Ultimate London tousity things to do

jeffy22

Myself and my OH who has never been to London, are going down to London a few days and we want to do all the really touristy sights. So far we have come up with buckingham palace, trafalgar square and the eye (although this looks expensive and we are on a tight budget)
Does anyone else have any must do's for 2 wanna be tourists?
are there any good deals around or free stuff!

thank you

LisaPapakis

Museums.. Museum of London should be open now. Check out the famous national rail 2for2 offer. Embankment is really nice.

For Buckingham Palace, you could incorporate a visit with the Changing of the Guard - google for details.

MoaningMyrtle

Natural History Museum - free
Science Museum - free
Victoria and Albert Museum - free
Walk to Harrods from the above museums
Walk round Covent Garden
National Gallery - free - in Trafalger Square - reasonably priced cafe in the Crypt of St Martin in the Fields (Chruch) opposite both of the above

susancs

If doing the Eye, walk to nearby Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben, get a clipper boat to the Tower Of London. The Tower is worth a visit, but if you are on a tight budget you can just walk around the outside of it (if going in it is on the 2for 1 offer) and nearby Tower Bridge. The Eye is also on the 2 for 1 offers so currently £17.95 for the 2 of you.
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/london-eye

purplerose

If you have time, you can write to your MP to arrange a tour of parliament. I done this for the bf and I when we visited in January, I just emailed my MPs office and a week later I had the ticket I really enjoyed the tour, the tour guide was so knowledgeable plus it was free!
http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visiting-and-tours/tours/

Another thing I always do when I'm in Covent Garden is visit the CyberCandy shop. It's full of foreign confectionary and I always spend far too much money in there to bring things home for friends.

You could go see a show as well. There are lots of offers around for cheap tickets, I like booking through lastminute.com for these as they often have a dinner and a show deal that is fairly reasonable.

The Thames river boat cruises are pretty good as well, they aren't usually too expensive and I'm sure I've gotten a discounted boat cruise when I've booked other things like the London Eye. The tour guides on the boat are usually a good laugh and you get to see a lot of the sights. Just remember to wrap up warm for this one.

p00hsticks

susancs wrote: »

get a clipper boat to the Tower Of London.

Again using the '2-4-1' days out offer, you can get two 'River Roamer' tickets on the Thames clippers for £12, letting you travel at will all day - a good (and restful!) way to see a lot of the sights.

dazzer68

not sure how 'able 'you might be but if you want fantastic views, go to the monument http://www.themonument.info/ for about £3 you climb the stairs inside the column (like nelson column in trafalgar) and then on to the balcony at the top (which is safe and netted in) and have great views across the thames. its was built as a monument to the great fire of london.the tube stops right by it, well worth it and really something different to do, that alot of people dont seem to know about.

Twentiesgirl

If the weather is nice and you are happy to do a bit of walking then a nice walk is starting at the houses of parliment have a look at round the area - Westminster abbey etc then cross Westminster bridge and head toward the London eye you can then walk along the Thames passing various sites like the Tate modern, globe theatre and so on - if it's a Thursday Friday or Saturday then borough Market will be open so you could pick up a tasty lunch or snack - I recommend the brownies!

Other fun things include the markets - Camden, portobello, spitalfields

One night have a wander around the west end - covent garden, leicster square, picadilly circus, Chinatown and soho

bluenose1

When we last visited our favourite was

1. London Eye
2. River cruise down Thames
3. walk along South Bank to St Pauls and cross Millenium Bridge
4. Science Museum
5. Natural History Museum

Next time we intend to go
1. London Eye (as we loved it so much)
2. Inside St Paul's Cathedral (we didn't go in last time)
3. Westminster Abbey
4. Couple of Museums
5.Hamleys
6. Possibly a bus tour

daveyjp

I'm with Twentiesgirl. On a first trip there's no need to spend vast amounts of money, a pair of comfy shoes and you can see lots by strolling the city streets. One of my favourites is Trafalgar Square to Westminster - passing Downing Street, Cenotaph and most of the main Govt Offices.

Use the buses too - you get a much better view of everything and they are cheap enough. There's one service which links St Pauls to Regent Street along Fleet Street and takes in Trafalgar Square.

Bit more to add - it's bus route 23. It also stops close to Fortnum and Mason on Picadilly which is a London institution and well worth the visit to see the displays.

froggy27_2

Have a look at this
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/free-london-museums.aspx

Agree with the above threads. There are loads of vouchers to visit on a budget. If you go to Science Museum or V&A, Try and walk to Harrods.. will be nice around festive season...don't have to buy anything either...
Have a great time.
HTH