London Evening Activity
 

My family (parents, siblings and spouses, me and my husband, ages 54-85) are going to be in London in July for 3 nights / 4 days to celebrate my mother's 85th birthday. My sister and I are in charge of planning the trip. Everyone except my brother-in-law has been to London at least once.
The first evening, we're going to a fancy restaurant to celebrate, the next evening we're going to the theatre and I'm stuck for the last evening (a Wednesday). For some reason, I can't find something that suits all tastes.
Does anybody have a suggestion? We can't do one of the night walks because two of the group aren't English speakers.
Thanks!

London Eye. Do it about sunset and see the lights come on.

The London Eye is really cool to do right as dusk. You get to see all of the cities lights come on and the city change as it gets dark. I think it only takes 30 mins though so you might be looking for something longer.

London Eye. Use the national rail 2for1 discounts

I'm afraid of heights.... any other ideas?

A self-guided pub walk? You could probably find one online.

What will the non English speakers do at the theater?

Thames river cruise?

"<i>I'm afraid of heights.... any other ideas?</i>"

I've taken more than 10 different folks who have 'heights <i>issues</i>'. A couple who are totally freaked out by escalators/glass elevators/any sort of altitude . . . and every single one of them enjoyed the Eye. You could book a champagne flight and have the capsule to yourselves.

It is probably too late to get tix for the Ceremony of the Keys - but you could try. Instructions are on the Tower of London website. It might require two different request under different names because of limits on the # of tickets.

A concert - check St Martins in the Fields, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Wigmore Hall, etc websites.

What night of the week - several of the museums have one or two late openings.

Taltul - I'm AFRAID of heights as well. Hate them. Didn't go up the Eiffel Tower. But I did this... I started out in the very middle of the capsule stiff as a board and slowly made my way to the window. It's an amazing view and I even got on and did it again a few years later. It's worth it. There are also benches that you can sit on if you need to.

Maybe I"ll try the London Eye on another trip -not this time when I'm in a group. The non-English speakers know some English - certainly enough to enjoy a musical but not enough to follow a tour guide for an hour or more.
I'll check out the concert venues.
Thanks!

Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower - followed by a casuale dinner in the area.

I did suggest the Keys ceremony - but it is quite likely there wouldn't be any tix available - especially for that size a group and w/ no date flexibility. A couple of posters have reported not being able to get tickets for July and August.

Worth trying but don't count on it . . .

I looked up all the suggestions and actually came upon a solution on one of the site that my sister thinks is great. We'll go out to the fancy restaurant on Wednesday (the last night) and on the first evening (we'll all be suffering from some jet lag), we'll take the evening bus tour(hop on and off). It takes 100 minutes, we can get off along the way to get a bite to eat and then back to the hotel. That way my brother-in-law can see all the sites and it's fun to sit on the top of the double decker bus. We also won't be in the sun but also not in the dark of night since it gets dark in London relatively late.

Just hope that it doesn't rain!!

Taltul unfortunately I don't believe the hop on hop off buses run at night. I can find any info on their websites but I am fairly certain that they stop running aroun 7pm so it won't be possible to do any later...

Found it...the last tours are late afternoon...so these arent evening activities.

You can see the times by clicking Show More for each route
http://www.theoriginaltour.com/tour-...ure-points.htm

The Big Bus will be similar.

Found a piece in Guardian that lists some unusual London Night attractions you may want to look at.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/201...ht-attractions