BootsnAll Travel Community

Hey Kids,

I'm a born and bread Londoner and I am intrigued to know what visitors made of my fair city.

What would you reccommend about London? The best tourist attractions, pubs, restaurants, hostels, areas, views, excursions around London, etc. Anything really.

Thanks,

Jonny.

I thought buckingham palace was cool, seeing the guards and what not...

personally i found the tower of london to be really cool...that whole castle and how old it is and how long it has been there...

westminster abby

i took a train out to wimbledon

harrah's is fun to walk around (our version of macy's)I saw the 1000 pound caviar which was crazy

i forgot some of the big shopping streets and busy ones, but watching rugby at a pub was good, i didnt have a chance to see a football match, but i have heard they are nuts

victoria and albert museum (for you dan brown fans)

there are a lot of free things as well in london, museums and such...

those are some i can think of that i enjoyed seeing

I just moved over here 3 weeks ago and so far the highlights for me have been Tate Modern, Westminster Abbey, Portobello Market and just zooming around on the Tube. Furthermore I walk over London Bridge every morning on my way to work and wow, what an amazing view!

I wrote a 2-part report about a short trip to London last easter, perhaps that would be interesting to you:

part 1: http://www.backpatters.com/blog/?p=41#more-41
part 2: http://www.backpatters.com/blog/?p=52#more-52

The National Gallery and Hampton Court. I don't know if Hampton Court counts since it's not technically in London.

The London Eye was HIGHLY overrated. Even if it had been free I would have wanted my 30 minutes back.

Funny you should say that, personally I think its one of teh best things to do in London. Ive done it a few times with various people and everyone seems to have loved it. Guess its a personal thing but I would say its well worth the money and one iof teh few things in London really worth paying for!

quote:

Originally posted by ferml:

The London Eye was HIGHLY overrated. Even if it had been free I would have wanted my 30 minutes back.

The only touristy things I did was touring Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. I enjoyed both, but think I liked Westminster a little more than the Tower. The Tower was too much of a museum for me (glass cases, artifacts on display), and I become bored in museums. Westminster was just impressive, old, and had the artistic element to it.

Oh - I also thoroughly enjoyed The Big Bus Company (the brown buses) tour. Tickets were good for 48 hours, and wow, you really got a good feel for the city as a whole. It also included a boat ride on the Thames.

My favorite thing though (this is the same no matter where I'm at) is to just walk around and explore. So my favorite part of London was walking around the Fleet Street area. I also loved eating lunch at the lowest level of Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (I'm a Dickens fan). That was a highlight of mine.

One more thing - our hotel was within about 1/3 mile of Paddington station, and there were some good pubs nearby, as well as a great Indian restaurant. I think it was called 'Indian Restaurant.' ;-) (but I gather there are great indian restaurants all over London)

I loved Westminster Abbey (esp. during Evensong) and St. Paul's Cathedral. I loved looking at Parliament (beautiful architecture, although I didn't get to go in), and walking through Kensington Gardens. I loved going to Spitalfield Market at 6 am, walking through Chelsea and looking for the historic plaques, touring Kenwood House at Hampstead and walking through the Heath.

My favorite museums were the British Museum and the V&A (esp. the costume exhibit). I've heard the Imperial War Museum is really good, but I haven't been there yet. Also loved Kew Gardens and Hampton Court Palace. Mostly I liked walking through London - it's a great walking city...

The Candid Cafe in Angel - hands down my fav place to go any day of the week!!!

I love the British Museum. A lot. Go there every year; sometimes twice.

Love the Royal Academy when it has those great exhibits.

And I never leave London until I've been to My Old Dutch and Belgo!

And the British Library; very cool exhibits there, as well.

I always thought that Little Venice was often overlooked and under-rated. It really can be a very pretty, peaceful place away from all the bustle. Memory serves correct, it´s a junction of waterways that eventually becomes the Grand Union Canal and used to ferry goods to Birmingham. Of course they´ve got the M1/M6 for that now but can´t imagine a great deal of difference in the speed

elv

I just got back from 4 days in London. I've been there 5 or 6 times, but this time I went to Greenwich.

We took a boat. What a great way to get there and what a cool place to go!

The area of Greenwich is quite nice. The big park, etc. The museums up there are free and it was pretty cool to be on the Prime Meridian!


p.s. Guess that makes me a dork?

Spitalfields and Brick Lane markets on a Sunday

and nearby Columbia Road flower market