Land travel after cruise

[GloriaF]

Can anyone recommend a forum for traveling by land and seeing the sights of England?  

[GloriaF]

Highlights, sights not to be missed, where to book tours or buy tickets?

[John Bull]

Hi, Gloria,

 

Can you fill us in with a few basics..........

- Pre or post-cruise, or not cruising at all?

The port might give us a starting-point.

- Any flights booked  or planned? To which airport? They too might give us an idea of what part of the UK you're considering.   Most frequent direct flights are to London or Manchester. London Heathrow (LHR) has the widest range, but fares from Orlando Florida to London Gatwick (LGW) are usually better value.

- How long do you expect to stay in the UK?  A few days pre-cruise or a full-blooded six-week UK tour, or something in-between?

- Aiming to base yourselves in one place (eg central London or Edinburgh), or tour? If touring, by rented car or by trains & buses ?

 - Your interests? History? Culture? Cities? Scenery? Arts? Theatre?

- Just the two of you? Any limitations such as mobility? Or are you planning to arrive with a family tribe?

- Can we assume you've never been to the UK before?

 

Most folk want to visit London, but there's a lot more to England and the UK than London.

 

Lots of gaps to fill, then we can help.

 

JB 🙂

 

[GloriaF]

Hi JB,

At the moment, my cousin and I are planning either the Princess British Isles cruise (rt Southhampton) or a CIE Tour 14 day 'English Odyssey' (begins in Windsor/ends in Oxford).  She is leaning toward the land tour.  Tour will cover lots, but only 1 day in London: Kensington Palace, Afternoon Tea & London exploring on our own.  We are older ladies and will travel in May or June, 2023.

 

After tour or cruise, we will base in London -  I think we will want more Royal experiences like Buckingham palace, changing of the guards, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, etc.  We will have seen England pretty thoroughly with the tour.   It will be my first time staying in England but she was there in 2018 with her sister.  

 

Her visit at that time involved looking up family ties in Taunton, where our grandparents were born, and general sights between/near Taunton to London like Bath, Cotswolds (drive thru only), London.  I have less interest in family history and more in seeing what I mentioned above.  I'm sure there are distant relatives, but we know of none. 

 

While in London on our own, we will spend about a week.  I know there are separate tours to some of these sights that we could book, but wondering if there is a better way to go about it than Viator or TripAdvisor.  Any help in steering me in the right direction is greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks for your help and your time! 

GloriaF

 

 

Edited July 5, 2022 by GloriaF

[John Bull]

Hi again, Gloria.

 

Yes, the British Isles cruise or the English Odyssey will give you a taste of the UK.

You might have an opportunity to extend your interest in royalty if you port in Edinburgh (the Royal Yacht Britannia in Leith) or Invergordon (Balmoral Castle, but it's very unlikely to be available as a ship's or group tour because it's 90 miles away altho it's a scenic route).

Or a pre or post-cruise visit to Queen Victoria's favourite residence, Osborne House on the Isle of Wight - it's a 60-minute ferry ride and a ten-minute bus ride from Southampton  

Perhaps other opportunities too, depending on the cruise / tour itineraries.

 

London as a base has the big disadvantage that accommodation is expensive, but it scores highly in every other way ...........

 

- You don't need a car in London - a car is actually a millstone.

 

- Some sights are close together. For instance Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Whitehall, Churchill's war rooms, Downing Street, Horse Guards Parade, Trafalgar Square & a dozen other places are within walking distance of each-other.

 

- Other sights are spaced further apart in central London. places like the Tower Of London / Tower Bridge and St Paul's Cathedral and Buckingham Palace and. the British Museum and the museum complex of the Natural History Museum / the Victoria & Albert Museum (known as the V & A) / Science Museum.

This is where London's extensive underground system ("The Tube") is so useful. Fast & frequent & easy-to-use.

And abundant taxis to hail for short hops of up to 2 or 3 miles (expensive for longer distances)

 

 - And there are boat trips down the River Thames to the Royal Naval College & Maritime Museums Greenwich ( the home of Greenwich Mean Time).

 

These are places you can organise for yourselves, tho some like Buckingham Palace you need to pre-book.

 

A hop-on bus tour is a good way to get an overview at the start of your visit to London - or at the end, to take in sights you never had time to visit.

But their routing and low speed mean that they're not a good way to get from place to place - for that use The Tube or mebbe the occasional taxi. So don't waste time & money on a multiple-day ticket.

 

 - Because of the number of tourists in London, there's a huge number of day-trips to places in South-East England. Places like Stonehenge, Bath, the Cotswolds, Stratford-upon-Avon, Canterbury, etc. 

Rather than using a booking agency like Viator or City Discovery or TripAdvisor, book direct with a reputable tour coach operator like Evan Evans or Anderson Tours or Golden Tours.

 

Near Westminster Bridge is perhaps the most convenient location for a hotel, though the hotels there are almost-entirely international brands.

But Victoria offers a wide range of hotels for a wide range of budgets. 

Plenty of other locations, broadly between Harrods in the west and Tower Bridge in the east - just make sure it's handy to a Tube station.

 

Bookmark this website

https://www.londontoolkit.com/

It has a stack of logistical information and tips about London.

 

JB 🙂

 

 

[Post Captain]

Hello GloriaF ~

 

Where to begin?  It seems like you have already identified some of the places that you want to see, so that's a good start.  So your question seems to be, How do you go about seeing these places?

 

The very first thing I would suggest--now, while you are home and have time to plan your visit--is to get hold of a good London guide book and familiarize yourself with those sites you wish to visit and their locations.  I can't emphasize how helpful it will be for you to get a sense of the overall layout of London--where things are relative to one another, and how to get around from place to place--before you actually arrive.  A decent guide book will also introduce you to places you might not yet know about but which, when you read about them, you will decide that you want to visit.

 

(For starters, take a look at Frommer's London Day by Day.  It's a handy little guide book that you can slip into your pocket book, yet contains a wealth of practical information.  The contents are well-organized; the book not only includes listings and descriptions of numerous tourist attractions and other places of historical and cultural interest, but also gives helpful suggestions for organizing your time in London, with maps showing suggested walks, among other things.)

 

Virtually every museum, palace, cathedral, church, historic landmark--you name it--has a website that you will tell you everything you need to know about to help plan your visit.  (E.g., location, how to get there, opening hours, admission prices, special events or exhibits, and the like.)

 

I would also emphasize that you don't need a tour to get to Buckingham Palace or the Tower of London or any other site of interest.  Wherever you are staying in central London, you will be able to travel to that site by public transport (Underground or bus) or, if need be, by taxi.  And once you have arrived at your destination, you will find that you don't need a tour organized by an outsider.  For example, the Tower of London has its own guides--the Yeoman Warders, aka Beefeaters, whose special status as guards and caretakers of the Tower date from Henry VIII.  Most historic churches have leaflets detailing the history of that particular church and showing the locations of various points of interest inside the church, and many of the really historically significant churches such as Westminster Abbey have vergers who conduct tours within that church.

 

I can't do more than begin to scratch the surface here.  But once you get a bit of a handle on what you want to see and what you'd like to do during your visit, you can certainly ask more specific questions and get more detailed advice from locals and experienced travelers alike.

 

(For what it's worth, I'm an American gent of a certain age who first stepped foot in London as a child in the mid-1960s.  Over the past half-century, as an adult [allegedly😉], I've visited more times than I can count, and have lived there for extended periods.  And even after all this time, there are still places in London that I have yet to visit.)

 

Hope this helps.

[GloriaF]

Thank you, JB and Post Captain!  

 

Your info is what I needed to get a better start planning this trip.  My cousin leaves all the planning and computer work to me, but I run everything past her to be sure we are in agreement.

 

We do not plan to have a car ~ a car would be a detriment in the city, as you pointed out.

 

I have heard that London accommodations are quite pricey, and we will be looking to stay in more budget-friendly hotels. Perhaps not the most stylish, but as long as it is safe, good location and comfortable...   I will need to check addresses with you once I have some firm dates to book.

 

I've made note of your many suggestions and will refer to them often as I plan.

 

Thank you both very much!

GloriaF

[Cotswold Eagle]

13 hours ago, GloriaF said:

I have heard that London accommodations are quite pricey, and we will be looking to stay in more budget-friendly hotels. Perhaps not the most stylish, but as long as it is safe, good location and comfortable...

I understand your wishes, but do keep in mind that London is one of the most expensive cities in the world to stay in. If you think you have found a real bargain, almost certainly you haven’t, and one of your criteria will have been badly compromised. Plenty of threads on here with recommendations that do fit your wish list, and if you see a decent rate at one of those, don’t hesitate, particularly if it’s one you can cancel. 

[caripoo]

Maloney and Kelly Travel.......Tell them what you want to see and or where you want to go...They can put it all together...and have a driver if you want...We just used them in Ireland fo 18 days around the entire island.