Melissa Davis gives her advice on London
1. Get a map
In order to have fun, one of the first things you’ll have to do is learn about London is how to get around. Buy one of those pocket-sized London A-Z maps. The MINI size is best. It covers all the roads in London out seven miles in every direction from City Centre. There’s also a index to the name of every street in London and a map to the many routes of the London Underground or the Tube.
PS – getting there – Flight Centre has Cheap Flights to London
2. Riding the Tube
Understand how to use the Tube and you’ll be able to go anywhere in London. Buy the Oyster Card at any station and you’ll be set for the whole week. It’s good for unlimited travel in Zones 1 and 2 on all buses and on the Tube.
3. Where to go…
This photo of London is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Now that you’ve learned how to travel, it’s time to learn where. London has dozens of neighborhoods, each with its own character.
- The West End, the South Bank and Covent Garden are the places to go for theaters and performances, along with a vast array of restaurants and bars for early evening night-life.
- For the type of night-life that continues on into the early morning and that sometimes doesn’t even start until then, you should visit the Camden, Clerkenwell, Soho and Shoreditch boroughs.
- If you’re into rock and pop bands that are about to become famous, then go to the East End or Camden
- Knightsbridge, Chelsea and Kensington are the places to go during the day for shopping at designer shops and boutiques and for taking breaks at cafes, pubs and wine bars.
- For those of you who are flying in on those first-class London flights for high-end fashion, go to Regent’s Street, Bond Street and the Dover Street Market in Mayfair.
- London is an ancient city and you can have fun finding and exploring the historical sites: Tower Bridge, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace, Big Ben or the Victoria and Albert Museum in Knightsbridge.
- Or you could spend your whole vacation in the Theatre District of London seeing a different show twice a day and still not cover all the productions being offered. You can’t miss by going to a show at the Old Vic. Check out the TKTS booth to get theatre tickets cheap; there are several all over London, but the most convenient is the one near Leicester Square.
Eat your way around London
This photo of London is courtesy of TripAdvisor
Meals are another way to have fun. You’ll never run out of choices in London. If you’re short of cash, go for brunch rather than dinner. Ethnic restaurants are one of the remnants of the British Empire. You’ll find cuisines from just about every country in the world in the restaurants of London. You’ll find that even traditional English fare such as lamb and rabbit has made a comeback. But you can also find Chinese food in Soho, Afghan and Moroccan food in Queensway, Middle-Eastern food on Edgware Road and kebab from the street corner vendor. Indian restaurants abound.
ENJOY!
Wild camping and hosteling from Stonehaven to Edinburgh
One of Jill Lundmark’s intrepid journeys 650 km (404 miles) over 21 days
My name is Jill Lundmark and I live in Auckland, New Zealand. My dream for years had been to make long-distance cycle tours. I’d read the books by women cycling alone across the Amazon, around the world, into the Himalayas etc. I wanted to do the same. Read more
The fossils of Lyme Regis in the south of England have been famous for over 2oo years. Along the dramatic Jurassic coast, you can wander (watch the tide!) and pick up the coiled ammonites, belemites and vertebrae from prehistoric creatures. After every storm the unstable cliffs reveal more treasures from a history written in fossilised form.
What is it about ancient sites and pathways – I have visited them in Spain, and Portugal and the UK – standing stones and burial chambers thousands of years old. I always stand in awe at the energy and passion that created such amazing feats of engineering. Read more
Lynn McBrien was born and raised in New York, but since 1999 Vermont has been her home. Lynn’s Irish ancestors hail from County Cavan. Lynn is a student of Celtic Studies and Spirituality and has her BA in Transpersonal Studies. She loves Ireland — the land, the people, the stories — and is eager to share her enthusiasm and knowledge of this extraordinary country with other like-minded women.
She is leading a tour to South West Ireland and County Clare in September 2009 – what a great way to explore this special land
My friend Nigel asked me if there was anything special I wanted to do in Cornwall. Mostly I was happy to visit his favourite haunts, but The Eden Project was definately on my short list of must dos.
The Eden Project certainly did not disappoint – what a stunning idea, and even more stunning implementation. What imagination, what courage, above all what fun.
You could spend days here, but we happily spent four hours – wandering the outside gardens, sweating our way through the tropical dome, and then through the milder, but still very warm mediterranean dome, and then to the amazing educational centre. Read more
Cornwall is such a magic place – it feels separate, wild and untamed, I can see why my friends Nigel and Janice live here. Nigel had a list of must dos which we worked our way through.
- exploring small harbours like Charlestown
- walking small parts of the coastal walkway which surrounds Cornwall – Janice regularly takes herself off to walk parts of it.
A train ride to Cornwall took me through rolling English countryside, villages tucked in the folds of hills, with the occasional large country house. It’s autumn, so the bare branches of trees dot the landscape, and sparse hedges line the lanes, enabling the weak winter sun to leak through to the ground in places. After Exeter there were seaside villages and boats sitting on the mud.
I am off to Falmouth to stay with my old building friend Nigel Murray and his partner Janice. Nigel has lots of excursions planned, so it seems I have another travel guide – great – I love to see places, but I am not so good at deciding where and what to see. In fact I prefer it when my visit is coloured by the passions of a local friend – what they enjoy doing rather than what the tourist book says.
Pendennis CastleOn our way home from Brighton, my friend Catherine detoured us through Hartfield and the Ashdown Forest in Sussex which is where AA Milne wrote his memorable children’s stories. We stopped at Pooh Corner in the village to buy a small furry creature and a map of the Hundred Acre Wood.
We decided on a walk to the very same bridge that inspired the game of Pooh Sticks, and of course a game of Pooh Sticks. I won, well actually it was a draw because I cheated – but it was a fun walk, though a little muddy at this time of year. Well worth a visit. More about The Hundred Acre Wood
One of the nice things about running a website like Women Travel the World, is the great people you meet in the travel business. We had based ourselves in Brighton at the lovely Pink House, but up just up the road was another women owned guest house which is also listed on Women Travel the World. Jane and Anne invited us over to visit, so we meandered out way along the coast, detoured to magnificent Beachy Head for a very cold but pleasant walk, and found ourselves at Eastbourne.
Jane and Anne had bought The Langtons as they had wanted a change and a new lifestyle. Read more
