Hi all, we finally took our trip to London after asking many questions of all of you on this site. We went from Sat. to Sat Jan 10-17.

We had some concerns about traveling in January but we really lucked out. The weather was rainy and cold for the first 2 1/2 days and then the sun came out and the temp. warmed up and wow...what a great few days we had...about 40-48, sunny with blue skies.

Let's begin....Virgin Atlantics outgoing plane to London was like a sardine can...awful! and ...they didn't load about 50 passangers bags on the plane..including ours so we had no luggage. They told us the cargo door wouldn't open so rather than delaying the flight...they took off without all the baggage...can you believe that!!!

So..we were off to a wonderful start.

London was cold and rainy, no medication (which we stupidly checked in our luggage), no clothes and no room ready for us. Oh well...we made the best of it and headed to Harrods to kill some time. What we should have done I later realized was head to the Portobello market which is only open on the weekend, Harrods we could have seen any day. So just for your information, this might be a good idea on a Sat. or Sunday to get it in because it really is nice and the prices on stuff is better than the stores.

We went to the Tower of London and took a tour with a Beefeater who was a dud...the other tour guides seemed better than ours. We then went to St. Pauls Cathedrial and just looked around. It's quite a sight! Day two to Westminster Abbey took the headphone tour and highly recommend it. Went on a boat ride on the Thames...very nice and the sun came out..lucky us! The London Eye is closed all of January. Our consierge kept telling us different days for the changing of the guard and he was wrong...make them double check it for you.

Went that night to the Ceremony of the Keys that I learned about from someone on this site. It was very cool being at the Tower of London at night. The ceremony is nothing from nothing ...but the experience of being in the Tower and seeing the soldiers was fun (not essential).

Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard was ok although hard to see. Get there early and stand in the middle next to the gate to see more. Don't bother going the the changing of the horse guards ... a real bore!

Kensington Palace was a highlight. Having high tea at the L'Orangerie was the best! and not expensive.

Covent Gardens area is worth the trip. My daughters also loved shopping at Top Shop at the Oxford Circus tube stop.

I heard from lots of people on this site that Jerry Springer the Opera was great...YUK we all thought it stunk! I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. A wonderful show was Blood Brothers...a must see.

Indian food is fantastic in London. Someone recommended Rasa (Oxford Circus) and it was terrific (thanks to that person)

We took a day trip to Paris which was Perfect. We had the greatest day and thanks to hearing about a tour guide named Michael Ormand on this site, I arranged for him to take us all over Paris for the day. He was terrific and made our day absolutely perfect!

Someone recommended we go to Hemstead and walk around ...not worth it.

We never got to Camden market, I hear that its pretty interesting but only open on the weekend...so maybe try to do that too.

The dollar is really weak in London, it was depressing to see how little our money buys. For a $50 I got back 24 and change in the hotel...bummer! Paris was a bit better but not much. So in order to save some money we bought yogart and brought some power bars with us and that's what we had for lunch...which was fine, saved time and money.

Well I'm glad to give all of you my two cents....and hope I helped someone else plan out their trip like I was helped on this site. Have a wonderful trip.

Did you lose your ATM card? I can't imagine why anyone would ever change money at their hotel -- usually even worse than at the airport.
But glad to hear you kept your spirits up despite quite a few disappointments.

Sorry to hear that you had a dud Beefeater. The one that gave my tour in 2002 was very good.

Overall, it sounded like there were so many negative experiences that I wonder how much worse it could have been without the advise from this forum!?

Keith

Sorry you found the Horseguards a bore. We loved the pageantry and the colorful uniforms. Made for some great photos.

I also wonder why you would change money at the hotel unless you didn't have an ATM card.

Good to hear about Blood Brothers, we are going to see it the end of Feb. I loved the Ceremony of the Keys, you were right about being there after dark: what an experience! That is just awful, what VA said about your missing luggage! Glad your trip was sucessful, Judy

Your experience with Virgin will be one more reason why we will never fly on it. Nothing like that has ever happened to us on British Airways.

I'm curious how much your day trip to Paris cost.

Daph..

The business with the luggage can happen with any airline. I have heard horror stories about Virgin, BA, AA, UA flights to London and the I will never use them again.

On the whole, I find BA and VS to be very close to each other in service on the JFK LHR route. At least both of them still serve free booze unlike AA which now charges $4 for a small drink but in reality I have found the service on both Virgin and BA to be much better than the American carriers.

hartlyn,
Surprised to hear that you didn't like Jerry Springer. Are you easily offended? Or did you just think it was stupid?
Also, where did you stay?
JoeG

Interested in your comment on how little the dollar buys. Could you give me some examples of everyday type purchases such as a cheap meal at an Indian restaurant, a soft drink, a singe tube ride, a sandwich from a take away shop etc. Thanks. We are contemplating a trip, but this is one of the things that is holding us back.

Hemstead? I've lived in London for a rather long time, never heard of it, perhaps you mean Hampstead? This is not worth a look from shopping perspective, but has some pleasant 18th century and indeed post 18th century architecture, and it is nice for a tourist to see an area slightly outside the centre of London.

Your comparison of Harrods and Portobello Rd. is a unique juxtaposition. One is a store selling virtually everything, with designer fashions, the other a "market" selling vintage/retro bits.


Re the weak USD: relatively recently there were 1.34 USD per GBP now it is around 1.78 per GBP. This is a significant increase in strength for the pound, and represents a "loss" (gain for the consumer changing sterling into dollars) of around 9 GBP per 50USD. However, this will increase tourism and investment in the US from Britain helping to stabilise an economy that is becoming increasingly shaky.