks in September-October and want to do tea somewhere. Your report is great.

It's not a lavish (or expensive) tea at the Orangery. You order what you want rather than have them bring it in waves. We prefered to sit inside and enjoy the beautiful room.

Don't know whether it's included with Palace but I'd sorta doubt it.

"<i>Did the price of tea at the Orangerie include visiting Kensington? </i>"

The Orangery is a stand-alone/public restaurant set in the grounds - it isn't inside the Palace and entrance to one doesn't have anything to do w/ the other.

This is sort of my theme song, but try one of the Richoux Tea Shops for afternoon tea that is traditional in nature but not as expensive as the posh hotels.

Tea in Harrod's Georgian Room is lovely, too.

"As we looked over a tall wall there by us, we understand that there were cottages over there where Will and Kate stayed recently and would have loved to have known more. Do any of you know about those structures? We assume that some of the cottages are for the employees, but we weren't sure."

Here's a link to a photo map that shows the location of their present Kensington Palace grounds apartment (marked 1-named Nottingham Cottage, I believe) and their future, larger home (formerly Princess Margaret's home). After their move, Prince Harry will then move to the small apartment (or so I read).


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...e-grounds.html

Thanks for the report. We are going second half of August and will take your observations into account!

stokebailey-the wallpaper generally showed her face in a somber, sad tone. (I have a photo. WIsh I could upload it here.)Then on the watercolor of her in her wedding dress, it had, right by it, a lamb, we assumed to represent her proposed quote, "I felt like a lamb going to slaughter." While we naively assumed that Kensington Palace was mainly about Diana, we learned that like everything in London, that it's SO multifaceted, and found ourselves loving to learn about former royals and took a particular interest in Queen Victoria. Boxwood? Yes, that could have been what it was but I didn't know they were fragrant. I saw no blooms anywhere so it must be coming from greenery. Whatever, it was lovely.
Micheline-No, there are separate fees to tour Kensington Palace and to eat at the Orangery. And I should also add that our 18.95 pounds was the LEAST expensive afternoon tea that you could order. However there were a la carte items that would have been less. We pondered what to do and then correctly realized that, "We're her once, we need to order afternoon tea." And we're happy we did. I would base your tea decision on the weather. While the Orangery has indoor seating, we ADORED sitting outside in those amazing gardens. If it's a nice day, go there!
Carolyn-We had a voucher for Windsor Castle which also included buffet at Harrods. Glory be! THAT was quite the experience. Five star food and service. THAT's a once-in-a-lifetime experience as well!
dorfan2-I am going to go to your link that you so kindly provided the minute I finish this post. BLESS you for pacifying our curiosity.
And for you all....as they say in London, "Safe Journey."