[M_Six]

They call it The Underground for a reason.

[c1pher]

Stay out of the no go zones and wear phonebooks around your midsection. Otherwise, enjoy!

[P1]

Always loved the Imperial War Museum, the London Dungeon and Camden Market.

[DC X3M40i]

Originally Posted by c1pher

Stay out of the no go zones and wear phonebooks around your midsection. Otherwise, enjoy!

Trying to interpret what this means.

[kscarrol]

Bad joke about knife crime in London?

[P1]

Originally Posted by DC F97

Trying to interpret what this means.

Knife crime in London is at an all time high.

[vreihen16]

I second the Transport Museum, since it was the only reason why I went to London almost 20 years ago.

Although probably not attractive to young kids, I found these sites interesting:

Paddington Station, and anything else by Brunel.

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel under the Thames. Gotta walk under the river!

St. Paul's Cathedral. Pay respect to Sir Christopher Wren's greatest work. Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice ("Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you").

Piccadilly Circus. London's Time Square.

The London Science Museum had all kinds of interesting stuff when I was there almost 20 years ago, including a BMW Isetta, ancient steam locomotives, and the Apollo 10 command module (which is to this day holds the record as *the* fastest manned vehicle ever).

Whatever you do, don't get run over on the sidewalks! We habitually look left, right, and left again before crossing a street. With them driving on the "wrong" side of the road, it's right, left, then right again. Some of the crosswalks in touristy areas had "look right" reminders painted on the pavement, but don't count on them and say out loud look right, left, and right again at every intersection just so you and your group remember.....

[NemesisX]

Gymkhana is a 1 michelin star indian restaurant and among the top 2 indian places I've ever eaten at (the second place is a place called Vij's in Canada)

[Alfisti]

Actually jokes aside, there are quite a few members here constantly packing/carrying, how do you go when in say England or Australia etc where guns are virtually non existent, you must feel naked?

[SenorFunkyPants]

You are pretty safe in the UK.
There were 537 homicides in the UK in 2014 and 14,249 murders in the US. That comes out to a rate of 0.9 homicides per 100,000 in the UK and 4.6 homicides per 100,000 in the US.

Unless you are a drug dealer or a gang member you are statistically far more likely to win the lottery than be murdered in the UK.

[DC X3M40i]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

I second the Transport Museum, since it was the only reason why I went to London almost 20 years ago.

Although probably not attractive to young kids, I found these sites interesting:

Paddington Station, and anything else by Brunel.

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel under the Thames. Gotta walk under the river!

St. Paul's Cathedral. Pay respect to Sir Christopher Wren's greatest work. Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice ("Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you").

Piccadilly Circus. London's Time Square.

The London Science Museum had all kinds of interesting stuff when I was there almost 20 years ago, including a BMW Isetta, ancient steam locomotives, and the Apollo 10 command module (which is to this day holds the record as *the* fastest manned vehicle ever).

Whatever you do, don't get run over on the sidewalks! We habitually look left, right, and left again before crossing a street. With them driving on the "wrong" side of the road, it's right, left, then right again. Some of the crosswalks in touristy areas had "look right" reminders painted on the pavement, but don't count on them and say out loud look right, left, and right again at every intersection just so you and your group remember.....

My wife's colleague has a sister who lives in London. One of the first things she said was "train yourself to look right first...then left...then right again" honestly it wasn't something that even crossed my mind.

[vreihen16]

Oh, and if you *do* get run over, dial 999 in London or 112 in Europe for help. 911 is primarily a North America standard.....

[DC X3M40i]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

I second the Transport Museum, since it was the only reason why I went to London almost 20 years ago.

Although probably not attractive to young kids, I found these sites interesting:

Paddington Station, and anything else by Brunel.

The Greenwich Foot Tunnel under the Thames. Gotta walk under the river!

St. Paul's Cathedral. Pay respect to Sir Christopher Wren's greatest work. Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice ("Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you").

Piccadilly Circus. London's Time Square.

The London Science Museum had all kinds of interesting stuff when I was there almost 20 years ago, including a BMW Isetta, ancient steam locomotives, and the Apollo 10 command module (which is to this day holds the record as *the* fastest manned vehicle ever).

Whatever you do, don't get run over on the sidewalks! We habitually look left, right, and left again before crossing a street. With them driving on the "wrong" side of the road, it's right, left, then right again. Some of the crosswalks in touristy areas had "look right" reminders painted on the pavement, but don't count on them and say out loud look right, left, and right again at every intersection just so you and your group remember.....

piccadilly circus.. one of my least favorite maps on the new call of duty.. lol

anyways.. thank you for the suggestions.. the transport museum is definatley on the list. science museums are always a good time for the kids.

i do have a question if anyone can answer it for me. My current cell phone plan allows me to use my phone in london for 10 dollars a day (per phone... so if my wife uses her.. and my son uses his... thats 30 a day in total) wondering if it would be cheaper to buy some sort of prepaid type of thing out there and use that. or i can sit in a coffee shop with wifi and mooch off of that.. lol

[CANGRKE70]

I was there last week. Love going to London.

I've stayed at the Mayfair Hotel (very swanky area, if you please), The Caesar hotel (Queen's gardens) close to Bayswater underground and Hyde Park. Both areas are safe, but you're going to pay through the nose to stay in Mayfair. I actually liked the neighbourhood feeling of the Caesar hotel in Queen's Garden.

Things to do:

-Tower of London, get the Beefeater tour, they are ex-military and hilarious.
-Borough Market (great food options) Lots to buy and take home. We got lots of spices, olive oil and olives from Greece. The fresh food cooked in front of you is amazing.
-Do the hop on hop off for 2 days as it's a great way to get around the city to the major sites. Uber still works, but can get pricey if you're taking it all the time.
-Camden Market has tons of shops offering different things. Good to get there early.
-not sure if you're kids are into Harry Potter, but there are tons of Harry Potter themed tours to do.

Things to note:
-Big Ben is under construction with scaffolding everywhere.
-London eye was closed for 2 weeks, not sure if it's open now.
-Day trips out of London can be expensive if you book with a tour company. If you're going to do one maybe one that goes to bath, cambridge or oxford. Stonehedge is lame, windsor castle is not so bad. Or you can take the train out of London for the fraction of the price.

Have fun!

[DC X3M40i]

Originally Posted by CANGRKE70

I was there last week. Love going to London.

I've stayed at the Mayfair Hotel (very swanky area, if you please), The Caesar hotel (Queen's gardens) close to Bayswater underground and Hyde Park. Both areas are safe, but you're going to pay through the nose to stay in Mayfair. I actually liked the neighbourhood feeling of the Caesar hotel in Queen's Garden.

Things to do:

-Tower of London, get the Beefeater tour, they are ex-military and hilarious.
-Borough Market (great food options) Lots to buy and take home. We got lots of spices, olive oil and olives from Greece. The fresh food cooked in front of you is amazing.
-Do the hop on hop off for 2 days as it's a great way to get around the city to the major sites. Uber still works, but can get pricey if you're taking it all the time.
-Camden Market has tons of shops offering different things. Good to get there early.
-not sure if you're kids are into Harry Potter, but there are tons of Harry Potter themed tours to do.

Things to note:
-Big Ben is under construction with scaffolding everywhere.
-London eye was closed for 2 weeks, not sure if it's open now.
-Day trips out of London can be expensive if you book with a tour company. If you're going to do one maybe one that goes to bath, cambridge or oxford. Stonehedge is lame, windsor castle is not so bad. Or you can take the train out of London for the fraction of the price.

Have fun!

thanks!
i think my wife just finalized the two hotels we will be staying at. I think the first will be the Amba @ Charing Cross. Then we will be spending a few nights at the Hard Rock near marble arch.

Harry Potter? My kids are OBSESSED...we actually have tickets to the harry potter warner brothers studio tour booked. Just have to figure out transportation to get there from london.

My younger one also wants to go to the legoland that is west of london... i'm trying to talk him out of it.. cause we have been to each one in the US.. and they are opening one in new york this year so it will be a quick drive for us. i'm not flying 6 hours to go to a legoland... i honestly think its a waste of a day and a half of our london vacation.

my wife and i have all of the stuff marked on the map that we want to see. also have to look into the london pass as well as i know alot of the stuff is rolled into it.

[kscarrol]

Originally Posted by DC F97

i do have a question if anyone can answer it for me. My current cell phone plan allows me to use my phone in london for 10 dollars a day (per phone... so if my wife uses her.. and my son uses his... thats 30 a day in total) wondering if it would be cheaper to buy some sort of prepaid type of thing out there and use that. or i can sit in a coffee shop with wifi and mooch off of that.. lol

Not sure if same company but we are w/ Verizon and they offer that $10 per day plan. Be careful of that because we did that for my son when he went back packing 2 years ago and he also managed to ring a sizable data bill!! The $10 per day is for cell service only. As was suggested earlier you can buy a sim card and swap it out for use while in the UK, that's what we do when there. You used to be able to by older Nokia-style phones where you basically buy a sim card with 25 pounds on it and you get the phone for free. For pure cell phone needs we found this a better option. These are easily found around London.

It's been 4 years since we've been back so maybe others will have more recent experience

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by DC F97

i do have a question if anyone can answer it for me. My current cell phone plan allows me to use my phone in london for 10 dollars a day (per phone... so if my wife uses her.. and my son uses his... thats 30 a day in total) wondering if it would be cheaper to buy some sort of prepaid type of thing out there and use that. or i can sit in a coffee shop with wifi and mooch off of that.. lol

I mentioned earlier that you can stop into any telco company store there (We like EE.) and get a SIM for each phone for around 15 British Pounds. That gives you way more calling, texts, and data than you'll use in a week. I think that works out to less than $10/day/phone.

On the wifi thing, almost every store there has local wifi and it tends to override the data access on your phone. So even if you do have a SIM with a data plan, the store's local wifi usually is what the phone will use instead. No shortage of free wifi there as long as you're in a commercial establishment. But I'm not sure how wifi works with phone to phone texting. I think iMessage will work, but SMS texting won't.

[DC X3M40i]

Originally Posted by M_Six

I mentioned earlier that you can stop into any telco company store there (We like EE.) and get a SIM for each phone for around 15 British Pounds. That gives you way more calling, texts, and data than you'll use in a week. I think that works out to less than $10/day/phone.

On the wifi thing, almost every store there has local wifi and it tends to override the data access on your phone. So even if you do have a SIM with a data plan, the store's local wifi usually is what the phone will use instead. No shortage of free wifi there as long as you're in a commercial establishment. But I'm not sure how wifi works with phone to phone texting. I think iMessage will work, but SMS texting won't.

ahh yes...i jsut saw that.. thank you for that. I have verizon wireless. and according to the travelpass details, for 10 bucks a day in the UK i have access to all of my current plan interms of data, talk and text. i have unlimited data so i don't think overages will be an issue. my wife had traveled to morocco and portugal two years ago and used the travel pass feature and IIRC it was a flat 10 per day.

however.. looking into a local SIM solution (especially if its even cheaper) is a good way to go...i will look into that as well M_Six thank you so much

[DC X3M40i]

Originally Posted by kscarrol

Not sure if same company but we are w/ Verizon and they offer that $10 per day plan. Be careful of that because we did that for my son when he went back packing 2 years ago and he also managed to ring a sizable data bill!! The $10 per day is for cell service only. As was suggested earlier you can buy a sim card and swap it out for use while in the UK, that's what we do when there. You used to be able to by older Nokia-style phones where you basically buy a sim card with 25 pounds on it and you get the phone for free. For pure cell phone needs we found this a better option. These are easily found around London.

It's been 4 years since we've been back so maybe others will have more recent experience

i have verizonwireless as well.. travel pass gives me access to my data (which is unlimited) so overages shouldn't be an issue. I am going to look into what M_Six recommended abt popping into a local telecom shop to get a sim and prepaid data as well.

[vreihen16]

Maybe my old fart is coming out, but can I make a crazy recommendation that you put all of your phones in airplane mode at JFK Airport and just enjoy the experience?????

[DC X3M40i]

Originally Posted by vreihen16

Maybe my old fart is coming out, but can I make a crazy recommendation that you put all of your phones in airplane mode at JFK Airport and just enjoy the experience?????

when having meals and stuff.. phones go bye bye... for me at least and my older son. my wife however is constantly glued to it. when we travel my phone is my personal guide... for directions... research.. yelp.. uber...
when i travel the last thing i think about is keeping up with instagram and facebook and all that crap.

also i have my home security notifications pushed to my phone so i like to keep tabs on whats going on with my humble abode when im away..

im 44 years old.. so not old.. but not young... and it annoys the hell out of me trying to navigate new york city on my way to work when im constantly having to dodge people with their faces buried in an electronic device... but thats a topic for a different thread

[kscarrol]

Originally Posted by DC F97

i have verizonwireless as well.. travel pass gives me access to my data (which is unlimited) so overages shouldn't be an issue. I am going to look into what M_Six recommended abt popping into a local telecom shop to get a sim and prepaid data as well.

So do I... My son was there for two weeks and the bill was well above the roughly $140 we expected. Don't recall the details but maybe there were a bunch of taxes and other fees. Either way the local sim is the way to go...