Question for any of our English residents or frequent visitors?... (1 Viewer)

[andrew markworthy]

Time Out - link given above - is a reasonable guide.

Otherwise, there are the newspapers. The morning papers in the UK are almost all nationally-distributed. All (barring a couple of Scottish papers and I think one of the 'tabloids') are London-based and have a heavy bias towards London theatre and arts events. The often-termed 'quality' national papers are:

The Independent http://arts.independent.co.uk/
The Guardian http://www.guardian.co.uk/
The Times http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/global/
The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
The Financial Times http://www.ft.com/home/uk

There is also a London local paper that comes out in the evenings, The Evening Standard: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/home/

 

[todd s]

Any good shows you can recommend...That aren't in the US?

And I am going to stoop to a completely touristy thing. My daughter is a big Harry Potter fan. Isn't some of the Hogwarts filming done at one of the colleges outside London and you can visit them?

 

[andrew markworthy]

Are you in London for three days or three years? The HP films are shot all over the place! I know that looking at a map the UK seems tiny but trust me, it can take an eternity to get to different bits of it. I'm sure that somewhere there is a site listing all the shooting locations for the HP (and indeed other) movies. But be warned that it will take a long time to get to a lot of them.

Have a look at the following site if you're thinking of planning a train journey:
http://www.thetrainline.com/
I think you may be a little shocked at how long it takes to travel what is in US terms a miniscule distance (and that's before you get to the prices).

 

[todd s]

Just an update. We decided to just do 5 nights in London. We leave in 3 weeks. I am looking at doing a day tour that goes to Oxford & Stratford on Avon.
Alright, someone has to know this. A guy I work with says that even going to McDonald's and getting a burger, fries and coke costs over $20 US. I say that is high...even with the sucky exchange rate.

 

[Chris Lockwood]

I don't think McD will cost you quite that much.

I've heard similar things about eating in NYC that just weren't true.

 

[Holadem]

A cursory search says it's about half of that. Never been to London but I've had layovers at Heathrow. Shelled out like 7-8 pounds for a glass of brew . I love to travel but my means are modest, which will keep me out of spending any significant time in London any time soon.

--
H

 

[Jeff Savage]

I have been to London several times. I would second the Westminster Abby and Tower of London suggestions. I think that you could skip the changing of the guards, while neat and all I don't think it is the best bang for your buck time wise.

If you are going to go to the Natural History Museum I would take the time to walk up to Royal Albert Hall as well. It is a neat building and lots of famous concerts have been held there and Kensington Gardens is just across the street. You may even be able to catch a concert there. I think that you are going to early to catch the Proms held there in the summer but those are good inexpensive concerts.

If you are going to visit Oxford Circle take a walk down the street and see Hamley's Toy Store. It is a fun place.

For a neat day trip I have taken a boat on the Thames to Hampton Court which, in my opinion, is fabulous. If you take the boat all the way to London it will take 4 hours one way! What I did is take a train most of the way and then spent about 1 hour on the boat each way. If you do not want to take the boat it is about a 40 min train ride from London.

I would recommend that you buy a multi day public transport pass. It makes everything much easier. As far as the the food prices are concerned what I found is that the prices are about the same as they are here in the US but since you are paying in Pounds instead of USD's it is actually twice as much. So in other words a nice sandwich may cost you 6 Pounds (like a $6 sandwich here) but with the exchange rate it is actually closer to $12. Does that make sense lol.

Hope this helps and enjoy your trip!

Laters,
Jeff

 

[andrew markworthy]

Was it served from the navel of a Page 3 model? That is an insane price. In a very expensive hotel you might get charged about half that. In a normal pub, about a quarter that price.

And if you are ordering beer at the bar (there are no waitresses/waiters in normal Brit pubs), a couple of pointers. 'Pint of best' means the best quality beer the landlord has for sale (also, not surprisingly, the most expensive). If you're asked 'barrel or keg?' it means do you want the traditionally served beer drawn by suction from the barrel) or do you want it drawn by gas pressure (keg). Keg tastes slightly fizzy and Brit beer purists hate it. If you must have American beer, it's nearly always available in bottled form (most places stock at least Budweiser these days). Lager is the nearest to American beer, bitter is ideally served at very slightly below room temperature and is fizz-free (or should be). Mild used to be far more popular but is now on the wane. If you get the chance, try it - it is far smoother and richer tasting than bitter. It comes in two forms - dark and light. The dark is generally richer tasting.

 

[Jason L.]

[getting on soapbox...]

Come on Andrew, there is no way you are getting a meal at McDonalds in London for $5 US, except maybe a Happy Meal that can feed a six year-old. I don't think I found a McD's even in Bratislava, Tallinn, Krakow, or Prague that was that cheap two years ago.

The question I have to ask you Andrew is - Why do you people put up with these high prices? What is the cause of it? Taxes? Farm Subsidies? Wages? Import Tariffs? Organic Food? I know the UK isn't a bread basket, but the price of food and drink is - how can I put this - INSANE!!!!!

I don't know if this still applies, but I remember taking the chunnel to Paris and finding food 10 times better than London at half the price. Food in Germany is also much cheaper than elsewhere on the continent.

You go to the UK and get crappy food, small portions, tiny drinks with no refills, and ugly waitresses who ignore you because they have no incentive to work hard.

You go to the USA and get great food, gigantic portions that would tip over Fred Flinstone's car, humongous drinks that you can wash a small child in - with free refills, and hot waitresses showing lots of cleavage that flirt with you to get a good tip.

Those pre-packaged "sandwiches" are for sale in England are nasty. 98.3% stale bread with virtually no meat inside. Any country that considers Indian Food to be "fine cuisine" has crappy food.

When we contractors are transiting through Heathrow, we make sure we take a bunch of Powerbars with us so that we don't have to take out a small loan to afford a meal at Heathrow Airport.

[...getting off soapbox]

 

[andrew markworthy]

[Gets on soapbox]

(1) first, if it's crappy food, why complain about the small portions?
(2) the crappy food is largely limited to tourist trap eateries or where they've got you captive (e.g. airports). And as the nation whose sole culinary contribution to the world other than popcorn is the fast food joint, I'd personally keep very quiet on the subject of crappy food were I an American.
(3) the reason for the high prices is that in the UK we have what's called a social conscience (you'll find it comes fitted as standard in most Europeans). We levy higher taxes so that we can have a welfare state and we have minimum wage legislation which means that people in even the lowliest of jobs have some sort of pay. Of course we could have the alternative - lack of medical care unless you can afford it, your lovely American inner city slums with drive by shootings as a daily occurrence, but given the choice between that and slightly more expensive food, I know which I'd choose.
(4) as regards 'too small' portions, look at a calorie content chart sometime, then look at the obesity rate in the USA. Often the portions you get in the UK are still too big. And if the alternative is that you leave a large amount of food on your plate, then that is not only wasteful, but these days obscene.
(5) As regards ugly waitresses who ignore you, who knows? Maybe they heard yet another bunch of Yanks going on about how much better the US of A is.
(6) As for the remarks about Indian food, I can only assume that you've never eaten in a decent Indian restaurant in your life or tried Indian cookery at home.
(7) Actually, come to think of it, quite what is wonderful or original about 'American cuisine'? Most of it is peasant cookery from the UK or Germany. And to add insult to injury, it's generally the easy to do recipes that you took with you (equally, any nation that produces beer that has to be chilled so you can't taste it is unlikely to have much time for cooking). So where in American cookbooks will you find anything like Sussex pond pudding or Stargazey pie? Instead, you get rissoles (sorry, I mean hamburgers) and flapjacks. Boy, those are hard to cook.
(8) I think you'll find that per head of population, the UK has far more highly-rated restaurants (sorry, diners serving large chunks of meat with fries don't count) than the USA and London outranks Paris in terms of high quality restaurants.
[Gets off soapbox]

 

[Bob Graham]

It sounds like many of you would feel right at home at Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park.

It's a real shame that the Museum of the Moving Image is closed. It was my favorite museum in London.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

You might not be wrong here, simply because America is still such a rural nation. That said, I invite you to tour the Adirondacks or any other rural area. Once you get off the main, overly-commercial main strips, there are a lot of excellent restaurants tucked away in little corners.

 

[andrew markworthy]

Bob, as you'll see if you look back at the posts, I've written a great deal of what I hoped was helpful advice for visitors. Then along come several folks not particularly interested in offering advice but having cheap (and almost universally inaccurate) shots at what they think the UK is like. Sorry, I'd just had a belly full of it, especially after what I thought was some very friendly and constructive advice from several contributors and was giving these guys a taste of their own medicine.

Back on topic, yes, it's a great shame the museum closed. There is an extremely good museum of moving images in Bradford (in Yorkshire, in the north of England) but that is considerably off the standard tourist route and only really worth putting on the itinerary if doing a visit to Yorkshire to see Bronte country, etc (it used to be James Herriot country as well, but I guess his popularity has somewhat waned in recent years).

 

[Lew Crippen]

Airport food anywhere in the world is not noted for being cheap. Of course all food in the UK would seem less expensive to those from the States, if the dollar was not in the tank.

 

[Jeff Savage]

Ok yes I was talking about prices as the "tourist" places but I don't think I said the pricing was out of line. As tourist new to an area with limited time you are not going to going hiking around the city for a sandwich shop. Most people will take what is convenient and yes you will pay more for that. You could expect to pay slightly inflated prices at American tourist places as well. My main point is that you can find comparable food for the same numerical equivalent (6 pounds vs 6 USD which was an EXAMPLE not necessarily the actual price ) but due to the exchange rate it is still around twice as much. That 3 quid sandwich is still almost 6 USD with the exchange rate.

This is not your fault. It is the fault of the weak dollar. However the point that an American traveling to the UK this summer will have to pay around twice as much for EVERYTHING is still correct due to the current exchange rate is a valid one I think.

I am not saying it is fair. Just ask Canadians. For years the USD was higher than the CAD leading to higher pricing in Canada. The currencies are now equal but items are still cheaper in the USA. Go figure.

Laters,
Jeff

 

[todd s]

Can anyone tell me my travel options for travelling from Heathrow (term.3) to the Millennium Gloucester hotel (South Kensington)? The nearest tube station is Gloucester Road.

Thanks!

 

[andrew markworthy]

Try the following website:

Transport Direct - Britain's free online journey planner

Put Heathrow in as your starting point (it will ask you to clarify where in Heathrow) and Millennium Gloucester Hotel as your destination. It will give you the various options using public transport.

With regard to private transport, I'll assume you're not insane enough to hire a car (if you are thinking of doing this - DON'T). A taxi all the way from Heathrow is likely to be expensive. You could, however, consider getting a train or coach from Heathrow into the centre of London and then getting a taxi from there to your hotel. It will cost a bit more than only using public transport, but it may be a little less hectic (especially at rush hour, when I personally would not go near public transport, especially carrying suitcases).

However, if you are getting a taxi from outside a station in London, be prepared to queue (depending on the time of day, anything from a couple of minutes to 20 minutes or so). BUT: the following may be useful. Outside some of the stations you'll see a man offering people in the queue different colored tickets and them moving to the front of the queue. Basically, this is an organised taxi sharing service run by London Transport. The man will ask you where you're going and you'll be paired up with someone on the same route as you. You then share a cab. The downside is that you have to share the journey with other people, and it may take a bit longer to get there as the taxi may not take the most direct route for your specific destination. However, on the plus side, you get taken to the front of the queue and the cost of the taxi fare will be a fixed fee, and typically smaller than if you were doing the journey by yourself.

And if your train ends up at Paddington, the taxi rank is not easy to find. Basically, walk through the ticket barriers and turn right. You then go back along the furthest platform and the taxi rank is through a big archway (containing a statue and some train timetables) on your left.


Hope this helps. However, my knowledge of London transport is limited as almost invariably when visiting London I'm on expenses and I travel everywhere by taxi.

 

[Holadem]

You know, after countless threads during the last decade asking every detail about this week-long trip of yours, you better come back with a well formatted page turner of a trip report.

--
H

 

[todd s]

I will also provide a powerpoint presentation disc with each copy. LOL

I have been trying to take this trip for 18 years. But, things have always altered the plan. So my friends all joke that until I land at Heathrow. They won't believe it.

 

[Yee-Ming]

Heh. FWIW in Singapore (not exactly a cheap place either) a McD's 'Extra Value Meal" is probably about S$7, which even with the US$ in the tank is around US$5... And for around S$11 you can have a Carl's Jr meal instead.

I must add, I agree US food portions are scary. When on vacation there last year, my wife and I only ever had to order 'one meal', i.e. one main and either one starter or one dessert (occasionally both), which we'd share, and both of us would be stuffed. And sometimes it wasn't even 2 or 3 courses -- at Harris, a most-excellent steakhouse in San Francisco, we only ordered one 26oz steak (prime rib), which came with creamed spinach, and that was our meal for both of us that evening; and a bottle of wine, but no other food items.

One curiousity, which has been discussed to death in other threads, is that in US restaurants patrons are expected to tip wait-staff, on the premise that their wages are insufficient. Whereas most countries elsewhere, including the UK, tips are not expected (though obviously always appreciated), as their wages are sufficient. Another factor to consider perhaps: that in reality your US restaurant bill needs to include the 15-20% tip you leave, whereas elsewhere it's included in the price you pay?