London Tips/Advice For A 1st Timer

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Byrns

Just stay away from traditional British food and eat what the British do now... Kebabs and Curries.

If you don't mind spending $100 on lunch.

[troutman]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Thanks for the tip on the tube pass. I'll be sure to get one of those as that will probably be my primary means of getting around.

Mind The Gap!



Also, look right when you cross the street.

[kermitology]

British food isn't bad.. it's more plain.

Yorkshire pudding is one of my favourite things!

Try and shandy if you feel your vagina getting sandy.

[Byrns]

Originally Posted by troutman

If you don't mind spending $100 on lunch.

Have you seen the exchange rate recently? It's much better now, so lunch would only be about $75

1:1.74

vs
1:2.30 when I was there.

[4X4]

London is humongous. It was the only city where I paid for the tour bus. And TBQH, still thought it was a rip-off. With 10 days, you should be able to accomplish most stuff on your own, armed with a frommers. Read it on the plane and study a tourist map when you get there. The tube is unbelievable. You can get pretty much anywhere worth going on the tube.

My best advice when checking out any european city is a good pair of walking shoes. You'll see the most stuff and its cheap! Keep a tourist map in your pocket and every time you're a bit lost or bored, stop at a pub for a pint, slap the map down on your table and figure out where you are and where you want to go. Best way to explore Europe, IMHO.

[ok, ok,....I get it]

Originally Posted by 4X4

London is humongous. It was the only city where I paid for the tour bus. And TBQH, still thought it was a rip-off. With 10 days, you should be able to accomplish most stuff on your own, armed with a frommers. Read it on the plane and study a tourist map when you get there. The tube is unbelievable. You can get pretty much anywhere worth going on the tube.

My best advice when checking out any european city is a good pair of walking shoes. You'll see the most stuff and its cheap! Keep a tourist map in your pocket and every time you're a bit lost or bored, stop at a pub for a pint, slap the map down on your table and figure out where you are and where you want to go. Best way to explore Europe, IMHO.

agreed, however, this also lead to many evenings of my trying to find my way back to the hotel, have an english/hungarian conversation with a lovely women (neither understanding each other).....or some time in jail.

[Eric Vail]

London's two best things going for it are the museums (which I think are free) and the theatre. There is a half price ticket booth for the theatre somewhere downtown. I don't remember where, but am sure you could find out if you asked around or did some research with the travel books.

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by troutman

Also, look right when you cross the street.

Oh, man! I almost forgot about that one.

As silly as it sounds, force yourself to look both ways carefully when crossing. Between me and my buddies I couldn't believe the number of times one of us had to grab the other by the collar to avoid getting hit.

[Foxy]

10 days will give you a very good chance to see alot of the highlights that London has to offer. I was born and raised in Calgary, and I now live with my husband (he's English) just outside of London. Some of my favourites are:

- as mentioned by others, the tube is amazing and easy to navigate. It will get you to where you want to be, even to and from Heathrow.

- The museums and galleries are amazing, and have something for everyone. Want to see a mummy? Go to the British Museum. Their Egyptology exhibit is massive. I spent an entire day from opening to close, and only saw about 1/3 of the museum.

- The natural history museum is also stunning. Again, spent an entire day there, and didn't see it all. Tate Modern and the Victoria and Albert are excellent too. All free admission, too.

- Go for a pint at the Punch and Judy in Covent Garden and watch the buskers. There's loads of street performers in Covent Garden, a market, and lots of places to eat and drink. A neat atmosphere there.

- Definitely take in a show, and there's so many to choose from you'll definitely find something you're into. I highly recommend "We Will Rock You" if you're into Queen at all. If you're here at the right time, you might even catch "Oliver!" with Rowan Atkinson, though tickets might be hard to come by. And there's loads of discount ticket sellers all over Theatreland.

- I really enjoyed seeing Parliament the first time. So iconic, and the views from across the river are great.

- Trafalgar Square is alright... more interesting if there is an event or festival going on. The National Gallery is right there, as is Canada House. Nice to see a big Canadian Flag in the heart of Central London.

- So many sites are clustered together. Get on some comfortable shoes and get walking with map in hand! Stop for a pint in one of the thousands of pubs you'll come across.

- Make it obvious that you are Canadian and not American.

Feel free to PM me if you want. I can pass on any hints and suggestions if you need them.

[calf]

I was just there this past September/October. The Underground will get you anywhere, right from the Airport...the Oyster Card is a must so that you can get anywhere worry-free. You can pick one up at the station at the airport.

I like 4X4's idea of doing the bus tour. There are a couple of Hop On Hop Off tours that you can take which will show you the hilights, and then you can figure out where you want to go in the most efficient manner from there.

Museums are cool and free, but most want a small donation (1 or 2 quid).

Take a day trip on the National Rail lines to Windsor or Oxford...or both.

re: looking right, most of the places that are busy have paint on the cross walk saying which way to look as well, which is nice.

Go to the shows & get tickets at one of the booths at Leister (sp) Square...but there are plenty of booths, so don't be afraid to shop around a bit. I'm assuming you're in your 20's/corporate, so I strongly recommend you go see "Avenue Q".

[flip]

British people call a joint a spliff and they usually put tobacco in it.

Don't buy weed off pikeys (trailer park people in British speak). Hash is more common and it is all more expensive than in Calgary/Canada.

[Bagor]

When you arrive at Heathrow have a passport photo and ask for a one week travel card. They'll set it up there and then. Makes for a nice little personalised souvenir also.

If you're going to be staying around the middle then zones 1 & 2 are all you'll need. From Heathrow just ask for an extension tickets to cover your journey into zone 2 where your card kicks in. Sounds more complicated than it is.

Anytime I was there the travel card covered overhead rail as well as London Transport.

Also, ask for an outer and inner London bus map (free), saves you buying one. Bussing it IMO is better than tubes around Central London simply cuz you'll see more.

Zones .....




Anytime you need to go outside the zones (which if you're living in 1 or 2) shouldn't be often just buy an extension ticket. Make sure you do that BEFORE your journey or they can hit you with a fine for fare avoidance should you try and pay at the end.

If you're going with one day cards remember that they can't be used on weekdays before 09:30

To add to the other suggestions .......

Try speakers corner (Hyde Park Corner) on a Sunday am/early pm. It's basically a unique place where people go to rant. When I was there it was Arabs going off on Jews and vice versa although it might have toned down a bit with hate laws being introduced.

Camden Town on a Sunday for the market, pubs and people watching. It's a hive of activity although I'm not sure how it's recovered from a huge fire last year.

Go to the dogs. Fun night out for a group and something to do over a few beers. If a dog has a crap before it goes into the traps, then despite what others say, bet against it. Few tracks scattered around London.

Tour bus is worth the price as 4 x 4 says (edit not) just for the scale of the city, the river tour down to Greenwich is worth doing.

Definitely buy Time Out magazine, it'll have all the listings for everything (sport, comedy, museums ...) at your fingertips.

Gunners/Hammers should be a really good atmosphere.

[Locke]

Good suggestions thus far, if you do a few museums they're pretty sweet, but be sure to skip the Tate Modern museum.

I have more art lurking about my garage in trash form than that entire museum.

I HIGHLY recommend 4x4's suggestion about the tourist map and pubs, every time I've been to Europe, thats the way to do it.

Another vote for St. Paul's and the Thames boat tours are okay too.

[Bagor]

Originally Posted by Locke

Another vote for St. Paul's

Yeah, and if you take a 2 minute walk around the corner you can jump into the public gallery of the Old Bailey (Central Criminal Court) and watch a bit of British Law in progress. (depending on what's on you can court hop as long as you're quiet).

[3 Justin 3]

Check out the museums, they are free which is excellent because London is ludicrously expensive. The British Museum is awesome, I spent like 4 hours there and I think I saw everything. There is another pretty good museum type thing (costs money though), it is where Churchill spent his time during WW2, it is his bunker. It is one of the coolest places I have ever been.

Also, check out a play or two, or even three. But please, do yourself a favor and go to "Avenue Q", I was laughing for 2 hours straight. It is like Sesame Street but with songs about internet porn, homosexuality, swearing, racism, etc. Oh yeah and puppets have sex...

If you do decide to see a play, dont get them at the theatre, go to the places selling "last minute tickets", kind of places, I got a 3rd row seat for like $50.

Food wise, try to get some Shepherds pie, I had awesome shepherds pie at this one restaurant.

And make sure to get tons of pictures, I regret not taking enough, although I took a ton.

And as others have said, use the Tube.

Oh yeah, and London is ING HUGE! To get from the airport to my hostel took 2 hours using the Tube/trains.

[DynamRyan]

I live in the Square mile, which is the giant financial district of London. (The Music College I attend is in the Barbican, which is a giant arts centre. If you enjoy classical music, theatre and the arts, you should definitely hit up.) The Barbican is located on Silk Street, and it's super easy to get to from Moorgate Station on the London Underground. However, The city is basically FULL of Financial District workers and most of the restaurants inside the area are quite expensive. There are a few good pubs though. The Globe at Moorgate is one of them. It's literally a one minute hop from Moorgate station again.

Definitely take in a few shows. Lots of the theatres do returns in the morning or the early evening, and sometimes scalpers will sell returns on the cheap.

Unfortunately, I'm a Manchester United fan, so I can't really ever catch the boys play unless they are in London, and tickets are usually sold out by the time you get there. Since you've got corporate seats, nothing to worry about in the ways of crowds go. Emirates is a very well-designed stadium with a giant concourse around it, and it's pretty easy to find your way in. The away fans will sit together in one tier of the ground. (pretty sure this has already been said, but can't bother to go through the thread.) Also, oyster cards are useful, nuff said. Cabbies sometimes won't take you some places after midnight (usually only really rough areas like Brixton, Whitechapel etc.) but that's lessened nowadays. Oh yeah. I would advise you to ALWAYS check travel information on weekends if you are planning on taking the tube. The Underground has gotten way better at broadcasting the information. www.tfl.gov.uk is the website for the whole London Transport system and they have real-time updates. The LU has loads of engineering works on the london underground on weekends and journeys can get screwed up because they will randomly close entire lines and stuff like that. Usually, if you enter a station there will be a board up with that month's closures on it. However, it can get a little annoying.

Covent Garden is fantastic, if not a little expensive a massive tourist trap, but really, everywhere is expensive. Take advantage of the free entrance museums in South Kensington (South Kensington Underground station is the de-facto stop for most of the museums, and they will have signposts pointing you everywhere.) WhiteHall (the street) is really impressive if you walk down it, and you can take a peek down Downing Street, where the Prime Minister lives if you're feeling overtly political. If you walk down whitehall to westminster, check out Westminster Abbey as well. There are lots of parks. Regent's park is in the north of London, but the big one is Hyde Park. You can walk for hours and hours in it and still not cover most of it. Brick Lane in the East End has literally every different curry house you could think of, if you're into that, and Edgeware road is an amazing place to try shisha and really tasty Lebanese quisine.

It's also a large Jewish area as well, so you can get lots of Kosher food there. Madam Tussaud's (the famous wax museum) is right next to Baker Street station on the London Underground. Baker Street is actually kinda cool, since it's actually the oldest subway station in the world. If you arrive via the Circle Line platforms they have placards explaining it's significance. Pretty neat actually. People are usually pretty friendly. Make sure you get in a licensed taxis. I was the victim of an unlicensed taxi scammer once when I first moved here and got ripped off VERY badly. I don't reccommend taking them because they are a: expensive, and b: you can get most places by rail. Only use it if you're coming back the bar after 1 am when the tube is closed or there are no night buses in the area where you're staying.

Hope I've been of help! Enjoy London!

[the_only_turek_fan]

Can't believe no one has mentioned the MAPLE LEAF!

Its a Canadian bar that is in Camden IIRC. Its owned by Canadians and they have Canadian beer and hockey pictures and jerseys hanging on the wall.

The place is crawling with hockey starved British people and once they find out you are from Canada all they want to talk to you about is Canada and hockey. You get "Have you been to Toronto before?" a lot as well.

[the_only_turek_fan]

Oh and eat at Nandos.

[SoCalFlamesFan]

Originally Posted by Tyler

Thanks for the advice guys. They're corporate seats, so I'm sure they're on the Gunners side.

Thanks for the tip on the tube pass. I'll be sure to get one of those as that will probably be my primary means of getting around.

Take the bus! I say that not because the tube isnt great - but because you miss so much when you just travel by tube. I've lived in London a few times - and walking and the bus are the best way to travel as a tourist because you can see so much more.

Also check out the club/bar scene in SoHo...

[VladtheImpaler]

The food is incredibly bland and tasteless, be it Italian, British, Chinese, American or English. And very expensive. As in $15-20 CDN for an order of wings. Stick to Indian/Middle Eastern food... if you have taste buds and enjoy food. Kensington (Diana's palace) is a great park and a great place for a walk/run. You should definitely shop for nice threads - they are great quality and surprisingly well priced. The added bonus of being on the main fancy shopping street (damn...... the name slipped my mind - it's around Piccadilly I believe) is that you will see some absolutely stunning, model-quality women walking around Of course, check out the usual tourist sites. EDIT: Forgot to add, if you are culturally minded, definitely go to the theater - better than anything you'll see on this continent, perhaps outside of NY. You can see Captain Picard starring in something.