Suggestions needed

[sessifet]

So for my mum's *mumble* birthday trip, she wants to go to London with sis and me. There is no way in Great Squid's blue sea that we can actually do everything in three days, but a possible idea is to pick one thing we all want to do, and one thing we each personally want to do and then just add stuff as and when we feel like it. I am taking a laptop so we can keep things fluid.

Suggested things:

Visit Natural History, Science and A&V museum.
Visit Regent/Hyde Park.
Visit Camden.
Visit Oxford Street.
Go to Harrods.
See a show on the West End.
Zoomy boat on the Thames.
Open-top bus tour.
London duck-tour.
Any amount of palace tours.
Random walking about taking in the sights.
A London Walk (I'd love to go on a Jack the Ripper walk, but I am not sure my mum and sister deserve to be subjected to my getting all giddy over Victorian serial killers.)
Food!
See London Bridge.
See London Eye (gwaaah).
See Tower of London (dude, ravens!).
Covent Garden.
Piccadilly Circus.

I'm looking for further suggestions of stuff to do in London. Shops to visit, landmarks to see etc. I won't discard anything (unless it's hours away from London). It will all go onto the laptop to be reviewed when we're there.

So? Tacky horrible touristy things? Hidden gems? Wonderful touristy things? A shop/building/street that should absolutely be visited? Awesome hotels? Cheap but cheerful hotels? Any input will be appreciated.

Comments

[the-hunter.livejournal.com]

London Dungeon if it is open
And the wossnames over the Thames. Cable cars. Them. When is it happening?

[sessifet25.livejournal.com]

April 12-14 (Friday morning to Sunday afternoon).

[the-hunter.livejournal.com]

Poo...I would REALLY recommend *Little Voice* but it is in Lowestoft that week, which is a bit out of London if I'm honest

[sessifet25.livejournal.com]

That's is actually something I've been meaning to catch following your enthusiastic reviews, but Lowestoft is a *tad* out of the way, yes. :)

[xidia.livejournal.com]

I can recommend the "Zoommy Thames boat" aka the Thames Clipper service - it's how I commuted to and from uni for the year.

Fortnum & Mason for food
Chocolate cafe in Harrods
Cafe Montpeliano just down from Harrods for brunch/lunch
Greenwich/Cutty Sark
HMS Belfast
Hampstead Heath
Madame Tussauds
Carnaby st
Hatton Garden Jewellery Quarter

Really, what are you aiming for? Culture? Shopping? Specific interests?

[sessifet25.livejournal.com]

At the moment? Pretty much "Everything". It's...hmm.

Okay, sis has never been to London, mum's only been twice in her life and I've only been there a few days. So yes, we'd like to do the tacky touristy thing because we're all tourists.

But we also want to check out some of the stuff only Londoners know about, because that is what makes travelling Elsewhere fun. And that can be food, or culture or shopping. Stuff that makes you go 'you're going to London? Oh, you totally have to go to [X]! They have amazing [food/architecture/books/etc]!'

Also, we've always done the 'let's have an adventure' thing when travelling, which is why I am writing everything down and we'll decide on the fly, because we can. Does that make sense?

[rpdom.livejournal.com]

Forbidden Planet? Although I suspect the rest of your family might not be so keen on it.

Chinatown.

British Museum.

Loads of other little museums hidden down back streets.

[sessifet25.livejournal.com]

Actually, Forbidden Planet *is* a good suggestion. :)

[easternpromise.livejournal.com]

Buckingham Palace and changing of the Guard? MEGA touristy. :)

[sessifet25.livejournal.com]

Oooh, good one!

[rpdom.livejournal.com]

I've only seen the changing of the Guard once that I can remember, and that was because my uncle was one of the guards.

You mention London Bridge. Do you mean Tower Bridge, because London Bridge is pretty boring.

I used to love standing in the middle of Tower Bridge with one foot on each side, seeing the river below me through the small gap and feeling the bridge move as the traffic went over it :)

[sessifet25.livejournal.com]

I probably mean Tower Bridge, yes. See? This is why I ask questions. :)

[flexor.livejournal.com]

Natural History museum! Stand face to face with a diplodocus!

[khrister.livejournal.com]

If you're into musical instruments, Denmark Street is fun. Charing Cross Road, for books. Both are near Oxford Street.

Maybe Savile Row for the clothes, but that's just a guess since I've never been there.

[ruthi.livejournal.com]

* A thing out of the way: the William Morris Gallery, http://www.wmgallery.org.uk/ out in Walthamstow. It's been recently re-done, and it tells about his life and has a lot of his design and art.

And it's a pretty building, with a park behind it.
But there are parks everywhere. Look out, the squirrels are bold.

- An anti-recommendation: the m&m world on Leicester Square. Sadly, it is the bad kind of tourist trap, and doesn't even have the interesting flavours of m&m.
*If you want interesting sweets, Cyber-Candy is the place to go: it was near Covent Garden last time I looked, but it may have moved.

* Trafalgar square! Lions! Fountains! Fourth plinth! Also, the National Gallery. Many many paintings.

* Gosh! Comics, is now in Soho, at the bottom of Berwick street.

* Tate Modern, on the South bank.

* London Museum. In or near the Barbican.

* Do you have a smartphone? If you do, you can use, say, the Time-Out app to find recommendations for food near you, when you feel like stopping and eating.

* Everybody knows about Harrod's, but Liberty is pretty - it's a cool building and a very posh shop. It's basically at the top of Carnaby street.

* Imli has nice Indian food - they call it 'Indian tapas', but that just means small plates, so you can try a selection of different things.

* Gelupo has fantastic ice-cream. Amazing stuff.

* Since the visit seems to include a Sunday, find a nice pub and have a Sunday roast :) It's a tradition.

* Cheese: there's a shop called Neal's Yard Dairy, has a branch in Neal's Yard (Covent Garden) but also in Borough Market (Borough Market is shiny, and full of interesting food.)

* The BFI (British Film Institute) has a pub looking at the river. And there's usually a second-hand-book stall near it.

London is too big. Resign yourself to not getting everything done, and relax. Remember to take breaks.

[hobnobs.livejournal.com]

Highly unlikely to happen in your case, because it's quite a long excursion and will mean you can't do as much, but last year I had a pretty long walk (several hours) and visited the churches mentioned in the nursery rhyme Oranges and Lemons. (Well... all the ones in the standard version, plus ones that were reasonably nearby from the full version.)

This year I plan to walk to the sites of the London Gates, though sadly none of the gates themselves have survived, so you could also do that.

[swaldman.livejournal.com]

- The Silver Vaults on Chancery Lane.
- Gelupo for the best ice cream in town (as shown to me by Ruthi)
- the Dangleway (the new cable car. I haven't been on it yet, but it looks like fun)
- Boat through the Thames Barrier?
- Stroll along the Regents Canal. Optionally visit the Canal Museum first, behind Kings Cross. Or combine it with Camden. (I enjoy showing Dutch people UK canals for the "Aww, isn't it sweet" reaction followed by "oh, so this is why you guys stopped using them when trains came along". Although for the full effect you need a rural one that is the 7' minimum width)
- Ride on the DLR if they haven't before. Look ma, no driver!
- The new viewing gallery at the top of the Shard is now open. But apparently it costs something like £25/person, so I'd go on the Eye instead.
- In the spirit of duck tours / boat tourst, etc., there's also London RIB Tours. Not sure how much it costs, or how much your family want to get wet ;-)
- Lunch from (a) Greenwich Market; or (b) Borough Market; or (c) Brixton Market. All three are totally different to one another, all three are worthwhile. The first two are also dependent on the day of the week.
- For something unique at the Tower of London, google for the Ceremony of the Keys. Tickets are free, but must be requested quite a long way ahead.

That's all that springs to the top of my head. Feel free to ask specifics :-)