Hi! I am planning to go to London, England for my 30th birthday which happens to fall on Good Friday next year. Is it crazy busy that time of year or not too bad? What is the weather like then? I just want to go for 3 nights and party it up. What do you think?

Thanks!

Its a "bank holiday" there. Most shops and restaurants will be open, most business hour type places will be closed. Churches will have services and museums will be closed. Just plan accordingly and make it a shopping day! Most churches charge entrance fees so if there is an expensive one you want to see consider looking into service times on that day.

Just to add that Easter Sunday is one of 2 days in the year when large shops in England & Wales are required by law to be closed.

And as with all bank holidays in the UK check individual websites to see what is open / closed / reduced hours

It won't be that busy.

Weather - who knows? Probably still fairly chilly and could be wet or it could be fairly chilly and bright. Be prepared for anything!

Tubes and other public transportation should be running at a similar level to regular weekends.
You'll see chocolate eggs everywhere--M&S has good assortments.
Weather can be unpredictable--one year it could be warm and sunny (which makes it a perfect weekend to go to the parks/be outdoors), but it could be rainy and chilly another year. If sunny, you'll enjoy a longer day as we move the clock to summer time last weekend of march.

We were in London last Easter weekend, got in night of Good Friday. It was pretty good.

The weather wasn't bad, not nearly as cold as Edinburg was the previous week. On Saturday we went all over--British Museum, National Gallery, all kinds of stuff. On Easter Sunday it was wonderful, almost no cars and the church bells chiming was fantastic. We went to the Tower of London, found a restaurant/pub open without a problem, most shops were open. Road the buses and went to Speaker's Corner (where I got into some great discussions...ha ha)

There were a fair number of people about, but it wasn't crowded. The tube and the buses seemed to be running really well, with almost no wait.

At night, Covenant Gardens was packed, as was Picadilly. Do it and have fun.

By the way, if you go to Covenant Gardens, there is a young man there that plays guitar, Stefan Joubert. He is amazing. Every hear Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata or Chopin's Prelude in D(flat) Major on a guitar? His CD that he sells is expensive but worth it.

dave

It's "Covent Garden", by the way, and as London attracts loads of tourists all year round, you will find that the garden and most other similar places are packed! but also they will have lots of stuff that is open, so you should find plenty to do.
Have a great time!

As others have noted, weather that time of year is unpredictable. I would count on it being on the chilly side. Possibly wet too.

Good catch Annhig. Well, at least I didn't write "Convent Gardens"

I also noticed I did "road" instead of "rode". I wish this board has an edit feature. I someday I'll learn to preview my posts instead of just whacking the enter key.


Dave