London trip for adults - suggestions?

[Jamsangwich]

I'm having three days in London with my sister soon, and I'm trying to plan our trip.

The V & A is a certainty. Other than that, we're kind of floating around aimlessly at the moment. She mentioned a bus tour, so that could use up one day just hopping on and off it, and it can take us to or near most of the big tourist stuff.

I've no idea what's worth a visit and what isn't. I'd really appreciate any suggestions. There's too much choice and we only have three days....

Walking tour, either guided or self guided, loads of hidden treasures to be discovered

National Gallery. lovely for lunch too
River cruise you can go from Westminster all the way to Hampton Court
Theatre if you can, a theatre tour is always good.
Fortnum and Mason
Paxton and Whitfield cheese shop.
Lunchtime or evening music concert at St James's Piccadilly
Zedel for dinner
Tower Bridge Tour
St Paul's, go to the top!

@Jamsangwich - Fulham Palace Gardens is tiny, it'll take you half an unexciting hour to walk round. Nice if you live there but not a major park for visiting. You can walk up and down the Thames path from there a bit if you want. You'd really be better taking the 485 bus to the Barnes Wetlands Centre, it's really close to where you are. Or depending on your luggage go to St James Park on the district line, walk round St James Park feeding ducks and onward up Green Park, pause for a drink at the Ritz then go on to Kings Cross from Green Park station. Breaks up the journey and gets you a walk!

At Kings Cross there's nice restaurants at Granary Square (Caravan / Brasserie / Dishoom) for lunch, then go to St Pancras station and you could go to a cafe or to the champagne bar.

Well, we've been, but unfortunately most of the amazing suggestions you all made were pretty much poohpooed by her immediately. I only got 2 hours in the V & A before she "came over all faint" and had to leave as she "was having a panic attack". We then ended up melting in the crowds at Covent Garden and in Harrods so she could buy a chuffing teddy bear and look at the jewellery (YAWN). Strangely enough, there were no panic attacks there. She point blank refused to go back to the V & A and when I said we should split up and do our own thing, she had a meltdown. She's 50. The rest of the time we had was spent shopping for tourist tat, having conniptions when the bus tour was rerouted because of some protest and didn't go past Buckingham Palace, and me deciding if it would be quicker to throw myself into the Thames or off the roof of St Pauls. I should have known she'd not be up for anything I'd like to do - she's shallow and vacuous and I can only blame myself for agreeing to go with her. We even ended up eating at the local wetherspoons every.sodding.night because she "didn't want to get food poisoning " at any of the local pubs or restaurants in Putney.

I'm keeping all the excellent info to hand for next time, when I go with either my husband or a friend who likes the kind of things I do. Or on my bloody own.

I'm gutted. What a waste of £500 (hotel and train).

Sorry your trip/friend was shit.

Oh how frustrating. The idea she was scared of Putney restaurants . You need a redo.

I'll be going again at some point, for sure, just not with my sister. Never, ever, ever will I go on more than a day trip with her again. I expected it to be bad. Her interests are hello magazine, reality TV and the soaps, I can't stand them. I knew there'd be compromise. I thought wed both do some. As I said, lesson learned.

Going to Glasgow for 4 days in Nov can anyone recommend places to visit things to do etc

Hi there

I have just posted this for someone else - not sure if this will be helpful or you may have already been away:

Hey there

Wow this looks amazing and so well organised.

I recently did a trip to London with my two DC (also 9 &11) but I used this app called Keetoo. Saw it on FB and it was free to download so looked into it.

We did lots of the free stuff around London (Natural History, Science Museum etc )and said to the kids that they could choose one thing each that we would pay for. DD chose Tower of London and DS chose a bus tour. It can be expensive and I was a bit worried about the weather especially with an open top so went on a bargain hunt!

I was a little dubious at first with this Keetoo app as you don't actually buy any tickets for any particular venue but you add credit onto the app and then redeem it when you visit any of the attractions they have listed. They had just what we were looking for and some other bits that seemed interesting. It could do with some more attractions on there but it had what we wanted and some more.

We were able to visit two attractions for £35 for an adult and £20 for a child. It was so easy and it worked really well. We also saved massively. We couldn't go the day we wanted to as my DS was unwell so we went a couple of days later. Because we hadn't bought any tickets we didn't lose anything and the credit just seems to stay on your account in the app until you first use it.

We just rocked up at Tower of London, selected that this is where we wanted to go on the app and redeemed it at the Group Ticket desk which was a bonus as the queue was significantly shorter. We then had 48 hours to visit our second place. It was amazing because not only did we do the bus tour but had the option of a river cruise too included with the bus. We didn't do that as the kids didn't fancy it but it was a bonus to know we could if we wanted to later on.

Also they have this thing where you can visit a restaurant on the app and get a free starter or desert included in the price but we didn't have time to do that.

Anyway perhaps worth a try.

As a Londoner I always think it's best to steer clear of the obvious tourist traps as the city has so much more to offer. Good that you're avoiding the shops - as you say, there are shops everywhere!

V&A is indeed lovely.
Try booking tickets for the Sky Garden - free and a great view.
Tate Modern has a free viewing balcony and the permanent collections are great for wandering around. From there you can walk towards London Bridge and Borough Market or towards Waterloo along the Southbank.

My personal tips: Hampstead Heath either walk from Hampstead Station, across the Heath and down Parliament Hill or across to Kenwood House/Spaniards Inn. You could even have a swim in the Ladies Pond. Sounds offbeat but Highgate Cemetery is beautiful for a walk around and the Flask Pub in Highgate Village is lovely.

Canal walks: Little Venice to Camden Town or Camden Town to London Zoo, followed by a walk up Primrose Hill and a picnic or lunch in one of the lovely pubs/cafes up there.

Thames Clipper, Cutty Sark in Greenwich, Greenwich Park, Observatory is a good day out. The Trafalgar Tavern on the river is a lovely place for lunch.

Still think you can't really beat Soho for a good night out, there are lots of great little bars and pubs. Kings Cross also a newly fabulous place for food and drinks. Some attractive places to eat along the canal and new Granary Square.

Don't worry about a bus tour, just getting the ordinary bus gives you a good feel for the place but the tube is nearly always quicker. As you can probably tell, I walk as much as possible.

If you go to the Globe or near London Bridge, pop into Southwark Cathedral near Borough Market. It's free and lovely

she "didn't want to get food poisoning " at any of the local pubs or restaurants in Putney

She does realise Putney is actually a really nice area right?

Book a dinner at the dine in the dark resteraunt. It's amazing!