Written September 13, 2013
Given free reign to plan my and hubby’s London Trip this Fall, I was glad to have found the experience a lot of fun! This trip will only be my second time in Europe and unlike the first one, it will be an independent travel experience. No coach pick-up from the airport to our hotel and vice versa. No driver and tour guide to make traveling easy. On this trip, it was mostly up to me to plan to make sure our experience will be as smooth and as fun as possible.
To my surprise and glee, there are so many helpful web sites for independent travelers who would like to visit London. My biggest concern was how to go about London on public transport – underground, overground, bus, and railway. Wait! There’s also the option of riding Emirates’ cable cars and of course, cruising the River Thames. Where to start? I decided to plan in steps. First, list the places to visit for each day. Second, map out how to get from point A to B. And third, hope that it all works out!!
Oh, my! There are so many places to see and do in London. My hubby and I will only be in London for 5 days and 1/2. We would like to see a little bit of the countryside as well as the bustling Zones 1 to 6 of London. So, out of at least 60 top attractions, which ones to visit? The London Pass website http://www.londonpass.com was very helpful as it has a list of top attractions with fees, opening and closing times, and locations. The plan is to visit attractions that are of walking distance to each other per day. My husband has his list of must sees, and so do I. He absolutely has to cross Abbey Road, see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, and go to the Tate Modern Gallery. My must sees are Shakespeare’s Globe and the Florence Nightingale Museum. With our 5 1/2 day itinerary done, here comes the challenge of figuring out how to use London’s public transport system.
Whoa! It seems I need not have worried at all. London has a website http://www.tfl.gov.uk that features a Journey Planner. All one has to do is type in the place of origin and destination, choose the mode of transportation, and voila! You get a step by step instruction of which stations to board and stops to alight to get to your destination. Man, I am one happy planner!
For the drive to Salisbury, Tewkesbury, Bath, Oxford, and Stratford-upon-Avon, it seems like Park and Ride is the most budget friendly option. There is a park and ride web site for each location which I have found very helpful.
A free attraction that I found during my research is the Tower of London’s Ceremony of the Keys. This is a 700+ years ceremony in which the guards lock the gates in a solemn ceremony which is full of tradition. Visitors who would like to witness the ceremony should apply three months in advance. Available dates are posted in http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/WhatsOn/theceremonyofthekeys. Anotherdiscovery that I am pleased with is information on using free public buses to Heathrow Airport Hotels from The London Toolkit,http://www.londontoolkit.com.
It looks like, hubby and I are all set for our London Trip. Crossing my fingers that the trip will be as much fun and as smooth as planning it! 
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