tuckerdc

A good place to spend a Sunday strolling and exploring? If so, how do we get there? Any must-sees?

I must say, I had never ever heard of LV (have been to London twice) and wouldn't have yet except for a basically kiss-off mention in Rick Steves' 2005 London, which I'm poring over in prep for our late summer visit there.

I did do a search here, but came up with vague threads with 80-200 posts, a little hard to wade through to sift out a mention of LV.

annaj

London Walks has a Saturday afternoon walk of little Venice. From there, you can also take a boat trip on the Regent's Canal to the London Zoo. Take the Bakerloo line to Warwick Avenue. It's a lovely neighborhood-very scenic.

rj007

London Walks also does a LV walk on Wed morning and Sunday afternoon. If you can do Wed Emily is the guide and she is very good. The other guide is Shaughan who is also an excellent guide. You may get a song or a Shakespearean recital from him. As annaj noted it is a very nice area of London. The houseboats on the canal add a nice touch.

highledge

not sure if I'd make this a destination for a London visit. It's a nice-ish area, but not a lot to see! You could walk around the area, but there are much more interesting parts of London to explore!

GeoffHamer

It's close to Paddington and Warwick Avenue tube stations. Strolling around Little Venice won't take long, but you can walk along the canal towpath through Regent's Park to Camden and beyond. There are also boat trips (www.jasons.co.uk, www.londonwaterbus.com).

TuckH

We took a Regent's Canal barge ride from Camden Lock to Little Venice. It was a pleasant afternoon after our morning visit to the busy and colorful Saturday Camden Lock Market.

In and of itself Little Venice was, as highledge says, "not a lot to see", but in combination with Camden Town, it worked out fine for us.

jame

We took the London Walks tour of Little Venice last year. It was really interesting and fun to see a very different part of London. I don't know if I would have enjoyed it as much (and definitely wouldn't have learned as much) if we had just walked around without doing the tour though.

lyb

I did a self-guided walk from Little Venice, taking the Bakerloo line to Warwick Avenue, and we walked along the Canal all the way to Camden Market. We then took the water bus back to Little Venice. It was a very nice day. We got there around 10:30am or so, walked for a while then got off the canal at Gloucester Avenue and had a very lovely lunch at a restaurant called The Engineer at 65 Gloucester Avenue, then got back on the Canal walk and continued on to the Camden Market. We were there on a Friday and there wasn't much at the Market, but it was pleasant anyway. From there you can take a water bus back to Little Venice or you probably could just take the tube back to your hotel. I would say that we left Little Venice around 3pm or so.

I recommend it, if you want a low key and interesting day. The architecture in Little Venice is great and all the house boats are very colorful. I am very glad I went. It's nice to get away from all of the typical places that people visit while in London.

I don't know how many days you will be in London, I was there for 8 days so I had plenty of time to hit the other spots. If you're there for more than a week, I'd say you should give it a look.

Patrick

We've done that walk also and it does make a great day. In fact we did the canal boat trip which follows the same route a couple years earlier, but we actually preferred walking more.
Also you can make a slight detour from near the zoo (that you walk through a part of) up to Primrose Hill, which has an amazing view of London.

tuckerdc

Thanks, all! It's not our first trip to London and we are the sort who want to prowl museums for only so long. I really think you get a better "feel" for someplace by getting out and about neighborhoods, which is why this sounded like a good possibility. And now confirmed by (most of) the F crew. So thanks to everyone for the detailed info.

Thomas

Thanks to all re: Little Venice in London. I will be in London Dec 20-31 and hope the winter season is no problem in getting to LV. I like the idea of London Walks as well as the independent info.

tuscanlifeedit

We attended a canal boat festival in LV that was very interesting and fun. However, I can't remember when it was...May, perhaps.

cigalechanta

I took the boat there long ago . I went to visit an antique Garden place that I read is now simply a a garden center but I loved the ride seeing all the house boats. It reminded me of the old film, "The Horse's Mouth," (from the Joyce Cary book)

lscott

Last spring we stayed in Maida Vale area and walked to Little Venice on a Sunday morning. A pretty, peaceful neighborhood..not much going on. Residents in coffee shops, walking dogs, puttering around on their boats. Warwick tube station is right there.

janisj

thomas: This thread is from last March. It does give you good info - but you posted a similar thread of your own a couple of days ago. You should check out the info on that thread as well.

Also - I'm not quite sure what you mean by &quot;<i>hope the winter season is no problem in getting to LV</i>&quot; Little Venice is in central London only about a block from the Warwick Ave tube station (tube zone 2). Winter wouldn't make any difference.

caroline_edinburgh

It's a long time since I lived there, but I imagine the boats might not run in the winter ?

janisj

Caroline: You are right. I think most of the canal boats stop running around the beginning/middle of Nov. However at least one of the canal boat companies has weekend service in the Winter.

tuckerdc

Sniff. As long as this post has been revived and as the OP, I just thought I'd throw a little teatime pity party for myself I was so looking forward to exploring this area....and then the dratted head cold struck on our Day2 in London and almost all plans went up in a pile of Kleenex. Sigh.

turnip

to rj007

Can you please let me know how to find the wonderful suburban London B&amp;B you are so fond of?

Thanks, the turnip

tod

I have read somewhere that the small island in the middle of Little Venice was favoured by Robert Browning when wrote some of his poems.
It doesn't look like much and supports a number of ducks but perhaps in his day was rather romantic.