When people visit UK/london..

[Twinkletwinklelil]

What are the actual attractions? I’m genuinely curious.. when we have tourists come to London.. for a holiday.. not to visit family or friends, what is it they’ve come for?m

🙄

Nothing. There is literally nothing to do in London. They come to have some silent down time in a closed up city, without the hassle of art galleries, museums, concert halls, music venues, night clubs, theatres, historic palaces, stunning parks and botanical gardens, river cruises, world-class food markets and restaurants, fabulous shops. It's a ghost town but if you like doing nothing, it's the place to be.

Angel is an interesting place for visitors, particularly Americans who like browsing antique stall and interesting independent shops. An American fried of mine usually goes there whenever she's in the UK.

Home - Camden Passage, Islington

Ummm London is a major world city with over 2000 years of history and massive cultural power and influence.

Are you also confused as to why people visit Paris or New York?

It’s a lovely place to visit! Lots of independent shops, nice bars and restaurants.

@Twinkletwinklelil this is the answer to your question

You say this as a joke, but my Australian son in law spent two years over here RAVING about meal deals! He couldn't believe them!

He quite liked some of the attractions too.

I mean why do people visit any city? To visit cultural and historic sites, eat and drink at different places, go to events. Do you need the concept of holidays explained to you OP?

And an evening stroll around the Cotswolds.

Also the OP seems to be assuming the weather is always bad in London. True we don't have 300 days of unbroken sunshine, but it generally has a mild temperate climate and actually has a lot less rain than many other cities in Europe and the US. There are also plenty of long hot summer days to linger in parks and riverside pubs or attend outdoor events.

But the weather does not stop you from enjoying London so it is an all year round tourist destination.

My favourite day out in London for people passing through includes a walk down from where I live in inner north London to Kings Cross (about 30 minutes), breakfast around Granary Square, and then through Bloomsbury to the British Museum for a couple of hours, on down Tottenham Court Road to my favourite Chinatown restaurant for lunch or a pub if you prefer, Trafalgar Square to Westminster Abbey via the Embankment, Evensong at the Abbey, up on the London Eye at dusk, a drink in a pub around there, a show somewhere and perhaps dinner in the west end (Cafe Koha is good and very Theatreland).

If thats too much walking, take the bus. Stop anywhere interesting en route (there are a LOT of interesting points through that). I would prebook the show and perhaps the dinner, but nothing else. It gives general direction and a flavour of the big sights without being overwhelming.

That made me laugh!

I believe it has the longest escalator in the Tube network (and possibly some kind of world ranking, too) - maybe they were electrical engineers / fans of going up and down while standing still?

Sounds perfect!! 🤣 Where do I book the magical coach?

Having once had to walk up that escalator when it wasn’t working - it definitely felt like the longest!

Angle is a nice neoggboirhood for bars and restaurants, also there are a lot of attractive Georgian squares off the main road. Perhaps they just fancied a wander away from the West End.

London is still a top shopping destination. Mr Monkey works in a Wesr End store and they have huge amounts of customers from the Middle East and USA.

I live on a village with one tourist attraction that manages 1.5milion visitors a year. So its easy to see how a world capital can attract 20 million visitors.

Has anyone mentioned the Abbey Road zebra crossing?

Same.

or are you very young?

I can’t get my head around somebody not understanding why tourists flock to London, and then being satiated by the reply that it’s museums, art galleries, history etc.

Surely that’s just so obvious.

Apologies, I’m not intending to be rude, I know not everything is obvious to all people, but I still can’t quite believe this.

The Vagina Museum in Bethnal Green.

@LittleGreenDuck that's just the first day. It's then back on the coach. A quick stop in Liverpool to see the Cavern and the Beatles statue before heading to Edinburgh to do the castle and the Royal Yacht before catching a flight to "do Europe".

You should do a Grand Tour around Europe to experience art!

When I was working in Japan my Japanese colleague was planning a trip to London. I asked her what she was planning on doing. She showed me her guidebook and pointed to logos of Boots and Holland and Barrett and said she wanted to visit there 😂 😂 😂. I found it so funny. It wasn’t what I was expecting.

I always made a bee line for Sephora when I was in Europe or the US (less essential now they have returned to the UK).