London from Europe

[ThreeSixtyTwo]

We want to take our parents to see London (their first visit in the UK).

1. Which time of the year is the best? Not too rainy and not too crowded. I'm considering March, April, May, June now.

We want to do a mix "yes, the London Bridge looks exactly as in the movies" walk and "skyscrapers are real" and throw in a few ticketed visits.
All able bodied adults 30s - 60s.

2. Any tips for a historical site which people who don't speak English can enjoy?
   
   My parents don't speak English. We are from EU but not from one of the major languages countries, so having materials available in our language is improbable. Yes, we will translate, but somewhere where you can just enjoy what you see without too much text would be nice.

3. is there some good restaurant chain which serves local food? My parents aren't that used to Asian cuisine, and many things from English kitchen are similar to ours, so it would be a good start.

Of course I'm interested in other things, I just wanted to limit my questions now to a few where local knowledge is the most useful to steer me before I do more of my research.

Tower of London
Buckingham Palace

Do your parents speak any language other than their own, and what do they speak? There may be places that have some information they can get something out of.

Someone can probably recommend a restaurant with food from your parents' country. For British food, most chains don't actually do it, but Weatherspoons dos a passable level of pub food.

I assume you want to see tower bridge, not London Bridge?
lots of historical sites have audio guides in different languages. London is full of tourists all the time, loads of restaurants will have menus in different languages. Don’t over think it 😃

Definitely do a river boat trip from the Tower to Westminster (or vice versa).
St Paul's Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are another 2 sites where you don't need a lot of text or explanation to enjoy them.

Good point!
I was focusing on improbability of Czech/Slovakian materials, but my mum can speaks German and they can both read in Russian and some Polish, so there might be some handouts for tourists from bigger countries.

And yes, I'll definitely search for CZ/SK restaurant, I was thinking about a British food chain as a backup/something hopefully risky accessible. I'll check Wetherspoons.

Yes. That bridge, sorry.

Other language audio guides - unfortunately but logically the offering focuses on the languages from bigger countries and while my parents can read in some of them, audio guide will be too fast. Of course we will translate as much as they will want to listen, I just wanted to understand if some of the top places work better without the text then the other ones.

Yes, river boat trip sounds great.

Would suggest May or June. The Natural History Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and Tower of London are must-sees. The open top bus trips, hop on/off, are great too as are the City cruise boat trips to Greenwich.

Best time of year is September but you probably don't want to wait that long.

Tower of London is the most obvious site but it's expensive - £37 per person but a bit cheaper for people over 65.

Buckingham Palace won't be open to the public at that time of year.

You can actually visit the inside of Tower Bridge.

City of London if you want tall buildings close up. You could do Tower Bridge, Tower of London, and walk around the good bits of City of London in one day. Include St Dunstan in the East former church, Lovat Lane, one of gardens at the top of a building, eg The Garden at 120 on Fenchurch Street, and Leadenhall Market. Look online for walking routes that meander around the interesting bits.

Food: can't think of any British food chains, although Wetherspoons is a good suggestion and is a British institution in itself.

Do your parents like Greek/Turkish food? Will find more restaurants serving that.

Cote is a French chain so probably close enough to familiar food.

Forgot to say, you can check the times Tower Bridge is scheduled to raise and maybe work your itinerary around that.

www.towerbridge.org.uk/bridge-lifts

Do you live in London at the moment, or in the past?

Do a walk around Westminster and see Downing Street and Big Ben etc. Go across Westminster Bridge and go on the London Eye. It’s a great way to see all the landmarks at once. The London eye boat cruise is really good but the guide does the talk in English. Natural History museum is free. Tower of London is wonderful and they will get to see the Crown Jewels.

I've just noticed my old thread, so I wanted to come back and thank you all for inspiration.

We went in mid June, luckily before the main heatwaves. I'd prefer May, but health issues made us postpone.

Thanks for the tip for the Wetherspoons. That was what I needed for food - not a high cuisine, but a solid predictable food, beer and lemonade and easy to find wherever we went.

We walked around the historical sites (it is oddly comforting to know they look exactly as they did in my first English textbooks), but didn't went inside - the mood was that we do have large medieval castles and churches at home. Plus, westminster area was so crowded that we cut the walk short there.

What we don't have at home are that impressive high-rise buildings - we got to the Horizon, Garden at 120 and breakfast at Skygarden, and taking DLR from Greenwich lead to an extra walk at Canary wharf area.

We liked the parks as well.

The Thames boat trip worked well - enough to look at for everyone, and than we've sit at the Garden 120 the next day, looked at the route together and translated some highlights from the comentary.

In the end, my parents prefered more time outside, to just see more of the city while the younger ones took turns to separate from the group and check museums and exhibitions (Natural history and Maritime museum, HP studios).

Looking back at it, the preferences made sense - the younger members speak English and visited US/Canada before, so wanted the London-specific stuff and a bit deeper look, while my parents used it as a way to see a bit of anglosphere life in general with the cultural mix, skyscrapers, plus seeing the main sights.

Overall, it was a great trip, thanks again, this thread helped me with choosing the right plan for us.

Well just seen your last post so edited mine out.