Original London Walks
 

I'm a middle-aged woman,heading to London in April and traveling alone. I've traveled a fair amount, never taking tours as I usually prefer to stumble onto my own adventurers. The one thing that I do want to experience is the "pub" experience. I don't have a problem going to dinner or the theater alone, but I usually am not comfortable going into a bar alone just for drinks. Although I will do it. I saw a brochure for the Original London Walks and thought that they might be fun, entertaining, informative, and a way to socialize a little especially during one of their pub walks. Any feedback you can give me on these walks or should I save my 5 pounds?

I've been several of their walks but never the pub ones. Every one that I have been on was excellent including their full day ones. Mosty Americans on the walks. Just a word of warning on the Jack the Ripper one. It is extremely popular so the groups can get really, really big and difficult to hear the guuide.

Hi, I took the Evening Pub Walk with London Walks. It started at 7:00 and lasted 2 hours. It was fun. We stopped in 2 pubs and the tour guide suggested beers to try. Folks on the tour would chat with each other as we had our drinks. In addition to information on the pubs, we had a history of the area between Blackfriars and London bridges so it's more than a pub crawl. Go for it!

London pubs don't seem to be like the bars in the US. No one seems to mind who you are or why you're there. I was in London with a friend but the pubs we went into in the evening (mostly for meals) didn't seem like "pickup" places. There's a thread here called Pubs in London which gives some recommendations.

Here's the link to the pub thread.

http://fodors.com/forums/pgMessages....ny+suggestions

My family and I did the Jack the Ripper Walk last May and found it to be very entertaining. There are two fellows who lead the walk. I can't remember the fellow's name that led our walk but he was the bald one. It is certainly worth the money and the crowd in May was not bad.

I think you'll really like the Original London Walks and I highly recommend them. The guides are excellent and there is something for every taste. I have done the Pub Walk ( as a single traveler) and enjoyed it. Several of us who had just met on the walk had dinner at the final pub stop. They are fun, informative and definitely worth the price.

I have done over 3 dozen walks with London walks and they do a great job. Like Annette said, the pub walks are a lot of fun. If you go to their web site walks.com you can find out about the walks and the guides.

The Tuesday night pub walk Pubs, Playhouses and Gaslit Passageways with Ruth is great. She is an absolute delight. Thursday night Apparitions, alleyways and ale with Peter is another good one. Also, the pub walks along the Thames are fun.

There are so many great walks - Eccentric London, Old Hampstead village, the Beatles, Shakespeare and Dickens. The list goes on.

I love the stories you get on these walks. George Washington swore he would never set foot on British soil. So, before they put his statue in Trafalgar Square, they dug a huge hole and took away the dirt. They brought dirt from Virginia to fill the hole.

I've been to London solo lots of times, and have done many of the London Walks.
They are perfect for an evening when you aren't going to the theatre, and want to have something to do. I enjoyed the Pub Walks which I took, and you do meet up with people to talk to and possibly have dinner with afterwards. Some of the other evening walks were great too. The guides are terrific, and they seem to keep the same guides for years and years.

For those who have been on several walks, are there any you would recommend for my 14 year old daughter? I know Jack the Ripper would be too "scary" for her:-)) Susan

Samejia ,What are her interests?

for a fourteen year old I would suggest the following:
Ghosts of the West End
The Beatles " In My Life Walk'
The Beatles Magical Mystery Tour
The London Walk
Richmond & Hampton Court
London Panorama
or any of the city walks i.e. Clerkenwall, Westminster, Chelsea,Greenwich and Kensington

You can check out all the walks offered at www.walks.com

Susan, I'm taking my 14 year old (will be 15 then) to London this summer. Also, couldnt get www.walks.com to come up. I am keeping a running list of notes of all the great suggestions from everyone ... thanks so much to everyone who contributes!

The URL for London Walks is actually http://london.walks.com (without any www).

I just tried it and got the "server busy" error, but I used it Friday and got through fine. Maybe they're doing maintenance this weekend?

> I know Jack the Ripper would be too "scary" for her

Sadly, when I took the Ripper walk, it didn't have that type of feel at all. Between the huge number of people in the tour and the fact that you are visiting sites that are nothing like they were at the time of the Ripper, there wasn't much atmosphere.

Keith

Thanks everyone. I'll check the sites out. My 14 year old is interested in the typical teenage girl stuff: music, shopping, tennis. We'll be spending a couple of days at Wimbledon so our time in London for sightseeing is really only 3 days. Thought doing a walk would be neat if time permitted... Susan

We were considering taking our 11 yr old son on the Jack the Ripper walk because he likes 'spooky' things. Is the walk very graphic in its description of the 'acts' of is it more atmospherically spooky? Is there a better walk to do in the evening that he might enjoy?

Tyr23

I have done Jack the Ripper twice with Don Rumbelow. He is very good but also he describes in graphic detail what happened to Jack's victims. This may be too much for your 11 year old.

I would suggest you try Ghosts of the Old City on Tues and Sat nights. The City is pretty deserted at night and on weekends. Haunted London is on Friday and Sunday nights. Ghosts of the West End is on Monday night.

Bob

Thanks for the info on the Jack the Ripper tour. I think it would be a bit much for my 11 year old. We'll try one of the other tours that you suggest instead.

we did our first "Paris Walks" last year at the end of a 2-week trip through the South of France. We were too frazzled to plan anything for Paris. (Well, frazzled isn't true, we'd had some marvelous experiences and didn't overdo at all). Still the walks were entertaining and pointed out some things we'd missed when we'd been there previously. We've got a day, night and day in London this May on our way to Africa (Cape Town and Botswana) so I think we'll try a London Walk this time!

Thanks everyone! You've sold me! I just printed out the new schedule for Summer 2004 (covers my trip in April). I'll do the pub walks and let you know when I get back! Thanks again.