Walking Centaral London ?
 

I've read the comments on this site, but am a bit confused. Is London too big to walk to the main tourist type activities ? Is, it will be the bus for us.

It would take you half an hour to walk from the Tower of London to Westminster, likewise, half an hour from Westminster to Covent Garden, nearer an hour from Kensington Palace to Westminster through the parks.

Provided always, of course, that you didn't want to stop and look at anything on the way.

It is useful to remember that the tube map is a schematic diagram rather than a map (that was why they tried to call it a journey planner for a few years), and that stations in the central area that look some distance apart on it are actually within close walking distance of each other.

But it all depends where you want to go to on any given day. Some trips are worth a stroll, some aren't; and there are plenty of books suggesting walking routes around particular areas or themes. I wouldn't rely on walking everywhere all the time.

The obvious questions would be "From where are you starting?" and "what do you consider a reasonable walk?".

The Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Horseguards Parade etc are all in a reasonably small area. http://www.holidaym.ru/english/london/map_london_b.jpg

www.walkit.com is useful

London is really a set of villages therefore you find clumps of attractions close to each other. Within the clump it's easy to walk, but to get between clumps it's easier to take the Tube / bus.

As others have said you need a proper map of Central London - if you go to the www.tfl.gov.uk and go to the BUS section there are a set of maps of which the Central London map is the best for most tourists - it shows roads, tube lines & major sights

&quot;<i>Is London too big to walk to the main tourist type activities?</i>&quot; the short answer is yes. But not really - you will do a LOT of walking in London. But you will also take a lot of public transport.

Some sites are close together like the ones Willit mentioned. Others are very far apart - London is HUGE. So for example Kensington Palace/Gardens, Hyde Park and the V&amp;A/Natural/History museums are near each other. But Kensington Palace and the Tower of London are miles apart.

So one usually groups sites by area, then you take public transport to such and such and walk to the nearby sites.

Thank you all so much for the info ..

the vast majority of london's most popular tourist attractions are walkable from trafalgar square (the centre point of london). the redone hungerford footbridge easily links trafalgar sq area with the south bank and its attractions (tate modern, london eye, riverside strolls, etc).

this is not to say that there is nothing interesting outside of central london. however, first time visitors can get a very good overview of the most coveted sites by using only their two feet.

willit's map does a good job of proving this. even st paul's is walkable via a very nice stroll down the south bank and over the millennium footbridge (although i would take the bus back to our hypothetical starting point of trafalgar sq. you will find:

covent garden, westminster/parliament, soho, chinatown, piccadilly, national and portrait galleries, tate modern and britain, london eye, british museum, war museum, war rooms, etc, etc, etc all very walkable by all but the very least fit walkers.

i would recommend using transport for south kensington museums (all nicely grouped and walkable among themselves), harrods (missable but still popular among tourists), camden market, and a few other popular destinations.

posts that give the impression that london's attractions are so spread out are misleading. i know of no large city where ALL tourist attractions are clustered right next to each other but i think that london has more of the most popular sites clustered together than most other cities.

As soon as you arrive, go to the nearest bookstall or bookshop and buy yourself a London A to Z.
Even Londoners used them.

A-z's aren't very good for showing where things are in relation to each other - great for finding that extremely small street with that interesting restaurant / club / pub / shop.

try this map from TFL - www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/centlond.pdf - it prints on one sheet of A4 and shows 90% of what the average tourist needs to know

london is too big and spread out to walk to see all the places of interest. take the tube. and then walk around in the area you are interested in.

It's this map that prints on one letter sheet: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/cen_bus.pdf

The one alanRow linked is available on paper, free at any Tube station.

Hop on, hop off tour bus :

http://www.londonvisions.com/tours_bigbuscompany.htm

London Pass for attractions :

http://www.londonpass.com/attraction...FRMNZwodZxIyMg

Other things :

http://www.londontourist.org/free.html