London is an amazing city with staggeringly beautiful sights ranging in world landmarks, museums, theaters, shopping, restaurants and pubs. There really is no right or wrong time to visit London. If you make the most of your days, a 2-day weekend can be enough to get a great feel for what the city has to offer.
The Trans-Atlantic flights from San Francisco typically arrives to London Heathrow in early afternoons.Once landed, getting to London is easy on the Heathrow Express which takes about 15-20 mins to reach London Paddington station or you can take the Piccadilly Line from the airport terminal which takes about 45mins to reach Earl's court tube station, but costing 1/3 of what Heathrow express will cost. Since our 7 month old daughter was traveling with us this time, we took a taxi to our hotel in Chelsea.
We tend to stay in the Kensington-Chelsea district as the location is ideal to explore some of the must-see landmarks in London. London is big and there is so much to see and do. Remember that you can’t cover all of London in a couple of days so you have to make sacrifices. But if you are going to London stay there for as many days as you can so you can see it all without having to rush through it all. It will be expensive but it is worth it.Since we have been to London many times before, we had the pleasure of taking it “easy”.
We took a taxi to the London Eye. London Eye costs around GBP 20 admission for this 30 minute ride on the one of the largest observation wheels in the world. This is a unique experience, but unfortunately I have never experienced it. The lines are always long and takes at least 20-30 mins to get into the capsule, even when you buy tickets online
You can checkout and take pictures of the Tower Bridge when you stroll around London Eye. Well, it's just it - the Tower Bridge, a must see in London
We did our share of walking in London . We walked from the London Eye to the parliament, to Trafalgar square, onto to Buckingham Palace,and to Piccadilly Circus .
Houses of Parliament : The architecture is amazing, and the size is just breathtaking. You can take an inside tour of the parliament.
Buckingham Palace: One of the most popular attraction in Buckingham palace is the changing of the guards. But the place gets just packed with tourists so we never experienced it.
Trafalgar Square: Come here
and take some pictures as well as visit the National Gallery. Its all
free. There's always something going here, event, concert, some protest,
what not.
In the evenings, we walked around the areas of Soho , Leicester Square and Covent Garden which are best known for its theaters, entertainment and shopping. The cozy streets are lined with shops, restaurants and pubs bars.Regent Street & Oxford Street which are the main shopping districts of London can be reached by foot. You can never get bored of this part of city and I come back here every time I am in London.
Piccadilly Circus is another
block or two from here. Piccadilly Circus, is a major intersection,
known for its neon displays similar to Time square, connects the
shopping district with the theater district . It is a nice stop in but nothing to be blown away by.
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