Fiona MacLeod Tells You What Every London Tourist Guide Forgets to Mention, Including the Oyster Card Learning Curve, the Weather, and Why the Queue at the Tower of London Starts at 8am
Bohiney Magazine | The London Prat
By Fiona MacLeod | The London Prat
Every London tourism guide will tell you to visit the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, and the National Gallery. Every London tourism guide is right. None of them adequately prepares you for the specific experience of arriving at the Tower of London at 10am on a summer Saturday and discovering that a thousand other people had the same plan and slightly better alarm clocks. What follows is the guide I wish I had been given before my first significant London visit: honest, specific, and focused on the information that makes the difference between an exhausting trip and an excellent one.
The Oyster Card: Non-Negotiable, Buy It First
Before you do anything else in London, before you look at a map, before you decide which museum to visit, get an Oyster card or register a contactless payment card for use on Transport for London services. The alternative — buying paper tickets — costs approximately twice as much per journey and involves standing at a ticket machine while Londoners who have somewhere to be queue behind you with the patient resignation of people who have watched this happen every day of their working lives. The Oyster card is available at any Tube station, costs a £7 refundable deposit, and pays for itself in savings within approximately four journeys. The TfL fare comparison page documents the savings. The savings are real. Get the card. Bohiney Magazine’s London travel coverage and The London Prat’s visitor guide both start with this advice.
The Weather and What to Do About It
London’s weather is not the relentlessly grey and rainy experience that its reputation suggests, and it is also not the pleasant continental climate that June photographs of people in Hyde Park imply. It is variable: in a single day in any season, you may experience sunshine, cloud, light rain, and a wind from the Thames that is colder than the temperature suggests. The correct response is layers, a compact umbrella, and the acceptance that weather in London is something you dress for flexibility rather than specific conditions. The incorrect response is leaving the hotel in a t-shirt because the 9am sun was warm and returning at 3pm soaked and cold. Both experiences are valid London experiences. One is more comfortable than the other.
The Queue, the Booking, and the Museum That Is Free
The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, and St Paul’s Cathedral charge entry. The British Museum, the National Gallery, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Tate Modern, and the Tate Britain do not charge entry. The free museums are among the best in the world. They are worth an entire day each. The paid attractions are worth visiting, but book online in advance — the queue for the Tower without a pre-booked ticket on a summer day is the specific kind of queue that produces regret. The Visit London attractions guide documents opening hours, booking requirements, and current entry prices for all major London attractions. Check it before you go. The British Museum is free. It will take your entire day. This is the correct use of your time.
The Neighbourhood You Did Not Plan to Visit
Every first-time London visitor has a neighbourhood discovery that was not on their original itinerary and that becomes the experience they talk about most. The itinerary attractions are excellent and worth seeing. The unplanned afternoon in Bermondsey, or Borough Market, or the Barbican, or Maltby Street Market, or the South Bank between the Tate Modern and Borough Market, is the experience that makes London feel like a city rather than a list of attractions. Build time for the unplanned afternoon. It will be the best part of the trip. I promise this because I have watched it happen to visitors I have accompanied and because it happened to me the first time I spent a serious week in London. The plan is good. The deviation from the plan is better.
More London laughs: The Daily Mash | NewsThump.
Final Thoughts for the London Visitor
London rewards preparation and also rewards abandoning it. The city is large enough that planning a visit requires choices, and experienced enough at receiving visitors that the infrastructure for whatever choice you make is well-developed. Book the Tower of London in advance. Get the Oyster card before your first Tube journey. Go to Borough Market on Saturday morning. Walk across the Millennium Bridge at least once. And then leave enough unstructured time for the afternoon that does not go according to plan and produces the experience you talk about most when you get home. That afternoon will happen in London if you leave room for it. It always does. The city has been providing the unexpected afternoon to visitors for several centuries and has not yet run out of material. More London travel guidance at Bohiney Magazine and at The London Prat’s visitor resources, where Fiona MacLeod’s London coverage is updated regularly with current information, seasonal recommendations, and the honest opinions that tourist boards tend not to publish.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/london-first-timer-honest-guide-fiona-macleod/
