London Peeps please can you help me organise a day trip in London?

[MeDented]

I have got tesco clubcard vouchers for a city cruise on the Thames, can either use for the circular 45 min tour or the red rover hop on/ off ticket. I also have clubcard vouchers for the Tower of London so need to include that. We only have 1 day to do sightseeing with 2 teenagers. I've spent hours googling and other places of interest are South Bank, Camden Market, Covent Garden, Leake Street graffiti tunnel,Picadilly circus, Tardis police box at Earl's Court tube station. I know we won't be able to do all of these things but can someone that knows the area try and fit as many in to one day as possible & tell me what order to do things?

I'm thinking start at Waterloo St and head to Leake St graffiti tunnel, then Covent Garden, then Oxo tower, pass St Paul's on boat trip to Tower of London?

Ummmm....

I think much depends on how quickly you can get to London. if you can get to London early do leeks street (assuming it is no more than a 10am in walk from the eye, I don't know that one), catch the boat at the eye and take a boat up to the tower(past St pauls) then that bit works. but I don't think it works with the cruise as the Cruise is too long.

The tower is a good 4 hours but you want to get there quite early to get onto a beefeaters tour. The beefeater tours are well worth it but can fill up quite quickly. I would not do Covent Garden first.

From the tower you can take the boat to Temple Pier, and then it's a short walk to Covent Garden (via trafalgar square). from Covent Garden you can cover Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus Circus. Which leaves you free to get dinner in near any of any of those places especially if you taking a packed lunch, and generally mooch around as you want. Covent Garden is better later on in the day anyway.

Not sure what you want from the OXO Tower you can see it from the boat but I don't think it really fits into the itinerary of what you want to do. There's not enough time!

In some ways South Bank and Covent Garden on a little bit of a duplicate of each other nice places to be and to get a bite to eat lots of Street performers. You would go past it on the way to the boat from leek street.

Ultimately if I was planning I would probably cut down to boat (either commuter or red rover), and then EITHER leek street /south bank OR Covent Garden but not both.

Google maps and the map app on your phone are brilliant. if you use their walking directions you can get good walking times and distances between places. Of course if you use the tube you will get there quicker but often you can see more either by walking or catching the boat

Thank you so much Toffee that is fab advice! We're arriving in from Watford (Harry potter tour the day beforehand) so should be able to get there fairly early. Will drop Covent Garden. Really appreciate your help!