Best option for transportation around London?

[wendyt_ca]

Hello,
We are going to London in September and thinking of staying at the Hilton in Kensington. It is near Holland station. We are going to be there for 4 nights before heading to Paris. While there we mainly want to see the main tourist sights around the London Eye area. I plan to get a London pass for a day and go to the tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace, Royal Mews, etc. We have also booked the Harry Potter Studio Tour as well as two other HP tours one meeting at the Temple Tube London Underground Station and the other at Gloucester Road Tube London Underground Station. So basically we will need to get to our hotel from these places then back to the hotel. What is our cheapest option for transportation? Thanks.

 

[Invisable89]

Using the London Underground would be the cheapest option. You can get an all-day Travelcard valid from 9:30am to 4:30am which is now £7 each (which you're probably aware of). Make sure you study the Tube Map (here's a link to it if you don't already know it http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/standard-tube-map.pdf) so you know how to get from your Hotel & back & obviously check on Google Earth where all the places you want to go to are located. & Make sure you check what Tube lines are down on the TFL website before you go so you don't stress yourself out. You might struggle to do everything tourist-y in one day so you might want to think about spreading it out over 2 days.


Windsor Castle isn't actually in London, it's in Windsor so getting there will be quite difficult & very expensive via a taxi. You would have to look into getting a train (not the London Underground) or a coach.

 

[wendyt_ca]

Ok thanks. We have a couple of days for the tourist stuff. If Windsor Castle is difficult to get to then we will probably not bother doing it. I didn't know there was a travel card for £7 which was good for the entire day. That is helpful. It is all very overwhelming lol. I still need to figure out transportation to Paris from London too.

 

[ABZDisneyFan]

I would echo what the earlier poster said about getting the one day travelcards whilst you are in London, the tube is the best way to get around.
Although not in London, Windsor is not difficult to get to, you have two options.
1. A direct train from Waterloo station which takes about an hour & departs twice an hour.
2. A train from Paddington to Slough & then change at Slough for a five minute train ride to Windsor. If you get a quick train from Paddington you can be at Slough in 15 - 20 minutes, the connecting services to Windsor usually depart around the time a train from London arrives.
Trains are frequent usually 4 an hour although not all of them are non stoppers so you may be looking at half an hour.
I live in Windsor & used to commute into central London every day via Slough.
The castle is well worth a visit & if you have kids don't rule out a visit to Legoland, I used to work there & it is a lovely park although not on the same scale as WDW.

With you mentioned that you hadn't sorted out getting from London to Paris yet, if I were you I'd get dealt with soon.
You can fly from London Heathrow with BA & Air France & you should be able to get some fairly cheap flights this far out.
Your other option is the Eurostar from St Pancras, again this far out you should be able to pick up some fairly cheap tickets.
Hope this helps & if you want any more information relating to Windsor, let me know.

 

[wendyt_ca]

Maybe I won't cancel Windsor out then if it's not too bad and worth it. We don't have kids but I may look into Legoland as I wasn't aware there was one there. I am looking into London to Paris but still haven't figured it out. I will look into those options! I appreciate any info possible thanks!

 

[Invisable89]

I didn't mean Windsor was difficult to get to in general & i just meant it might be difficult for you as you're very unfamiliar with London. I'm also not sure what the best option is for booking the train tickets as all the website's i know are UK ones.

I'd also highly suggest the Eurostar from St Pancras Station in London to get to Paris (http://www.eurostar.com) But you won't be able to get tickets for September yet.

 

[purple figment]

Another thing you might enjoy since you'll be there in September is tour Buckingham Palace/the Royal Mews/Queen's Gallery. You can tour just the Palace or buy a combination ticket to see all three.

 

[queendisney]

don't forget that with the travel card (which you do not have to buy for the day of your London Pass as its included) you can use the London Buses as well, which can be a lot quicker then the tube if you are just going down the road. Also I would strongly suggest taking a street map with you, because what could be 3 or 4 stops (15 to 20 mins) on the tube might only be a ten minute walk away or a 5 min bus journey!!

If you do go to Windsor Castle there is free transport from Windsor to Legoland but you may be very hard pushed to do both in one day if you want to do them both properly. You really would be amazed by Windsor Castle, its just huge and beautiful, well worth a visit. I visit Windsor frequently for shopping and that castle is just a wonder....

Enjoy...London is a fabulous place and we pop in whenever we can as we don't live to far away and there is still so much we haven't done/seen...