Anyone have any recommendations of things to do/places to eat for London on a Wednesday. I just concluded a trip in Scotland the past week and am in Cambridge right now. I'm taking the train down into Victoria Station early Wed morning, then will take the Gatwick Express that same night. I haven't really done any of the touristy things before here in London, and really dont have a clue on where to eat. I'd prefer to spend less then 15-20£ per meal. If anyone has any suggested ideas, let me know asap, thanks!
Have been there many times and it's a shame you only have a day since there is so much to see. It all depends on what interests you, but you wouldn't go wrong with any of these if they're up your alley: British Museum (Booty from the British Empire, Rosetta Stone, etc) British Library (Magna Carta, etc) National Gallery (Not the Louvre, but an outstanding collection) Tate Modern (Nice, if you're into modern art) Tower of London (Crown jewels, awesome armor collection, etc) Kew Gardens (If you're into growing things) Imperial War Museum (WWI and WWII recreated. Nice museum if you're into wars.) Cabinet War Rooms (The bunker where Churchill ran WWII) Westminster Abbey (Beautiful church...) Parliament (if they're in session you can get in and observe the rather unusual traditions) Buckingham Palace (Only if they're open for tours which they're usually not) If I had to choose, Tower of London and the British Museum are hard to beat, but any of the above are excellent. And that's only the beginning. You could spend a month and still have more to see. Food in London, as far as I'm concerned, starts and ends with the Indian cuisine. Usually excellent no matter where you go. Other than that, find a pub and have a beer.
Waiting in line for any of those sights above will take you a couple hours. Honestly, I would just do a walking / double-decker bus tour of the city. In one day, you could probably walk through some of the cool neighborhoods and see all of the major sights. You'll just have to save the details for another day.
London is expensive. I was there for less than 24 hours in February, spent the night in a hostel, and still spent $200!! SUGGESTIONS- DON'T buy tequila. At #11/drink, buying 2 drinks for you and your buddy + tip = US$100. (I don't care if he did pay for dinner.) Try not to snore. You might wake up to some French guy leaning over your bed shaking you to stop. That's not a great way to wake up in the middle of the night.
Take a bus tour and stay in Piccadilly Circus. Hit up some of the eateries including the Texas Embassy. Probably the best you can do in a day.
I agree that walking around London (definitely buy a good map) can be more rewarding and a lot cheaper than going to a lot of museums. Of all the museums listed I recommend the British Museum the most, it has a lot of cool stuff from around the world, especially ancient Egypt. Consider going to one museum and walking around town the rest of the day. Trafalgar Square is a great place to hang out except for the blasted pigeons (maybe they've gotten rid of them by now). It was fun for me to watch the portrait artists make their amazing drawings.
i'm only posting this on the knowledge that london is expensive as hell and 10-20# per meal isn't going to go too terribly far. i'd probably go as cheap as possible on lunch and splurge on dinner or vice versa. i stayed in the bayswater/queensway area for a week at the hyde park hilton and two restaurants close by were pretty good (i liked mandarin kitchen better): mandarin kitchen (on queensway): the sweet & sour duck was excellent as was some fried noodle lobster special they had. khans (indian food on westbourne grove): pretty much everything i ate there was top notch. you would be hard pressed to find a curry like this in texas. *after looking it up online it gets mixed reviews though. i liked it, but maybe i just don't know anything about indian food.
Thanks for the suggestions, I will definitely be going to the British Museum. If you think London is expensive, try some of the places we went to in Scotland...you'd be surprised at some of the dumps 120-180£ could get you. However, we found some some places that were pretty awesome for substantially less. A word of advice for anyone that goes up to the Scotland towards the Isle of Skye, MAKE YOUR BOOKINGS In advance. We spent one night searching five hours for a hotel, because we made the idiot mistake of not taking care of things before we left the US. However, the trip to Scotland was absolutely worth it and breathtaking. I'm looking forward to the museum tomorrow, thanks for all the suggestions!
brntorng lists a lot of great places to visit, I don't disagree at all. It sounds like you're only going to be in London for about 12 hours (unless I'm misreading the post). Apparently, you have chosen the British Museum. That's a good choice. You'll have to move quickly. It's kind of like going to the Louvre. You could spend 3 days there. As an English and Classics student in college, the Rosetta Stone was really cool. Although, some people will tell you that it's a copy and the real one is locked in a vault somewhere. My suggestion would be to go to the Natural History Museum. It's close to Hyde Park. After the museum, you could buy a piece of bread, fruit, and a chunk of cheese at a street market or small store and stroll through Hyde Park to Speaker's Corner to listen to the people ramble about their political views. Since you're only going to be there for half a day -- yeah, you should go to one of the major tourist attractions ... (see brntorng's list) but I think just walking around, sticking your nose in various shops, talking to the locals, and eating food from the street vendors might make your flight home more relaxing. And, if you're spending 120-180£ per night, you're in a vastly different income bracket than I am. I paid 10-15 euros for hostels in Italy and 6-10 euros for hostels in Greece 5 years ago when the exchange rate was close to 1:1 (dollars to euros, not dollars to pounds, which was probably about 1.6 at the time I was in England in 87 and 98). Would like to hear how it went ...
