Texan visiting UK
 

I spent a month in London working a year or so ago and stayed in the Kensington area.
Great area, very convenient to everything.
This time it looks like I will be staying at the Marriott Executive Apartments at Canary Wharf. I will have my 18 year old daughter with me and she will be sightseeing alone.
Is this going to be a miserable location for her?
I doubt I can change loactions as the event I am conducting is at the hotel... and there is no chance of splitting up between 2 hotels.
On the bright side, this is an slick new luxury hotel.
Any hints or encouragement would be appreciated.

The "tube" made everything very easy for me from this locale on a recent trip. The London underground system ias a marvel once you crack the code of the different coloured lines. Burberry (the clothiers) have a marvelous little tube and sightseeing pocketmap that your daughter might find useful.

Excellent... I forgot to add that we will be there June 17-24.
You suppose it is dangerous for her to be sightseeing alone?
I don't recall being scared there... well except in the tunnels that you have to go through to get to the Hyde Park tube.
She's not very well traveled but I plan to give her good directions each day.

An 18-year-old who is the daughter of the self-proclaimed "travel pro"???? Uhhhh, somehow I rather doubt this young woman will have any trouble at all getting around!

I am a high school teacher in Italy and was scouting London for the specific purpose of planning a side-trip for "our kids" (aged 14-19). I am recommending the excursion as a safe and useful adjunct to their usual Rome-Florence-Venice jaunts.

We will give them a pre-trip workshop,a one-day orientation, give them maps, show them to the Underground and turn 'em loose.

The only cautionary note I would add is that your daughter should not be on the tube (or even the streets) when the pubs get out. I think it was between 10 and 11 pm. It seems that British drinking laws force one mandatory closing and everybody drinks a whole lot as closing is called and then spills out onto the street all at once.

We are declaring a curfew one half hour before closing time so that our kids won't have to get involved.

Good luck and have a wonderful time with your daughter.

TXTravelPro:

How do you imagine London's 18 year old women get around? You certainly won't find any of them needing chauffeurs or handholders to get to work or go to bars in the evening.

The biggest threat your daughter will face will be in the bars around Canary Wharf.

The 20-something traders and bankers in the area's offices will be making a beeline for her.

Great responses!
Actually my daughter has been to just about every major US and Canadian city and has spent very little time wandering around on her own.
Her biggest problem is that she is not used to being alone and sometimes fails to recognize risk... or at least that's what her Mom thinks. :p
It'll be good for her, I suppose.
Pubs, at 18? Is the legal drinking age in London 18?
It's 21 here. You can legally carry a hand gun here in Dallas at 18, though (lol).

Lest anyone get the wrong impression . . . one can't legally carry a gun in Texas at 18 . . . one must be 21 and take a 10-hr class, pass a shooting proficiency test, and pass rigorous background checks (my husband teaches the concealed hangun classes).

Sandy (in Denton)

Yes, the legal age for buying alcohol is 18.

The Marriott at Canary Wharf was still being fitted out when I went past there a couple of weekends ago, so keep in touch to check progress - I notice it's supposed to be open by June, but who knows?

It's right beside the Docklands Light Railway station, so getting around and getting back shouldn't be difficult - and travelling some distance to get anywhere is part of the London experience. There aren't a lot of 'sights' in the immediate area, but Greenwich is a quick train ride away, and there's also a river bus to central London about five minutes' walk away.

There are plenty of swish shops, cafés and restaurants in the immediate area, but it is a bit of an island of commercial glitz set in an otherwise very workaday, and traditionally impoverished, area which has undergone a lot of change.

I live nearby and am never worried about safety, but I'm not a young woman who hasn't travelled much. So maybe I take a certain streetwise-ness for granted, and LJ and flanneruk's comments should be taken seriously, at least as regards the evenings.

As people have said if you can master the tube you can go anywhere. And from personal experience an 18 year old girl will be fine by herself. Despite being such a big city I always feel quite safe in it, it's so busy that you are unlikely to be caught in a dangerous situation alone, even if you are relatively oblivious to the risks.

London has plenty for her to enjoy, point her in the direction of Oxford Street and there'll be enough to keep her occupied all day if she's a shopping kind of girl. Alternatively lots of the museums, art galleries etc. are now free and great to spend a morning wandering around. Covent Garden, the parks, i'm sure she'll have a great time!

If she is unsure about traveling alone look into the tourist hop on and off buses. She can see the sights and not worry too much about "getting lost."
In general the buses (not upstairt) are safer than the tube (not that the tube is considered unsafe).
Figure out a few safelt rules ahead of time. Curfew, drinking rules ( one pint? two pints?), travel etc.
The biggest "danger" will be the drinking and her coping. I don't know your daughter but assume she is a wonderful lovely girl. HOWEVER she will be in a country that allows 16 year olds in pubs. Talk with her ahead if time about your expectations and hers regarding this issue. Then set her loose!