1 week in London next April - seeking suggestions

HawkeyeNFO said:
....Be advised that spending a week in London will make any other city on the planet seem inexpensive....
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How true. We used to kid around with our UK colleagues that just about everything in London cost about the same as it did in NYC, except it was in pounds rather than dollars (at the time 1 GBP ~ $2 USD). There was ONE notable exception... beer was reasonably priced but you had to like it room temperature.

I recall one week I landed and went to change from casual clothes I traveled in to my suit and discovered I had left my wingtips at home. I now have a nice $350 (1999 dollars) pair of British wingtips sitting in a closet... vary nice, high quality shoes but the most expensive pair I have ever owned. Or was that 350 GBP? I don't remember. :facepalm:
 
audreyh1 said:
When my brother lived in New York City, there were quite a few places nearby where you bought food to-go off a buffet, putting what you wanted into a container, and they weighed the box and charged you by weight.
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I was thinking of stuff like salads, pasta dishes, Indian food, all prepackaged at some central location, for sale in grocery chains.

Quality is a cut above what you'd find in the US.
 
Marks and Spencers sells great sandwiches.

On our last trip we had a wonderful smoked salmon on a bun sandwich from Harrods deli. Cannot remember the price but we thought that it was very reasonable.

We second Pret a Manger. Coffee used to be 99P and as good as Starbucks. Their sandwiches are very good as well.
 
All the major train stations have a shop selling "filled baguettes" (subs) that are great, made fresh a few times a day
 
These are great suggestions for lunch options, I can happily live off sandwiches. On a trip to London years ago for dinner I picked up a pizza at a train station and walked it back to my hotel to eat. On more than one night. Yes, I am really cheap, but will try to control those urges when I travel with others.
 
I'm spending one night in London in early January, on the way from a week in Chamonix.

More and more you're seeing $10-20 burgers becoming popular all over Europe and London is no different.

Not sure if Europeans can make good burgers though.

Supposedly Nandos is good for a chain, because of the peri peri chicken.

Never really tempted to try a British pub. The idea of meat pies and similar English fare pales compared to international cuisine options there.

For that matter, I haven't tried fish and chips there either.
 
Because of Britain's long association with India, the U.K. and London in particular, has many good Indian restaurants. In fact, curries are considered national dishes in England and have featured prominently on menus for a century or more. Here is a list of recommendations from the Telegraph, but of course there are hundreds of mom and pop Asian restaurants all over London.

Britain's top 20 curry houses - Telegraph
 
pullmyfinger said:
These are great suggestions for lunch options, I can happily live off sandwiches. On a trip to London years ago for dinner I picked up a pizza at a train station and walked it back to my hotel to eat. On more than one night. Yes, I am really cheap, but will try to control those urges when I travel with others.
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All these convenient options, but sandwiches and pizza are out if you eat gluten free.
 
You either need to rent a car to get to Stonehenge/Salisbury or you can join a tour in London that will take you to Stonehenge. There are 1 day tours from London.

pullmyfinger said:
I have a very exciting trip coming up next April. My beloved brother accepted our offer to take his family (DB, DSIL, their daughter age 14 and son age 12) to Europe next spring. We are straddling spring break so the kids won't miss too much school and our itinerary: 7 nights in London, fly to Berlin, 6 nights in Berlin, is one that they are excited about, especially London. It will be the first time on an airplane for the kids, my brother's second trip to Europe in his lifetime, the 1st one was in 1984 when I was 15 and he was 14. So needless to say this is a big deal. I think his family is a little overwhelmed thinking about this, so DH and I are coming up with the basic itinerary. My plan is to give the rough draft itinerary to DB in the next week or so, so that they can start thinking about what they would like to see and start planning. I would love the advice of the knowledgable travelers on this forum.

So I'll start by asking for suggestions about London. I have reserved an apartment for the 7 nights in the area of Crouch End, so we will plan on getting 7 day travel cards for everyone. I am also planning on ordering the 3 day London passes ahead of time so that we can get discounted rates. I would love ideas about must see places, favorite sites, and if anyone has ideas about what would appeal most to children those ages. I have Rick Steves books and will be compiling information on which sites don't charge admission, which are covered by the London passes, days which the sites are open, etc, etc.

Another question is about possibly visiting Stonehenge. DB asked if it would be possible to go there, and my first thought was that it would be a challenge taking trains/buses to get there. Then DH suggested renting a car and driving there. Any thoughts on that? Thanks in advance!
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explanade said:
Never really tempted to try a British pub. The idea of meat pies and similar English fare pales compared to international cuisine options there.
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Actually many pubs now feature very good food. They've even coined the phrase gastropub to describe them. They're a long way from the old, nasty pub faire.

Here's an interesting list of some:

London's best gastro pubs
 
Lots of good advice in the posts above. The family and I spent a week in London this past summer (me + DW + 5 kids (tweens thru teenagers). Some thoughts from me (apologies if it repeats info from some of the above posts).

I did a bit a research on transit cards and for us, the 7-day London TravelCard worked out best. Get a 7 day pass from a National Rail Station, and you get 2 for 1 discounts on a number of sites (You have to purchase from a National Rail Site - getting from a Tube station will NOT work to get the 2 for 1 deals). We felt it was better than the Oyster card, and we didnt want to get locked in by purchasing one of the all access passes. We definitely got our monies worth on the transit part - took buses/tube everywhere. Used the 2 for 1 a couple of times which helped. Another note that if you do purchase this type of TravelCard, you will need a passport sized photo.

As someone mentioned, if you have a smart phone, there is a great London transit app. We stayed by King Cross station and could put in our location and destination and it would let us know which bus, tube, etc. to take and the location of the bus stop. Could watch on the map in real time where you were going.

We thought about going to Stonehenge, but after some back and forth, decided that we would make a day trip to Bath. Not quite as easy to get to Stonehenge and my understanding is that you cannot go directly up to the monument. You are kept some distance away. Bath is highly, highly recommended. All the kids loved it - great scenery, great history, etc. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We took the train there. I would have to double check but I believe it was around $35/round trip or so. ~ 1.5 hours one way.

Warner Bros. studio was another day trip. If there are Harry Potter fans, again, recommended. We did it ourselves - train to bus and was quite easy. There are all inclusive tours offered (transport + entrance to the studio), but with a bit of research, you save quite a bit (on the transport) by doing it yourself. We spent the whole day there (though it does take about 1.5 hours to get there).

Lots of free museums. We did do the Jack the Ripper walk. Guide was great, but the city has changed so much since that time that you really have to use your imagination to see how things were. Relatively inexpensive things we did and enjoyed: Tower Bridge, The Monument (which has a vertigo inducing circular staircase to the top!), Shakespeare Globe theater (not so cheap but very interesting), the Clink Museum

We did not rent a car, and did not have any need for one. The travel pass and taking the train for the day trips worked out just fine.

We rented an apartment via Homestay. 7 people and worked out just fine, but we live together all the time, so are used to each others company. LOL

All in all, a great week. Kids are already asking when we can go back. Any questions, let me know.
 
Bamaman said:
Every time you go into and out of Europe, they're going to date stamp your passport. And you cannot be in the EU more than 90 days out of 180 days. You'd essentially have to stay in England/Ireland the other time. Visa's are out of the question unless you're a college student, and retirees usually are not going to be eligible for any visa from an EU country.

But Americans buying houses in certain EU countries can get a Visa if the bring between 300,000 and 500,000 Euros into their banks. One country charges 60,000 Euros admin. fee.
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Thanks for the information. I doubt we will be in EU more than 90 days, at most it will be 60 days. I think I should be ok, but it's good to know. I didn't give myself a thought about this subject until now.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
I definitely enjoyed Bath and Bath water. Lol! I'm thinking of driving to northern England and Scotland. I wonder if anybody had any experience with buying a used car and then selling it afterwards, is it more beneficial then a rental car, especially one for long time, like 6 months.


Sent from my iPad using Early Retirement Forum
 
eastnortheast said:
Lots of good advice in the posts above. The family and I spent a week in London this past summer (me + DW + 5 kids (tweens thru teenagers). Some thoughts from me (apologies if it repeats info from some of the above posts).

I did a bit a research on transit cards and for us, the 7-day London TravelCard worked out best. Get a 7 day pass from a National Rail Station, and you get 2 for 1 discounts on a number of sites (You have to purchase from a National Rail Site - getting from a Tube station will NOT work to get the 2 for 1 deals). We felt it was better than the Oyster card, and we didnt want to get locked in by purchasing one of the all access passes. We definitely got our monies worth on the transit part - took buses/tube everywhere. Used the 2 for 1 a couple of times which helped. Another note that if you do purchase this type of TravelCard, you will need a passport sized photo.

As someone mentioned, if you have a smart phone, there is a great London transit app. We stayed by King Cross station and could put in our location and destination and it would let us know which bus, tube, etc. to take and the location of the bus stop. Could watch on the map in real time where you were going.

We thought about going to Stonehenge, but after some back and forth, decided that we would make a day trip to Bath. Not quite as easy to get to Stonehenge and my understanding is that you cannot go directly up to the monument. You are kept some distance away. Bath is highly, highly recommended. All the kids loved it - great scenery, great history, etc. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We took the train there. I would have to double check but I believe it was around $35/round trip or so. ~ 1.5 hours one way.

Warner Bros. studio was another day trip. If there are Harry Potter fans, again, recommended. We did it ourselves - train to bus and was quite easy. There are all inclusive tours offered (transport + entrance to the studio), but with a bit of research, you save quite a bit (on the transport) by doing it yourself. We spent the whole day there (though it does take about 1.5 hours to get there).

Lots of free museums. We did do the Jack the Ripper walk. Guide was great, but the city has changed so much since that time that you really have to use your imagination to see how things were. Relatively inexpensive things we did and enjoyed: Tower Bridge, The Monument (which has a vertigo inducing circular staircase to the top!), Shakespeare Globe theater (not so cheap but very interesting), the Clink Museum

We did not rent a car, and did not have any need for one. The travel pass and taking the train for the day trips worked out just fine.

We rented an apartment via Homestay. 7 people and worked out just fine, but we live together all the time, so are used to each others company. LOL

All in all, a great week. Kids are already asking when we can go back. Any questions, let me know.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your post, this is excellent information! I have lots to look into.
 
If you are using the Tube for a week get an Oyster card.

Last time we picked one up at Heathrow. Paid a deposit for the card and loaded it up with some cash. Very convenient.


Be very CAREFUL crossing the street. Look both ways twice-even on one way streets. It is so easy to forget that the traffic is on the opposite side to what we are used to.


IF you plan on some one day trips out of town, pre booking your rail could save you some money. Plus there are several rail companies to choose from on some routes. Try this site for rail tickets.
http://www.redspottedhanky.com/trains/
 
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Be sure to spend some time in the British Museum, especially the ancient Sumerians.
 
Get the Eyewitness Travel Guides for London and Berlin.

Far and away the best travel guidebooks available. Great info and tons of pictures.
 
http://www.timeout.com/london/museums/free-museums-in-london
My favorites are: British Musueum, V&A, British Library, Gallery. (Natural Science is close to V&A).
Some how, museums are free but going to church is going to cost you.
I would choose any out of London sights very carefully as any of these will burn a day but we enjoyed Bath.


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Regarding Visas, 90-day stays, etc.

Many of the European Union countries are part of the Schengen Zone: they have no border controls. So, for example, you can drive from France to Germany to Switzerland to Italy without showing a passport -- just like driving from Texas to Louisiana to Arkansas to Tennnessee, only better. :D

Not all European Union countries are part of Schengen, however. The major exceptions are the UK, Ireland, and many eastern European countries.

US Citizens may only spend 90 days in a 180 day period in the Schengen Zone without a special visa.

US Citizens may spend 6 months in the UK/Ireland without a special visa.

Hence, people who want to "do" Europe for more than 90 days will typically spend 89 days (to be safe) in the Schengen Zone countries, and then go to the UK/Ireland or the Balkan countries for 90 days....and then back into the Schengen Zone countries.

Your passport is stamped when you enter/leave the UK, and when you enter/leave a Schengen country. It is YOUR responsibility to make sure that you do not stay in Schengen more than 90 days -- you definitely do not want "overstayed visa" in your passport!

The Schengen rules are comvoluted, but I hope this helps.
 
I realized I didn't get back to all the thoughtful posters who gave me great advice for my trip! I really appreciate it and it made for a well planned smooth trip.

I ended up getting us 7 day travel cards and 3 day London passes.

We saw a ton of sights and also worked in some downtime.

Meals ended up being much cheaper and in some ways easier than I expected due to the kids pickiness. Breakfast at the apartment, lunch from a grocery store, for me usually a pre made sandwich that costs between 1 and 2 pounds or my favorite - cheese scones for M&S Simply Food, and we often picked up dinner at the Waitrose near the apartment.

We planned to rent a car to drive to Stonehenge one day, but that totally fell through, the rental car company didn't have the vehicle my brother reserved that would fit all of us. Once he got over the initial disappointment, it ended up being a good thing, there is so much to see that we didn't need to leave town.
 
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