london overview
More specific London posts will follow, but today while I organise pictures and prepare the next few posts, I wanted to share a few pictures and an overview of what we experienced on our London trip!
Mom and Abby got to London Heathrow on Wednesday morning and spent one day and night near the airport to recover from jet lag and adjust before starting on their 2-week European excursion. On Thursday they moved downtown London. They had Thursday through Sunday to explore London, and while you could undoubtedly spend a week or more in London without seeing everything, we were really pleased with what we got to pack in, without feeling like we were running from sight to sight without time to actually take it in.
Hotel
Just so you know, we (they) are using all Hilton hotels this summer since Mom is a Hilton Honors member; from experience with Hiltons in other international cities, they are a great option to have some normalcy for what to expect from a hotel and are super accommodating. They used the Hilton London Airport Hotel near Heathrow and then we stayed at Hilton London Tower Bridge the other nights. I'm sure there are more cost effective options, but we needed to have a place for three people to sleep while we were in London, and with the Hilton Honors, we earn credit for our stays to get free nights... plus the location was perfect and well-connected.
London Pass
We all got a London Pass and ultimately conclude that it is a good deal if you ensure that you get your money's worth. Similar to other "all access passes" that you can get in any city, the London Pass grants "free" admission, gives you a London guidebook, allows you to bypass lines, and includes some bus and boat tours. Mom and Abby got a 3-day pass and I got a 1-day pass; we both also added travel for a little extra, which gave us an Oyster card for transportation that we could use on bus and underground. The hardest part with making the London Pass worth it is that so many of the London highlights have short hours or close very early in the day. For example, even though we started early in the day and the locations are close together, it was hard to get to Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's Cathedral in one day and allow adequate time to see all simply due to their early closing times. I used my London Pass for Westminster Abbey admission, Tower Bridge admission, and the hop-on, hop-off tour bus. I spent 75 pounds on the pass with travel (10 pounds for public transit credit; 62 pounds for the pass itself), and the total cost of the things I did would have been about 64 pounds, not including transportation. When you factor in the guidebook, line hopping, and overall convenience of the pass, it was totally worth it, even if I only saved a little money. I didn't calculate Mom and Abby's value, but I'm sure over more day it gets even better.
Transportation
I flew into Gatwick on Friday night, so I was on my own to get to the hotel to meet up with Mom and Abby. I took the Southline train to London Bridge station (about an hour's trip) for around 12 pounds as opposed to taxi, which would have been a one hour trip, possibly more depending on traffic, and cost nearly 100 pounds ($130!). The train was really easy to use and to buy tickets for. Since I didn't have phone service or know exactly where the hotel was when I got to the city, I took a cab from the London Bridge station to the hotel for a few pounds. Aside from one cab trip for me (and the bus and boat tour), we used public transportation entirely for the rest of the time in London! I think we calculated that, even with airport train fare, we spent about 70 pounds on transportation among three of us. I thought that the tube was pretty confusing, but we had an international plan for Abby's phone service to help with navigating, and Mom and Abby understood the underground more than me. While public transportation isn't "cheap" and not always fast, it is certainly more cost effective than taking a taxi all over the place and is faster than trying to walk everywhere, especially when you have a shorter amount of time to see the city. I think we all felt very safe and comfortable using all of the transit, and we were impressed with the cleanliness.
Restaurants
While in London, I had one "sit down" meal, and I think Mom and Abby had maybe two or three. We got fish and chips and toffee pudding on Saturday night in Notting Hill at The Chipping Forecast, which was super cute and yummy. Other than that, we usually had short windows of time when we were stopping to eat for no purpose more than to refuel and get on to the next things! Everything in London is expensive, and we had lots to see, so this worked out really well and we got to try more everyday eats places. One cafe that we had for breakfast one morning was everywhere in London: Pret a Manger. It was on every block, like you would see a Starbucks in Chicago or New York. We also tried Cafee Nero that was very common as well, and we actually had a quick meal there once and a drink another time.
Sights to See
With a limited time schedule (especially for me), we had to be selective of our priorities for particular days. Also as I mentioned, opening times for different attractions were very slim, so that played into how we organised the itinerary. Mom and Abby saw Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, the London Eye, Greenwich, the National Maritime Museum, and the National Gallery of Art on Thursday and Friday before I was there. On Saturday and Sunday, we added Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben (just to see), Notting Hill, King's Cross Station, and Buckingham Palace. Along the way, especially thanks to underground use, we were at a lot of other plazas, gardens and parks, and iconic stops or stations (and telephone booths!).
Mom and Abby got to London Heathrow on Wednesday morning and spent one day and night near the airport to recover from jet lag and adjust before starting on their 2-week European excursion. On Thursday they moved downtown London. They had Thursday through Sunday to explore London, and while you could undoubtedly spend a week or more in London without seeing everything, we were really pleased with what we got to pack in, without feeling like we were running from sight to sight without time to actually take it in.
Hotel
Just so you know, we (they) are using all Hilton hotels this summer since Mom is a Hilton Honors member; from experience with Hiltons in other international cities, they are a great option to have some normalcy for what to expect from a hotel and are super accommodating. They used the Hilton London Airport Hotel near Heathrow and then we stayed at Hilton London Tower Bridge the other nights. I'm sure there are more cost effective options, but we needed to have a place for three people to sleep while we were in London, and with the Hilton Honors, we earn credit for our stays to get free nights... plus the location was perfect and well-connected.
London Pass
We all got a London Pass and ultimately conclude that it is a good deal if you ensure that you get your money's worth. Similar to other "all access passes" that you can get in any city, the London Pass grants "free" admission, gives you a London guidebook, allows you to bypass lines, and includes some bus and boat tours. Mom and Abby got a 3-day pass and I got a 1-day pass; we both also added travel for a little extra, which gave us an Oyster card for transportation that we could use on bus and underground. The hardest part with making the London Pass worth it is that so many of the London highlights have short hours or close very early in the day. For example, even though we started early in the day and the locations are close together, it was hard to get to Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, and St. Paul's Cathedral in one day and allow adequate time to see all simply due to their early closing times. I used my London Pass for Westminster Abbey admission, Tower Bridge admission, and the hop-on, hop-off tour bus. I spent 75 pounds on the pass with travel (10 pounds for public transit credit; 62 pounds for the pass itself), and the total cost of the things I did would have been about 64 pounds, not including transportation. When you factor in the guidebook, line hopping, and overall convenience of the pass, it was totally worth it, even if I only saved a little money. I didn't calculate Mom and Abby's value, but I'm sure over more day it gets even better.
Transportation
I flew into Gatwick on Friday night, so I was on my own to get to the hotel to meet up with Mom and Abby. I took the Southline train to London Bridge station (about an hour's trip) for around 12 pounds as opposed to taxi, which would have been a one hour trip, possibly more depending on traffic, and cost nearly 100 pounds ($130!). The train was really easy to use and to buy tickets for. Since I didn't have phone service or know exactly where the hotel was when I got to the city, I took a cab from the London Bridge station to the hotel for a few pounds. Aside from one cab trip for me (and the bus and boat tour), we used public transportation entirely for the rest of the time in London! I think we calculated that, even with airport train fare, we spent about 70 pounds on transportation among three of us. I thought that the tube was pretty confusing, but we had an international plan for Abby's phone service to help with navigating, and Mom and Abby understood the underground more than me. While public transportation isn't "cheap" and not always fast, it is certainly more cost effective than taking a taxi all over the place and is faster than trying to walk everywhere, especially when you have a shorter amount of time to see the city. I think we all felt very safe and comfortable using all of the transit, and we were impressed with the cleanliness.
Restaurants
While in London, I had one "sit down" meal, and I think Mom and Abby had maybe two or three. We got fish and chips and toffee pudding on Saturday night in Notting Hill at The Chipping Forecast, which was super cute and yummy. Other than that, we usually had short windows of time when we were stopping to eat for no purpose more than to refuel and get on to the next things! Everything in London is expensive, and we had lots to see, so this worked out really well and we got to try more everyday eats places. One cafe that we had for breakfast one morning was everywhere in London: Pret a Manger. It was on every block, like you would see a Starbucks in Chicago or New York. We also tried Cafee Nero that was very common as well, and we actually had a quick meal there once and a drink another time.
Sights to See
With a limited time schedule (especially for me), we had to be selective of our priorities for particular days. Also as I mentioned, opening times for different attractions were very slim, so that played into how we organised the itinerary. Mom and Abby saw Kensington Palace, Hampton Court Palace, the London Eye, Greenwich, the National Maritime Museum, and the National Gallery of Art on Thursday and Friday before I was there. On Saturday and Sunday, we added Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben (just to see), Notting Hill, King's Cross Station, and Buckingham Palace. Along the way, especially thanks to underground use, we were at a lot of other plazas, gardens and parks, and iconic stops or stations (and telephone booths!).
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