Visit London Sites in 5 days
My wife and I will be in London for 5 days. We are staying in the Hampstead area near Chalk Farm tube Station. We would like to see:
Tower of London; Tower Bridge Exhibition; London Bridge Experience Westminster Abbey; St. Pauls Cathedral Hampton Court Palace; Tate Modern or Tate Britain Thames River Boat Cruise Churchill War rooms Can we combine some of these in one day, so I can see all of them in 5 days? We will buy the Oyster Card for travel within London. Thanks |
Yes to almost all of these. I would scrap the London Bridge experience and poss the Tower Bridge Exhibition too. You can walk across Tower Bridge and take pics from either side and up and down the river which may be enough for you. Everything else looks good.
Since you are near Chalk Farm tube you should get an ice cream or sorbet from Marine ices (blood orange and campari is my fave of theirs - from the takeaway window - no need to eat in). Also, maybe take in the view from Primrose Hill. |
I'd ditch both Tower Bridge Exhibition and London Bridge Experience.
depending on your interests - I'd include either the British Museum, V&A or National Gallery. You likely don't have time for all three but at least one of them. |
You can combine Westminster Abbey and the Churchill War Rooms in one day (we did them in one afternoon). They are very close to one another.
I'm pretty sure you could combine the Tower of London and St. Paul's in another day. Since I haven't done that, hopefully someone else will chime in. Lee Ann |
>>I'm pretty sure you could combine the Tower of London and St. Paul's in another day. Since I haven't done that, hopefully someone else will chime in.<<
Definitely. Tower all morning til after lunch and then hop on the #15 bus in front of the Tower and hop off right in front of St Paul's. After the cathedral one can walk across the Millennium Bridge and get a peek at Tate Modern and the Globe (there wouldn't be a lot of time to tour the Tate and Globe but one or the other would be doable) |
you can travel on the Themes using public transport (no commentary) or can take a tourist cruise. there is a public river transport that goes from Tate Modern to Tate Britain
on some trips you can use the pay as you go Oyster card. If you would like a larger underground map rather than those microscopic ones, ask for a large print one at a tube station. |
I'd agree with the advice above in general.
A couple alternative pieces of info/suggestions: *We enjoyed the Tower Bridge Exhibition, as we had great views from on high, plus my husband really enjoyed the mechanical displays. However, we used 2for1 vouchers so it didn't seem expensive, and we had twice as many days as you have in London. It wouldn't stay on a short list of must-do's. *Yes, with your time I'd say to definitely plan to go to the British Museum, for say, half a day. *Lines at the Tower, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's get longer as the day goes on. I'd personally plan for those to be the first thing on 3 separate days, then plan the rest of the day geographically sorta around them. That still leaves you with a day to start to Hampton Court first thing. *We loved climbing to the top of St. Paul's dome for wonderful views--no cameras inside, but you can use it when outside up there. So if that is appealing, that's something to schedule for what looks like a good weather day if possible. And are your 5 days 5 FULL days? Not counting arrival and departure? If not, you will have some adjustments to make--don't plan anything major or inside or definite for arrival day, as too much can happen. (For example: one day--Tower then Southbank walk, maybe the Exhibition; another day--Westminster Abbey, then all the surrounding area, Whitehall, Churchill War Rooms, (maybe National Gallery?--might be a bit much); another day--St. Paul's, Millennium Bridge, Tate, maybe British Museum; another day--Hampton Court Then if you have another day, you can see other things) |
<<We will buy the Oyster Card for travel within London.>>
Don't do that, you'll waste money. You asked about "we" and that means there's more than one of you in the group. Do this: (1) Go to www.daysoutguide.co.uk and check out the 2for1 offers. Print out every voucher of interest. (2) Bring passport-size headshots of yourself to London. (3) Go to the nearest National Rail station to your temporary abode (Euston or Kings X) and buy a seven-day Travelcard for zones 1-2 (because Hampstead and Chalk Farm are in zone 2) from the NATIONAL RAIL ticket office, not the Underground ticket office. The National Rail ticket office will be on the same level as the omnipresent Boots and M&S Simply Food stores. You'll get an orange-ish flimsy paper card. (4) Present said card and voucher at sites that participate in the 2for1 deals. These include the Tower, the War Rooms and Hampton Court Palace. Your savings for those three will be around (or over) 50 quid - that's nearly $85. (5) Send me 10% of your savings by Paypal. Ok, #5 is optional. |
Thanks to all for suggestions and tips. Gives my wife and I a good idea which sites can be combined in one day.
I do plan to buy the Oyster Card for travel by Tube and bus. We will have 5 full days from Tuesday to Saturday. |
Oyster cards are not eligible for the 2for1 deals so if you want to take advantage of those deals you need a paper travel card as described above.
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Take BigRuss's advice - don't do the Oyster card, get a 7-day paper travel card from a national rail station so you can take advantage of the 2-for-1 offers.
Do they still require the passport sized photo? I seem to remember reading some where that requirement was removed recently... |
They do still need photos as far as I know...
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<<I do plan to buy the Oyster Card for travel by Tube and bus. We will have 5 full days from Tuesday to Saturday.>>
You do not understand what I am saying: the travelcard will work for the Tube and bus AND will save you on admission to various sites (HCP, Tower, War Rooms). The Oyster is superfluous. You getting me now? |
BigRuss - Just to confirm, if the travel card is bought from the National Rail office, can it be used for Tube travel? (I checked the daysout website and that was the impression I had, but wanted to check w/the expert!) tx.
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BR: Disregard my question since you explained it just as I was posting. Thanks.
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I was planning on combining sites as follows:
One day - Westminster Abbey and Churchill War Rooms Second day _ Tower of London and St Paul's Cathedral Third day - Tate Modern, Shakespeare Globe Theater, cross the millennium bridge to the Eye Fourth day- British Museum and ... Fifth day - Hampton House Palace. Is it worth seeing? I believe, it is in zone 6 and may take the whole day with travel. Maybe combine with Kew Gardens? |
Doable. Couple minor things:
The Tate Modern, Globe, and Eye are all on the Southbank so you won't cross the bridge. But you will want to go out on it either with St. Paul's visit or with 3rd day stuff--or both. You might consider the British Library on 4th day. If so, I'd start there, as it can be "done" in an hour or two, then takes maybe 30 minutes to Tube/walk to the British Museum where you'd have until you dropped or it closed! Hampton Court Palace is DEFINITELY worth it! Don't have any advice for your situation, as I've had my two visits with students on a tour bus so didn't have to arrange own travel. I probably could have spent longer; it took half days both of my visits. |
I agree w/ texasbookworm. The Tate and Globe are directly across the river from St Paul's, and then the Eye is farther ip river.
I'd maybe combine the War Rooms, Westminster Abbey and the Eye on the same day since the Eye is right across the river from the Abbey/Big Ben/Parliament I'd do either HCP or Kew and not try to do both on the same day. Can be done but would make for a VERY long day w/ a massive amount of walking. From either you could be back in central London by late afternoon so could maybe squeeze in another 'second tier'/smaller site |
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