Hi all!

Has anyone been to London? If so, how did you get from the airport (Heathrow in our case) to your hotel?

Any suggestions as to the best mode of transport?

Thank you! :)

We went to London for our honeymoon. Definitely get a shuttle from the airport!!!! (I can't remember whether the shuttle was offered by the hotel, or if the shuttle was something the airport did to the various hotels..... :scratch: ) As for general transport during the day, the Tube. You can get a pass while you are there, I believe.

can't help from heathrow as my brit boyfriend picked me up and the other time i went we flew into gatwick and took the express train to victoria station.

yes, get a tube pass. you can get one for the length of your stay. it's very easy to navigate (i even managed to get from the pimlico section of london on the tube, switching to british rail to get to my uncle's house wayyy out in the country all by myself)

when are you going? have a great time, i loved sightseeing there!

Thank you, Anne and Kim!

Anne: I saw some shuttles mentioned on the Heathrow web site. I'll check them out, thank you!

Kim: Definitely getting the rail pass. :nod: We are going at the end of this month. Thank you!

We took the shuttle right to Picadilly Circus. It is not difficult, but depending on the time, it can get pretty crowded on there. The thing that kept making us laugh is they kept saying "mind the gap", which we had no idea what that meant at the time. We finally figured it out, but I will let you experience it for yourself. We used the tube for most transportation, except when we were being tourists. Enjoy. It was a lot of fun!

Stella

Oh my Megan, I was suppose to get back in touch with you about that :blush: I clean forgot as when UB was upgraded I lost the PM and I completely lost my mind too, Just clean forgot about it.

I had loads of links for you. I will check them all out before you arrive :lol:

:lol: I forgot about "mind the gap."

:lol: and you'd better mind the gap too! at some stations the gap is a foot wide! i saw a woman slip and catch a leg in there :eek: she was quickly pulled up.

Hi Megan,
Do you have any specific plans about what to see/do in London?
We were there 3 yrs ago and only spent 2.5 days there. But I had every minute planned out. Do you need ideas, suggestions other than transportation? Is this your first time to London?
We pre-ordered a shuttle for a decent price that brought us to where we were staying. In London itself we used the Tube. You can order daily weekly or monthly passes.
I'll see if I can find my old notes...

Cat: :lol: :akiss:

Thank you Stella, Carmen and Kim: I will definitely "mind the gap"! :eek:

Nadine: I have a lot of things planned that we would like to see in London, but tips, suggestions or your favourite things to see would be appreciated! Yes, it will be my first time there, and DH's first time abroad ever!
Thank you! :)

I've been there a couple times. We took the tube from Heathrow to downtown - our hotel was right near a tube station. Whatever you do just don't take a cab because they'll charge you an arm and a leg. London is soooo amazing though - an incredible place. All the touristy things are fun - I'm sure you know all about those. I really liked the Greenwich museum and observatory - you know "Greenwich mean time" The museum is all about time and how it's measured and stuff - very cool - and you can get there by a boat ride on the river if you like.

The thing that kept making us laugh is they kept saying "mind the gap", which we had no idea what that meant at the time.
Heh heh, I bought a "Mind the Gap" shirt. I haven't worn it yet though because I don't feel like explaining it to people. :lol:

I know that The Tube has lines that go straight to Heathrow. We arrived at Waterloo station via the Bullet Train from Paris. Either way, you shouldn't have too many problems getting to where you need to be from Heathrow, whether you take the tube or a cab.

Thank you so much, Kathy and Bimmer1004! :)

Megan - we visited and enjoyed the following in London:
(Keep in mind that we went with yumi who was 3 years old at the time)
1) first we took a ride with the red bus of London.
http://www.theoriginaltour.com/
What was good about it is that the ticket was valid for 24 hours and we could hop on and off wherever we wanted and got a cruise on the Thames for free.
2) Then we visited Leicester Square and area.
3) We walked from Trafalgar square to Buckingham Palace. We went to a tour through Buckingham Palace.
4) We visited the War Museum close to Buckingham Palace (Yumi fell asleep in the stroller so we took advantage of this rare chance and hopped in to the nearest museum...LOL) It was fascinating! Let me see if I can find a link...I think it is called Winston Churchill's Britain at War Museum. Here it is: http://www.britainatwar.co.uk/
You might want to consider buying the London Pass. Since we were there 2.5 days it was not worth it.
http://www.londontown.com/london/london_pass
The London Eye is amazing (we didn't go on it because the queue was endless and time was precious).
What else? The change of the guards - be on time, unlike us...
This seems to be a helpful link as well:
http://www.londontown.com/contactSystem/contact.php

I lost all my notes since I worked somewhere else back then. I hope this helps a bit. When are you going? (I'd like to go back so much!)

Wow, Nadine, thank you for the tips and web sites! Those look great ... some things I hadn't thought of. Thank you! :)
We are going at the end of this month, so I am starting to get pretty excited about it!

Thank you so much!

You are most welcome!
Of course there are the standard must-sees like Big Ben and such. The Westminster area is gorgeous. Prepare yourself to walk a lot- that way it is much more fun!

Thanks. :) I have been wondering if I would have time to "break in" some new more comfortable walking shoes. :lol:

oh, you can see van gogh's 'sunflowers' at the national gallery. it's in trafalgar square. amazing art museum :nod: i loved it.

edited to say i'm such a goober and hit submit before i meant to.

st. paul's cathedral - climb to the very top! view is amazing. make sure to stop in the 'whispering' gallery on the way up. very cool acoustic effects.

westminster abbey is a must do in my book :nod: checking out the tombs of kings and queens is the coolest.

tower of london is a good tour as well. see the crown jewels!


madame toussade's wax museum was a hoot. much better than the one in vegas.

there used to be a bar called the 'long island ice tea shop' in the leiceister square area...if it's still there they had great drinks http://privat.bluezone.no/birgitf/Drunk_emoticon_-_updated_again.gif

Great suggestions, thank you! :)

If you are interested in going on the London Eye, you can buy your tickets in advance on the website - we did that and it saved us a ton of time because we didn't have to wait in the long line there to buy tickets - highly recommended if you can plan in advance!

Thank you for the tip, Kathy! :)