Trip to London, advise needed please

TNG

Beate wrote:

Yes but you only get charged up to the value of a one day travelcard so you are not worse off and it's so much more convenient!

Btw, the 2 for 1 Oyster deals are here, if you haven't seen the link already:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/oyster/deals/index.asp

Are you sure about that? The other week I had to get 4 busses and a couple of tubes and I'm sure they took off for each journey.

It is the only time I have done it, so could well be wrong.......

If that's true, then do Oyster. Sorry to have given duff info.

Beate

Yes, it's called a daily price cap. Check it out here:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tickets/2007/general.asp

Oyster actually seems to be cheaper than a Day Travelcard:

"On the Tube:
All Oyster single fares are frozen across London and the daily price cap remains 50p below the Day Travelcard price "

Crazychik

Thanks ref the day travel card, we hope to have 2 full days worth of sight seeing.

Dogrose - I looked up ref the tour around Parliament. It sounds great. I think (if I remember) kids are allowed in above the age of 7.

So much info, Ive had to type, copy & paste & print stuff off.

Thanks again. Any info is gratefully received!

Lemmy_Caution

In some ways the Oyster is a little over hyped, but even if you don't actually save money on this trip; you, your family, or friends are bound to use it on future trips to London. Then you have the frequent 2for1 offers, and it is quicker to use on the tube. I have now lost the art of swiftly, shoving that paper ticket into the slot at the barrier. ALWAYS TOUCH IN, AND TOUCH OUT, otherwise you will be charged maximum fare.

Dumyat

Crazychik wrote:

Thanks ref the day travel card, we hope to have 2 full days worth of sight seeing.

Dogrose - I looked up ref the tour around Parliament. It sounds great. I think (if I remember) kids are allowed in above the age of 7.

So much info, Ive had to type, copy & paste & print stuff off.

Thanks again. Any info is gratefully received!

gordon brown offered one of his staff free to show us around but we paid for an official tour guide. I think it was £30 for the four of us...but well worth it. the parliament wasnt sitting and we actually sat in the prime ministers bench etc. was really interesting but maybe kids would be too young to appreciate just yet.
his PA showed us round number 11 and we had our photos taken on the steps of number 10. there was a big meeting on at the time and we couldnt go in there

Crazychik

dogrose wrote:

gordon brown offered one of his staff free to show us around but we paid for an official tour guide. I think it was £30 for the four of us...but well worth it. the parliament wasnt sitting and we actually sat in the prime ministers bench etc. was really interesting but maybe kids would be too young to appreciate just yet.
his PA showed us round number 11 and we had our photos taken on the steps of number 10. there was a big meeting on at the time and we couldnt go in there

Wow - that sounds amazing!
Its true what they say, its not what you know - but who! :rotfl:

Ive been talking about this all morning with the kids, and showing them site's about this, that & the other. They're looking forward to it now!

Beate

Btw, Greenwich is a great sightseeing choice. We are based just north of the river and can see the Maritime Museum from our window, and we are in Greenwich regularly at weekends. The Cutty Sark is sadly out of action at the moment, but there is still so much to see, from the Maritime Museum to the Fan Museum to the Royal Observatory which is for free and where you can stand on the Meridian Line. It's in a lovely park full of squirrels and deer (although they are a bit hard to find if you don't know where to look), and there are always markets on at the weekend along Greenwich High Street. You could do a tour with City Cruises to Westminster/Waterloo (they give you a third off if you have an Oyster card or are over 60, and they have day tickets and family tickets, see http://www.citycruises.com/). Please note, Greenwich is still zone 2 on all DLR stations! IMHO you will not ever have to venture out of zone 2 for your normal sightseeing requirements.

What's also very nice, and I do that a lot with visitors, is a walk along the South Bank. Start at London Bridge tube station and you pass Borough Market, Southwark Cathedral, the Golden Hinde, the Clink (Prison Museum), the Globe Theatre, the Tate Modern, the National Theatre with the book stalls and ultimately the London Eye. It's a fabulous walk along the Thames.

And here's the website for the London Eye: http://www.londoneye.com/ It's probably best to prebook the tickets, otherwise you might be queueing up for hours, especially at Easter.

How about the British Museum? It's free, and your kids will love the Egyptian mummies.

miss_bargainmad

If you are travelling by train you can get 2 for 1 vouchers for most London attractions on this website

https://www.2for1entry.co.uk

Is HMS Belfast on your list - that's a must see for kids.

Gingernutmeg

It's probably been mentioned already but if you pre-book your tickets for the London Eye online then you get to queue-jump, so much better than queueing!

I found the Natural History Museum a bit boring tbh (I know I'm not in their target age range but still ) The dinosaur exhibition is great but apart from that unless your children love dead things in glass cases, it's not somewhere where you can spend more than a couple of hours. It's free though, so it's worth a visit. The British Museum is great, but try to avoid Saturdays and Sundays, as it gets really, really busy, especially the Egyptian Rooms. The Science museum has lots of fun stuff to do though, but again it gets really busy.

I was also a bit disappointed by the Tower of London - it's hugely expensive and although the history is great, it's a bit annoying that you can only see the Crown Jewels by going on some kind of (rather fast) conveyor belt ... It's one of those things that you 'should do' once, but I'm not sure that it's really worth the money, especially if you've got fairly young children.

Covent Garden is a great place to go, especially at the weekend. It has lots of nice little shops and markets, and some great buskers. It's not too far to walk from there to Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Trafalgar Square.

Lemmy_Caution

Don't forget to stake your claim to being an artist. Go to the Tate Modern and you can go down Holler's artistic slide exhibit. I went a couple of weeks ago with a friend. It was great fun.