Sightseeing in London
 

I am looking for some advice about sightseeing in London. I will only be there for 1 day, so I want to make sure I see as much as I can. I have a question concerning admission to places such as Buckingham and Kensington palace, Tower of London, etc.--once you get in, can you explore at your own pace, or do you get caught up in a slow- moving mob of people? Typically how long is the wait to get into these places? Also, if you had to choose between taking a tour of Kensington Palace or Tower of London, which would you pick? We are planning to pay to see Buckingham Palace for sure, so I don't think we'll have time for both of the other two. Give me your opinions!

Beth, when are you going to be in London? Buckingham Palace is only open to tourists for short time in September I believe. I would choose the Tower of London over Kensington Palace. One is furnished with lovely paintings and furniture (much like Buckingham Palace) and the other is a medieval fortress entrenched in British history. I have not been inside Kensington Palace but the Tower can be done with a tour (conducted by a Yeoman Warder) or without. I recommend both if you have the time since the tour doesn't cover everything.

Buckingham Palace
Opening hours for 2004 - Summer Opening of the State Rooms

09:30 - 16:30 (last admission 16:15) every day 31 July - 26 September

Here's a link to Buckingham Palace http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page570.asp

My husband and I will be in London next Tuesday. We are taking the Eurostar from Paris so we will arrive at Waterloo station at 8:30am. We plan to use the Big Bus Company to get around. This is our tentative agenda:

See Big Ben
Tour of Parliament (9:15-10:30)
Westminster Abbey (10:30-11:00)
Changing of the Guard (11:30-12:00)
Buckingham Palace (12:00-1:30ish)
Harrods (1:45-2:45ish)
Kensington Palace (tour?)
Covent Garden?
Trafalgar Square
St. Paul's Cathedral (take picture since it closes at 4pm!)
Tower of London (tour?)
Dinner
*Need to be back at Waterloo station by 7:15pm (19:15)

Let me know if you think there is anything I should definitely include in my agenda and if there is something I've listed that could be cut if time does not permit. Thanks!

To expand on BettyK's excellent advice about Lodon sightseeing, Buckingham Palace will be open only from July 31 through Septemebr 26. I would suggest, if you haven't done so already, to buy your tickets ASAP as they frequently sell out. You can order them at http://www.the-royal-collection.com/royaltickets/

I also agree that the Tower would be a better choice over Kensington Palace if you only have one day - though K P and its gardens are also a really interesting place to visit, maybe you will be fortunate enough to return one day.

You asked about crowds and wait times, well of course it depends on conditions. If it's summer, a weekend or a holiday expect crowds. The Tower is almost always crowded to some extent since it's so popular. (Hint - arrive as soon as they open then hurry back to the Jewel House, after seeing the Crown Jewels, explore the rest of the Tower and/or join the tour - which BTW is free and is the only way you get to go inside the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula. It's customery to tip the guide on your way out.

Have a great time!

Forgot to mention - at Buckingham Palace you will not be allowed to just roam around exploring on your own. You will be guided through the open rooms on paths formed by velvet ropes. At Kensington Palace also only certain rooms are open (both places are still working residences & offices). At the Tower you can pretty much roam at will, with of course the administrative areas and grace-and-favour cottages being off limits.

Beth: Unfortunately your agenda is quite literally impossible.

A few issues you need to consider:

- You cannot see Westminster Abbey in 30 minutes -- heck sometimes it takes 15 to 20 minutes just to get inside. once you are in then you have to walk around in a specific route and accn't get back out until you've done the "loop". 60 to 90 minutes is about the minimum needed to see it. If you manage to hook on w/ a Verger's tour that would be great - but that would not save you any time.

- The Changing of the Guard is probably THE image of London -- but it is a huge waste of time if you are in London only a short while. Skip it unless you already have tickets to B'ham Palace for the same time.

- There is really no reason to travel over to St Pauls just for exterior photos - it is covered w/ scaffolding and sheets of plastic.

- The Big Bus Co. is good for getting your bearings and seeing all the major tourist attractions -- but it is NOT a fast way to get around.

- The Tower closes in the late afternoon and besides - you need to allow anothe 90 minutes minimum to see it -- 3 hours is better.

- PLUS you expect to do all this before 7:15 P.m.

You'll have to sit down w/ a guide book and decide the TWO (or possible 3 if you race) attractions you want to see. These would be in addition to things like Trafalgar Square and/or Covent Garden which are "walk through" places rather than "enter and tour" sites.

I agree with Janis. I would definitely see the Tower, but it requires at least 2 hours. I would alott half a day. You can see quite a bit of London on teh Big Bus tours, but not really anything in depth.

Janis has given you some excellent advice, I like to cram a lot into my days but your itinerary is too much to see in one day.

I just got back from London and even though I have been there several times before I still spent several hours at the Tower. If you haven't already purchased your tickets to Parliament, let me suggest this:

Go to the Tower first thing in the morning, it opens at 9:30 and will be much less crowded in the morning, we didn't have to wait at all to see the crown jewels and we had a manageable crowd for the beefeater tour. I would definitely opt for this over Kensington Palace. And if you are seeing Buckingham Palace, then it is the more interesting of the two palaces in my opnion unless you really have a thing for dresses.

I think I spent a couple of hours in Buckingham Palace, it's not by guided tour but by audio guide so you can go at whatever pace you want but you still have to follow a certain path. You will have to collect your tickets from the ticket booth near the Palace, give yourself some time to do that even if prebooked. And even though I was on the first tour of the day I spent at least 15 minutes in the queue, I imagine it gets longer as the day progresses.

Take the last Parliament tour of the day if you can, we did the one at 4:30. It's by timed ticket and the tour lasted about 75 minutes. It is by a human guide and you cannot wander away from your group.

Then you should still have time to visit Covent Garden, grab some dinner and maybe have a look at Trafalgar Square.

St. Paul's is indeed under scaffolding and it's really hard to get a good photo of it anyways because of the surrounding buildings. I'd skip this. And I'll agree with Janis on the Changing of the Guard, it is throngs and throngs of people, you won't be able to see much and there are much better things to spend your time on.

If you do opt for Kensington Palace, it is also by audio guide and you can go at your own pace. It was not crowded when we were there but it was first thing in the morning.

Janis is absolutely correct about your schedule being impossible. You can easily spend several hours at The Tower of London, Westminister Abbey etc. I did the same thing as Daisy54 for the Tower. Get there as soon as you can and go straight to the Jewel House and see the Crown Jewels, then go join a tour with the Beefeaters. I had the Crown Jewels to myself. Later, I noted the line out the door.

I would suggest as Janis did, pick 2 or 3 things and spend some time at each place rather than racing all over London trying to cram in as much as you can in 11 hours. You will get more enjoyment at each site and it will more than likely whet your appetite for a future visit. I am getting ready for my 8th visit and I still haven't seen everything. I will never get tired of London.

Take the Big Bus Tour-it costs 18 pounds, takes about 2 hours, (they run on two routes-you can take both) the tickets are valid for 24 hours, and you see most all of the major sites in London from the top of an open double-decker bus. You can pick it up at any their bus stops- Piccadilly Circus is one of the centrally located stops in W1. After the tour, you'll have the lay of the land, so to speak, and can decide what you want to go back and visit in depth on another trip or decide if there is one place along the tour you want to explore further-you really won't have much time for more than one place of interest-that's why it makes sense to take an overall tour first.

Probably your best course of action would be to decide which two sites you want to see the most (it would be Tower of London and Westminster Abbey for me.) Then, from Waterloo Station, walk along the Thames to Westminster Bridge. Walk over Westminster Bridge into Westminster. This will allow you to see Big Ben/Parliament and Westminster Abbey. From there, you can then pick up the Big Bus tour and see more of London. When you get to the Tower of London, you can hop off and tour that and see Tower Bridge. You won't be able to spend a lot of time at any one site, but you can get a taste of London. :) If pressed for time at the end of your tour, you may want to take a taxi back to Waterloo so you don't miss your train.

This day will <i>fly</i> by!!