first time trip to London, advice.

Awesome.
Truthfully the kiddos are pretty easy. we do enjoy museums. When we went to Paris we did the Louvre, Musee d'orsay and Musee Marmotten Monet. they enjoyed all three.

Is the war museum the same as Churchill war rooms? We definitely want to do the eye.

I'm making a list of all the suggestions. Do most of you use a travel agent or book yourself online
 
ivinsfan said:
those are 2 different things, however the 2 for 1 and other discounts are not automatically applied to visitor Oyster Card you must use coupons and various other pre-planning is required.. the topic of discussion I replied was the transit part of the Oyster,which you can do in person. I personally don't think the Visitor Oyster is the way to go.
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Not necessarily. Last time I was over there I got several of them simply by showing my Visitor Oyster.
 
It's the Imperial War Museum not the same as the War rooms. The IWM is an excellent free one that covers the entire British was history. Would be a good one for guys.
 
If you're looking to stay central, I'd suggest looking at staying around Victoria Station. We've stayed in the area a few times. It's a transportation hub and is within walking distance of a number of sites. We've also stayed in Earl's Court which has a number of small hotels but it's a little further out from the core. I've also stayed around King's Cross for work but I think it's a bit out of the way for a tourist, though all areas are fairly accessible by public transit.

I disagree that taking the bus is slow as London has implemented congestion controls. During previous trips, all we took was the tube which was fine. But during our most recent trip last year, we took the bus as much we could which was so easy with Google Maps. You see so much more on the bus instead of the tube. Oyster card works great.

Walking is definitely ideal.
We really like walking the southbank as you pass a number of interesting areas, sites, markets, landmarks, etc. between Westminster Bridge and Tower Bridge areas.

Suggest doing the Tower of London night tour which you need to book in advance.

We thought a trip to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich was kind of cool.

We love the food hall in Harrod's.

For fish and chips, we enjoyed eating at the Golden Hind where the fish was made to order versus some smaller chippy shops that seem to pre-fry their fish.

Check out the Brick Lane area/Sunday market. It's a bit of a revitalized, hipstery type area. Not completely discovered by the average tourist yet.
Check out Beigel Bake for Salt Beef on a Beigel (aka smoked meat/pastrami on a bagel).
 
When we go into Central London, we prefer to stay in the Bayswater/Kensington Palace area. It's got decent restaurants and good pubs. And 2 Tube lines meet there.

If it's good enough for Prince William and Princess Katherine, it's a good enough neighborhood for me.
 
braumeister said:
Not necessarily. Last time I was over there I got several of them simply by showing my Visitor Oyster.
Click to expand...

Do you remember where, I saw lots of grumbling on line about the discount being a real pain to use.....
 
ivinsfan said:
Do you remember where, I saw lots of grumbling on line about the discount being a real pain to use.....
Click to expand...

Not specifically, but I think the Thames hydrofoil out to Greenwich was one place. I just looked and even the website for the Visitor Oyster says all you have to do is show it to get the discounts.
 
We were a family group of 7 and had 2 of the Odessa Wharf condos.We really appreciated having a space where we could all gather at once and relax or plan out the day. Also the full kitchen where everyone made a big breakfast on their own schedule before setting off for the day.We had the kitchens stocked with meat and cheese salads fresh breads and containers of take away soup.even some drinks..it wasn't central but it was readily accessible to the central area and in our case the pros outweighed the cons, it would considerably cheaper then 2 or 3 hotel rooms that the OP will need since she has a party of five adults. Great area we would see foxes crawling around the flower boxes and there were birds and wildlife.
 
braumeister said:
Not specifically, but I think the Thames hydrofoil out to Greenwich was one place. I just looked and even the website for the Visitor Oyster says all you have to do is show it to get the discounts.
Click to expand...

I stand corrected them, I guess it would depend on how many sites you would use. Many people buy the zone 4 cards because of the airport but you can just pay for Zone 4 or other trips by the piece and it usually is a lot cheaper. I generally assume when you mix transport and attractions you pay a premium price for the product.
A one week 1-2 zone travel card would cost you 33 pounds loaded onto an oyster card, Unlimted bus and tube trips. The visitor card is a discounted fare but you do pay for every trip and only get a 19% discount on the Clipper.

I see most of the discounts are for many of the lesser known attractions and a lot of eating places.
 
I posted a thread on here about my 1 week trip to London last spring but I don't know how to post a link to it. I got tons of good information and had a wonderful trip.

For 7 days I would stay in London the whole time. There is so much to do within the city. It was a group of 6, me, DH, my DB and DSIL, and 14 year old niece and 12 year old nephew. I put a ton of work into planning the itinerary so we could really pack in the sights. DB and SIL had not been to Europe since they were teenagers so it was a big deal for me to treat them to a good trip, and to show them how easy it is to travel there.

I bought London Passes prior to leaving and so I brought with the voucher to pick them up once I arrived. They frequently offer 10% discounts. You would need to do the math to see if they would make sense for what you want to see, but they definitely worked for us. Many of the museums are free, but the sights are expensive and this covered things like Westminster Abbey and Tower of London. We also bought National Railway cards which then allows you to get 50% discounts on some of the other sights not covered by the London Pass such as St. Paul's Cathedral.

We stayed in an Airbnb at Finsbury Park, which worked out ok since there were 6 of us, but next time I go I will stay closer in.

For me, my favorite sights are Sir John Soanes House, St. Paul's, Churchill War Rooms, Regents Park, Covent Garden, Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum.
 
Go out to Windsor Castle - about 45 minutes. Lots of the day trips out of London mentioned - Bath, Stonehenge - will cause you to spend more time on trains than actually visiting.

Me, I say Tower, Westminster, St. Paul's, Churchill Underground, Brit Museum, EPL match if Mid-August to mid-May, Covent Garden, Piccadilly (London Times Sq.), Tate Museum, play in West End.
 
You might keep a list of a few plan B attractions in your back pocket as strikes happen. We missed one of the art museums when we were there (forget which one). I'm not saying they would all shut down together. Unless there's a transit strike I guess.
 
Be sure to tour the Tower of London and see the crown jewels. It's a fascinating tour.
 
Do they still have the "bus trip to murder" tours in London? We did this tour with teenage DD in the 1990's. That was something quite interesting and DD really enjoyed it much more than the museums.
 
I have really enjoyed LondonWalks walking tours. They always start/end at subway (tube) stops. They guides are all well versed - and more importantly - not boring. Many are actors who guide in between gigs... so they know how to grab your attention and entertain while conveying the info. They have pub crawls for those that want 1/2 pints along the way, and family friendly tours like the Harry Potter tours. Many of the guides are also blue badge guides. My favorite guide is Richard.... First toured with him 20 or more years ago... I always look for a tour with him.

London Walks "London's best guided walks" Time Out - London Walks
 
In London, of course, there ARE some must-do items, such as the Tower, Westminster Abbey, or St Paul's, that, while typically crowded are worth the hassle. Also, on what was maybe our 6th trip to London together DW and I decided to do one of those double decker hopp-off, hopp-on tours and found it quite worthwhile.

If you are into museums, there are many must-do stops. The Tate modern Art, National Gallery, British Museum, the Victoria and Albert, and many smaller more themed museums, such as the Imperial War museum or the National Maritime museum (while in Greenwich, hike up the hill to see the zero meridian and the observatory, then take a Thames river boat back to central London).
A short train trip outside of London can get you to Windsor Castle (of the Queen's residences and much more interesting than Buckingham Palace, IMO), or Hampton Palace (Henry VIII's favorite digs).
Click to expand...

This is a good summary. You could also try Tripadvisor, London, Things To Do.
 
rodi said:
I have really enjoyed LondonWalks walking tours. They always start/end at subway (tube) stops. They guides are all well versed - and more importantly - not boring. Many are actors who guide in between gigs... so they know how to grab your attention and entertain while conveying the info. They have pub crawls for those that want 1/2 pints along the way, and family friendly tours like the Harry Potter tours. Many of the guides are also blue badge guides. My favorite guide is Richard.... First toured with him 20 or more years ago... I always look for a tour with him.

London Walks "London's best guided walks" Time Out - London Walks
Click to expand...

Thanks Rodi,
this is definitely some thing I think we'd like
 
"Check out Beigel Bake for Salt Beef on a Beigel (aka smoked meat/pastrami on a bagel)."

Yes! Possibly worth a trip to the East End on this basis alone. Fantastic treat. Nothing like it.
 
The family and I spent a week in London two summers ago (me + DW + 5 kids (tweens thru teenagers).

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 the Travel Card from a National Rail Site - getting from a Tube station will NOT work to get the 2 for 1 deals). The downside is that you have to physically buy it at a National Rail Site. You cannot purchase ahead of time or over the internet. We felt it was better than the Oyster card, and we didn't 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 (plus 1/3 off on the river buses). Used the 2 for 1 a couple of times which helped a few bucks (or pounds as the case may be). Another note that if you do purchase this type of TravelCard, you will need a passport sized photo as they give you a card with your picture on it as well as your travel card. The picture card was used on buses, etc.. There are some National Rail Stations which are also tube stations (e.g. we purchased our travel cards at St Pancreas/Kings Cross), which makes it relatively east to purchase.

We did a couple of day trips - one to the Harry Potter studio and one to Bath. We debated going to either Bath or Stonehenge and in the end, decided on Bath. Well, well worth it. Probably could not have gone wrong going to either place, but the whole family really loved Bath.
 
"I remember years ago a guy I knew told me that people going to England find exactly what they go looking for. I said I'd go looking for the England of English Literature, and he nodded and said: 'It's there.'"

-- 84 Charing Cross Road, by Helene Hanff

I picked up 84 Charing Cross Road at a London booksellers back in 1976. If you can, see the beautiful movie of the same name. Anthony Hopkins and Anne Bancroft star.

So much has changed, I don't know what I'd recommend that hasn't already been suggested, save this: See if you can find a pub that serves a ploughman's lunch. It's usually a slice of pate, a chunk of cheese, a hunk of bread and a pickled onion. Goes down a treat with a pint of bitter. Everybody does fish and chips and there are a million gastropubs, but the ploughman's lunch is real England.
 
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