Pre-cruise Day 2
London
Sat. July 8, 2017
A walk among the stones.
If you had just 1 day
ever to visit London,
Knowing you may never get back there again………
What would you do with it?
Well, that was our dilemma.
And with so many options, I've quoted what I'll call a first attempt at solving it way back in the early planning stages: (excepts from our cruise meet thread)
So here is our rough London 1 day touring plan: listed in order of importance (but may need to be rearranged depending on location).
Disclaimer: I have not mapped out anything.
1. Tower of London
2. Westminster Abbey
3. St. Paul's Cathedral
4. Churchill War Rooms
Still need to look into the "oyster card" and how to bypass any ticket booths by prepaying attraction entrance fees wherever possible.
Trying to keep it simple and plan to venture out early to maximize the day.
Again, any recommendations on how to accomplish this are welcome and greatly appreciated.
thanks so much.
To which
@BadPinkTink graciously mapped out a comprehensive transportation schedule to assist:
Right sounds a good doable plan
View attachment 267399
Tower of London and St Pauls are in the same general area, Westminster Abbey / Big Ben / Houses of Parliament and Churchill War Rooms are in the same general are\
This would be my suggestion
1. Get
Piccadilly Line tube from
Heathrow to
South Kensington Station.
2. At
South Kensington change to either the
Circle Line (Yellow) or the
District Line (Green) They both go to
Tower Hill. You dont need to exit the station, just
exit the Piccadilly Line Tube and
follow the signs for Circle Line (Yellow) and District Line (Green). You need to get to the platform where the
District Line Tube goes to
Upminister (the last stop) There is a map on the wall at the entrance to the platform which lists the stations served by tubes on that platform. This is the map of District Line Tube
https://tfl.gov.uk/tube/route/district
3. Exit the tube at
Tower Hill Station. This is the station
for Tower of London. When you get to ground level there will be signs for Tower of London.
4. When you are done at Tower of London get the
Number 15 Bus to St Pauls (5 stops)
https://tfl.gov.uk/bus/route/15
5. When you are done at St Pauls get the
number 11 bus https://tfl.gov.uk/bus/route/11/
6. The
number 11 bus stops at
Trafalgar Square, which is right beside
Leicester Square area. I would advise getting off at
Trafalgar and having
lunch in this area. Check Google Maps, there are tons of restaurants and cafes as well as all sorts of shops, theatres etc.
7. After your lunch break go back to the bus stop you got off at, and get
back on the number 11 bus. You only need to go
2 stops and get off at
Parliament Square / The Cenotaph for Churchill War Rooms.
8.
When you are done at Churchill War Rooms, walk down to Parliament Square for Westminster Abbey / Big Ben / Houses of Parliament.
9. When you are
done with Westminster Abbey / Big Ben / Houses of Parliament go to
Westminster Tube Station. Reverse your morning journey.
10 Get the
Circle Line (Yellow) or the
District Line (Green) tube to
South Kensington. You will need the platform where the
District Line Tube goes
to Ealing Broadway (last stop)
11. At
South Kensignton, exit the tube and follow the signs for
Piccadilly Line. You dont need to exit the station, you just need to follow the signs to change platforms. You will need the
Piccadilly Line Tube that goes to
Heathrow Terminal 5. Make sure it states that it goes to Terminal 5, as there are 2 routes for the Piccadilly Line Tube, Terminals 2,3 and 4 or Terminals 2,3 and 5
Upon first glance at that plan, I thought Whoa! Yellow line / green line / Piccadilly line / number 11 bus / omg!?@ Do we really need to hop all these transit stops to get around in time to accomplish 4 things? (hoping this was a lot easier than it sounds or maybe we could just walk.)
Well, we will never know the answer to that, because we abandoned the whole thing. (sorry Tink!)
Yep. Traded it all in for the opportunity to visit the inner circle at Stonehenge. And I'd do it again if I could.
Check this out.
Stonehenge – Inner Circle
Originally, we booked the Stonehenge adults only excursion thru Disney.
https://disneycruise.disney.go.com/port-adventures/portland-england-stonehenge-adult-only/ Mainly for convenience and because I was under the wrong impression that you could physically walk in and around the stones.
Disney's description doesn't exactly lie when it states:
"Walk amid the ancient stone circle of Stonehenge, erected before the Egyptian pyramids between 3,000 BC and 1,600 BC." I just wasn't quick enough to pick up on the term "amid" vs "among".
Apparently, "among" happened a long time ago.
Today, the
DCL busses will arrive during regular operating hours, where you’re joined with the general public and completely roped off from the inner circle.
Definitely not what I envisioned and not what we wanted for $119/pp
So we started digging to see if there was any way to get past the ropes.
Turns out you can! (but only privately - and well outside the main operating hours which would not work during the cruise)
Here are the 2 main websites with all the information for anyone who might be considering this. Note that the vendors vary from day to day and incorporate their own touring plans with Stonehenge. You can make arrangements for a private group or book one of the packaged tours already set up.
Link 1) easy to follow links for direct booking with vendors by date.
http://www.stonehenge-inner-circle-tours.com/
Link 2) more detailed website with same information.
https://www.londontoolkit.com/tours/stonehenge_special_access_tour_private.htm
(both sites update regularly, so check back for summer 2018)
Also note they may not be running every day – and are very limited in capacity
(typically to 1 bus load = around 48 pax)
this is our coach
SO BOOK EARLY. THEY DO SELL OUT!
Our date was extremely limited. We only had the 1 day – Saturday, July 8, 2017. That meant we had to take whatever tour was being offered, using whichever vendor had that day and hope there were spots still open.
Enter:
EVAN EVANS - Stonehenge at Sunrise, Oxford & Windsor Castle
https://evanevanstours.com/sightsee.../stonehenge-at-sunrise-oxford-windsor-castle/
This company was assigned Saturdays in 2017.
Duration: 9 1/2 hrs.
Prices: Adults £125.00 Children £115.00 Seniors (60+) £120.00
Highlights
- Private Viewing of the Inner Circle at Stonehenge
- Walking tour of Oxford
- Entrance to Windsor Castle and a tour of the State Apartments and St George's Chapel
- First-class luxury Motor-coach and the services of a professional Tour Guide
- Personal Audio Headset
If you click on the site, and read the reviews you'll see Charlotte mentioned as the guide - she was ours as well, and really great.
That's Charlotte guiding us through History.
It would appear Iron Man was a big Charlotte fan as well!
You'll also read a few comments about the timing at Windsor Castle being too short.
Yes our visit to Windsor was short but that's because it's a massive place which one could easily spend a full day at. Truly incredible. Wait til I post pics!
A couple hours here just doesn't do it justice. But we were thrilled to have gotten to see it - at all. Never even had Windsor on the radar. Who knew?!?!
(here's a sneak peek)
Anyway, we got lucky on this one. The website showed 3 seats available with full payment due upon booking. Great!
that seemed easy.......
Now comes the fun part.
If you go back to the Evan Evans website and hypothetically add a person to the basket you'll advance to the screen with a drop down menu for 3 pick up options:
5:00 am - Amba Hotel Marble Arch http://www.amba-hotel.com/en/london/marble-arch.html
5:15 am - Victoria Park Plaza https://www.parkplaza.com/london-hotel-gb-sw1v-1eq/gbvictor?facilitatorId=PARKPLAZAPPCBMM
5:30 am - Millennium Gloucester https://www.millenniumhotels.com/en/london/millennium-gloucester-hotel-london-kensington/
JQ and I of course, can't distinguish one stop from the other nor their proximity to the Sofitel.
So we exit that website and decide to call their US# from the states.
They tell us we are closest to the Millennium Gloucester.
(entrance under the archway next to the Grosvenor Casino sign)
They also state we’ll be traveling in the opposite direction from Stonehenge to get to that hotel– and since London Heathrow Airport (LHR) is not a pickup point, we’ll have to commute at least 40 min in to London even though the coach will proceed to drive out of the city passing the airport on its way to the site.
Oh well. What choice do we have? Just tack on an extra 1.5 hrs to a 9.5 hr tour. We prepay by phone and are confirmed for 5:30 am at the Millennium Gloucester. They want us at the stop at least 15min ahead of time.
It’s always good to have a visual on this stuff, so I’ve mapped out a few reference points for anyone new to this whole experience like we were.
Map 1: 3 pickup stops for this tour. Distance 4.2 miles apart. 25mins by car (with no traffic) crazy!
(Note: Amba Marble Arch is same street / 1 block away from Disney's hotel - Hyatt Regency The Churchill. Which prompted us to inquire about switching resorts – to no avail. Too little too late at that point.)
Map 2: 3 pickup points in relation to LHR and Stonehenge. As you can see I’m at least 20.3 miles away from the Amba Marble Arch and 16.1 miles from the Millennium Gloucester. and we're going to drive right past my hotel on the way out.
Map 3: Our entire touring route – London hotels (passing Sofitel LHR) to Stonehenge to Oxford to Windsor.
Travel time: estimated 4 h 27 min (without traffic) for the full round trip journey. Hence the 9.5 tour time.
word of advice when touring via coach:
1st pickup stop = empty bus with a lot of seats to choose from
last pickup stop = full bus with mainly single seats available.
Next up - Day 2 Pt 2: Q&A - How and What time do you leave the Sofitel to get into London to catch a 5:30am tour bus??