London itinerary - a new one!
 

For those that help out with London itineraries, thank you for reading yet another one!

Well, I’ve been digging around the site for months. Here's the inevitable itinerary that I plead for you to read and critique.

22yr-old and my 24yr-old husband - honeymooners - leave Detroit Sunday, 4 June and arrive at Heathrow 7:00am, Monday, 5 June. We’ve got two weeks.

My little disclaimer - my days are planned around neighborhoods and general vicinities and are switchable according to the weather. I realize we may have to trim the fat as the day progresses, but on some days I think we can combine what I have written down - please let me know what is too much and what is too little.

Day 1 - arrive, take cab to hotel (Crowne Plaza London St. James, Westminster). I know there are cheaper and quicker ways but we’ll be tired and bewildered. Then again, a cab into London on Monday morning - too foolish? - Big Bus tour to get a feel of London -Check-in - Nap - Walk in park - Explore general area, find shops and food.

Day 2 - Westminster Abbey - Cabinet War Rooms - a little Tate Britain - London Eye

Day 3 - Royal Mews - Piccadilly Circus - Burlington Arcade - shopping - some park time or Regents Canal

Day 4 - Covent Garden Piazza and Central Market - London Transport Museum Shop - Courtauld Institute - Victoria Embankment Gardens, Neals Street

Day 5 - Sir John Soanes Museum - Temple Church(too crowded due to dumb movie?) - Old Curiosity Shop and Staple Inn (for historical/photo purposes) - Museum of London

Day 6 - St. Pauls - Bank of England Museum/shop - Guildhall Art Gallery - Museum of London (leftovers)

Day 7 - Tower of London - Greenwich Royal Observatory and area

Day 8 - Trafalgar Square - National Gallery - Charing Cross Rd (we love books) - National Portrait Gallery (start it)

Day 9 - Portrait Gallery (finish) - Leicester Square - Berwick Street Market - shopping

Day 10 - Diana Playground (before 9:30am so us adults can play?), Harrods, walk-by Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall - Natural History Museum - V&A (late hours on Wed)

Day 11 - British Library - Hamleys - Cornellison & Son (art stuff, ever been? husband’s an artist) - British Museum (we’ll go on late day th/fri)

Day 12 - Hampton Court - Kew Gardens

Also, we have another day for a Bath/Stonehenge tour and another day set aside to go to Dover.

Would like to fit in Eltham Palace - worth it?

Thanks so much.

I would suggest you arrange for a car service NOT a taxi. Taxi's charge by the meter reading and if you are in traffic it will be mega-bucks. A car service meets you as you exit customs with a sign with your name and will take you from the airport to your hotel for a flat fee(plus tip).

We normally use www.london-transfers.com (Ray Skinner) but www.justforairports.com gets good recommendations here on Fodor's too.

Honestly, I know you will re-invent your schedule as the days go along so I am not even going to comment on what to do when :-) except to say don't overplan - allow for fun/spur of the moment activities, they usually turn out to be the things you remember afterward anyway.

Hi ..

Wow ....

Coming all the way to the UK & not leaving London - seems such a waste - you could do loads in the UK & still have 5 or 6 days in London.

Mark

The poster is leaving London - they have a day trip to Dover planned as well as one to Bath/Stonehenge.

Actually it is nice to know that some people actually want to spend time in London and see the sights rather then rush all over the place and try and see all of Great Britain in 10 days (for example). Personally, I love staying in London and taking day trips (altho on some trips we did "countryside" with a rental car.

A slight typo above. It should be
www.justairports.com Good service. I just used them. GREAT price.

I had looked into justairports.com but they scared me off with the 40-minute clause. It seemed to me I had only 40 minutes from landing to get outside (still have to file out of plane, go through immigration, pick up bags) before being charged waiting time. Londontransfers.com seems a better deal. Thanks for the tip!

Don't let justairports 40 min thing worry you. They keep track of flight status and seldom do they get there early enough to end up charging overtime.

I looks like you haven't tried to cram in too much each day. Gives you lots of "wiggle room"

Just two very minor comments:

1) I seriously doubt you'll need to return to the Nat'l Portrait Gallery. You'll have <b>plenty</b> of time to do the Nat'l, Nat'l Portrait and lots of book shops on/near Charing X road - and probably tuck in a bit of Covent Garden as well - in one day w/o rushing.

2) As I see it, your only real problem day is Hampton Court Palace/Kew. Are you into gardens at all? if so Kew is a full 1/2 day. And travel to/from HCP, an in depth visit, and maybe a boat ride is more than 1/2 a day's worth.

Even though the two are relatively near each other - I wouldn't try them on the same day. I'd do HCP in the morning til well after lunch and make my way back into town for another site or two. And then do the same thing w/ Kew another day.

Just for your peace of mind :-) reputable car services do monitor flight times. We have used a car service dozens of times and never once had a problem.

The days sound pretty well paced to me, too, and you have a couple of days out, which is good. But no theatre? Surely you can fit in some fun matinee.

Merseyheart - I thought someone would bring up the theatre. To be honest, I've never liked theatre (maybe one too many terrible theatre field trips from elementary school turned me off forever). The same for my husband. That being said - I have a crazy inkling that I would absolutely love Mary Poppins. I know I can't get discounted tickets, but can I get two decent seats under $100? And where and how?

Well, Mary Poppins is part of the British experience, isn't it? (Thank you, Julie Andrews.) My notes say that tickets are priced at 15 to 55 pounds. I'm not sure how good the cheaper seats are, but remember, most of the London theatres are pretty small. It's not like seeing a concert in a basketball arena! Try www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk
I think if you put &quot;Mary Poppins&quot; in the search engine, that page will come up and give you more details. When I've traveled to England, either I call the theatre on the day of the show, or I call from the States before my trip. Anyone else have a suggestion?

see &quot;london theater-tickets&quot;...I've topped it for you.....

Check TicketmasterUK for Mary Poppins tickets. I always buy our tickets through them and just pick them up at the theater before the show starts. You can also check Albemarle ticket agency as they have the best seating charts altho their tickets usually cost more then Ticketmaster for some reason.

Do give the theater a try, you really might enjoy it more then you think. Maybe a big production like Phantom of the Opera would be a good start too.

It's fun to pop into Cornellison &amp; Son (sp?) going to/from the British Museum. You'll feel like you're stepping into a Dickens novel. Another good fine arts supply shop is Green and Stone (259 Kings Rd, nearest tube is South Kens (I think). Neither place offers anything you can't get at home but I always like to look around. Falkiner Fine Paper (Southampton Row not far from the Brit Museum) is also a great resource and has a number of things I don't see in the US. It's primarily artists papers and book arts supplies. Very lovely Italian marbled papers.

I'd give a pass to Hamleys unless you're a devotee of toy stores. It's got a huge wow factor for kids but adults (even those who are kids at heart) will find mostly merchandise quite similar to home. If you're shopping for a kid, you'll easily find something at Harrods which has quite a sizeable toy dept.

London has so many artist venues that aren't on the normal list of tourist must-do's. If you're interested, say so, and I'll give you my favorite places. But by all means get a copy of Time Out when you get to London. There's a wealth of info there.

I'm also a big fan of justairports.

Thanks for the theatre help you two. I went on ticketmasterUK, but I couldn't select anything at that moment because of &quot;system maintenance&quot; or something. I'll try again soon.

Obxgirl, my husband is a graphic artist - design, cartoon, comics, etc. Anything of interest regarding that kind of art in London?

Just a comment regarding Temple Church. It's not easy to find;however, I suppose nowadays you can simply follow the crowds. It's opening hours are a bit eractic, so I'd check before setting out.

If you do go to Hamley's, it might fit better on Day 3. It's on Regent St., not far from Piccadilly Circus. You might want to consider seeing Liberty, which is also on Regent. It is in a cool neo-Tudor building, and the fabric floor is amazing. The Wallace Collection is just north of Oxford Street (between Hamleys and Regents Park), and might be a good addition if you have extra time.

Since you love bookshops, here is one that was mentioned on this forum recently:
Daunt Books, &quot;an original Edwardian bookshop with long oak galleries and graceful skylights situated in Marylebone High Street, London.&quot; This would be convenient to Regent's Park.
http://www.dauntbooks.co.uk/

hi ...

Hadn't noticed that you were planning on visiting Dover etc. What exactly is the attraction with Dover - last time I was there - it seemed a bit of a dump??

Still think it is a long way to come to only see a small part of the UK - if you are honeymoon - what aboutr taking a trip to paris - most romantic city in the world.

Mark

What's in Dover? Dover Castle which is one of Briain's great castles. A person could easily spend most of the day there.