jrchapma

Hello all! After reading three guide books and pouring over this site for hours and hours, I have developed an initial itinerary for our first trip to London. Please take a look and let me know if you see any major problems. This is only a suggested itinerary, one that we can stray from if we see something that looks more appealing. I've scheduled some time at the end to do last-minute things we may have missed earlier in the week.

A note about us: we'd rather hear about history (get the inside scoop via tours) or walk around interesting neighborhoods, not look at artifacts in a museum, so I do not have many museums on the itinerary. Also not a high priority are shopping (though I'd like a few souvenirs) or tea (sorry, don't care for it).

Thank you all for your suggestions!

Wednesday
Arrive at Gatwick (9 AM)
Arrive at Copthorne Tara Kensington (around 11:00 AM)
Big Bus tour (around noon), ride and grab some lunch along the way
Westminster Abbey
Ghosts by Gaslight walking tour (if we?re up to it)
Quick dinner
Sleep!

Thursday
10:15 Big Bus Royal Walk tour (ends at 11:45)
TKTS - Leicester Square
Lunch ? Gordon?s Wine Bar? Short walk here?
Walk around Square, neighborhood
Walk to Cabinet War Rooms (1 hour)
Dinner ? suggestion for dinner near Prince Edward Theatre?
Momma Mia

Friday
Tower of London (9 AM ? 2.5 hours)
Lunch ? need suggestion by Tower or St. Paul?s
St. Paul?s Cathedral (1.5 hours)
National Gallery
Dinner and pub crawl

Saturday
Day trip to Bath
10:30 Mayor?s tour of Bath
Lunch
Sights and shopping
Train home
Dinner (or dinner in Bath, late train home)

Sunday
Artists fair on Bayswater RD side of Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park (Is this still happening in mid-November?)
Free day ? need suggestions for interesting neighborhoods to stroll
Jack the Ripper Tour

Monday
London Walk (Old Mayfair?)
More time for strolling, shopping, or seeing sights we missed earlier in the week
Theatre or London Symphony

Tuesday
Good-bye London!

kaudrey

Hi jrchapma,

I'll throw in a few suggestions:

Others may say not to do a night thing on the first day, but I would do as you have planned. I stayed up until about 10pm my first day and did fine.

Thursday - I'm not sure how busy TKTS is in November, but it opens at 10am. When I went in January of this year, I went to get in line at about 9:30 and there were already a bunch of people ahead of me. Just a warning that if you don't get there until after your tour, which will be noon or later, Momma Mia may be sold out by then.

Leicester Square is near Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street shopping, so that could be your afternoon. Or you could head over to Covent Garden.

Friday - I really don't remember anywhere to eat close to the Tower, but there are lots of places nearer to St. Paul's. Just grab a sandwich at a cafe or stop at a pub.

Sunday - The Artists' fair is year-round. I went in January on a raining morning and found a lovely, small oil painting, which I bought. The gardens are very nice as well. To stroll - Notting Hill is nice. You could also walk along the Thames or go to the Shakespeare theatre - they do a fun tour.

Have a great trip. I hope this helped a little.

Karen

keith_l

If "Mamma Mia" is a must see, then I'd suggest booking in advance and not relying on TKTS to get discounted tickets - if they do have the tickets, then get there early as they may well sell out. DO NOT BUY FROM THE OTHER LEICESTER SQUARE "CHEAP TICKETS" OUTLETS - they will charge you high prices for poor seats.

Do you have any idea when you'll be going?

obxgirl

If you can do the Ghost Walk on your first night in London, more power to you! Sounds like you're flexible in case jet lag catches up with you.

My only other itinerary comment is that your Friday might be a bit overloaded. After the Tower and St. Pauls, I think you'll be too tired or too late to do the National Gallery much justice.

The thread "best books on walking london" has a wealth of info about neighborhood walks. I highly recommend you check it out if you haven't already encountered it in your research here. I have to mention one that is excellent: Ben Haines' historical walking guide (http://victorianresearch.org/Haineswalks.pdf )

If you're into gardens, there's always something to see in the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew.

Sounds like a fun trip!

ron

Sunday afternoon, the Old Highgate Village guided walk by London Walks would meet your history, interesting neighbourhood criteria. And you could follow it up with a visit to the Highgate Cemetery.

jody

I think the correct url of Mr Haines Walks is

http://www.victorianresearch.org/haineswalks.html

dumas1870

Take a look at Thursday. You have a fairly late start and Leicester Square
is nothing special to look at. Seems like that walk and the tickets are driving the entire day's agenda.

What exactly is a Big Bus Royal Walk tour and where does it depart from?

What will you do between the War rooms and the Theatre?

jrchapma

Thank you all for your comments! I'm buying tickets for Momma Mia through Ticketmaster before we leave. My mistake for not taking the TKTS stop off the itinerary before I posted it (it has gone through several revisions!). I'll go to TKTS on Monday if we go to the theatre.

jrchapma

Or I could get Momma Mia tickets for Mondya night and stick to my Thrusday schedule. I'd also like to see Blood Brothers or Stones in His Pockets. They seem to be available most days at TKTS.

Does anyone have experience getting to the TKTS booth later in the day? I think I've read other posts from people who went in the afternoon and still got tickets. There are several shows I'd like to see (we don't get much theatre where I live and I LOVE it!) so I'm sure something will still be available.

jrchapma

We're arriving in London on November 12.

dumas1870 - the Big Bus Tour now offers three walking tours. The Royal Walk, according to their website: "Our classic Royal London Walk takes you to the very heart of historic Royal London from St. James's Palace, official residence of Prince Charles, to Buckingham Palace, celebrated home of the Queen, taking in one of the world's most spectacular ceremonies on the way - the Changing of the Guard."

I thought I might get some additional insight from the tour, rather than just walking past these structures.

The tour departs from outside the National Gallery and ends at the Big Bus information center, which is south of Buckingham Palace.

What will we do between the Cabinet War Rooms and the theatre? Whatever we want! Maybe a pre-theatre pint in a pub? Maybe a much needed nap? Who knows!

jody and obxgirl - thank you for the walking information! I'll have to check out that book.

ron - thank you for the walk suggestion. I read the description on their website and it sounds fascinating!

janis

Now that you've cleared up the confusion about trying TKTS for Mamma Mia . . .

There is really no need to be at TKTS at opening time. Especially in Nov. That is really the only time during the entire days you will have much of a queue. The folks who show up early have nothing to do but stand in line and wait - whereas if you show up an hour or so later, or at lunch time, or even in the late afternoon - there will still be many shows available and hardly any line. And Blood Brothers and Stones are almost always available at TKTS.

The rest of your itinerary looks pretty doable - except I agree Friday looks pretty tiring - not that it can't be done.

Also - don't count on being at your hotel that early on Wed. After waiting for your bags, clearing immigration, catching the train into London and either the tube or a taxi to the hotel you will be doing very well to be there by noon.

jrchapma

Thank you janis and others - it sounds like I may have underestimated how much time we might spend at the National Gallery. It is free, so I guess we could pop in, look around, and go back at a later date if we still want to see more. I definitely don't want to over do it and have sore feet/aching back the rest of our trip.

By the way, we're not checking baggage (I am an excellent packer!) so hopefully that will help get us out of the airport faster and on to our hotel.

I got the tickets for Monday night's Mamma Mia through Ticketmaster. Yeah! And I can't believe how reasonable the Ticketmaster fees are in the UK! I think for both tickets they charged service fees of $6 total. In the US it's about $12 PER TICKET!

DMG

We had reservations at Indigo for a pretheater dinner (which we thought was wonderful). We had taken a long walk and sat for a while in the lobby of One Aldwych Hotel. It was so comfortable that we fell asleep and got a well deserved nap! So you may want to try that between your walk and theater.

jrchapma

DMG - Indigo sounds great! I found some online reviews and they were all favorable.

Pardon my ignorance, but I've never eaten at a restaurant that had a fixed price menu (i.e three courses for 20 GBP). In that situation, am I ordering off the normal menu, or is it an abreviated version of their regular fare?

I looked at Indigo on a map and it's hard to tell if I can walk to the Prince Edward Theatre from there (some maps make distances looks very short when they are not). Can anyone advise?

janis

jrchapma: many (most actually) restaurants will have set price meals for at least part of the evening. often pre-theatre meals are price fixed because they can speed up service if the choices are limited. but most everywhere that offers set meals gives you several choices for each course - and also has full menu slections.

The Prince Edward theatre is totally surrounded by good restaurants - it is on Old Compton St in Soho and there are probably 100 or more restaurants within a 5 minute walk. Italian, Chinese (China town is only a block away), Greek, French and pubs are all over. You would not need to pre-book before Mamm Mia - you could just walk through the neighborhood about 80 or 90 minutes before curtain and read the posted menus and just pick one that looks good to you.

Good for you packing light - you will be out of LHR and on your way to the hotel LONG before the other passengers even collect their luggage!

saglassman

A real highlight of our recent trip to London was Borough Market, the most incredible farmer's market I've ever seen, located across from the London Bridge Tube stop.
It is only open on Fridays from 12-6 and all day Saturday. You could go there on Friday morning and have lunch there. Great samples, all kinds of food, and the most fun ever!
It definitely beats the Tower of London and many other sights.

Sylvia

DMG

jrchapma: We in fact did see Mamma Mia the night we ate at Indigo and it was not a long walk. At Indigo (as well as many other restaurants with fixed price dinners), you can get two or three courses with perhaps three or four choices for each course. The full regular menu is also available if you prefer at the regular prices (which ususally add up to much more).

bbkay

Spent my first week in London in September. Like you did LOTS of research. Do NOT worry about food. I was amazed by the number of restaurants on literally every corner. You will easily be able to find something close to any of your destinations (except maybe the Tower, since that is somewhat set apart). Choices run from local deli pubs, to American style fast food, to ethnic, to british fare. We tended to eat a large Pub meal in the middle of the day and go light for supper. "Richoux" is a nice restaurant with a number of locations around London. They do a lovely full breakfast, lunch and also a very nice afternoon tea (I am sure dinner too, we just didn't go for dinner). They are more casual than the formal teas in atmosphere, but the food is VERY good and the prices are much better. Marks & Spencers has recently opened many "just food" outlets around the city. They have lots of ready made sandwiches etc.. If you have a microwave in your room you could even buy a meal to go. You will have NO problem finding lots of choices for food.
About your itinerary. I do hope you will do the Vergers Tour at Westminster. It is only 3 BPS after you pay a big admission fee just to get in the Abbey and you get an 1 1/2 hour FANTASTIC tour. Very worth it!!!

I found Covent Garden to be my favorite for shopping. Oxford St. is just like an American mall with big GAP stores etc...Very little charm. Covent Garden is large with lots of little shops that are different from the major international chain stores. Covent Garden also has lots of street performers and we enjoyed a live band that was playing every day over the weekend. I also wished I had spent more time around Harrods and the shops in that area, try that as well.

Leceister Sq. is like NYC Times Square but much bigger. The nightlife activity runs from Piccadilly Circus through Leceister Sq. and toward Convent Garden. The activity is unbelievable and sooo fun to watch at night. Spend time after the theatre around 10PM. You might want to stop in a club or get a late meal, go to a pub or just people watch. Do NOT miss this action! By the way, these places are all close together and easy to walk between.

FYI St Paul's is having major restoration done. There is scaffolding all over the inside of it and I think on some of the outside as well.

You might also enjoy a tour and/or play at Shakespeare's globe theatre, very historical.

You have no castles on your tour?

jrchapma

DMG - did you find it necessary to have a reservation at Indigo?

bbkay - thanks for all of the great information. I don't have any castles on my list. I played around with the idea of doing a quick trip to Windsor on Monday, but it might not be wise to be out of the city the day before we leave for home. Do you have suggestions for castle?

saglassman - love the market idea! Thanks for that tip!

Dkamstra

A quick plug for Wagamama restaurant on Kensington High street. Just around the corner from your hotel. Also Second the Vergers tour at the Abbey.