• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

How much of London can I see in a 22 hour layover?

R

radhak

Senior member
Planning for a trip in June, I find that one flight option (going US to Asia) has me reaching Heathrow at 11.30 am local time, and the connecting flight is at 9.30am the next morning. And because of that, it is cheaper than the other options with less layover time.

So, I'm thinking if it makes sense for me to have minimal hand luggage and roam London all day and take a cheap motel nearby for the night. Having never been to London, I could do some gratis sight seeing, right?

So how easy/difficult is this? Is LHR well connected with the city? Can I expect reasonably cheap accommodation that's close enough and not far out in the boondocks? I'm sure the $45 Motel6 room is not possible, but maybe something less than $100? Okay, $150?

I really don't care what I visit in the city, just do some touristy things, or just walk around.
 
Definitely do-able and definitely something that I would recommend. Heathrow is really well connected to the city via the tube so you can basically get every where comfortably.

Find yourself a hostel. Should be under $100 for the day. Drop off your stuff there and go roam around. Plenty of amazing neighborhoods and food areas.

I personally like http://www.hostelbookers.com/
 
How much luggage are you going with? You can rent a storage locker in LHR for 10 pounds a day which I would strongly consider so you don't have to worry about more than a backpack\rollaboard for the day

The fastest would be the LHR express which should be about 20-25 min to paddington station but I've never taken it before. You'd likely have to transfer there to the Underground to get closer to your destination (Mind the gap!)

The tube does run from LHR to anywhere in the city from all the terminals at LHR and will take about 1 hour eachway but expect some transfers. Its pretty well labeled and there are usually people you can ask for help at the airport in figuring out your transfers if you know ahead of time the stop you want to get off on

One thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the sites will close around 5-5:30pm although there are plenty of things to see from the outside later than that (Parliament, Big ben, London bridge etc)

I am a big fan of the Premier Inn County Hall for location as its is right next to the London Eye which is basically across the river from Parliament. A quick check of dates puts that in potentially the $175-200 range. Otherwise slightly farther out you'd likely have luck on Belgrave Rd\Warwick Way between the Pimlico and Victoria Underground stops. You can likely find some options in the $110-$175 range there. They are a bit farther southwest than the Premier Inn - If I had to guess it would be about 15 min walking to Westminster\Big Ben instead of the 3 minutes from the Premier Inn and about 50 minutes to the London Bridge instead of 25 minutes

You might be able to get cheaper farther out but, personally, I wouldn't want to be much farther out with such limited time

Edit: Depending on the day you go there is a great open air food market that sets up just north of the Jubilee Gardens. Some amazing food options
 
Last edited:
Heathrow into the heart of the city is about 40 mins. You may want to give yourself a healthy 60-75 min buffer for getting out of customs/clusterfvck for both in & out to airport.

So this should give you 20 hours, or make it 19 hours to be safe.

You can take the tube right into the city. London is very well connected like rest of Europe. Think NYC.

Your arrival/departing hours are very ideal. You basically can have all the fun from 1pm to all night. Sleep then leave the city.

You can knockout couple of touristy things:
* The London Eye, Big Ben, & The Parliament area (Westminster stop in their tube)
* London National Gallery (do this first due to their opening hours if you like museums)
* Hit up bunch of bars in downtown in the evening.
* You'll like Tower of London as well. Then take a ferry in Thames river back up to the Big Ben. That's a very nice day.

Sample tourist map PDF.

You can do hostel or Airbnb or tripadvisor to book lodging. It's a major city so you can definitely do $80-150. But then the currency is a bitch. So probably $150 usd if lucky.

Source: I was in London 2006. Wow it's been 9 yrs
 
Last edited:
Nice, lots of good info, thanks, y'all!

I plan to keep minimal stuff on hand. Lockers is a good idea.

Will keep in mind the closing times, and plan for other things for later.

Hostels are a neat idea; I guess I need to up my hotel budget a little bit - gotta allow for the fact that London must be more expensive than NYC.
 
Yeah, try to hit the Westminster and Tower Hill stops with that amount of time. There's nothing quite like walking up from the Westminster station. Stop at The Admiralty on the edge of Trafalgar square and get a pie and some ale.
 
Last edited:
JM Aggie08 said:
WWABD

What would Anthony Bourdain do?
Click to expand...

Yup, there's a show on Netflix calls The Layover, features Anthony Bourdain; search for the London episode.

But yes, you should get to Paddington and find more reasonable accommodations there than London, and take the tube into London. Buy a day pass for the hop-on-hop-off bus pass and get on one of those double-decker and it should take you around to most touristy places you want to see and do within your timeslot. Take a map from them, plot your course. Plan to stop at Piccadilly Square at the end of your journey and walk around, find a pub and have a few pints, then head back to your hotel for the night.
 
a6612b0f21c373918d7265ad72fcf88f.jpg
 
Zeze said:
Heathrow into the heart of the city is about 40 mins. You may want to give yourself a healthy 60-75 min buffer for getting out of customs/clusterfvck for both in & out to airport.

So this should give you 20 hours, or make it 19 hours to be safe.

You can take the tube right into the city. London is very well connected like rest of Europe. Think NYC.

Your arrival/departing hours are very ideal. You basically can have all the fun from 1pm to all night. Sleep then leave the city.

You can knockout couple of touristy things:
* The London Eye, Big Ben, & The Parliament area (Westminster stop in their tube)
* London National Gallery (do this first due to their opening hours if you like museums)
* Hit up bunch of bars in downtown in the evening.
* You'll like Tower of London as well. Then take a ferry in Thames river back up to the Big Ben. That's a very nice day.

Sample tourist map PDF.

You can do hostel or Airbnb or tripadvisor to book lodging. It's a major city so you can definitely do $80-150. But then the currency is a bitch. So probably $150 usd if lucky.

Source: I was in London 2006. Wow it's been 9 yrs
Click to expand...

Fuck the London eye, make a booking for Oblix Bar in the shard, it's the 32nd floor of the tallest building in Europe and provides much better views.
 
DannyBoy said:
Fuck the London eye, make a booking for Oblix Bar in the shard, it's the 32nd floor of the tallest building in Europe and provides much better views.
Click to expand...
The Shard view is the best in London, but DO NOT go to Oblix. Just book at the Shard Viewing Gallery, which is on floors 68, 69, and 72. You get a better view up there, and Oblix has a strict dress code that isn't conducive to a day of walking around in London.

I agree regarding the Eye though. There are much better, more affordable views to be had.
 
From Heathrow you're on the piccadilly line, which is what most attractions are dotted along.

I'd start by jumping off at south kensington and checking out the natural history museum, even if it's just to look at the building and take some snaps, it's pretty impressive.

All museums are free here btw, so feel free to run in and look at dinosaurs and other, natural sh*t.

Get back on the piccadilly line, get off at Knightsbridge and checkout Harrods and 1 Hyde Park corner (Hyde park's big, you won't have time to see much of it but it's worth a gander).

Get back on the piccadilly line and get off at piccadilly circus (you can also get off at green park instead and walk down piccadilly towards the circus). That's the famous circus, it's a bit like NYs time square kinda with all the advertising signs.

Checkout piccadilly circus and leicester square, if you can, walk across to covent garden too (ask for directions, you don't need to get the tube but if you're uncomfortable working out the way [London's has LOTS of roads and they are usually very confusing for my American mates because they're used to grids, we have zero, grids] then get back on the tube to covent garden).

Covent garden is awesome, lots of nice restaurants, walk south onto the strand and back up to trafalgar square to see nelson's column, if you want you can checkout 'The Mall' which is the road that leads from Trafalgar square to Buckingham palace.

From trafalgar square the mall takes you to buckingham palace but I'd probably walk down to the river and follow it, you'll be opposite waterloo and south bank (checkout south bank, it's a huge arts centre and it's where a lot of galleries are).

To the right from embankment you've got Big Ben and the houses of parliament, you may be a little surprised to see Big Ben isn't that big now compared to other buildings, you can actually go up inside it but you probably won't have time.

Like I said screw the London eye and if you can *book* Oblix Bar at the shard (you will absolutely need to book) and use the shard as a viewpoint instead, it's impressive and lets you see the city in all directions and all its glory, from above.

Use the Thames Clippers (boat service) once you've gotten to the river part (starting at embankment), there's piers at westminster (houses of parliament / big ben), embankment (trafalgar square / the mall and bucks palace), london bridge (the shard), tower bridge (tower bridge, tower of London), the clippers aren't the cheapest but it's by far the best way to get from attraction to attraction for the things that are on the river.

There's so much to do and see I couldn't even start to list everything here, if you want anymore tips just ask, heck if you're spending the day here on a Saturday I'll even happily meet up and give you a tour of shit you don't get to see as a tourist.
 
Last edited:
rcpratt said:
The Shard view is the best in London, but DO NOT go to Oblix. Just book at the Shard Viewing Gallery, which is on floors 68, 69, and 72. You get a better view up there, and Oblix has a strict dress code that isn't conducive to a day of walking around in London.

I agree regarding the Eye though. There are much better, more affordable views to be had.
Click to expand...

My friend is the building manager for the shard, you don't need to be higher than the 32nd floor to see everything and the only dress code for Oblix is no sports wear.

As a tourist 'The view from the shard', as it's called, may be a better option for you though.

I agree if it's a sunny day in June you'll probably want to dress down.

View from the shard - http://www.theviewfromtheshard.com/en/

Oh, get a travelcard and use the travelcard for 30% off thames clipper tickets too.
 
Just to give you an idea of how vast London is as well, seeing all of that above is about 0.05% of everything there is to see and do here.
 
DannyBoy said:
My friend is the building manager for the shard, you don't need to be higher than the 32nd floor to see everything and the only dress code for Oblix is no sports wear.

As a tourist 'The view from the shard', as it's called, may be a better option for you though.

I agree if it's a sunny day in June you'll probably want to dress down.

View from the shard - http://www.theviewfromtheshard.com/en/

Oh, get a travelcard and use the travelcard for 30% off thames clipper tickets too.
Click to expand...
I'd rather be higher if the option is available :awe:

I was turned away from Oblix with much less than sports wear, unless things have changed since last summer. My jeans and my fiance's shorts were both unacceptable. Anyways, you can get a drink at the View if you want as well, I just don't see much advantage to Oblix.
 
rcpratt said:
I'd rather be higher if the option is available :awe:

I was turned away from Oblix with much less than sports wear, unless things have changed since last summer. My jeans and my fiance's shorts were both unacceptable. Anyways, you can get a drink at the View if you want as well, I just don't see much advantage to Oblix.
Click to expand...

Are the drinks any cheaper at the view?

A double Glenmorangie is £32 in oblix lounge :hmm:

Btw I've been to the service levels above the view from the shard floors, everything's too small for me.
 
DannyBoy said:
Are the drinks any cheaper at the view?

A double Glenmorangie is £32 in oblix lounge :hmm:

Btw I've been to the service levels above the view from the shard floors, everything's too small for me.
Click to expand...
They certainly weren't cheap. I think a glass of champagne was like £15 or something.
 
There's so much to see in London you might as well scratch trying to "do it all" in one day. Its impossible. Just decide to have a pleasant day, concentrate on the West End, soak up the local flavor and don't try to kill yourself running around too much. I wouldn't even bother with museums - there's too little time and they're too big and of such quality that it would be a shame to rush one (spent an entire day in the British Museum - but I had three weeks).
 
Wow - that is some detail I've collected just in this thread! Now I'm thinking maybe I should purchase an actual layover...

Nah - seeing that I travel this route almost yearly, I can make this a habit, and see London piecemeal across years. Sounds fun!


DannyBoy said:
Just to give you an idea of how vast London is as well, seeing all of that above is about 0.05% of everything there is to see and do here.
Click to expand...


Leyawiin said:
There's so much to see in London you might as well scratch trying to "do it all" in one day.
Click to expand...

Agreed - I will plan to just take it easy and not worry about what I am not covering. There will be more opportunities.

zinfamous said:
Bed the Queen, murder the King, declare yourself King.

That still works, no?
Click to expand...
😀
At first I laughed, then I made the mistake of visualizing the Queen. :wub:

But the Queen's grand-daughter-in-law, okay...
 
radhak said:
Wow - that is some detail I've collected just in this thread! Now I'm thinking maybe I should purchase an actual layover...

Nah - seeing that I travel this route almost yearly, I can make this a habit, and see London piecemeal across years. Sounds fun!







Agreed - I will plan to just take it easy and not worry about what I am not covering. There will be more opportunities.


😀
At first I laughed, then I made the mistake of visualizing the Queen. :wub:

But the Queen's grand-daughter-in-law, okay...
Click to expand...

No jokes about our queen while you're here, that's our job.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top