London first-timer!

[tulips*n*truffles]

New issue for me as well. I'm looking at an area now called Finchley. I tried to look up some things, but I'm coming up blank. Google USED to be my friend! :-)

 

Anyway - Finchley. Opinions? THANK YOU!

[Travel 25]

We are going to London in May and made these notes for ourself. For what is worth:

For the most part used Frommer's, Fodor's, Cruise Guide to Euope and the internet. Frommer's rated 13 attractions 3-stars their highest rating:

1. City Hall ( FREE ) - Great view from rooftop gallery.

2. British Museum (FREE)-most visited attraction in London-must see: 2200 year old Rosetta stone, Egyptian mummies, Portland Vase, 2000 year old corpse found in a Cheshire bog, suites of armor from time of King Arthur

3. Royal Botanic Garden, Kew

4. Gilbert Collection

5. Hampton Court Palace

6. Science Museum (FREE)-largest museum of its kind in the world should see Welcome Wing and Titanic Exhibit

7. Westminster Abbey-must see: Flying Buttresses, West Front Towers, The Nave, Lady Chapel, Chapter House

8. National Gallery(FREE)

9. Tate Modern(FREE)

10. Victoria and Albert Museum(FREE)

11. Tate Britain(FREE)

12. St. Paul's Cathedral-dome second in size only to St. Peter's in Rome(295 steps climb to top of dome) don't miss: American Memorial Chapel, collection of clothes worn by past monarchs

13. Tower of London - must see: Jewel House, White Tower, Chapel of St John

Other highly mentioned attractions:

1. Tower Bridge

2. National Portrait Gallery

3. Buckingham Palace - 11:30a.m. is Changing of the Guard

4. Natural History Museum-see Mammal Hall, Blue Whale and moonlit rainforest in Ecology Gallery

5. Hyde Park- is to London what Central Park is to New York- see Speakers Corner

6.Houses of Parliament--Big Ben--Cabinet War Rooms--Horse Guards--Banqueting House--

7. Carnaby Street - funky shops on cobbled roads behind Regent Street

8. Harrods- world's biggest department store- 330 departments and famous Food Halls with nearly 2 dozen food venues has memorial to Diana and Dodi. Walk out on Sloan Street and may see Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Rolls Royces

9. Notting Hill- Travel Bookshop at 15 Benheim Crescent where Hugh Grant met Julia Roberts- area has hip restaurants and grand homes

10. Piccadilly Circus- where 5 of London's busiest streets meet

11. Borough Market - for foodies-near South Bank of the Thames River

12. Trafalgar Square - great for people watching

13. Theater-- Half Price Ticket Booth is in Leicester Square

14. London Eye- world's largest observation wheel has 32 capsules and takes 30 minutes

15. River Thames Cruise

Almost all of these attractions are stops along big bus route. Hope you find this of interest. Steve

[/url]

 

Go to their web site and ask them to send you a free map. A great map and only takes a few weeks to get

 

Big Bus Tours

 

http://www.bigbustours.com/

[Globaliser]

Anyway - Finchley. Opinions?

Miles away from the centre of town; so far that you will find it extraordinarily frustrating. Finchley is suburbia.

[tulips*n*truffles]

Well...isn't the tube easily accessible? The information says about 5 minutes from the Woodside Tube Station. From there, we can get anywhere, right? And for the super cheap cost...I'm not sure the distance is all that bad??

[Globaliser]

Do you mean Woodside Park Tube?

 

Trust me, if you stay that far out you will find it extraordinarily frustrating for sightseeing in town.

 

There are many people who've lived that far out of town who have ended up paying big money to get somewhere to live closer in. "Big money" often meaning paying several hundred thousand pounds more for a flat, just for the location.

[tulips*n*truffles]

Sorry, I did mean the Woodside Park tube. I've stayed well outside of NYC and taken the subway in - other cities as well. Looking at the map, I can't see what would be frustrating? Get on at Woodside Park, get off at Charing Cross or Waterloo or whatever. Stay "in town" all day...reverse going back. ?? Am I missing something? Relaly not trying to be smart - just asking!!

[John Bull]

 

Has anyone done the Evan Evans day trip to Paris? I was in Paris about 15 years ago and have ZERO French in my vocabulary, so I think we'd want a guide if we decided to do a day trip like that. I also wonder about the ease of EuroStar. Are there transfers?

 

 

There's a current thread on this very subject at http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1166193

 

JB

ps I'm not a Londoner, but mention of Finchley did surprise me.

I don't see you'd need or want a hotel that far out.

[Giantfan13]

I just did a quick search of the Evan Evans site to see what they are offering. They have two different tours, once non escorted, which is like what I said. they buy the tickets for you, give you a map and a travel ticket in Paris, and say 'have a nice time, we'll see you when you get back'.

the other is an escorted tour, but that is also pretty deceiving. They do the same put you on the euro star and some one meets you in Paris. They take you on a hop on hop off bus,and show you around town to the Eiffel Tower. They advertise that you can go up to the second level, but in summer months it may take a wait of 3 hours. They say you cannot pre book that Eiffel tower trip up. that is FALSE. You CAN pre book on line for a specific time for your tour. After that, they sort of let you go off on your own for lunch or whatever. All this for 175 pound EACH.

Sorry, but I stand by what I said originally, do it yourself. Just go online buy a ticket on the euro star the day you will be going, and go for it. Even if you just want to go from Gard Nord, where the euro star lets you off, to the Eiffel Tower, it is a simple metro ride. From there grab the Bat o Bus,(http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.batobus.com/&ei=7cqmS8HHAoWglAeFh4iaAg&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBEQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dbat%2Bo%2Bbus%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1T4GGLL_enUS307US308) and it will take you to all the sights along the Seine, with a wonderful boat ride thrown in.

If you don't feel confident in doing this, you can book a tour when you get to Paris.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[Sheal]

TMLAalum,

 

Could you give me a bit more info on the pub crawl. Could you recommend a particular company? This could be something my husband might like. He gets a bit weary of all the cathedrals, etc.

 

Giantfan13 (Len),

 

I know you are not a big museum type of person either but you did get inside the Tower Bridge and St. Paul's, two things we didn't make it into on our last trip, not to mention our time at the Tower of London which was cut short. I plan to visit all three again. Could you give me a rough idea how much time you spent at TB and ST. P's. Would 1 hour be enough?

 

Wendy The Wanderer,

 

I think staying in a small hotel/B&B might be nice. My concern would probably be the same as Lift Lock Couple. We really need a queen size bed. I didn't even think of this we we stayed at the Hilton Olympia.

BTW, is this one of the "awful tourist warrens"?;)

 

If I stuck with my original plan to just bid a room on Priceline, would a 4-5* in Westminster be ok? I see this area covers Victoria Station which has rec'd a lot of thumbs downs.

 

Thanks,

 

Sheal

[John Bull]

 

If I stuck with my original plan to just bid a room on Priceline, would a 4-5* in Westminster be ok? I see this area covers Victoria Station which has rec'd a lot of thumbs downs.

 

Thanks,

 

Sheal

 

Westminster is the most convenient London Borough for sight-seeing. Much of it is very up-market, Victoria isn't the best but it's OK, & an excellent compromise between cost & convenience.

JB

[Sheal]

Thanks John Bull,

 

I thought for sight-seeing purposes that the Westminster area would be fine if I ended up there. For someone not familiar with the city it can be difficult to decide. I know I looked at a lovely B&B in Islip, but after reviewing the transportation, I knew I would have wasted way too much time just getting to Central London. Going back to the hotel before dinner or a show was not an option for the short amount of time I had. Although the hotel we stayed at in Kensington was fine it was a bit of a trek from the sites in Westminster.

 

Sheal

[Sheal]

L2ConD,

 

That sandwich sounds delicious! I would love to have one right now.

 

Sheal

[Globaliser]

Looking at the map, I can't see what would be frustrating?

It's a long way and it takes a long time, and you therefore have no flexibility about what you do.

[tulips*n*truffles]

 

For someone not familiar with the city it can be difficult to decide.

 

 

Understatement of the week! I totally agree!! Not only that, but the reviews of different hotels are so very mixed, that makes it worse!! Good luck with your bid on Priceline. There are some sites out there where you can really sortof figure out what hotel you're going to get before you bid - more on Hotwire than Priceline - but I've always been able to narrow them down to at least 2...

[Giantfan13]

TMLAalum,

 

Could you give me a bit more info on the pub crawl. Could you recommend a particular company? This could be something my husband might like. He gets a bit weary of all the cathedrals, etc.

 

Giantfan13 (Len),

 

I know you are not a big museum type of person either but you did get inside the Tower Bridge and St. Paul's, two things we didn't make it into on our last trip, not to mention our time at the Tower of London which was cut short. I plan to visit all three again. Could you give me a rough idea how much time you spent at TB and ST. P's. Would 1 hour be enough?

 

Wendy The Wanderer,

 

I think staying in a small hotel/B&B might be nice. My concern would probably be the same as Lift Lock Couple. We really need a queen size bed. I didn't even think of this we we stayed at the Hilton Olympia.

BTW, is this one of the "awful tourist warrens"?;)

 

If I stuck with my original plan to just bid a room on Priceline, would a 4-5* in Westminster be ok? I see this area covers Victoria Station which has rec'd a lot of thumbs downs.

 

Thanks,

 

Sheal

 

Sheal

 

On our pre cruise stay, we stayed around by the Tower of London, so that was our first stop, early that morning. I know it should be an all day affair there, but we stayed with the Beefeaters tour for about an hour. after that we sort of did our own thing there. I would say we spent about 2 1/2 hours in the Tower. From there we headed to the Tower Bridge and to the Tower Bridge Experience. Again, we sort of wandered around on our own, reading some of the things and just trying to experience the fact that we were up one of the towers of the Tower Bridge. I guess we spent maybe 50 minutes here. From here we headed along the river to the Globe theater for a quick tour there. After that we walked across the Millennium Bridge and on the St Pauls. If there was a tour there, we didn't do it. again we wandered around on our own. We did go to the basement, and found that facinating. They have some shops there, and a sort of cafeteria. We had some of the best ice cream there. It is sort of like the tombs down there. Again, we probably spent less than an hour there. From St Pauls, back over the Millennium Bridge and on to the London Eye, and the area around Big Ben and Parliament. We stayed there till about sunset and took the last Thames River Cruise back to Tower Bridge as I really wanted a picture of it at night, lit up. We had to walk across it to get back to our hotel and wouldn't you know it, the Bridge went up and we had to watch the entire thing from ON the bridge. Really couldn't see much though.

It was a long, tiring day and we slept great that night. next day we were off to Dover and our crusie.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[tulips*n*truffles]

It's a long way and it takes a long time, and you therefore have no flexibility about what you do.

 

I'm really not trying to be difficult! From all of the hotel reviews, it takes 30 minutes from the hotel to get into Central London. I've had to go much further than that in other cities (at least an hour every day in NYC - twice), so I guess that half an hour doesn't bother me much. Also, I'm not likely to be out real late at night with it being just the two of us, so the long ride in to the very nice *much cheaper* accomodation seems worth it to me.

 

If I plan ahead to bring what I need into the city each day, would there be a need to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day? Are there decent public restroom facilities where I could brush teeth and freshen up a bit?

 

Really do appreciate your help!

[Globaliser]

From all of the hotel reviews, it takes 30 minutes from the hotel to get into Central London.

The scheduled platform-to-platform journey time from Woodside Park Tube to Charing Cross tube is just over 30 minutes. Translated into real life, to get from the hotel to any destination near Charing Cross will take about an hour, if there are no delays on the Tube (which there often are). It will take more time if you are going somewhere for which you need to change trains.

If I plan ahead to bring what I need into the city each day, would there be a need to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day? Are there decent public restroom facilities where I could brush teeth and freshen up a bit?

I'm sure you could manage. But I know that if I'm sightseeing, there are many times when it is nice to pop "home" to the hotel for a bit during the day to have a break, or to go back to shower and change before going out for the evening.

 

You just can't do that if the round trip from town to the hotel and back is going to take two hours plus whatever time you spend in the hotel. You're basically locked out of your hotel from the time you leave it until the time you get back, whenever that is.

 

Is it possible to stay this far out and still see London? Yes. But I think that you will find it extraordinarily frustrating.

[John Bull]

I'm really not trying to be difficult! From all of the hotel reviews, it takes 30 minutes from the hotel to get into Central London. I've had to go much further than that in other cities (at least an hour every day in NYC - twice), so I guess that half an hour doesn't bother me much. Also, I'm not likely to be out real late at night with it being just the two of us, so the long ride in to the very nice *much cheaper* accomodation seems worth it to me.

 

If I plan ahead to bring what I need into the city each day, would there be a need to go back to the hotel in the middle of the day? Are there decent public restroom facilities where I could brush teeth and freshen up a bit?

 

Really do appreciate your help!

 

You really do seem hooked on this particular hotel.:)

It's not necessary to go so far out to get the same value, but if you're hooked ...........:rolleyes:

 

The crunch is whether you need to nip back to your hotel to relax & change for the evening to go back into central London. The big advantage of a hotel in the thick of things, such as between Covent Garden and Picadilly.

Central London has public toilets.. Errr, well-used public toilets, and not enough of them. Least said.....:eek:

I doubt you'd want to do that hotel trip twice in a day, so skip anything too formal in the evening & make it a long day, or stick to local pubs or restaurants in the evening & mix with the locals. Its not a bad area.

JB

[Wendy The Wanderer]

Wendy The Wanderer,

 

I think staying in a small hotel/B&B might be nice. My concern would probably be the same as Lift Lock Couple. We really need a queen size bed. I didn't even think of this we we stayed at the Hilton Olympia.

BTW, is this one of the "awful tourist warrens"?;)

 

Yep, beds are a problem. Sometimes two singles does the trick, if you can stand it for a few days.

 

I doubt if a Hilton would be awful--the place we stayed in probably no longer exists, but was a high-rise with tiny little rooms, and the "included breakfast" was a tray left outside your door in the morning with tea and a roll. Luckily we were only there overnight.

 

And it's not in Bloomsbury! :cool: And I see the photo of the rooms does seem to show two single beds, but maybe they can shove them together to make a king! The rooms are small, 215 square feet, but it *is* London. Seems like a nice location, although my knowledge is not current.

[Sheal]

Thanks Len,

 

That reminds me, I wanted to do the river cruise this time around too.:p

 

Wendy The Wanderer,

 

No, I didn't think the Hilton was bad, I actually thought it was a very good deal, just a bit further out. That was my fault though, not realizing how long it can take to go from A-B.

 

Terry,

 

I also want to squeeze in a trip to the Food Market at Harrod's. I think I need another day.

 

Lori

[skisteamboat]

Try London Walks http://www.walks.com for some very reasonable walking tours with lots of options. I take two or three every year.

 

Cheers

[tulips*n*truffles]

You really do seem hooked on this particular hotel.:)

It's not necessary to go so far out to get the same value, but if you're hooked ...........:rolleyes:

 

The crunch is whether you need to nip back to your hotel to relax & change for the evening to go back into central London. The big advantage of a hotel in the thick of things, such as between Covent Garden and Picadilly.

Central London has public toilets.. Errr, well-used public toilets, and not enough of them. Least said.....:eek:

I doubt you'd want to do that hotel trip twice in a day, so skip anything too formal in the evening & make it a long day, or stick to local pubs or restaurants in the evening & mix with the locals. Its not a bad area.

JB

 

Well...I'm not necesssarily hooked, but for 700 pounds for 7 nights in a full suite with kitchen (we don't have to eat every meal out), living area, laundry (trying hard not to check luggage), bedrooms, full breakfast, etc... ...I'm at least "hinged". :-) I've been looking for days at hotels closer to central London, and I haven't found anything even near the value. Definitely stays twice the cost, or half the quality, but not both together. Can you think of any? We're really trying to do this trip on a budget. I think that's really what has me most sold on the location, rather than the hotel itself.

 

Question about the tube map. There are a couple of symbols I don't understand. One I can't really even describe. It's little and red. Looks like a scratch mark or something. For example to the left of Charing Cross (not the cross, but the symbol next to it). Then the other one is the symbol by Euston or Embankment or others. It's two white circles connected with a white bar. ?? Clearly we don't have public transit where I live! :-)

 

Many thanks!

[TLCOhio]

Well...I'm not necesssarily hooked, but for 700 pounds for 7 nights in a full suite with kitchen (we don't have to eat every meal out), living area, laundry (trying hard not to check luggage), bedrooms, full breakfast, etc... ...I'm at least "hinged". :-) I've been looking for days at hotels closer to central London, and I haven't found anything even near the value. Definitely stays twice the cost, or half the quality, but not both together. Can you think of any? We're really trying to do this trip on a budget. I think that's really what has me most sold on the location, rather than the hotel itself.

 

Budgets are super seriously challenged in London!!! It's a very costly city on where you stay, what you eat, etc. At 100 pounds a night, you are somewhat "hooked" with this location being a much better "value", based on price. BUT, what is your time worth? And does this location have the "feel" and "comfort" you seek in order to experience what it's like really being in London? There are serious trade-offs for location versus budget. It's your call, just so that you understand the added time and other "costs" with a cheaper location.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

[John Bull]

 

Question about the tube map. There are a couple of symbols I don't understand. One I can't really even describe. It's little and red. Looks like a scratch mark or something. For example to the left of Charing Cross (not the cross, but the symbol next to it). Then the other one is the symbol by Euston or Embankment or others. It's two white circles connected with a white bar. ?? Clearly we don't have public transit where I live! :-)

 

Many thanks!

 

The red "scratch" at Charing X is a railway logo, two arrows pointing in opposite directions. It shows that the tube station is attached to a rail station. Same as Waterloo, Victoria etc. Blow the map up over-size to see it clearly.

 

The connected circles are slightly more complicated. Treat them as a single circle, the same as the marking of many other stations with a single circle, ie to show which lines connect at that station. Or in a couple of cases two stations so close to each-other that they can be treated as a single station. Putting them in a single circle at these locations would mask un-connected lines. One of the limitations of the diagrammatic layout of a very complex system.

JB

[SteveH2508]

YES! Lots of good, fun, free stuff in London. If interested in history, the new Churchill Museum is very interesting and handy to other attractions and sights and sites. If the weather is nice, eat outside and enjoy the "free" show of people and activities.

 

THANKS! Enjoy! Terry in Ohio

 

 

At Sloane Square, people dining and the famed double-decker bus:

 

 

<snip>

 

Just for info - this restaurant (Oriel's) is now closed.