Please help the clueless navigate London!!?

[NomsQualityStreets]

So my DF and DM have just gotten to London as they have some work nearby.

They're originally from another EU country and although they've lived here for quite a few years never had a chance to see London until now.
The problem is they are clueless and didn't organise anything, DF knows what he wants to do/where he wants to go but doesn't know how, DM just waits for him to sort it.
I've just had a phone call from a slightly concerned DF (probably behind my DMs back as he wont admit he doesn't know ) asking if I can find out how they can get from their hotel via public transport to Westminster to see Big Ben.

I've tried looking at fares online but it's asking about underground zones etc and TBH I don't know what I'm looking at

So I need to figure out how to get from Luton airport (near their hotel) to Westminster and more or less how much it would cost.

Please help?

There’s an app called London transport and you put in where you want to go to and from and it tells you how to get there on tube, bus or train.

Luton isn't in London, there's your problem.

Tell them to Google for trains from Luton into London, then they will fetch up at a station which is also on the tube network. They can then look at a tube map to work out how to get to Westminster.

Luton isn’t near to London, but as it has an airport there are buses and trains into London. They should do that, bus likely to go to Victoria station, then easy buses to Westminster. They ask the bus drivers 😀

I think Luton goes into Kings Cross. Victoria line to green park, then change on to Jubilee line for Westminster

The journey planner on tfl.gov.uk is really useful - you can put in 2 places, the time you’re travelling etc and it’ll tell you the best way to get there (tube 15 mins, 1 change, a 25 min bus etc)

Google maps! Get them to download it and use it yourself if they refuse. Just enter your starting point and destination, select for public transport, and it'll give you clear instructions as to how to get there via tube or bus or on foot.

Luton to Kings Cross via East Midlands Trains - they can buy tickets from the station as well as zones 1-6 tube passes for the week.

From Kings Cross the world is their oyster, but most straight forward way to Big Ben is the Circle line. They just sit there until Westminster.

Train from Luton to Blackfriars. District line from Blackfriars to Westminster. Have they even got oyster cards?

If the Luton-London train isn’t running which it often isn’t on weekends, an alternative is to take a National Express coach from the airport into London.

Try this:
tfl.gov.uk/plan-a-journey/

And this:
www.rome2rio.com/s/London-Luton-Airport-LTN/Westminster-England

They’re definitely clueless. Have they heard of the tinted web?

Please please please make sure they check the later/last train back to luton!!

They can get a train from Luton Airport Parkway to West Hampstead Thameslink, then walk to West Hampstead Underground (very close) and change to the Jubilee line for Westminster.

Luton is Zone 6 and Westminster is Zone 1. If they just tap their contactless cards or oysters on the yellow readers, TfL will stop charging them for that day when they reach £12.50 each.

Does that help? The only other thing is that Big Ben is covered in scaffolding for maintenance at the moment so it may not look like they expect.

Another one recommending tfl's site.

Get on a Thameslink at Luton airport, the trains run back and forward to London every 20 mins or so pretty much every hour of the day. Get off at West Hampstead but they’d have to walk to the tube along and across the road, or stay on til kings cross or blackfriars and circle/district/jubilee to Westminster. It’s a pretty simple af journey

Also-Big Ben covered in scaffolding so warn them so they are not disappointed!

I was just about to say the same - you can’t actually see Big Ben are the moment - although Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament are worth seeing.

Luton is not in zone 6. It's another town!

But as others have said travel into London is easy.

Big Ben might be a bit of a disappointment at the moment as it's covered in scaffolding, but Westminster Abbey is next door and worth seeing.

A good way to see the sights if it's their first time is to do an open top bus tour - there are several and they most of them are hop on and hop off. It lets you get a look at the big ticket things - Traflagar Square, St Pauls etc etc in one go, and you can decide what you want to go back and see properly. It's also a good way of getting your bearings.

Central London is very walkable if you're of average mobilty. Cross over Westminster bridge, and walk along the South Bank past the London Eye. There's some fantastic views from the gallery at the South Bank Centre, and at the National Theatre. Then back across Waterloo bridge - it's my favourite view, you can see Westminster one way and St Pauls the other and the towers in the City the other. You can cut up to Covent Garden from there.

get them to put their location on, on their phones and use google maps, presuming people of a certain age who are competent with maps, it really is good to see that little blue dot!

and it's great for how to get places/what buses to catch and where.

tfl can be helpful but also you sometimes have to wade through pages of nonsense...wrong bus direction, wrong type of map so it may be of limited benefit.

Citymapper app is supposed to be grand, might be worth them downloading it on the hotel wifi.... I just never remember about it, also am pretty familiar with london so a couple of minutes wandering will usually reset my inner compass and I know where I am heading.

Citymapper will make their stay a lot easier. Luton is in a whole other county and is no where near us London folk 😂 I will never understand “London airports”

Luton is not in zone 6. It's another town!

Bugger, so it is, sorry.

Also, I'm not even sure if Beds is a home county.