London Itinerary assistance needed
 

Hello All,

Please see below and assist if possible with my London Itinerary:

When: 4/25/16 - 5/1/16
Why: Honeymoon
Where: Pestana Chelsea bridge hotel, London

I really appreciate all the help and advice I've been given on this forum. It's very awesome :)

Please note some things in our itinerary may not be relevant, like prices. Just for our knowledge. We tried to schedule by location.
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London
Day 1 – 4-25-16
6:50: Arrive
7:30 Head to Picadilly Line at Heathrow to purchase 2x Oyster Card, we are going to do a car shuttle service, blackberry I think?
8:30-8:45 arrive at hotel ---Pestana Chelsea Bridge hotel and Spa
9:30: Victoria and Albert Museum—Free >>Bus+Metro: Arrive@10:00AM
12:30-1: Food
1:00: Natural History Museum of London----Rest of day
Dinner sometime at night and early check in as we will probably be exhausted

Day 2- 4-26-16
9:00: Breakfast
10:45: Travel to Buckingham Palace
11:30: Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace—45Minutes -36/56£
12:15ish: Head to Westminster Abbey----2hr------40£
LUNCH
3:00: Head to Big Ben---Free---30mins
3:30: Head to Trafalgar Square----Free---30Min
5:15: Picadilly Circus------Free---15Min
5:45: ChinaTown
6:30: Dinner
8:00 London Eye –Tickets Purchased
Day 3 – 4-27-16
8:00 Breakfast
10:00 British Museum-------Free----Stay until 2pm
Lunch
2:20 National Gallery-----Free---Closes at 6pm
6:00 Dinner
7:30 Jack the Ripper Tour----20£----1.45hrs
Day 4 4-28-16
9:00: Breakfast
9:48: Depart from Hotel to Warner Brothers Harry Potter Tour---80£ ---3-4hr@11:30AM
3:30 We leave and head to Hyde Park
4:00 Hyde Park----Free----2hr
6:00: Dinner -Fancy dinner
9:00: Ghost Bus Tour----- 42£
10:15 Head to Hotel


Day 5 4-29-16
9:30 Breakfast
10:30 Head to Tower of London ---3hr -----50£----50min ride—Arrive@11:20
2:20 Head to Borough Market------2hr
4:20 Shakespeare Globe Theater-----1hr-----30£
6:00 London Bridge the Experience------1hr----54£----maybe skip??
7:00 Dinner

Day 6 4-30-16
Windsor Castle Day Trip ???

Hi :)

>>7:30 Head to Picadilly Line at Heathrow to purchase 2x Oyster Card, we are going to do a car shuttle service, blackberry I think?<<

OK right off the bat you are making a mistake. I thought from the other thread we had explained that you will want paper travelcards NOT Oysters to get the 2for1 discounts. You can buy the paper travel cards at the station walking distance from your hotel. I <i>think</i> justairports will be cheaper than Blackberry but double check.

OK day by day: Day 1: With a 0650 arrival you probably will not get to the hotel until 0930 or 10AM. If your room is not yet available you can leave your bags and come back later -- but don't count on getting to the V&A until probably 11AM or noon after checking in. And then no chance to walk to the Natural History until 3 or 4 PM a the earliest.

BUT day one is not usually a good time to schedule big museums and definitely not two of them. Jet lag!

Day 2: You have basically filled day two w/ 'walk by's' If it was me I'd do these on day one so you are out doors getting fresh air and not bogged down in museums. Then do the V&A and Natural History on Day 2.

Day 3: Please PLEASE skip the Jack the Ripper tour. Take a London Walks pub tour or something better.

Day 4: You better leave your hotel well before '9:48' if you have an 11:30 tour at the HP studio. It will take about 2.5 hours door to door to get there.

Ghost bus tour - really?

Day 5: IF you get that paper travel card -- the Tower and Globe will both be Half price!

Day 6: Maybe consider Hampton Court instead.

None of your days will run exactly to plan so just so you don't drive yourselves crazy -- forget about the precise times.

Instead of the Ghost Bus or JtR - why not go to a concert or play or a late night gallery opening or something.

I'd take the London Eye when it is daylight and the first thing so you can orient yourselves to London by seeing it all in one fell swoop - yes the lights at night are nice but does not orient you much to the city below - maybe board at dusk and that may be at that time in late April not sure.

China Town is basically one street you walk thru in a few minutes.

Hey Janis,

I forgot to edit that part out, We typed this up on Friday before my other post sorry about that. You're indeed correct RE:Paper Travelcard :) -----Also I tried justairports but let me try again, thought it was a bit more pricey. --This luggage stuff is weird, I have a small mitsubishi eclipse and it fits our 2 backpacks/2 big luggage things with no problem. Not sure how any car can only fit 1 suitcase

I remember hearing that being outside is good for jet lag, so yes we will switch day 1 and 2 then. We didnt want to do 2 back to back museum days was my biggest concern.

We really enjoyed a ghost tour in Asheville recently, that's why we picked the ghost bus tour lol. We thought it would be fun. It and the jack the ripper thing had great reviews so thats the reasoning. Not sure if pub means bar or not, but we are not drinkers at all so a pub tour wouldn't be as entertaining.

I see your point, exact times probably aren't best unless we have to be somewhere at an exact time, London eye/HP Tour.

Thanks Janis :)

London Eye has been booked so we can't change that.

OH I didn't know that, re China Town: We saw on a guide it could take like 2 hours to wander around it.

Another recommendation for London Walks. There are many to choose from. You just show up at the appointed time and place, pay the trip leader and off you go. No reservations, no cancellations. We have done many, including Westminster, British Museum, Cotswalds, etc.


http://www.walks.com/

On the justairport website don't count your carry-ons. Unless you have HUGE suitcases which you shouldn't (if you do, that will require <i>another</i> thread ;) ) a saloon (regular sedan) will be fine. And the cash price is less.

So two people and two suitcases - period. Hope you aren't taking larget than 24 inchers (26 max.)

>>Not sure if pub means bar or not, but we are not drinkers at all so a pub tour wouldn't be as entertaining.<<

You still might want to visit some pubs at least for a few meals. No requirement to drink alcohol. They serve soft drinks, coffee, too . . . Shame to go to London and not visit any pubs . . they aren't like the local road house or anything.

China Town is more than one street -- but the 'touristy bit' is mainly just a lot of restaurants and a gateway. I'd spend that time exploring Covent Garden instead.

Re: Jack the Ripper. OK -- I'll be blunt. This is your honeymoon - right? Not that you will necessarily be lovey dovey every single minute ;) but do you <i>really> want to walk around the East End hearing (in pretty gory detail) about prostitutes being butchered? Plus not a single one of the original sites still exists. Totally redeveloped and mostly business and apartments. This ain't Disneyland -- it was a mass murderer. Not pretty.

agree with janis about the ripper tours

do they do Ted Bundy tours for entertainment in the US?

http://www.theguardian.com/cities/20...-street-museum

>>do they do Ted Bundy tours for entertainment in the US?<<

. . . Or Jeffrey Dahmer??

Or the Boston Strangler?

We both have 25inch suitcases :) We thought if we filled those it would be considered light, how do some people go for two weeks on 21/22? That's impressive.

I'm sure we'll eat at some pubs then. We've yet to look into any restaurants. The only thing I want is a nice beef wellington as there is nowhere around here to get it and I really want to try :P!

Maybe we can skip China town then, figured it might be cool to see.

We both love murder mysteries and the shows on tv involving that sort of thing. Just something we enjoy, as well as just scaredy stuff in general. I'm not trying to say, go jack the ripper go kill more people, but we are just looking for some nightly entertainment and we figured we'd enjoy that sort of thing.

Hmm. I've never heard of ted bundy tour, but I'd imagine if it were a situation of popularity, 9/10 times I'd imagine more people to have heard of jack the ripper from around the world.

http://hangmantours.com/cream-city-cannibal-tour/

janis asks about Jeffrey Dahmer Tours and yes Jeffrey Dahmer Tours are indeed done by Hangman Tours.

Ted Bundy tours - of course!

https://www.yahoo.com/style/killer-t...444283032.html

This latter one compares itself to London's many Ripper tours.

>>Jeffrey Dahmer Tours are indeed done by Hangman Tours.<<

>>Ted Bundy tours - of course!<<

No accounting for taste

I travel for months rather than weeks with a 22 inch roller and a day pack that doubles as a carry on for pharma and electronics. The trick is laundry, for which I use the bathroom sink. 25 inches is definitely not light!

For my packing list start here (links at the top of the page):
https://mytimetotravel.wordpress.com...take-part-one/

Or try this:
https://www.ricksteves.com/travel-tips/packing-light

Also, I don't understand this:
"Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace—45Minutes -36/56£"
The changing of the Guard is over-hyped but free.

Do be prepared to abandon the schedule and just relax and wander, London is a wonderful town for just strolling and seeing what's round the next corner. Or enjoying the parks if the weather cooperates.

Hey Thursdaysd, I've no idea where I got that price from...I can no longer find it lol.

I'll check your packing links. Thank you. I wonder what the costs will be for doing laundry. I was going to bring 7days of clothes and wash when we are leaving for paris(or close to that day).

Let's see. If you do as BigRuss and Janis said and get the two-fers, you just saved lunch money at Minories Pub which is thisclose to the Tower. It's under the DLR overpass at Tower Gateway station on the street called Minories.

Other notes: just because you're an American doesn't mean you have to be suckered in to a daft tourist trap like the Changing of the Guard where the bang/hype ratio is completely screwy. Look into Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower instead. Changing of the Guard is neither as neat nor as traditional as it was. If you want to see a good, solemn, traditional, and moving changing of the guard, go to Arlington National Cemetery.

And you're not spending 30 minutes at Big Ben - look up, there's a big flippin' clock, take some pics, yadda yadda.

If the other half has any interest in history, you should go to the Abbey and then to the War Rooms for your day 2 and walk by the Palace at another point in time. There's also the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum and more.

The ripper tour is interesting, but there are better things you can do like catch a show, a concert, a comedy performance. This is the biggest city in Western Europe and everyone claims to speak English so you might as well take in some culture that you'll actually understand (i.e., not opera).

Nix the London Bridge experience - it's a bloody bridge with little or no artistry. And the original is in Arizona so who cares. If you're confusing the Tower Bridge with London Bridge, again, it's still not money well spent.

You also don't need a day at Windsor Castle - HRM doesn't allow the serfs that much run of the place so what's accessible can be shot in about 1/2 day.

Changing of Guards is free but in order to get a good view of what's going on you need to be there v. early. IMO it simply isn't worth it.

There are a number of better evening walks than Jack the Ripper. Have a look at their website for other options. www.waljs.com

Good advice by thursdaysd on planning some free time to just experience London. Once there you will find numerous things you want to see/do that aren't on your list...wandering through Covent Gardens, walking St. James/ Hyde Park or enjoying a cup of tea at the Orangery, exploring Clerkenwell or the residential area by Westminster Abbey etc.

Tea time is definitely something I really want to do. I love doing afternoon tea on cruises/vegas and other places I've ventured. So now it's time for the cream of the crop:) I don't want to spend more than 40-50£ per person though as it's just a bit much for that. Any good afternoon tea spots that have excellent sandwiches/scones/deserts/tea that isn't a thousand pounds a visit :)?

Sounds like we should definitely skip changing of the guard. Duly noted. That's why I'm glad I'm asking all of this.

I absolutely love history, my fiance not so much. I'm not too big of a fan of history post 1900's though. Which I think is what the Imperial War Museum is all about, correct me if I'm wrong.---No idea what the maritime museum is.

We had kensington palace on the list, guess we can add that in somewhere

" I wonder what the costs will be for doing laundry."

No idea, I do it myself in the bathroom sink for free, usually a little every other night. Your hotel or google maps should be able to direct you to a laundromat, having your hotel do it will undoubtedly be very expensive.

You list dinner just after Chinatown. Why not just eat there? They have some really good restaurants.

Google Richoux Tea Shops. We share the "Tea for Two" order.