My wife's never been to London , and I haven't been since I was a kid , so we're going down for the day this Saturday for her birthday. My plan so far is to drive to hillingdon and jump on the tube with a day pass. What I need from you awesome people is any tips or ideas to make sure it's a fun day as I know quite a few of you live or work there.
Book a nice restaurant , go to a show, see the sights, if the weather is good book the London eye, have a stroll thru the parks.... If its to treat her Harrods, Bond st, Oxford st.. Smurf
I was never really impressed with London as a city until I strolled along Hungerford Bridge towards the Royal Festival Hall at dusk. Depends what your wife is into though; culture, history, architecture, science & engineering, shopping, cuisine?
Here are a few suggestions of 'sights' you might like to see. West End/Westminster (All pretty close together.) Trafalgar Square Admiralty Arch Buckingham Palace The Houses of Parliament Westminster Abbey The Embankment (you could make a stroll along there as long or as short as you like.) The Globe Theatre (on the other side of the river.) St James's Park Green Park The City St. Paul's Cathedral The Tower of London Tower Bridge If you like museums (or want something to do if it chucks it down) then the Museum of London at London Wall is very good. South Kensington the Natural History Museum The Science Museum The Victoria & Albert Museum Elsewhere A boat trip from Westminster down to Greenwich is nice, but it might take a bit too long if you want to pack as much as possible into one day. Unless you or Mrs Bassai is a really determinded shopaholic then I'd avoid Oxford Street like the plague on a Saturday. Having said that, I know of at least one great little boozer nearby where you can recover! If going to the pub appeals, then I can give you a long list of recommendations. But it would come with a warning that I moved back up north in 2008, so I can't promise that they'll all still be as good as they used to be!
Male sure you take the Metropolitan line down and not Picadilly..otherwise its a long old journey. Pretty much what Johnno says about the West End tho. Everything is walkable.
Also don't try and pack too much in. You just can't do it all, so rather than making a frantic day, pick a couple of things and enjoy them properly. I like The London Eye personally, and it's a good way to see the city. Oh, and remember it's not London, it's That London. Mitch
Yeah...I'd do an AM "thing", lunch somewhere nice, and then a PM "thing". Tube travel takes time. You can do St Paul's, walk over the millennium bridge over the Thames and see Tate Modern (my family is arty so your mileage may vary on that one) and the Globe theatre in one go IIRC. Westminster and the London Eye can be done in one package to. And you could always pop in my mum's house for a cuppa and a sit down.
It's quite a nice walk down Southbank from the Tate to the Globe. If you do end up down by the globe it's a two minute walk to Borough Market to have a wander about though can be very busy. You could carry on further down to Butlers Wharf where there is (from memory) a good restaurant called Butlers Wharf Chop House. You are going quite a way from the centre there though, but you could jump on one of the river taxis.