London Visit - help with ideas, planning, advice wanted

Tra77 · 6 June 2008 at 12:40PM

Hi there,

I've booked a theatre trip for my m&d wed 25th - fri 27th june. Staying at the Radisson Edwardian Vanderbilt Hotel, Kensington and just wondering if anyone can help/recommend places to visit/see/do (ideally in the best order) along with any offers/discounts available. Theatre tickets are booked for the evening of 25th. Additionally I'd like to book something in advance for them (for dad for father's day gift) maybe London Eye (if it's close enough/easy to get to). They are travelling down by train so any advice on travel once they get there would also be appreciated. As would any info. on places to eat (thinking on tesco clubcard meal vouchers if poss.)
It's their first visit to London, so would really like an idea of the 'must see, must do' things - all at the best possible prices of course! :0)

sarahf191979 · 6 June 2008 at 12:57PM

Tra77 wrote: »

Hi there,

I've booked a theatre trip for my m&d wed 25th - fri 27th june. Staying at the Radisson Edwardian Vanderbilt Hotel, Kensington and just wondering if anyone can help/recommend places to visit/see/do (ideally in the best order) along with any offers/discounts available. Theatre tickets are booked for the evening of 25th. Additionally I'd like to book something in advance for them (for dad for father's day gift) maybe London Eye (if it's close enough/easy to get to). They are travelling down by train so any advice on travel once they get there would also be appreciated. As would any info. on places to eat (thinking on tesco clubcard meal vouchers if poss.)
It's their first visit to London, so would really like an idea of the 'must see, must do' things - all at the best possible prices of course! :0)

These Pitnable Voucher's may be of some help, they offer 20% off for up to 6 people at many london attractions and Restraunts. Scroll down and just click on the place you like the look of and Print.

HTH

sarahf191979 · 6 June 2008 at 12:58PM

Sorry would help if I gave you the link....

http://www.discountbritain.net/Tower-Bridge-Exhibition.html

HTH

susancs · 6 June 2008 at 5:26PM

In Kensington there are 3 great museums (all free entry)-The Natural History . Science,Victoria and Albert.

The Orginal London tour is good when coming for a short visit and includes a hop on and off open bus top tour service, walking tour, river boat trip rover day pass (great as goes past houses of parliament,Greenwich, London eye). An upgrade on the day for £3 per person to the choice menu is worthwhile as they can have afternoon tea in the old St Martin church in the field, cafe (Covent Garden) or a fish and chip lunch in a pub. You can use clubcard deals for this on
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=34&bci=4294967294|Days%20Out*4294967279|Sightseeing
They can hop off at the waterloo pier to get to the London eye.

Depends on what they like, but the Tower of London and tower bridge, is great and if they buy a train ticket from any station for even a stop (or using a one day travel card bought after 9.30am at the train station-not valid with Oyster card). If using the tour bus they wont need to buy a travel card for that day, but I would just pop in and buy a one stop ticket to get the savings. They can get 2 for the price of one entry by printing off the voucher and showing their train ticket/ travel card dated that day.
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/

They are also near Kensington gardens (it is a nice walk on a good day)-they can visit Kensington palace apartments using 2 for 1 vouchers, plus see the Diana Memorial Garden. Kensington Gardens leads into Hyde park, which has a boating lake, where they can hire a row boat for about £6 an hour.

The National Gallery is good if they like art and St Pauls Cath. is worth a visit, if they like artechiture/history.

MY advice would be to download a tube map from www.tfl.gov.uk and plan their trips. If going on the tour bus one day, they can just buy a one day off peak zones 1-4 travel card for £5.90 on the other 2 days to use on all London buses and tubes in that zone area.

Tra77 · 7 June 2008 at 5:59PM

Many thanks sarahf191979 and especially susancs, your advice is fantastic and very much appreciated - just the type of info. I was looking for!

Tra77 · 7 June 2008 at 7:30PM

susancs, Original London Tour (using clubcard deals) looks interesting, do you know how this works?, does this go from Kensington - if so is it near to the mentioned hotel, do you take the actual tesco vouchers with you or do you have to book in advance with them, also can you take advantage of the £3 fish & chip lunch is using the deals vouchers? Also can you tell me how far away they are from London eye, interested in booking this also (in advance).

susancs wrote: »

In Kensington there are 3 great museums (all free entry)-The Natural History . Science,Victoria and Albert.

The Orginal London tour is good when coming for a short visit and includes a hop on and off open bus top tour service, walking tour, river boat trip rover day pass (great as goes past houses of parliament,Greenwich, London eye). An upgrade on the day for £3 per person to the choice menu is worthwhile as they can have afternoon tea in the old St Martin church in the field, cafe (Covent Garden) or a fish and chip lunch in a pub. You can use clubcard deals for this on
http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/product.aspx?R=34&bci=4294967294|Days%20Out*4294967279|Sightseeing
They can hop off at the waterloo pier to get to the London eye.

Depends on what they like, but the Tower of London and tower bridge, is great and if they buy a train ticket from any station for even a stop (or using a one day travel card bought after 9.30am at the train station-not valid with Oyster card). If using the tour bus they wont need to buy a travel card for that day, but I would just pop in and buy a one stop ticket to get the savings. They can get 2 for the price of one entry by printing off the voucher and showing their train ticket/ travel card dated that day.
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/

They are also near Kensington gardens (it is a nice walk on a good day)-they can visit Kensington palace apartments using 2 for 1 vouchers, plus see the Diana Memorial Garden. Kensington Gardens leads into Hyde park, which has a boating lake, where they can hire a row boat for about £6 an hour.

The National Gallery is good if they like art and St Pauls Cath. is worth a visit, if they like artechiture/history.

MY advice would be to download a tube map from www.tfl.gov.uk and plan their trips. If going on the tour bus one day, they can just buy a one day off peak zones 1-4 travel card for £5.90 on the other 2 days to use on all London buses and tubes in that zone area.

boglin · 7 June 2008 at 9:21PM

Apologies if I have repeated info that others have shared, but hope this may help you:

The London Eye is a great experience and definitely worth the money. It can involve a long queue, so you can minimise that by paying extra for a fast track ticket. If you book online it saves you 10%. Apparently morning is the quietest time to go. The souvenir guide comes free with the fast track entry fee but I don't think you get it free with the standard ticket. Either way, it is good to have one during the trip so that you can identify the various landmarks.

http://www.londoneye.co.uk/FlightsAndPrices/Flights/StandardFlight/Default.aspx

http://www.londoneye.com/FlightsAndPrices/Flights/FastTrack/Default.aspx

You often see the London Eye tickets sold as a package with Madame Tussauds - I wouldn't really recommend that as it is so busy and (in my opinion) not that good these days.

The open top bus tours are a good idea and are much of a muchness - the one that I have put a link to seems to be the cheapest - they all seem to include some sort of river trip although what that is like, I don't know.

http://www.discount-london.com/products/Original_London_Open_Top_Bus_Tour.htm

If you were planning to visit a lot of attractions in one day you might want to investigate this pass - it could save you some money but only if you sort out a schedule and get up early!!!

http://www.londonpass.com/prices.asp

http://www.londonpass.com/attractionsFullList.asp

(note that although it is offering entry to museums and galleries free they mostly are free anyway!)

This is a useful website:

http://www.londontown.com/

Some places that you might like to consider:

Kensington Palace
http://www.hrp.org.uk/
Tower of London (Crown jewels, Yeomen of the Guard)/Tower Bridge
You can apply for free tickets to join a small group at the Ceremony of the Keys: http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/WhatsOn/ceremonyofthekeys.aspx
Shakespeare's Globe Exhibition
http://www.shakespeares-globe.org/
(You can get BOGOF tickets on all the above with a rail ticket)

St Paul's Cathedral (£10 or £9.50 online)
http://www.keithprowse.com/tickets/slink.buy/stpauls/p.I6P/St_Pauls_Admission--St_Pauls_Cathedral--London.html
Westminster Abbey
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/visitor/entry-charges/
Buckingham Palace (£15.50 long queues apparently so worth buying online in advance)
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/page555.asp
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/default.asp?action=article&ID=30#prices

Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens (next to each other)
Green Park

British Museum (free)
Science Museum (free)
National Portrait Gallery (free)
Tate Modern (free)
Victoria and Albert Museum (free)
Most museums and galleries are free but there is a charge for special events/exhibitions
Changing the Guard (Guard Mounting) - a must-see! Alternate days in September
http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page4933.asp

Other free activities and attractions can be found on this website:

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/free-london.aspx

Hope that a great time is had by all!

susancs · 7 June 2008 at 9:30PM

Hi I am not sure how Tesco club card deals work as I do not shop at Tesco myself. I just remember seeing that you can use them and looked up the link for you. My sister uses Tesco club card deals for the London theatre shows and she said she has to order theatre vouchers online, that they send to her-she exchanges these and pays the difference for show tickets, when she goes to book a show at the box office. You can also use club card deals for Kensington Palace entry and the Tower Of London, it seems (if you click on link that says where else can I use this token).

Here is the link for the orginal bus tour link. http://www.theoriginaltour.com/. The map shows the main starting points for the tour are Piccadilly Circus, Marble Arch ( our visiting friends/family go from there, as nearest us), Trafalgar Square, Embankment and Victoria.

Your parents nearest station will be Gloucester Road on the tfl tube map. If you look at the tfl tube map they can go 1 stop to Victoria station and go to a nearby road to catch the tour bus (i.e. 5 mins on tube) or get the tube 6 stops to Embankement and pick up the bus opposite this station. They can also go 4 stops on the piccadilly line and pick it up from Piccadilly station .They can hop off the bus at westminster pier to get on the river boat (for which they get all day tickets), and hop off at Waterloo Pier (10 min journey on boat) for the London Eye, which is beside the pier. You can go on the www.tfl.gov site to estimate journey times on here http://journeyplanner.tfl.gov.uk/user/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en.

If they wanted to go direct to the London Eye from their hotel they would go on the district line 5 stops to Westminster, change onto the jubillee line to go one stop to Waterloo (about a 10-15 min journey).

Forgot to say Greenwich is worth a visit as they can get free entry to National Maritime Museum, Queens House and Royal Observatory (Time gallery). If getting the river rover pass with the tour bus, they can hop off at the Greenwich pier to go to these places.

Tra77 · 9 June 2008 at 9:02AM

So much great info - many thanks to you all!!!

just a couple of additional questions: -

a) would you recommend the 'tour' to be the best option (via clubcard vouchers) or for them to just buy a travel card and map?

b) also is it worthwhile booking the london eye in advance (or possibly holding out for a two for one once there) and if so is the extra £10 per person for the fast track entry worth paying for (they'll be there on thurs 26th June - so not sure how busy it gets mid-week). and is there anywhere you can book online without having to specify a time?

susancs · 9 June 2008 at 2:25PM

I understand that you get 4 times the value for club card deals so as it costs £22 per person for the tour bus/river cruise it would actually cost £5.50 in club card deals and includes a tour commentary, walking tour, river boat rover card (which costs £10.50 per person), plus you would pay a more than £3 for a fish and chip lunch or afternoon tea. So I think this may be good value.

If this is their first time in London, I would imagine they would want to fit as much in as possible and if they did not do the tour bus, they would probably need to purchase a good tour guide book and read it in advance (or they may miss/not recognise the sights), to accompany the map. My parents went to Rome recently and purchased a map and tour guide book, but also did the tour bus on the first day. They then went back the following days to revisit places of interest in more depth. They did the same when they went to Edinburgh-both times they saw a lot more than other friends who visited the same destinations.

I would recommend a travel card and tube map for the other 2 days. As London is so busy and there is so much to see and do, it would be best to plan an iternery in advance. My advice would be do the tour bus/river boat on the first day and get familar with the sights.

I have gone several times with family and friends on the the London Eye and never booked the fast track entry or booked in advance. Your parents are not going peak holiday time/major London event/weekend times, so I would think the queues would not be too bad.

DevonBoy_2 · 3 July 2008 at 4:50PM

I cannot recommend the London Eye Tour enough... it is amazing. I have been on it both day and night and would actually recommend the night time tour more as its quite magnificent. If you are interested in shows then I would also recommend Wicked! Again it was fantastic and it is located right next to Victoria Station and a short walk from Westmister.

London Visit - help with ideas, planning, advice wanted

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