London Travel
 

Touring London sites from a Thursday afternoon through a Sunday night. Here’s a list of interests. Is this doable in that time frame? Any suggestions on how to combine to make best use of public transportation? Staying in the Kensington area. Thanks!

St. Paul’s Cathedral
Westminster Pier/Thames River City Cruises
The Tower of London
Tower Bridge Exhibition
Windsor Castle
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park
Westminster Walk (includes things such as Westminster Abbey, St. James’ Park, Buckingham Palace, St. James’ Palace, Piccadilly, and Trafalgar Square)
House of Commons/Parliament
London Eye Night Day or Experience
Wimbledon
Warner Bros. Studio

Absolutely no way - no how . . . You <i>might</i> make it to half of your list

Just to give you a basic idea (to include approx. travel times depending where you are starting from):

St. Paul’s Cathedral - 2+ hours
Westminster Pier/Thames River City Cruises - 2 hours
The Tower of London - 3 to 4+ hours
Tower Bridge Exhibition - an hour (but not a 'must' IMO)
Windsor Castle - almost an entire day
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park - 3 hours
Westminster Walk (includes things such as Westminster Abbey, St. James’ Park, Buckingham Palace, St. James’ Palace, Piccadilly, and Trafalgar Square) - 2 hours
House of Commons/Parliament - just a 'walk by'
London Eye Night Day or Experience - an hour
Wimbledon - 3+ hours
Warner Bros. Studio - most of a day and it MUST be pre-cooked

Since most sites close between 5PM and 6PM, there simply are not enough hours in 3+ days to get to all those places.

You've really got to ask yourself what the point of some of these ideas is, especially those requiring substantial amounts of time to get to

- Wimbledon (an hour's tube ride in each direction) is just a set of tennis courts, with an underwhelming tennis museum. Possibly worth the trek if you're preoccupied with the minutiae of the All-England Championships, or if grass courts are a novelty, but...
- The Olympic Park (min 30 mins in each direction) is, at present, a remote, mediocre, immature, park (in a city where real, mature, parkland dominates most streetscapes) with a few high quality (for the players) sports venues and an awful lot of building going on. The Olympic stadium won't be accessible for a couple of years yet
- the Tower Bridge exhibition has to rate among the greatest wastes of time and money in Britain
- Parliament, if you don't live in Britain, can be toured only on Saturdays (and a handful of weekdays) as part of a pricey, 2 hr, guided tour. Access to the public galleries to watch debates or committees can be a lot quicker (and free), but may take up a lot of time queueing for if the debate's interesting

However, St Paul's, a river trip, the Tower, your Westminster walk, and the London Eye can easily be squeezed into a day and a half. That then gives you a day for either Windsor or Harry Potter.

For getting abour:
www.tfl.gov.uk
www.tfl.gov.uk/maps/visitors-and-tourists

I've nixed Wimbledon and Olympic Park to start, probably more. Thanks so much to all of you for responding.

If I purchase the London Pass with Travel Card, will it cover transportation from Heathrow to Windsor Castle, or do I have to board at Paddington Station?

>><i>If I purchase the London Pass with Travel Card, will it cover transportation from Heathrow to Windsor Castle, or do I have to board at Paddington Station?</i><<

Absolutely DO NOT buy a London Pass. Total rip off. And even <i>if</i> you do buy a London Pass . . . never EVER buy the transport option.

But in any case Windsor is not in London so London transport doesn't cover it. You could take a train from Paddington or from Waterloo.