Is this London in 1 day itinerary doable?

[TITISSA]

We are staying at The Marriott County Hall. We only have 1 day before flying down to Barcelona to get to our cruise ship. Let me know if this itinerary is feasible...

 

Walk from our hotel over Westminster Bridge to Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. From the Abbey what is the best way to get to Buckingham Palace? After the Palace have lunch at St. Jame's park. How can I get from St. Jame's park to St. Paul's Cathedral? After St. Paul's Cathedral we would like to visit The Tower of London. Cross over the Tower Bridge and make our way back towards the hotel and do the London Eye.

 

Should I leave something out or should I add something? Thanks.

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

We are staying at The Marriott County Hall. We only have 1 day before flying down to Barcelona to get to our cruise ship. Let me know if this itinerary is feasible...

 

Walk from our hotel over Westminster Bridge to Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. From the Abbey what is the best way to get to Buckingham Palace? After the Palace have lunch at St. Jame's park. How can I get from St. Jame's park to St. Paul's Cathedral? After St. Paul's Cathedral we would like to visit The Tower of London. Cross over the Tower Bridge and make our way back towards the hotel and do the London Eye.

 

Should I leave something out or should I add something? Thanks.

 

Hi Letitia,

Hope all is well with you and your family

 

Many of your questions are answered in this recent thread

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=569430

 

As you are staying right next to the London Eye it may be hard to resist riding it, especially if the weather is good.

From Westminster Abbey just walk along Whitehall past 10 Downing Street to Horse Guards, then across Horse Guards Parade the along the Mall to the Palace. If you have made an early start, that should take you to lunchtime. The walk could be done in less than an hour but with photo stops it will probably take an hour. You're on vacation after all !!!

 

St Pauls and The Tower of London in an afternoon could be tricky.

You can get to either very easily by bus or Tube, but from St Pauls to the Tower is over a mile and I would get a cab as you will be getting short of time.

The Tower will take you at least two hours and you really should go on one of the Yeomen's guided tours to get the full benefit. They take an hour so you may have to time your arrival carefully to fit it in.

Of course everyone wants to see the Crown Jewels so there is always a queue for that.

The Tower closes at six, so you can see how you may be pushing it. Also, you will spend time walking around the tower area, Tower bridge etc.

To finish it off, I would get a boat back from the Tower back to your Hotel at Westminster Pier.

 

Hope you have a wonderful time and enjoy your cruise from Barcelona.

Wendy is going to a meeting in Barcelona next Thursday for four days.

We then have three days to pack for our Baltic Cruise on the Dream.:eek:

 

 

Have to go now

Tony

[TITISSA]

Tony, how wonderful to hear from you...:D The Dawn misses you. Actually, we took the Dawn again for a 1 nighter out of NY (Cinco de Mayo). We had beautiful weather. Last Xmas we were on the Norwegian Jewel. We booked a Courtyard Villa (because it was my birthday). Now I'm spoiled for life :rolleyes: . We loved it so much we booked the Pearl (same cabin) for February 08. This summer we are doing the Mediterranean Riviera with a stop over in London. Next summer I booked the Greek Islands (that's where we spent our honeymoon) from Venice. For summer 09 I am looking into a Baltic cruise. They are not for sale yet - I'm checking. Let me know how yours went. Now the kids are old enough (16 & 14) to appreciate Europe.

 

Thank you so much for helping out with my itinerary. London, like New York, is tough to do in 1 day but that's all we have. Maybe I'll let go of St. Paul's Cathedral and do The Tower of London. After reading The Other Boleyn Girl I really want to check it out. What a wonderful idea to take a boat back to the hotel. I was planning on doing the London Eye at sunset anyway.

 

When are you guys crossing the pond again? Have a great time on your "Dream" cruise. Come back and let us know. Hope Wendy has a little time to enjoy Barcelona.

 

Leticia.

[tony@stanton19.freeserve.]

Tony, how wonderful to hear from you...:D The Dawn misses you. Actually, we took the Dawn again for a 1 nighter out of NY (Cinco de Mayo). We had beautiful weather. Last Xmas we were on the Norwegian Jewel. We booked a Courtyard Villa (because it was my birthday). Now I'm spoiled for life :rolleyes: . We loved it so much we booked the Pearl (same cabin) for February 08. This summer we are doing the Mediterranean Riviera with a stop over in London. Next summer I booked the Greek Islands (that's where we spent our honeymoon) from Venice. For summer 09 I am looking into a Baltic cruise. They are not for sale yet - I'm checking. Let me know how yours went. Now the kids are old enough (16 & 14) to appreciate Europe.

 

Thank you so much for helping out with my itinerary. London, like New York, is tough to do in 1 day but that's all we have. Maybe I'll let go of St. Paul's Cathedral and do The Tower of London. After reading The Other Boleyn Girl I really want to check it out. What a wonderful idea to take a boat back to the hotel. I was planning on doing the London Eye at sunset anyway.

 

When are you guys crossing the pond again? Have a great time on your "Dream" cruise. Come back and let us know. Hope Wendy has a little time to enjoy Barcelona.

 

Leticia.

Apologies for the delay, spent ages typing a reply last night then hit the wrong button and lost it all:eek:

 

After I suggested the return along the river, I thought it may not be running that late, but this timetable shows that there are services back to Westminster at that time. Thinking about it it's obvious that they will provide a service to link in with the Tower's closing timeshttp://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1131.aspx#westminsterst FYI St Katherine's Dock is right by Tower Bridge. Obviously, "Tower" is the Tower pier The boats also stop on the London Eye side (Festival) so you will probably not have to walk back from Westminster

Returning along the river will be so much better than returning along the South Bank by road. It's not really that attractive, lots of regeneration but a bit boring.

 

I agree about St Pauls. It really is a magnificent building, but you will see it from the river as you return. The main disadvantage is that it is in the City of London. This may sound attractive but the reality is that the City of London is actually an area of just one square mile. Sounds very quaint but it is virtually all banks, something like the Wall street area of NYC. The bank HQ's have nothing on the Stateside skyscrapers.

 

The Tower really is something special, one of those must see tourist sights of the world.

 

We were back on the Dawn last year, we did the Canada / New England cruise and really enjoyed it. The ship had a different atmosphere as there was an older mix of passengers, but it was nice.

Natalie is at Uni now, she has just finished her first year at Bangor in Wales studying Marine Vertebrate Zoology ( too many trips to Seaworld, beware).

 

I am sure you will love the Med cruise, I think you are right to wait for the girls to grow up to appreciate it. Natalie was twelve when we did the Med, and was only just ready for it. Still you will see lots of very old and beautiful buildings to make up for missing St Paul's. Hope you are going to Florence:)

 

Have a great time and enjoy the Greek islands, I love it there, you cannot beat Santorini, it's a photographer's dream.

 

Tony, Wendy & Natalie

[Nymue]

Did you know they are making that into a movie...releases this summer with Eric Bana as Henry :eek:

 

We did the London Eye at sunset last summer, it's lovely!

 

After reading The Other Boleyn Girl I really want to check it out. What a wonderful idea to take a boat back to the hotel. I was planning on doing the London Eye at sunset anyway.

 

Leticia.

[TITISSA]

Tony, thank you again. You have been very helpful with some great tips ;) .

 

NYMUE, did you buy London Eye on line? Is there a specific time to do it at sundown?

 

Thanks.

 

Leticia.

[murphysmum]

Hello...

 

I've read the previous posts and I think they're all viable/good ideas. However, since the Tower seems quite important to you, I would suggest that you reverse your itinerary and be there before it opens to avoid the VERY long lines, see the jewels and Tower first and then wander around the grounds.

 

From there, you could either take the tube (quickest), bus system or a cab all the way to the Palace and make your way back through the park to your other destinations as you had planned....just in reverse.

 

If you go to the Tower later in the day, you will spend a LOT of time in line and encounter swarms of people.

 

If you end your day near Westminster Abbey and find you still have time...and energy...you're not far from Trafalgar Square with the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery.

 

Whatever you do...enjoy your trip to London!

 

murphysmum;)

[lambs2]

Just a little warning. We had planned to "do" London all in one day too. The morning part went great and we even got to get into the House of Commons to watch a session in progress! Incredible opportunity! We then hurried and caught the tube over to the Tower of London. Unfortunately for us they had sold all the tickets for the last tour of the day and we were out of luck by less than 2 minutes! :(

 

We will have to go back sometime in the near future, but wanted you to make sure that if the Tower is high on your priority list that you have plenty of time. Get your tickets online and then make sure you are THERE in plenty of time!

[TITISSA]

Thank you so much for all your help. I bought tickets on line for The Tower of London and the Fast Track ticket for the London Eye at 8:30 PM. I'm beginning to think that I should do my itinerary in reverse and start with the Tower of London (Jewels and Bridge as well), Buckingham Palace (just pictures), Westminster Abbey, The House of Parliament and Big Ben (just pictures) and end the day at the London Eye since our hotel, The Marriott County Hall, is close to it. Would that make more sense? I've never worked so hard planning a cruise like this one. I'll need to go to the Caribbean after this to recup and do nothing...:D

 

Thanks.

 

Leticia.

[lambs2]

That sounds like a very good and workable plan! Enjoy London as it is a fabulous city! Make sure that sometime during your da or evening you take a walk over to see Trafalgar Square and then Piccadilly circus for photo ops!