A week or more in London. Reccomendations?

[|Zach|]

Planning in its infancy and have a friend to stay with but will be visiting London next fall. You well traveled CP'ers have any good recommendations for me? Usually not big on shows but am into museums and history as well as good food and drink joints...or anything that I should visit being a photographer and all.

http://www.stgiles.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/londonA6.jpg

[listopencil]

Wait almost exactly one year and blow up Parliament?

[|Zach|]

Wait almost exactly one year and blow up Parliament?

That is not really in my wheelhouse.

[Danguardace]

Imperial War Museum
Natural History Museum
Leicester Square
Madame Tussauds
London Eye


For starters

[TimeForWasp]

Go to an Nfl game and teach them how to throw batteries at the players.

[DaKCMan AP]

Imperial War Museum
Natural History Museum
Leicester Square
Madame Tussauds
London Eye


For starters

Obvious:
Tower of London
Buckingham Palace
Kensington Palace
Big Ben
St. Paul's Cathedral
Victoria & Albert Museum
Trafalgar Square


Go to Harrod's. Take some trips outside of the city. Leeds was cool, Warwick Castle, Dover, if you're a Shakespeare fan Stratford Upon Avon.
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[UK_Chief]

Some of the markets are pretty cool - street food, antiques stuff like that. Tate gallery if you're into modern art, national gallery for classical stuff. Natural history museum. Windsor castle is pretty good as well. Loads to see in London but good to see some other cities as well. Bath is nice, ditto York, Durham, Liverpool. Also the ancient monuments like Stonehenge and Avebury. For countryside the Lake District can be amazing or get up to north Wales or Scotland for the scenery. Edinburgh if you go up to Scotland

[UK_Chief]

PS Most of the big sites are a rip off in London so worth getting a pass if you want to do a lot of them

[LiveSteam]

Stay.

[BlackHelicopters]

Remember to tell us if London smells like NOLA.

[ScareCrowe]

Wait almost exactly one year and blow up Parliament?

Remember remember the 5th of November.:)

[Amnorix]

Went to London a few years ago. Alot of great/cool things, and alot of sort of overrated things that I'd wish I'd removed from the itinerary so I could spend more time doing the cooler things.

We were in London the entire week, with the exception of one day when we went on a tour. It was a bus tour which went outside the city, and we hit Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath, to visit among other things the Roman Gardens.

Stonehenge was teh biggest skip of my week. The pictures you see are often picturesque, with the stones looking like they're in some beautiful remote location. Yeah, no. It's in the middle of a fork in the road, with one a fairly busy one, and the other leading to the parking lots etc. It's usually FREEZING cold (the winds of Salisbury plain), crowded as hell and you cant' touch the rocks because they were roped off a few years ago. So yeah, not much to see beside big old rocks and the nearby sheep.

What you expect/hope for:

http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2015/08/iStock_000018675371_Large-E.jpeg


What you really get:

https://cdn.getyourguide.com/niwziy2l9cvz/2UXhPPfp0QqQeEo0mK2Cos/b72e71422161971a60425c7b3432b04b/london-stonehenge-Pesky-Earthworms-1500x850.jpg

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/F077/production/_88195516_88195514.jpg

[Amnorix]

One of the best things we did was the lesser known Churchill War Rooms. A series of underground rooms it was the secret, WWII bunker of the British commanders, espeically during the blitz. Even my wife, not much into WWII, was pretty into it.

Not too huge and easily accessible, alot just a few hours.

http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/place/439238-churchill-war-rooms

[ptlyon]

Remind every one of them we kicked their asses over 200 years ago and be sure to tell them both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones suck.

[Amnorix]

AirBnb wasn't such a thing back then. We and our friends rented through this outfit. Worked out well. Be prepared for someplace fairly small unless you way to pay significant bucks. Still cheaper than a hotel, however. Obviously, though, you miss out on the hotel amenities.

Robert & Polly Arnold
London Apartment Booking Service
Helping Families & Corporates Since 1984

Tel: 020 8201 0016

Email: info@apartment-hotels.com
Web : www.apartment-hotels.com

[ptlyon]

I always wanted to hammer a Polly

[Amnorix]

British Museum is one of the big ones. But prepared, it is MASSIVE. As in, if you want to do the full thing, then enjoy your three or four days or whatever. So have a plan. Know which sections you want to hit BEFORE you go in.

But it's a must-see. Rosetta Stone, etc. With perhaps the best Egyptology stuff outside of Egypt (which, sadly, I will likely never visit due to liking life) I had that section high on my list also.


Beyond the above -- changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (it will be crowded, try to go during off-peak changes), Tower of London, London Eye (meh, a huge ferris wheel but whatever).

Most awesome thing we did was WESTMINSTER ABBEY. It is not just some boring old church if you have any interest in history. GO THERE!

Plenty of options. We went to Kew Gardens one day also as a break from city, city, city stuff. Gvae the kids a chance to run around etc. so it was nice, though I'd be more of a hardcore museum guy myself.

[Amnorix]

Oh, and if you spend thousands per person to go to London and have a year to plan but don't spend less than $20 bucks on this book, then you're an idiot.

https://www.amazon.com/Rick-Steves-London-2016/dp/1631211951/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1478183869&sr=8-1&keywords=books+on+london

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51Rk5MI031L._SX279_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

[tmax63]

Went to London a long time ago so for what it's worth... Saw the musical Cats and for a country boy from MO who'd never seen anything quite like it before it was worth it. Did a supper deal (Henry the 8th's or the King's Court or something like that) where you ate medieval style with serving wenches, a court jester, knights jousting and so on. Again lot of fun. The crown jewels is worth taking a look at also especially if a lady is along. Something about a diamond bigger than a golf ball that just causes their eyes to glaze over.

[ptlyon]

British Museum is one of the big ones. But prepared, it is MASSIVE. As in, if you want to do the full thing, then enjoy your three or four days or whatever. So have a plan. Know which sections you want to hit BEFORE you go in.

But it's a must-see. Rosetta Stone, etc. With perhaps the best Egyptology stuff outside of Egypt (which, sadly, I will likely never visit due to liking life) I had that section high on my list also.


Beyond the above -- changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace (it will be crowded, try to go during off-peak changes), Tower of London, London Eye (meh, a huge ferris wheel but whatever).

Most awesome thing we did was WESTMINSTER ABBEY. It is not just some boring old church if you have any interest in history. GO THERE!

Plenty of options. We went to Kew Gardens one day also as a break from city, city, city stuff. Gvae the kids a chance to run around etc. so it was nice, though I'd be more of a hardcore museum guy myself.

I always knew you were gay

[nychief]

Victoria and Albert museum, Tate, Tate modern, national portrait gallery.

[MahiMike]

Go see a jags game.

[Pasta Little Brioni]

Yawn

[Oxford]

We stayed at a BandB in Horsley and took the train in daily. Get a railpass for the train and a subway pass for the tube. If any of your family is of English ancestry find out what you can now. Tripadvisor is a great resource for lodging

Windsor Castle
The Globe theater recreation is pretty neat.
We got to actually go to the 'henge (some tour operators have better access than others).
We also went to Bath to see the old roman baths there.
My wife is of Scottish descent so we spent most of our time in drafty castles and at the Old Course in St. Andrews

[Simply Red]

Have fun! Should be cool.

[MIAdragon]

Stayed at the London County Hall hotel, great location and cheap. Jumping on a flight but the Churchill museum was a must see. Will throw more up later.

[saphojunkie]

Westminster Abbey.
The British Museum - you can see all the stuff that imperialist swine stole from poor countries through the centuries.

The National Galley - great masters left and right. Caravaggio Da Vinci Picasso - amazing art museum.

Tate modern sucks, as does most modern art. If you like sucky modern art, the Tate has a bunch of it. Salvador Dali's "lobster telephone!" It's a lobster... on a phone! The genius!

Go to Brick Lane in Whitechapel - jack the rippers stomping grounds - and enter Indian food paradise. Restaurant barkers haggle with you over a good discount. Accept nothing less than 20% off, free appetizers, and no service fee. Get your booze at the shop next door and bring it in.

Victoria and Albert museum is great.

The parks are great.

Spend one day sitting in a pub from noon to nine.

[Rain Man]

My suggestions have already been made: Tower of London first and foremost, Windsor Castle second, Westminster Abbey third (even though it's mostly just names over crypts).

The Churchill rooms were kind of cool, the British Museum is kind of cool (mostly for the Rosetta Stone and some big Assyrian stuff), and the Tate Modern is ... interesting. I just remember a big massive "Horton Hears A Who" funnel out front and then watching a video of a person punching themselves in the face while wearing boxing gloves.

To be honest, so much of London was destroyed during the war that it's just kind of a big modern city for the most part. I was there for three or four busy days and was pretty much marking everything off my list, so I did the bullet train to Paris and spent three or four days there. You could spend a month in Paris and not hit all of the cool stuff there.

[Easy 6]

1) Get good and hammered in a working class sports bar, then tell them how much their soccer team sucks

2) Report back to us

[|Zach|]

Thanks folks.

[ptlyon]

1) Get good and hammered in a working class sports bar, then tell them how much their soccer team sucks

2) Report back to us

Shit, I might even fly over there for some of that action

[MahiMike]

I remember spending a night in London almost 30 years ago. The hotels were so damn expensive I just stayed out all night and slept on the plane.

[Predarat]

Go to a ManU game and wear this:

http://www.efootballshirt.com/image/cache/catalog/Premier%20League/Manchester%20City/home/QQ%E6%88%AA%E5%9B%BE20160423165232-500x500.jpg

[DaFace]

Went to London a few years ago. Alot of great/cool things, and alot of sort of overrated things that I'd wish I'd removed from the itinerary so I could spend more time doing the cooler things.

We were in London the entire week, with the exception of one day when we went on a tour. It was a bus tour which went outside the city, and we hit Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath, to visit among other things the Roman Gardens.

Stonehenge was teh biggest skip of my week. The pictures you see are often picturesque, with the stones looking like they're in some beautiful remote location. Yeah, no. It's in the middle of a fork in the road, with one a fairly busy one, and the other leading to the parking lots etc. It's usually FREEZING cold (the winds of Salisbury plain), crowded as hell and you cant' touch the rocks because they were roped off a few years ago. So yeah, not much to see beside big old rocks and the nearby sheep.

What you expect/hope for:

http://cdn.history.com/sites/2/2015/08/iStock_000018675371_Large-E.jpeg


What you really get:

https://cdn.getyourguide.com/niwziy2l9cvz/2UXhPPfp0QqQeEo0mK2Cos/b72e71422161971a60425c7b3432b04b/london-stonehenge-Pesky-Earthworms-1500x850.jpg

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/cpsprodpb/F077/production/_88195516_88195514.jpg

The trick with Stonehenge is to pay extra for one of their early morning, limited access groups. There were maybe 25 people (probably less) with us when we were there, and they let you go wherever you want (not just limited to the outer sidewalk). And that's when I got this shot.

http://i.imgur.com/o6JGUpj.jpg