BootsnAll Travel Community

My flight lands in London en route to Athens--but we have an 8 hour layover in London first! Although I've never navigated Heathrow or London transportation before, I'm assuming it will be possible to leave the airport, dash around London hitting the biggies, and come back? Or would y'all recommend staying put?

Secondly, if I did leave the airport, where should I go? Where would you go if you only had 8 hours to spend there?

I've done such a mini stay in London, but you really cannot do too much.

1 hour to exit the aircraft, immigration, customs
1 hour on the Tube into London

4 hours in London!

1 hour on the Tube back to LHR
1 hour for security (and we assume your luggage is still checked with boarding pass)

What time of day and day of week will you be blowing through? What kind of stuff interests you? I'd recommend keeping things simple--take the Piccadilly Line to whatever stop, hanging out and seeing a sight or two, have lunch or whatever, and get back on. Remember that London is BIG.

Pick one place you really want to go to (i.e. Tate Modern) and concentrate on that. Invest in the Heathrow express rather than the tube (15mins to central London rather than an hour). Oh, and make sure you are back to Heathrow in plenty of time as the security checks can be considerable.

That sounds like plenty of time. Most of the "biggies" are clustered together, not far from the Thames -- you've got Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace all relatively near each other with a comfortable enough walking distance among them (and are well linked by public transport if you don't want to walk). If you do like walking and the the weather is pleasant, a walk along the river itself is pretty nice, especially on the south side -- you could walk from the London Eye to the Tate Modern, cross over the Milennium Bridge and photograph St. Paul's Cathedral. I would recommend taking public transport to see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, as these are further out. Have fun!