I will be arriving in London for 2 nights in October. Will be arriving by BMI from Paris, after visiting 10 days in CDG.
Arrival time is around 10am...
I am going to be staying at the Sheraton Park Lane. What is the best method of transporation from Heathrow and the Park Lane? How much would a cab cost?

Another question, what is the threate situation like there? how much are the typical shows and do I need to book tickets ahead of times?

thanks

That depends on what your definition of "best" is.

A taxi or car is luxurious £50
The Tube takes an hour £3.80
Heathrow Express to Paddington Station is the fastest £14
The last two require getting from the Tube or train to the hotel.

London Threatre is great. You can buy tickets in advance, or I have had great luck with the half price ticket booth in Leister Square on day of performance. This is the little stone building right at the Square, not at the other booths scattered in that area which I think are regular ticket agents. To give you an idea what is playing and prices see http://www.londonnet.co.uk/ln/out/en...ml#bookingInfo

What is the threat situation like there? Well, the fact of the matter is, London is at great risk for yet another attack-and this fact is acknowledged by their very own police, for whatever worth that is to you. You can keep yourself apprised of the latest news on the investigation and situation in London obviously, by reading the cnn.com, foxnews.com or yahoo.com websites, just to name a few.

After the two attacks, the first on July 7 and the attempted bombing of last week, (not to mention the other unexploded bomb found in a West London Park this past Saturday) the police have none of the perpetrators/masterminds of either attack in custody; only persons whose connection to the attacks is unclear, if indeed, there is a connection at all. Therefore, time is of the essence to capture at least one of the attempt bombers, video footage of which the police appear to have, and which have been broadcast, otherwise, they are free to strike again.

And the terrorist factions associated with "al-Qaedaism" tend to go back and hit the same targets repeatedly.

Why wasn't GB better prepared to counter the threat of such attacks? A good article to read regarding that matter appeared the day before yesterday in Britain's Scotland on Sunday, entitled "Best and Worst of M15 Exposed", highlighting some of the issues surrounding the British intelligence failures that have been a factor in the present attacks:

scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1674662005

Tellingly, their own experts are saying what most of the world's law enforcement services have been echoing:

"This second failure of intelligence, warns Mike Smith, an intelligence expert at King's College, London, underlines a longer-term inability to come to terms with the threat posed by Islamist terrorism in this country. "

"Even if the intelligence community did not have day-to-day information pointing to a specific threat, they should have been aware of where the risk was coming from," he said. "There have been enough warnings. I am surprised that this second group was as far off the radar as the first."

And finally, from FBI agent Pomerantz:

"I think it's also fair to say that they [the UK] have a problem that goes deeper than ours," US-based Pomerantz said. "The jihadists are more established in Europe. They have been there longer. They've had more time to build up networks. And, yes, the British may not have been as aggressive as they need to be in excluding these people."

That last sentence above, expressed diplomatically, pretty much says it all.

The OP asked about Theaters..not threats!

You can find good reviews and also what is likely to be available at TKTS at this website..http://www.officiallondontheatre.co.uk/

I've also booked and had tickets sent to my US home in advance for shows that were very popular and I didn't want to take a chance of missing. I used www.seetickets.com. It costa a bit more but no chance of being disappointed.

The most popular shows are not available at TKTS. The following are never available

Billy Elliot, Mamma Mia, Mary Poppins, Producers, Lion King. There may be othrs but if you wish to see any of the above, call the theatres directly. Prices to call the UK on almost all ld carriers from the US in this day and age are almost as low as calling outside your local calling area. I just don't understand why people want to pay more to use any of the booking sites on the web where surcharges are tacked on. Besides which, these sites do not have the entire inventory the theatre has.

Anything else, you can pick up the day of the performance at the TKTS office which is a free standing little building at the rear of the park which is Leicester Square. Do not be fooled as you walk from the Leicester Square underground station up the pedestrian street by the four or five store fronts that call themselves the Official half price site. They are rip off places.

The queues at TKTS are rarely terribly long, nothing like the queues you see on Broadway in NY. The boards will show you what shows are available that particular day.

First - ignore spygirl - she often goes off on rants and seems to especially detest London. Anyway - only you can decide what's best for you.

As for theatre - only the very hottest shows and some specific theatres are not available at TKTS. If you want to see one of the blockbusters - then phone the theatres directly and book. They will hold your ticket at the box office to pick up when you are in London.

to give you an idea of the selection at TKTS - here is what was available last Thrusday. Some days there will be more and some days fewer shows.

MATINEE....
As You Like It
Blood Brothers
Elmina's Kitchen
Far Pavilions
Genius of Ray Charles
HMS Pinafore
Rat Pack
The Shaughraun
Stomp
Telstar

EVENING PERFORMANCES....
As You Like It
Behind the Iron Mask
Big Life
Blood Brothers
Chicago
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Dancing in the Streets
Elmina's Kitchen
Fame
Far Pavilions
Genius of Ray Charles
Hedda Gabler
Home Place
Joseph
Les Miserables
Philadelphia Story
Postman Always Rings Twice
Rat Pack
Saturday Night Fever
The Shaughraun
Some Girls
Stomp
Talking to Terrorists
Telstar
We Will Rock You
The Woman in Black
Woman in White

Yes,poor Spygirl does seem to have a bee in her bonnet. Spygirl - try bbc.com for some news. I've never found cnn or fox to have very good reportage. Plus BBC is right there. I found that CNN tended to veer off back to 9/11 when the first bombs went off as opposed to staying focussed on another country. CNN is a navel-gazer, at best.

As for theatres, thanks for the tips everyone. I am hoping, though, to FINALLY go see "The Mousetrap" on my next trip.

There's a new show opening Aug.30..On the Ceiling..at the Garrick ,I think. A comedy about Michaelangelo and the Sistine Chaapel...sounds pretty good!

The question, Spygirl, isn't about the potential for a terrorist attack, the question was about theatre in London and how to get from the airport to her hotel.

Spygirl is at least posing as a spook for the State Department, whose opinions should be considered suspect and tantamount to scaremongering. I don't read a word of your opinions and believe you give a hoot about anyone here, only that you want to feed your ego and act like you are "in the know".

Travel to London and elsewhere in Europe is always going to have a risk even if terrorists aren't involved, as a plane could crash, a train could derail, a million things can go wrong. But the fact remains that the odds of getting killed by a terrorist attack are still significantly smaller than the danger of dying in a car accident while driving across our hometowns.

I believe, even though I rarely agree with the Bush Administration, that it's been said that if we change our lives for the terrorists, than they "win".

Commie, (I love your screen name, by the way)If you haven't been to London, you'll find the Tube to be working in most cases (there is a thread on here about where there are still some tie-ups and closures due to the 7/7 attack), and the ride from Heathrow is actually pretty neat as it passes through many London suburban neighborhoods, giving you a feel for the city without having to pay for an expensive cab.

As for Theatre, check out UKTickets.co.uk, or go to Leicester Square for same day half-price tickets. We're going back in September and can hardly wait to see our first London theatre experience.

Happy travels,

Jules

What sort of theatre are you interested in ?

Most of the above replies relate to the more popular "West End theatre", much of which IMO is absolute rubbish purely aimed at tourists (both British & non-British). (I speak as one who lived in London for 10 years & is now happily looking forward to my usual 50ish Edinburgh shows over the next month )

If you are interested in good theatre the National Theatre is usually reliable and you can book via their website - wwww.nationaltheatre.org.uk It's almost the only thing I still travel to London for.

Also worth checking out are the many small fringe venues, most of whose shows don't need booking far in advance (and are cheap !). Just look them up in the current copy of 'Time Out' (listings magazine, also useful for galleries & other stuff) when you arrive.

The odds of being on a plane when it crashes are astronomical. On the other hand, there have been two attacks on the SAME transit system in London within two weeks, and only by the grace of God and bumbling on the operation did the second set of detonators not go off. And of course, the bomb in the park this past Saturday was found by a passer-by.

No, not exactly the same odds as being in a car crash around your home-not even at all.

And I might add, the British Govt. Transport officials couldn't even see fit to institute 100 per cent bag checks on the subway system after the first attack, proclaiming officiously that it would be "impossible" to do, given the number of riders on the system.

Well, not impossible at all, particularly not when such a system actually could save lives.

And I believe no one using the NYC subways has been complaining about the checks-and there's hardly any threat of an attack in this country in that manner, comparatively speaking.

The British have a thing or two to learn about Homeland Security-unfortunately, they seem to have to learn everything the hard way.

Spygirl, Every government learns everything "the hard way". There is no other way. If you think our Department of Homeland Security is doing anything serious to stop a terrorist threat, you're living in Fantasyland.

Jules

Spygirl, you seem to forget that Britain (well, England actually) was coping with IRA bombs for many years before NYC's one-off incident.

On each of the two days of the bombings, almost five million people used public transport in London. Of these, 99.999% of them got where they were going safely.

That means the odds of anything bad happening to you on London's tube, buses, or trains are roughly the same as your being hit by lightning. <u>Twice</u> as many people are killed on the streets and highways of the US <i>every day</i> than died in the 7/7 attack.

Wear your seatbelt.