[kred]

Hey guys, I'm going to be in London this summer for 6 weeks and am coming here to find out from you guys tips/places to visit/drinks to drink /etc for my stay there. I will be working 5 days during the week so its not strictly a vacation! I know the Olympics will be there but unfortunately they are a few weeks after I leave. So please, ANY info to help me have a better time there will be much appreciated!

[GarySL]

Places to see:

Tower of London
Windsor Castle
Stonehenge (Salisbury Plain, bit of a drive, but worth it)
National Gallery
British Museum
Natural History Museum
Tate Gallery
Tate Modern
Courtauld Institute
Greenwich
St Paul's Cathedral
Abbey Road Studios
Covent Garden
Leicester Square (see a play/opera/symphony)
Kew Gardens
Westminster Abbey

Enjoy!

[JasonCSU]

I would also suggest seeing the Imperial War Museum. There's all sorts of things to see in that museum. Of course, the "touristy" thing to do at least once in London is ride the London Eye.

[Bols]

Originally Posted by JasonCSU

I would also suggest seeing the Imperial War Museum. There's all sorts of things to see in that museum. Of course, the "touristy" thing to do at least once in London is ride the London Eye.

4D experience at the Eye is also worth it! Best 3d I've ever seen, blew my mind.

-London Zoo is also worth it if you don't have a gigantic one near your own home
-Hyde Park & others
-Financial district
-Carspotting near harrods etc (just beware the restaurants there, some are really really horrible :x)

Edit: Oh and buy tickets in advance (internet) if you can! Saves a lot of time waiting and sometimes even in price!

[kred]

Cool, thanks guys.

[ScaredOnce]

Enjoy it, man.

Over the past 5yrs, I've spent a total of about 18months combined time in the UK. Mostly in London, but a bit in Cambridge, Derby and Durham. I've loved it. In fact, I met my fiancée while working in our London office and we're planning to live either there or in Berlin.

London is a fantastic city, but in my opinion, it's not "Britain" - just as most first class international cities only vaguely represent their home countries. There's so much to do there. I usually used to stay in Westminster or Russell Square to be close to where I wanted to be and on the best tube lines - plus, even if the Piccadilyl line isn't open yet, you can walk to Kings X/St. Pancras and take trains to just about anywhere, including the Eurostar to Paris. Plan on spending lots of time and money in Soho, Piccadilly, and generally just tooling around the West End. It's awesome. There's a bunch of great places to hang in Covent Garden and you can catch a little of the younger yuppie professional types around Bank.

Eat the Curry! Better Indian food than in India, again - my opinion. The touristy stuff like the Eye and the Tate museums aren't my cup of tea (but they were cool to check out once), but the Imperial War Museum is cool.

Use the tube as much as possible for the economy and ease of getting around. Def get to some underground/dubstep parties if that's your thing. If you wanna go classy, check out the theatre district - awesome pub on St. Martin's Lane called The Angel & Crowne across from the Q Theatre.

Also, get outa town sometimes. I travel to London about once every other week now for a few days and sometimes we just get bored and want to go to Rome or Amsterdam or Barcelona... just bc EasyJet flights are so cheap.


PS- Watch out for Essex Girls. You'll know them when you find them! lol

PPS- ENJOY IT!

[GarySL]

Thought of a few other places of note: just down from Piccadilly Circus is the Royal Academy of Arts. Usually have good traveling art exhibits there. The permanent collection upstairs they have amongst a nice Michelangelo marble is the bronze Degas Little Dancer. Also there is the room that Darwin & Wallace jointly presented their theory of evolution. Buckingham Palace is nice. My kids liked the large parks (Regent, Hyde, St James, Green, & the smaller ones are nice, Colet Gardens, Holland Park, The Strand). Jack the Ripper tour can be entertaining at night. Trafalgar Square is rather a busy place but moving in it's own way.

[stylinexpat]

Originally Posted by GarySL

Thought of a few other places of note: just down from Piccadilly Circus is the Royal Academy of Arts. Usually have good traveling art exhibits there. The permanent collection upstairs they have amongst a nice Michelangelo marble is the bronze Degas Little Dancer. Also there is the room that Darwin & Wallace jointly presented their theory of evolution. Buckingham Palace is nice. My kids liked the large parks (Regent, Hyde, St James, Green, & the smaller ones are nice, Colet Gardens, Holland Park, The Strand). Jack the Ripper tour can be entertaining at night. Trafalgar Square is rather a busy place but moving in it's own way.

Regent and Hyde Park are very nice.