flatlander

If you take the day trip to Cambridge, you could eat at Restaurant Alimentum, which is a short walk from the station (use the path by the bus-only shortcut going south-west from the station forecourt). It has one Michelin star, and is one of my favourites. You can book it online. If budget is a concern, go for their fixed-price menu for an early sitting, if not, go for an early sitting and take the tasting menu. Their sommelier knows his stuff and has an interesting, very reasonably priced, wine list. Frequent fast trains back, last at 22:30. The slow train at 23:22 is for emergency use only

www.nationalrail.co.uk for train times

Borough Market may meet your needs there, depending whether you want artisanal style foods (yes) or a table service with funky kitchen creations (maybe not)
The Good Pub Guide. Also An article listing 16 historic London pubs and another.. I would recommend the intersection of the two (or checking reviews) if looking for a historical pub since unfortunately age is not a guarantee of quality.

flatlander

For London and South-East England public transport, think rather of Chicago or New York than anywhere in Florida. The Tube, rail, and occasionally buses are the only reasonable way to get around London.

Dublin will require both flying and faff. I suggest you don't do it this time.

NWIFlyer

The only realistic way to do Dublin in a day is to fly with BA or Cityjet out of London City, thereby reducing travel time. You could be in the centre of Dublin by 8.30am, but the last flights back leave around 7.30pm, so you'd be trying to cram an awful lot into a short period, and you'd still miss the evening entertainment in Temple Bar which would hardly be starting by 6pm when you'd have to go back to the airport. Definitely not worth it on this occasion when compared to how much more you could pack into London, although you should schedule some time there in the future - it's a wonderful City.

If you like seeing how things work, I'd look at the Tower Bridge exhibition - it's also available on the National Rail 2-4-1 discount scheme. In fact, you could save quite a lot by scheduling a day around East London - the Tower is also included, I think.

http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

In terms of free museums, as was suggested up-thread, I would also thoroughly recommend the Imperial War - I think it's the most underrated in London, and deserves to attract more visitors than it actually sees. The V&A has a large number of special exhibitions, one or more of which might pique your fancy.

Whilst you're here, above all else you absolutely must try a pint of Real Ale (Cask Conditioned Beer) - it's far more traditional than Fish & Chips!

DaveNCL

+1, I was scrolling down to see if anyone had mentioned the war rooms. It is included in the scheme below mentioned by Swiss Tony. In reality I have never had anyone ask for my rail ticket as proof, I just show the paper print outs. Perhaps you could look at what is available and do all those in the same day to get your savings.

Mizter T

Just to be clear, when you say "paper print outs", you're referring to the 2FOR1 voucher for the attraction from the Days Out Guide website, right? (As opposed to a printed confirmation of a train ticket booking.)

NWIFlyer

I have, on more than one occasion - the last time at the Tower Bridge Exhibition. For the sake of visiting a mainline station, I'd definitely spend the small amount on a cheap ticket.

Kettering Northants QC

The Golden Hind
73 Marylebone Ln, London W1U 2PN

Excellent - proper simple fish and chip shop experience - you can take your own drink in - very good grub at very good prices (for london)

Kettering Northants QC

The problem with many of London's Museums is that they are too big to do justice to in a short time. You could easily spend 1-2 days in some of the most famous museums.

One of my favourites and much more modest in size is The Wallace Collection
http://www.wallacecollection.org/

Close to The Golden Hind Fish and Chip shop (see recomendation above)

stut

Poppies on Hanbury Street is a pretty decent chippy too, as is the one on Whitecross Market whose name I forget. None in London can good a candle to seaside ones in Aldeburgh or Whitby, but the really important thing is... Go to a fish & chip shop, chippy, whatever you want to call it. Not a pub. Not a restaurant. Certainly not a hotel.

pshuang

What I love about free museums is that you can easily just visit 2-3 galleries in a few hours and not try to exhaustively visit everything. Definitely a major factor in trip planning. (Same advice would apply re: the Smithsonian museums in Washington DC, for example.)

I wouldn't try to do a day trip. London itself has way too much to offer to make a day trip an attractive addition to a crowded schedule.

bibbju

Totally agree!

I always think going to a pub/restaurant and ordering fish & chips is one of the biggest mistakes first time tourists make. You might have a decent meal (or indeed you might not!!) but you haven't really experienced fish & chips if it's not from an actual fish & chip shop.

I'd second the vote for Poppies (I thought they were gimmicky and overpriced when they first opened but they do actually do good fish & chips). I'd also recommend The Seashell in Lisson Grove (Marylebone) and Sutton & Sons in Stoke Newington (getting a bit off track from central London admittedly).

londonba2014

One useful tip if you wanted to see Westminster Abbey or St Paul's Cathedral is to go to Evensong at about 5pm which is open to all and is free - you could put a donation in the box - as I think is actually quite a lot of money to just visit - enjoy London!

DaveNCL

Correct.

Yep, I wasn't advocating not buying the train ticket. I think this is indicated by the rest of the text you didn't quote.

Hoyaheel

My general recommendation is to visit the certain thing(s) that interest you in any given museum, not necessarily the most popular.

For instance, I have always wanted to see the Elgin Marbles. I've been to the Parthenon a few times and the archaeological museum in Athens, but never the British Museum.

We're planning our January trip to London, and I'll finally go see them. Am looking to see if there are other specific exhibits I want to try to see in the British Museum at that time.

(and yes, this advice is definitely true for the Smithsonian Museums in DC!)

I'm also making notes of the other sites & chippies mentioned ^

ajGoes

I was wandering around the British Museum and discovered the Rosetta stone!