London itinerary help
 

Hi everyone,

I'm in the midst of planning of a 9-day trip to London and I thought I'd post my tentative itinerary here see if and anyone has any suggestions or criticisms =). Some info before I go on: I'm 23, female, travelling with my mom (51). I've been to London before but she hasn't, so this trip is really about introducing her to the city. I'm a major history buff (I got my Honours BA in English Lit and History, mainly British) and we both love the theatre and museums. Okay, here goes!

Day 1 - Tuesday
-arrive in London around noon, take the Gatwick Express or Southern train to Victoria and check into hotel
-British Library
-show: Billy Elliot

Day 2 - Wednesday
-Tower of London
-Victoria and Albert museum

Day 3 - Thursday
-Westminster Abbey
-Big Ben and Houses of Parliament
-Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum
-show: Mary Poppins

Day 4 - Friday
-St Paul's Cathedral
-Sir John Soane's Museum
-British Museum

Day 5 - Saturday
-Buckingham Palace (view)
-walk up the Mall or through St.James's Park
-see Changing of the Horse Guards
-National Gallery
-evening concert at St-Martin-in-the-Fields

Day 6 - Sunday
-London Walks: Greenwich
-Imperial War Museum
-Westminster Abbey organ concert at 5:45

Day 7 - Monday
-Courtauld Gallery
-Trafalgar Square
-HMS Belfast
-London Walks: Old Westminster by Gaslight

Day 8 - Tuesday
-Hampton Court Palace (half day)
-Natural History Museum
-sunset ride on the London Eye

Day 9 - Wednesday
-fly home

There's a variation of this itinerary that squeezes in a market (Spitalfields or Portobello), but I'm not sure if I want to pull something out in order to put that in. I'm also considering adding the show "Les Miserables" to the schedule, but my mom is already convinced that what I've planned is going to fatigue her to death! Any comments/suggestions/criticisms would be greatly appreciated =). Thank you!

Well. personally, I can't think of any better way to relax than to sit for a few hours in the middle of the afternoon watching a show. Saturday afternoon would be perfect for Les Miz, without missing anything else on your schedule.

I must admit this looks like a lot when you write it out, but I really don't think it is too much. Many of the things you mention take an hour or so at the most. Three of those in a day? Piece of cake.

It's not a bad itinerary and is doable, however, try and reorganise some of your days geographically, e.g. combine St Paul's with the Tower of London as they are relatively close to each other. Pick up a map and do this for each day and you will save time, and save energy!

This looks like a good plan to me, particularly based on your interests. You have a lot in there but it's certainly doable. Just don't worry if the odd thing gets missed because you spend longer than planned somewhere or decide on the spur of the moment that there's something else you want to do.

Most people's first itinerary is often a bit messy geographically but yours is pretty neat in this respect too. London's easy and quick to navigate on the Tube so it doesn't matter too much if places are a bit apart. My quick thoughts are:

- Will you be up for the British Library after your flight if you're tired/jetlagged? Maybe something outdoors would be easier.

- I would think about doing HMS Belfast, Tower of London and St Pauls all on the same day as they are close together. The Tower and HMS Belfast go well together since they are joined by a nice walk over Tower Bridge.

- Plan a bit what you want to see in the British Museum. You'll only have time for a fraction of it since it is huge.

Enjoy London!

Neopolitan, m_kingdom2 and Where2Travel, thank you so much for your feedback. I'll definitely look into reorganizing my days more geographically - I WAS looking at a map when I put this together, but it was a tube map and walking would probably be more fun =).

Where2Travel, do you have any suggestions for what to do on the first day instead of the British Library? I wanted to do something that wouldn't take too long because of the jet-lag problem - is the British Library too much?

Thanks again!

The British Library is about a 45-60 minute walk from Victoria. It really is important you do some excercise outside for a fair bit if you've been on a plane all night and you're going to sit through a show.

There's nothing immediately close to the BL to walk round, the walk from Victoria is very Londony, and it's a painless 12 minute Tube journey back. Thus far, a good choice for your first afternoon - and it's hard to spend more than 60-90 minutes at the library.

The real problem, though, is that if you're actually going to look at the BL exhibits, you rather need your wits about you. The lighting's dim, the books need some degreee of reading, and they're not that easy to follow. Even the captions are in smallish print. Unless you pay close attention, all you're achieving is seeing some old scroll and saying "Wow, that's Magna Carta".

Personally, I'd need something less cerebral at that point. The National Portrait Gallery would be my choice. Most of England's history summed up in more or less contemporary pictures of the people who made it. And a shorter, arguably nicer, walk from Victoria.

I agree with those who say the British Library on the first day may be too cerebral. Personally, I would be worried about staying awake during Billy Elliot. On a trip to London, my husband and I also arrived around noon. After a walk through Kensington Gardens and lunch at a pub, we tried to go to the V&A Museum and almost fell asleep on our feet. Neither of us can remember anything we saw there! We had to go back to the hotel and crash. If it were me, I wouldn't make any concrete plans (i.e. buying tickets for a show) until I knew how the jet lag was going to affect me. That's just me, though.

It looks as though you have put a lot of thought and planning into your itinerary. You have a good selection of things to do and see that will meet both your interests and will be mostly manageable. You have good variety and spacing of your planned evening activities as well. If you don't have your theatre tickets purchased already, I might suggest going to Billy Elliott on the following Tuesday and riding the London Eye on your first evening. We did the Eye at sunset on our first day. We took the tube to Westminster and just wandered around looking and then walking the embankment before crossing the Thames on the Hungerford/Jubilee footbridge. There are things to do around County Hall (snack places, the Dali museum, etc.) right there near the Eye. Getting a view over London and the Thames is such a great introduction to your visit, and it's more active than sitting in the darkened theatre trying to stay awake.

If you do go to the theatre that first day, then I would recommend an afternoon nap (no more than 60-75 minutes). When you wake up, you can go the National Portrait Gallery, as per CotswoldScouser's suggestion. That would be great for the history fix. You can even eat a pre-theatre special at the National Portrait Gallery restaurant - we did this and thought the food was really good. The restaurant has nice views over the roofs of London (it was sunset when we ate our pre-theatre dinner there earlier this month). http://www.npg.org.uk/live/portrest.asp has menus and prices.

I didn't notice the show on the first night when I first looked but I agree with some of the other posters that it may be a bit much. Of course it depends how jetlag affects you. If I can get a few hours sleep on the plane then I am generally fine but normally need a bit of an early first night (back home for me since I live in London).

If you wanted an outdoorsy first day starting and ending near Victoria you could do something like Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Sq, St James's Park and/or Buckingham Palace routing back to the Victoria area later on. This is all walkable and there are plenty of stops for a break/lunch or whatever.

If it were me, I would want to take a nap before the theater that first night. In fact I like going to the theater my first night before I get adjusted to the time change. I feel like I can stay up later and maybe even enjoy a late supper afterward. But only if I've had an afternoon nap.