Vet my 4-day London itinerary
 

I'm planning a 4-day trip to London early next year (January to March) and would appreciate your thoughts on the practicality and feasibility of the following itinerary. I'll also be looking for dinner recommendations for Days 2-4, ideally within a reasonable budget (not looking to splurge).

Day 1
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10 AM - National Gallery Tour

12:30 PM - Lunch at Trafalgar Square
Café in the Crypt, The Chandos

? - Walk by Big Ben, Buckingham Palace.

2:30 PM - Westminster Abbey Tour
- Stay for evensong at 5 PM.

? - West End Walk
Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Charing Cross Road, Denmark Street, Soho Square, Brewer Street, Picadilly Circus.

? - Dinner at Soho/Covent Garden
Soho: Hoppers, Yalla Yalla
Covent Garden: Lamb & Flag


Day 2
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9 AM - Tower of London Tour

12 PM - Lunch at Armouries Cafe

1:30 PM - Houses of Parliament Tour

? - Bankside walk.
London Bridge, Borough Market, Tate Modern, View of the Thames.

Day 3
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8:30 AM - St Paul's Cathedral Tour

11:30 AM - Catch train from Waterloo for Hampton Court Palace

12:30 PM - Lunch at Tiltyard Cafe

Day 4
---
10 AM - V&A Museum Tour

? - Lunch around South Kensington Station
Bosphorus Kebabs, Moti Mahal

1 PM - British Museum Tour

? - Lunch at Charlotte Place
Salumeria
Princess Louise Pub is nearby

Welcome to Fodors.

First - re restaurants: "ideally within a reasonable budget (not looking to splurge)." isn't very helpful since we don't know what you consider 'reasonable'. What is the actual budget for these meals.

OK -- since you don't have set dates yet, I'll assume you haven't booked any of these tours. Are these actual 'tours' where you pay someone to takes you around, or do you just mean visiting those sites on your own? Some like the Yeoman Warder's tour at the Tower which is included in the entry but is only one part of a visit to the tower - they are great. But a full on guided tour of the Tower is wholly unnecessary and not really recommended. The Vergers tour at Westminster Abbey cannot be booked ahead - you queue for them after arriving at the Abbey.

Your days are busy but not horribly jam packed -- however they are VERY hectic because the sites you've lumped together are so far flung. It is much better to book things semi-geographically. Saves masses of time just in transport if nothing else.

Day 2 doesn't make a lot of sense. Out east to the Tower - then back into the centre and a tour of the Houses of Parliament, then back out east to Borough Market/the Tate. (BTW -- that day 2 'view of the Thames' is sort of redundant since you will have seen a LOT of the Thames over and over again on days 2 and 3 - just be being there)

Day 3 is a non-starter - St Pauls Cathedral in the morning, trek to Waterloo, then lunch all the way out at HCP.

And on day 4 it would be pretty optimistic to do the V&A in the morning, have lunch in the area and be at the British Museum by early afternoon.(I assume you mean dinner on Charlotte Place, not lunch)

Instead of your day's 2 and 3 a full but good day would be something like Tower in the morning, lunch either at the Tower or at Borough Market, the southbank / Globe/ Tate Modern, walk across the river to St Paul's.

Westminster Abbey and Parliament are across the street neighbors so doing both on the same day is very easy.

Hampton Court Palace is best done starting in the morning with lunch out there and then even more time exploring the Palace after and getting back into central London in the mid to late afternoon.

So I'd re-think and reorganize things so they make more sense transit-wise.

I'm not allowed to tell you why but if you are coming from the states I would not come for four days (I assume 5 nights).

I'm guessing you haven't been to London before.

Generally, rather than "tours" of museums, I'd identify specific things I wanted to see in each and focus the limited time on those exhibits. If you don't mean "tours" but just time in each, it wouldn't be enough time anywhere for me but could be for you. I admit I'm a museum junkie.

Day 1 sounds like a sprint with a lot of clock watching to stay on schedule. Will you have jet lag? I would probably scale back the West End walk and/or see how I feel after the Abbey. You can search the walking distances/time on google maps. The TfL Go app is great for searching public transportation.

Day 2 is more relaxed. BTW, we really enjoyed the tour of Parliament. Look into a tour of the Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben). On our last trip, I left it too late to book and missed out. There is also a tour of Tower Bridge that I thought looked interesting, but we ran out of time.

Day 3, just me, but I'd rather stay in the city than devote a half day to Hampton Court Palace... especially if the weather's bad. You could use those several hours to stretch out the sightseeing on the other days, allow for more leisurely lunches, etc. FWIW, on one trip we visited Hampton Court during a school break, and it was overrun with kids. Cute but very noisy.

Day 4 morning feels like another sprint. Just getting from S. Kensington tube station to the British Museum will take more than 30 minutes.

(I see that I type and think much slower than janisj... )

I am tired just thinking about Day 1. You do need to rework this and focus more on what is of prime interest and importance to see/do.

Curious. You will be in a city with plenty of theater, but have not considered an evening play or musical. Just saying.

👍 . . . Or anything else in the evenings -- all the big museums are open late at least one evening a week. Plus concerts, etc . . .

Thank you all for the insightful comments. Let me answer some of the questions/comments below, and then show my revised itinerary.

janisj What is the actual budget for these meals?
I'm thinking around £15-£25 for a single meal for one person.

Jean Will you have jet lag?
I haven't made specific travel plans yet, assuming I arrive on day 0 not shown in the itinerary.

AJPeabody Play
Although interested in plays, I'd initially prioritized art and history, but have now factored in a show in the revised itinerary.

Day 1
---
9:30 AM - Westminster Abbey

? - Walk by Big Ben, Buckingham Palace.

? - Lunch at Wesley's Cafe/Westminster Arms

? PM - Houses of Parliament (arrive by 2 PM)

If time and energy permit
---
? - West End Walk
Leicester Square, Covent Garden, Charing Cross Road, Denmark Street, Soho Square, Brewer Street, Picadilly Circus.

Day 2
---
8:30 AM - St Paul's Cathedral

11 AM - Tower of London

? PM - Lunch at Armouries Cafe

After the Tower, see the Tower Bridge and cross over the Thames to walk along the southern bank. See the HMS Belfast cruiser ship that saw action during WW2 on the way to the Tate Gallery. A coffee at the Tate Modern offers relaxing Thames views.

London Bridge, Borough Market.

Day 3
---
10 AM - National Gallery

?- Lunch at Trafalgar Square
Café in the Crypt, The Chandos

? - British Museum

? - Dinner at Charlotte Place
Salumeria
Princess Louise Pub is nearby

Day 4
---
9 AM - Catch train from Waterloo for Hampton Court Palace

? - Lunch at Tiltyard Cafe

West End Show - Stranger Things

Oh, and don't let your 4 days overlap the closure days of your itinerary items.

Just quick -- a bit of a turkey coma right now :) 🍗🍗 🥂

You'll want to reorganize day 2 for sure. You really want to be at the Tower of London just before opening time. Then there is essentially no queue and you can see the Crown Jewels almost alone. By 11AM it will be a zoo and the Crown Jewels can easily be an hour line. Go to the Tower very first thing. It will take a minimum of 3 hours -- more if you are really into the details. So that puts you at the Tower if you want an early-ish lunch or you'll be conveniently close Southwark if you want a little later lunch in Borough Market, then the Tate, then walk across the Millennium pedestrian Bridge to St Paul's. Last entry at St Paul's is at normally at 4PM so you should have plenty of time.

However - IF you do end up spending 4 or 5 hours at the Tower, you could re-group and take the tube to St Paul's in the mid afternoon, followed by a walk across to the Tate/Borough Market.

Meant to address this: "I'm thinking around £15-£25 for a single meal for one person"

£15 is very low for a meal. £25 will be a bit easier. But even at places like the Armories Cafe main courses will run £14-£17 without v=beverages, dessert etc. Of course grab and go sandwiches will be less than that.

I've eaten at the Chandos several times -- even had 2 or 3 Fodors get togethers there. -- mains are in the £15-£20 range.

Salumeria will probably fit in your budget without drinks.

One thought -- shops like Marks & Spencer, Boots, Pret etc have really good/fresh pre-made sandwiches so you could have those for lunches and splurge a bit above your £25 for dinners (or vice versa - have a nice lunch and have a sandwiche in your room for dinner)

So, visit Tower of London in the morning and St Paul's in the afternoon? (I currently the opposite in the itinerary)

You got it :) The best strategy to visit the Tower is to pre-book timed tickets for the first slot of the day (slightly different opening times depending on the day) and get there a few minutes early - you can walk in with virtually no lines. Then there will be a Yeoman Warder (Beefeater) just inside the entrance organizing a free tour group. Ignore him (actually there also is a her now ;) ) and walk directly to the Jewel House to see the Crown Jewels with almost no one else in the room. After seeing the Jewels you can wander back to the entrance and hook up with the next Yeoman Warder tour if you want. If you waited to see the Jewels til after doing the tour, you'd think you were in the queue for Mr Toad's Wild Ride at Disneyland :)

The only other time of day that works almost as well is to arrive late in the day when the queues start to shorten -- but then you run the risk of not having enough time to explore the Tower -- it is quite extensive