9 Hours enough time for Day trip to London?

Question

Hi, I want to have a day trip in London, will 9 hours be enough and please tell me some nice places to visit in London, I have visited buckingham palace, trafalgar square, maddam tussards, Harrods, London eye, so I wont need to re visit these Locations,

Please also tell me what tube station I need to visit Big Ben and westminister?

Answer 1

Since you're interested in seeing Westminster (Big Ben), can I suggest doing a tour of Houses of Parliament? The summer tours are wonderful - link here: http://www.parliament.uk/about/visiting/...

and go on until 27 September. You visit not only the House of Commons and House of Lords, where the British parliament meets, but also the ancient part of the Palace of Westminster, including the truly beautiful Westminster Hall which is over 1,000 years old.

http://www.parliament.uk/about/history/w...

Across Parliament Square is Westminster Abbey, where since William the Conqueror in 1066, British kings and queens have been crowned. It's http://www.westminster-abbey.org/visitor...

As Mel's already told you, the nearest tube station is Westminster (Jubilee, Circle and District lines).

Have you seen the excellent website of Transport for London? Since you've already visited London and sound as if you've used the tube before, you should find its Journey Planner very useful. http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/

You could spend most of your nine hours around Westminster. I'd recommend strolling up Whitehall (you can also catch a bus: numbers 12, 24, 88 or 453). Whitehall has a lot to see: Downing Street, home of the British Prime Minister; the beautiful royal Banqueting House http://www.hrp.org.uk/BanquetingHouse/st... and Horseguards' Parade, where you can see the Queen's cavalry on guard (if you want to see the changing of the guard there, it takes place at 11am except for Sundays when it happens at 10am.)

If you'd like to see a different part of town, how about visiting one of London's great museums? They're free to visit except for special exhibitions. In South Kensington, the glittering V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum) celebrates art and design through the ages and from around the world; next door are the Science Museum and Natural History Museum.  

http://www.vam.ac.uk/ http://www. http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk http://www.nhm.ac.uk

South Kensington tube is on the District and Circle lines, so you can get there really easily from Westminster.

You could also take a river bus down from Westminster Pier to St Paul's Cathedral or the magnificent Tate Gallery at Bankside. These face each other across the Thames. You can cross between them over the Millennium footbridge.

If you would prefer, there's a river bus service between Westminster and St Katharine's Dock (by the Tower of London) -- that way you go through Tower Bridge: the best way by far of seeing one of our most famous icons.

A return ticket on the Westminster to Docklands river bus costs £7.80 and lets you get on and off wherever you want. See p24 of this leaflet: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/r...

Oh, there's so much you can do here in nine hours. I hope you have a brilliant time, whatever you decide to do.

Love from a Londoner born and bred. =D

Answer 2

Yes, although you didn't say which airport you were arriving at, once you get through Customs its an hour or hour and a half to central London at most from any of the five airports that serve London.

All the central attractions are in a compact space, so you can easily see Harrod's (Knightsbridge Tube), Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square (tube stations have the same name), Trafalgar Square (Charing Cross tube), Big Ben and Westminster (Westminster Tube).

Buy a day pass for the tube and you can hop on and off the trains to get everything in, no worries.  

Answer 3

If you mean you'll have 9 hours IN London then I think that's plenty of time to have a nice day out. If that includes travel then that's a different story. For Big Ben/Westminster go to Westminster tube station. You can get a boat trip from there too if you fancy it down to tower bridge/tower of London passing St Paul's on the way. You'll also be near Westminster Abbey and the London aquarium. On a nice day you can get a picnic and walk through some of the Royal Parks (Hyde/Regents/Green etc). If you like a bit of culture you could check out the national gallery at Trafalgar square or wander to Tate Britain at Pimlico or Tate Modern at Southwark.