Thanks to some great suggestions from everyone on this thread here already, but we're heading to London in 3 weeks for a quick trip over a four day weekend for my 15 year old daughter, also sneaking in the Texans vs. Jags at Wembley on Sunday, and looking for additional tips and suggestions.

Our flight lands Thursday around noon. Here's our initial thought, any other suggestions or tweaks from London pros are greatly appreciated. All 3 of us are very active so walking is no big deal in fact we probably prefer it over messing with other methods. Staying at the Marriott County Hall so I think we're in a strategically good location. TexAgs of course has already provided some great info!

• Thursday - figuring just walking over towards Hyde Park and taking everything in around that area that afternoon and evening. Looking for good food recs over there and anything else (per another user got the Grenadier on my radar)
• Friday - train to Paris for the day
• Saturday - wide open, I'm dragging the girls to the Imperial War Museum, but outside of that, the only thing we have thought of was a river cruise toward Greenwich and back that evening
• Sunday - Holy Communion service at Westminster Abbey, then start thinking about heading out toward Wembley for the 230pm kick. Any tips on transportation or logistics for that would be appreicated
• Monday - heading home

It's gonna be jam packed, but excited to be overseas for the first time!

The Paris thing is already set. Doing it for our daughter. Prebooked tickets to Louvre and Eiffel Tower included. This was me giving in to a daughter who is in her third year of French, but your input is acknowledged

We're already aware the **** show we're setting ourselves up for but the timing for the trip was too good to not try.

I wouldn't plan on too much in the evening you arrive. If you're flying from IAH to LHR, you'll have about five
hours to sleep between services. If you're connecting through EWR or IAD, you'll be lucky to get three. If you can make it to 7 pm on the day you land, I'd consider that a win.

For your day in London, one thing to keep in mind is that London is a massive city. The tube is pretty efficient, but you'll waste a lot of time trying to hop all over. One thing that I'd say is a must would be to visit the National Gallery. It has a great art collection including multiple pieces from Rembrandt and Van Gogh.

Eat at Hawksmoor. It is fantastic and they have several all over the city but the one at St Pancras is really cool.

As others have mentioned you are probably going to feel rough on day 1. We always hit the ground running and are then completely burned out by mid-afternoon.

The tube out to Wembley is really easy and will likely be incredibly packed on the way back to central London. We showed up several hours before a concert at Wembley only to find that all of the bars around the stadium were packed to capacity which made it hard to get food and drinks around the stadium.

A lot of the London museums are free, so take advantage.

Since you're a war museum fan I would recommend The Churchill war rooms. Also, there is one entire floor in The Wallace Collection that is all arms and armor.

Don't do a river cruise. just catch the Uber boat back and forth to Greenwich...you can just buy the tickets using your Uber app. It runs all day long so you just hop on an off when you want.

it's also very cheesy, but the double decker bus tour is a good way to see the main sights in one day. I did it with my Mom who is 80 because there was no way she was going to be able to walk all day...it's a hop on and off as you want thing.

20 Amazingly Free London Museums - Jetsetting Fools

jh0400 said:

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I wouldn't plan on too much in the evening you arrive. If you're flying from IAH to LHR, you'll have about five
hours to sleep between services. If you're connecting through EWR or IAD, you'll be lucky to get three. If you can make it to 7 pm on the day you land, I'd consider that a win.

For your day in London, one thing to keep in mind is that London is a massive city. The tube is pretty efficient, but you'll waste a lot of time trying to hop all over. One thing that I'd say is a must would be to visit the National Gallery. It has a great art collection including multiple pieces from Rembrandt and Van Gogh.

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We're non-stop MSP-LHR. Leave MSP around 1130pm Wednesday and land around noon on Thursday.

National Gallery is definitely on our list, and it's very close to where we're staying.

Counterpoint said:

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Re: the Texans game ...
I'm a huge football fan, but if I was on a rushed London trip, I don't know if I would spend 4 hours doing something that I could easily do while in the states! I know the Wembley experience will be cool though. Just trying to help with efficiency, hopefully without sounding like a dbag.

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Ha, it's a valid point. My wife has been pushing to take a trip to Europe for a while to show our daughter. When the schedule came out, and landed on the Minnesota schools fall break, I joked "well we can go to London and see the Texans" and her response was "let's do it!"

I'm already prepared to figuratively "punt" on the game if we're absolutely exhausted and/or haven't seen some other things we wanted to see. I'm fine eating the cost of the tickets we already bought for it.

Any specific neighborhoods that are good to walk around and just explore? I'm sure there are hundreds lol

Pahdz said:

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Counterpoint said:

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Re: the Texans game ...
I'm a huge football fan, but if I was on a rushed London trip, I don't know if I would spend 4 hours doing something that I could easily do while in the states! I know the Wembley experience will be cool though. Just trying to help with efficiency, hopefully without sounding like a dbag.

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Ha, it's a valid point. My wife has been pushing to take a trip to Europe for a while to show our daughter. When the schedule came out, and landed on the Minnesota schools fall break, I joked "well we can go to London and see the Texans" and her response was "let's do it!"

I'm already prepared to figuratively "punt" on the game if we're absolutely exhausted and/or haven't seen some other things we wanted to see. I'm fine eating the cost of the tickets we already bought for it.

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Earlier, I didn't catch that you were in Minnesota. If you're a Texans fan living in Minnesota, that changes everything... I'd definitely go to the game!

Pahdz said:

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Thanks to some great suggestions from everyone on this thread here already, but we're heading to London in 3 weeks for a quick trip over a four day weekend for my 15 year old daughter, also sneaking in the Texans vs. Jags at Wembley on Sunday, and looking for additional tips and suggestions.

Our flight lands Thursday around noon. Here's our initial thought, any other suggestions or tweaks from London pros are greatly appreciated. All 3 of us are very active so walking is no big deal in fact we probably prefer it over messing with other methods. Staying at the Marriott County Hall so I think we're in a strategically good location. TexAgs of course has already provided some great info!

• Thursday - figuring just walking over towards Hyde Park and taking everything in around that area that afternoon and evening. Looking for good food recs over there and anything else (per another user got the Grenadier on my radar)
• Friday - train to Paris for the day
• Saturday - wide open, I'm dragging the girls to the Imperial War Museum, but outside of that, the only thing we have thought of was a river cruise toward Greenwich and back that evening
• Sunday - Holy Communion service at Westminster Abbey, then start thinking about heading out toward Wembley for the 230pm kick. Any tips on transportation or logistics for that would be appreicated
• Monday - heading home

It's gonna be jam packed, but excited to be overseas for the first time!

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there are a couple places near hyde park - the mayfair chippy and the three tuns, that might be worth a try. also if you walk over to marylebone, probably tons of good food options (i like lina stores for italian, alley cats pizza, liu ziaomian). a bit further from there is lore of the land (guy ritchie's pub) if you want an elevated meal (it's fantastic and pricey, but worth it. reserve a table)

for wembley, you can take the jubilee line from waterloo. simple to do, but for the game it will be crowded so keep that in mind. you can get tickets easily for the tube in the stations, tap to pay also works but if you've got a family you wont be able to use one card for multiple people/kids. you could always take a cab or uber but it will cost you an arm and a leg, one tube ticket will probably be 5 bucks versus probably 80 or more one way for the uber (and the time in traffic will be extensive)

On that first day, I'd have you walk the south river bank to the Hungerford Bridge, cross the bridge and a left into Embankment Gardens and back down to Parliament. Take Whitehall back to Trafalgar Square and then The Mall to Buckingham Palace. Then Birdcage Walk back to Parliament Square. That should keep you busy

Rick Steves' App has a Westminster walk that takes you down Whitehall. Download that for the Whitehall part of the walk.

St. Stephen's Tavern is at the end of Whitehall across from Parliament (catty corner from the Churchill statue). It's a famous watering hole for members of Parliament. It has a bell over the bar that rings to call MPs back to Parliament when votes are about to happen. Good for lunch. Go upstairs for dining.

Blackfriar Pub outside the Blackfriars tube station is another good pub for lunch. Art Deco inside from around 1910.

You need to at least see the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. I'd also suggest going to the Sky Garden. Great views, it's free but you need a ticket.

Wondering through the Borough Market could be fun or maybe Covent Gardens.

Go to St. Paul and walk across the Millennium Bridge.

You could spend a year in London and not see everything. Have fun.

Pahdz said:

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The Paris thing is already set. Doing it for our daughter. Prebooked tickets to Louvre and Eiffel Tower included. This was me giving in to a daughter who is in her third year of French, but your input is acknowledged

We're already aware the **** show we're setting ourselves up for but the timing for the trip was too good to not try.

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The Eurostar is an excursion in itself, it's mind-blowing the first time you ride HSR.

We splurged for the Premier class seats on it, no idea if it's worth it but YOLO

it's pretty nice, if nothing else to get past the mega regular seat crowds in st pancras

The British Museum is a must IMO, even if you only stay long enough to see the Rosetta Stone and Elgin Marbles.

Tower of London is also a good stop. The Beefeater tour guides give an entertaining history and you can see the crown jewels.

We will be there as well for England and the Texans.

Think we're going to do the Boxpark before the game:

https://www.boxpark.co.uk/venues/wembley?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=gbp&utm_campaign=homepage

Thinice said:

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We will be there as well for England and the Texans.

Think we're going to do the Boxpark before the game:

https://www.boxpark.co.uk/venues/wembley?utm_medium=organic&utm_source=gbp&utm_campaign=homepage

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Been to one before?

it's either not very crowded then you are just sitting there eating and drinking overpriced food and beer or it's packed with a lot of unsavory types. Not really a middle to it.

All good suggestions but given all your travel walk around. Weather is great. They will enjoy Hyde park. Take them to the zoo there. Enjoy! The globe theater is always fun and outdoors

Zoo is in Regents Park and as someone who has been to a lot of zoos across the globe, its good, but nothing special.

Keep in mind for the Eurostar that it is almost airport style security and you have to clear customs. So it isn't as simple as showing up on the platform right before departure. Also Paris time zone is 1 hour ahead of London so you lose an hour there. This is possible, but the logistics will have to be pretty tight. Definitely have a plan on navigating Paris before you arrive.

Everything we are doing related to our Paris day is through a tour so it's all preset.

Had dinner at St Stephans this afternoon, great fish and chips and atmosphere.