joe_miami

I’ll have 23 hours in London this Tuesday-Wednesday (Nov. 26-27) on my way back to the U.S. from a long Asia trip. I’ve traveled extensively in the Americas and Asia but this will be my first time in London.

I know it’s impossible to see London in a day and I know the weather in late November likely won’t be conducive to much walking around, but I’m hoping to see as much as possible since I don’t know if or when I’ll be back.

Since I’ll be on Asia time and will probably have slept on the very long flight from BKK to HEL (and showered at HEL), my plan is to leave my bag at LHR and either forgo a hotel or get one late at night for a quick nap and shower.

Questions:

1. There’s a night bus tour that departs Golden Tours Visitor Centre in Victoria at 8:00 pm on weeknights. Do I have any chance of making this tour if I’m done at LHR around 6:00 pm and take the train?

2. Which parts of the city are best for the overnight hours, both in terms of things to do, safety, and positioning for starting a tour in the morning?

3. The hop-on, hop-off bus has three routes, with one that’s the “main” route with the major highlights. Any idea how long each of these routes takes for a full loop if one doesn’t get off the bus?

4. If I get to the London Eye at the 11:00 am opening, how long am I likely to wait on a Wednesday in November? Is the London Eye’s river tour better, worse, or the same as the one included in the hop-on, hop-off bus? Either way, is a river tour recommended and an efficient use of limited time in late November?

Time permitting, I’m hoping to do the night tour, then eat and spend the overnight hours in pubs and 24-hour cafes, then do the main hop-on, hop-off route, and then the London Eye. I’ll need to be at LHR by around 4:00 pm, so I might have a little time after the Eye if I don’t do the river tour afterward.

Thanks very much for all feedback.

Swanhunter

1. If by done at LHR by 6pm you mean landslide and ready to get on a tube/HEX then yes it’s enough time

2. London isn’t really set up for 24 hour living, almost everything is closed by 1-2am. You will most likely find yourself tired, cold and bored sat on a bench or in a 24hr McDonalds. Safety isn’t an issue / London is extremely safe by NA standards.

3. No idea

4. I imagine the wait will be very short. It’s not school holidays, European holidays and the Christmas shopping season is only just starting to kick off

lhrsfo

If leaving LHR at 6pm, you will easily be at Victoria by 7pm. Simply take the first tube and walk across platforms to the District Line at either Hammersmith or Barons Court. It's easier and cheaper than HEX, and probably faster as you don't have to get across town in rush hour. However, if landing at 6pm at LHR, it's perfectly possible (I achieve that 95% of the time when landing at T2, less so at T5) but it will be stressful, particularly if you don't know where you are going.

:D!

This doesn't sound like a fun plan to me.

I guess you are taking AY142 and AY1337. I'm confused by the logic that you will be "on Asia time". You would be landing in LHR after midnight Bangkok time, so time to get to bed, not start a 23 hour tourism marathon. AY142 is only 10 hours, which I wouldn't class as "very long", and I think that as a daytime flight it would be hard to sleep for any longer than a catch-up nap after take-off, given that if you're staying in the city you should be heading to the airport before 6am (unless you stayed up all night in Bangkok!)

Looking at the hop-on-hop-off bus maps, I would guess a full loop on the longest route takes about 2 hours, most of it inching towards the next set of traffic lights. When you do come to London again you will want to visit all the places where people hop off the bus, so I think just riding the bus would be paying for a very expensive audio guide - especially if you fall asleep and miss most of the commentary. Just take local buses and have GPS on.

Agree with Swanhunter for question 2. I will add that you will probably also be wet, as rain is forecast for 26th evening, which means that the night tour may not be such a great idea either. A 24-hour cafe is not something I have any interest in going to but I do not think they want to be used as hotel substitutes. If it were me I would book myself into the Aerotel T3 or HGI T2 upon arrival and if my body clock is really set to an Asian timezone, I'd easily get up at around 4am London time to catch the first tube or one of the last night buses into London. I like walking around cities at dawn (albeit dawn is 7-8am at this time of year) but not if it's raining!

You can see how you feel and what the weather is like when you arrive, but if you really want to just walk up a central London hotel at midnight, it's unlikely to be cheap. Maybe there are some hostels you could stay in. It doesn't really matter where you stay, there is no significant difference in safety between anywhere in central London and you don't need to worry about it in the first place apart from exercising normal precautions. You can walk or take public transport easily between all of central London so the exact place you stay isn't that important - just not in the suburbs.

If it's not foggy the river tour might be a good idea. The way I would go about this is do a few things that once done, you won't need to do again when you manage to visit London properly. Maybe indoor activities may be better if the weather is as gloomy as it has been the past week.


As a final note if I had just spent a few weeks in Asia and now heading home, the last thing I would want to do is a rushed tour of a new city. For a UK resident, cheap business class flights to Asia and Australia can often be found originating in other European cities. For example my recent trip to New Zealand was on Qatar Airways starting in Copenhagen, and I had a separate LHR-CPH return. On the outbound I had about 30 hours in Copenhagen and got a lot of tourist things done. On the return I had 18 hours but when I got to the hotel I just couldn't be bothered to leave the room until breakfast, I then made myself go out for 2 hours but just wasn't feeling it after that. Sometimes flight prices mean that I still have to stay in the European city for a long time, but I no longer plan to do anything on my return journey.

joe_miami

Thanks for the replies. Various people highly recommended the night tour, but the weather forecast now looks bad, as mentioned above.

I’ll be flying out of T5, so I’m looking at the Hyatt Place LHR. If I leave my bag at the hotel while I’m in the city, how much time should I budget to get to the HP from LHR and then back to LHR for my flight? The HP is about a mile from T5, but I have no idea what traffic is like around there, etc. Would I be better off storing my bag at LHR upon arrival and then just carrying a few necessities to the hotel and then around the city? Thanks again.

mad_rich

There's a bus stop directly outside the hotel, and it's 7 minutes on the free public bus to T5. Bus number 423. Including waiting time and a few extra minutes for traffic, you would struggle to take longer than 20 minutes.

Link to bus stop TO the airport: https://goo.gl/maps/N2486zx948DvrCaf7

mad_rich

You'll be arriving into T2 and departing from T5, so that's not ideal. Would you store your bag at T2 or T5? Either way, you have to faff around changing terminals.

Not sure what you're looking for on price, but the Aerotel in T2 is coming up as the same price as the Hyatt. £84. It's directly in the terminal. so saves one journey, but you'd still need to switch terminals at some point.

As you're Hilton Gold, consider the Hilton Garden Inn Hatton Cross, for a similar price. It's one stop on the tube from T2, then 5 minutes walk. Assuming they let you leave bags there, it won't be far out of your way to pop back in on your way to T5.

Much cheaper (£47), but lower quality and more faff is the ancient Thistle T5. Linked to T5 by autonomous vehicles! (£5, 5 min), and to T2 by free public bus (12 min)

That's airport hotels, but for your timings, and factoring in the cost of left luggage (£12.50), wouldn't you be better getting the cheapest hotel you can find in West / Central London? I only had a brief look, but I found the Ibis in Hounslow for £54. Not the most exciting hotel in the world, but one step up from a night bus! And there must be others a bit further in.