I am travelling to Hertford(just north of London) a couple of times in the next couple of months for work... tentatively. The first trip is booked already for Sept 8-Sept 15th. I will have Saturday in London to check things out so what would you check out if you had one day in London and where would you stay to make that easily accessible without paying a ton? The second time I go will be for about a week and half and I plan on staying the rest of the second week and flying my wife up to check it all out so would like to have an idea of things for her to check out as well. I am considering just doing a quick flight over to Amsterdam if we are able to.
I know one day isn't going to get me much but it is what it is. Hopefully the second trip comes through and I am able to see a little more and do so with my wife. These would be my 2nd and 3rd trip to the UK(Ireland and Scotland on first trip) in a little over a year and the first one was without the wife as well. If I don't get her over there soon I may have to pay some sort of penance.
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My fav thing in London is to walk from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square and check out The National Gallery.
Check out the Victoria and Albert Museum
Walk from Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square
Eat at an Indian restaurant
Just soak it in and enjoy. London is a massive city and certain parts of town will be bustling at midnight no matter the day.
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Originally Posted by BigRichard:
Theater isn't really mine or the wife's thing. The tourist bus thing might be the avenue to go. I do love history stuff so the museum might be a cool thing. I think someone else mentioned the Churchill War Rooms or something like that just below your post. I believe a doctor I used to work with mentioned that as well and said it was really cool.
The Churchill War Rooms are cool, but if I only had one day I'd do one of the more classic English things. Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London would be my suggestion.
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beer crawl tour was pretty cool--good stories about different pubs and surrounds around st peters square--plus had 3-4 pints along the way.
the castle at Windsor was pretty cool--nice little town there to
hyde park was decent subways seemed pretty crowed so we ubered a lot
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Originally Posted by BigRichard:
I don't know if I will be able to get my wife in a train that goes underground. She definitely has a case of claustrophobia. Getting her on a flight is even a bit of an issue but she manages with a visit from the pharmacy fairy.
The underground portion is very small, it's maybe only a few minutes compared to the rest of the time above ground seeing the English/French countryside.
I second the bus tour. They are a good way to see a lot in a day, are informative and it's cool that if you see something you like you can just hop off, take a look around, then resume the tour whenever you are ready.
If you like museums, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum are all great and free.
Classic London is seeing the free sights, the bridges, St Pauls Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, the houses of parliament.
Cheesy tour would include Madam Tussauds, the Harry Potter studio tour (just outside London).
The zoo is also pretty good, although they moved a lot of the big animals (elephants etc) out to a sister zoo just outside London.
On the "where to stay" point, as others have said if you are happy taking a 20+ minute tube train to get into the center you will save a lot of money. There are some decent chains of basic hotels like Premier Inn where you will get a decent bed in a basic room but it's good value. There are also new ish "micro" hotels (google easyhotel) where the rooms are super basic (they don't even have a window) but if you just need a comfortable bed and a place to shower because you are out all day doing the tourist stuff then they are pretty cheap. If you want a decent hotel then all the big chains are there, Marriots and Hilton etc.
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