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Any londoners here?

G

gabemcg

Platinum Member
Hi,

I'm going to fly into London, Hethrow airport arriving Saturday at 8:30 am, I leave via train from the Liverpool st. station exactly 24hrs later, I'm wondering what I should do/see and where I should stay while I'm in town. Also, how the heck do I get between places?

any help/advice is appreciated greatly

p.s. I'm on a tight budget!
 

When to get in to Heathrow jump on the Heathrow Express which will take you to Paddington. I think you can buy a zone 1-6 "travelcard" from Heathrow which will allow you to travel as much as you want all day on London public transport.

London is actually quite easy to get round, a lot of the tourist attractions are in similar areas.

Kensington... ridiculously rich area that also includes the science museum, National History Musem, Harrods, Hyde Park. I'm pretty sure all the museums are still free entry with the occasional extra if you want to see a specific exhibition.

Waterloo... The London Eye, various thames boat tours, I-max cinema (ridiculously large 3d movies)

The centre... Buckingham Palace, Picadilly Circus, Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square, Bond Street. (Covent Garden is actually really good on a Saturday, there are loads of street performers there, highly entertaining)

I think those are the big three places, there are others but I wouldnt bother if you are only gonna be here for a day. (London Dungeons etc, but its a bit out of the way).

Personally if I was on a budget I would avoid Waterloo as all those things are gonna cost money. My own choice would be to to to the centre and take a look around there, Covent Garden is cheap entertainment (you arent obliged to give to the street performers, but you probably should give a little), you could take a walk round, go and walk through Green Park and Old Bond Street (possibly the most stupidly expensive set of shops you will ever see!), you can also see Trafalgar Square and Picadilly circus and there are a lot of tourist shops there if you fancy buying some souveniers.


Anyway, I'm rambling a little... what exactly is your budget, and what kind of things are you interested in?
 
I spent about 4 days in London this past September. It was great! I agree with NL mkII, you definately need to get a travel card for the day. It will allow unlimited use of the subways.

Oh, map sure you pick up a copy of the subway system. They're free and really help.

Here's a link to a copy. By the way, Paddington is along the Hammersmith (pink) line.

Here are some other maps.

Oh, actual resteraunts (unless they are small ethinic places) tend to be expensive. I ate a lot of my meals at local pubs or bars.

Dave

Edit: One other idea, see if you can hit a bookstore before you leave and look for a Frommer's travel guide for London and spend an hour looking through it. Make some notes about things that interest you and what underground station they are next to.
 
If I had one day and it was my first time, I would take the tube to Westminster to look at the houses of Parliament, then head over to the British Museum for the remainder of the day. Free museum, incredible collection. Many hotels won't let you check in until after 1PM at the earliest. If you arrive really early, you can leave your luggage at any train station in the Left Luggage lockers for a couple of quid. A walk from Piccadilly Circus through Leicester Square and up to Covent Garden is a nice way to burn a couple of hours.
 
Piccadilly is well serviced by a few different lines, Hammersmith and City, Circle, Bakerloo and district.

This is the best map available

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/pdfdocs/colourmap.pdf

remember that buses services are also very good in London (especially late at night when the tube service is closed)

Edit: One other idea, see if you can hit a bookstore before you leave and look for a Frommer's travel guide for London and spend an hour looking through it. Make some notes about things that interest you and what underground station they are next to.
Click to expand...

This is a good idea, but remember that most of the tube stations in the centre are very close to each other. I got off at Covent Garden a few days back just to grab something to eat even though I wanted to go to Picadilly Circus. As a rough guide for you while looking at the tube maps, there is a tube train roughly every 3 minutes and it takes approximately 2mins30s to get from one stop to the next.

So yeah, thats what you want to do, get something listing a few activities in London and see how it works out for you. If something is only 1-2 tube stops away it is almost certainly going to be quicker for you to walk it than jump on the tube (its generally not that tough to work out where you need to go either).
 
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