London in 2 days?

Question

We are going to France for 2 weeks. We will take a quick to London via the chunnel. We leave for london on the morning of 7/15 and return to paris the evening of 7/17. I have been there before and only want to go to Portabello Road and Covent Garden. Otherwise, I could care less. My friends want to see it all. How do you suggest we take in major sites in 2 days? I assume they want to see the bridge, the tower/big ben, changing of the guard/buckingham palace, etc. any chance in covering those bases i'll have time for portabello road and covent garden w/o us splitting up?

Answer 1

Take a tour bus ride. You can get on and off when you like.

Answer 2

Have a look below, and make them pick just what really interests them, not just what's famous.

Covent Garden's a unique setting, but the stalls and shops nowadays are really largely tourist traps.  The Portobello Road I know less well.

I'd recommend, early on, a river trip from Embankment pier (near the Houses of Parliament) out to The Thames Barrier, or at least to Tower Bridge.  There are several companies running this: not normally any need to book.  You'll see lots of the central London sights, from the London eye, St Pauls, Tate Modern and the millennium bridge, the new Globe Theatre London Bridge, HMS Belfast, the tower of London, tower bridge...  It puts a lot of central London in context.

(saves the feet, too)

Similarly the classic bus tour, but there there's more temptation to keep getting off and spend time at each stop!

Answer 3

The guard at Buckingham Palace doesn't change everyday, so you might want to check that out. There's probably a timetable on the website.

Portobello Market (the market Market) is only open on Saturdays, though the shops are open six days a week (info from )http://www.portobelloroad.co.uk/). Not sure how you might want to fit that in? :S it's a bit away from the main sights of central london, though i dare say that the shops themselves are probably worth visit.

You have to plan your route well, get a map of central london (actually you can get them free here), or use google maps for the time being. Just use the postcode WC1V, it zooms into a good view of central london. From there, you can see Covent Garden, the London Eye, Big Ben, Westminister, Trafalgar Square, the Horse Guards, walk past 10 Downing Street all in one go (within walking distance)(just mark the points on the map)... it takes me about an hour to run that route (i'm slow!), so i think that if you're sightseeing and going relatively fast you can cover that in half a day or maybe a bit more? From Trafalgar Square you COULD take a detour to Buckingham Palace, it's around that area in another direction, don't worry, there're signs. The British Museum is near Covent Garden/ Holborn as well..you can go there after Covent Garden, there're signs.

The Tower of London/ Good view of Tower Bridge is at Tower Bridge tube station, a bit further off, so maybe you could cover that in the morning or something.

I think it's pretty possible for you to cover the main sights of London in 2 days. :)