Night trip to London on 12th March

Whispered

Heading for a night trip to London on 12th March, it's a Saturday and we have one day. We have a show booked for 2.30pm so we're basing our day around that. I've never been to London, and I know that we wont get to see nearly everything in a day so we prioritised the wax museum and the London eye.

Can anybody tell me if this is feasible.

Land in Stansted at 10am.
Drop bags at our airport hotel and head straight into London via train. Hopefully getting to wax museum by 11.30 (hour and a half from landing to town?).
Finish up there by 1.30, very quick lunch then taxi to her majesty's theatre for the show at 2.30.
Out of there by 5.30, trip on the London eye and a wander around until we get a night bus tour at 7pm.
Finished at 9, back to hotel for dinner. (we were thinking of staying in London for dinner but after such a hectic day it would be nice to shower before eating.)

So, is this doable do you think? The morning might be a bit of a rush, but we wont fit wax museum in otherwise.

Does the train go straight into London from Stansted? How long do you think we will need to do that trip and is it straight forward?

Anything we can fit in between 5.30 and 7 besides the London eye? Are we missing anything we HAVE to see. (not too pushed on seeing the palace or anything).

Is there any night tour you'd recommend? We're looking at the bus tour and a walking ghost tour. I also fancy the idea of a horse and carriage. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

silvervixen84

Land in Stansted at 10am.
The stansted express runs every 15 mins during the day according to the website, and takes approx 46 mins to liverpool St. Book an open ticket online to avoid queuing for tickets after collecting your bags, which will save you time. Also at liverpool st you'll need to buy either a day tube ticket or top up an oyster card, so calculate some time for queuing for a ticket counter/machine as they sometimes get very busy.

Drop bags at our airport hotel and head straight into London via train. Hopefully getting to wax museum by 11.30 (hour and a half from landing to town?).
The wax museum is on Baker St so you have to allow time to travel from liverpool st to there. From the tube map, it looks like 8 stops on the Metropolitan, Circle or Hammersmith & City lines. You should check tfl.gov.uk before you travel to see if there are any closures on these lines that might affect your travel.
You should also buy your tickets for the wax museum online beforehand too, I brought my brother there last week and was glad we'd prebooked, the queue was going around the block, and we just skipped all that as we had our tickets. You can also buy the wax museum and london eye tickets as a combo and save money too! Give yourself about 2 hours in the wax museum as there's a 'history of england' ride and a scary section too.

Finish up there by 1.30, very quick lunch then taxi to her majesty's theatre for the show at 2.30. Out of there by 5.30, trip on the London eye and a wander around until we get a night bus tour at 7pm.
The nearest station to the theatre is Picadilly Circus, so you can take the Bakerloo to the London Eye, it's only 3 stops, so shouldn't take long. The London Eye itself takes about 30 mins.
I've never done a night tour, but the buses seem to all leave from Victoria which is 2 stops (inc one change of line) from Waterloo

Finished at 9, back to hotel for dinner. (we were thinking of staying in London for dinner but after such a hectic day it would be nice to shower before eating.)
It'll be a hectic day but if you're prepared and pre-book things, you should get through your whole list! Best of luck and have a great time, London is fab

User Friendly

THE WAX museum??

a waste of your time and money.your choice though.

djpbarry

Whispered wrote: »

Land in Stansted at 10am.
Drop bags at our airport hotel and head straight into London via train. Hopefully getting to wax museum by 11.30 (hour and a half from landing to town?).

I don’t think this is feasible. Getting from Stansted to Baker Street will take at least an hour. If you’ve to check into a hotel after landing, I can’t see you being at the Wax Museum before 12.

Whispered wrote: »

Out of there by 5.30, trip on the London eye and a wander around until we get a night bus tour at 7pm.

I don’t think you’ll have time for the London Eye – a ride lasts about 30 minutes, but you could be waiting 30 minutes or more to get on, especially on a Saturday.

Whispered wrote: »

Does the train go straight into London from Stansted? How long do you think we will need to do that trip and is it straight forward?

Stansted to Tottenham Hale takes about 30 minutes. Tottenham Hale to King’s Cross (Victoria Line) and then King’s Cross to Baker Street (Circle or Metropolitan Line), will take another 30 minutes.

Whispered wrote: »

Anything we can fit in between 5.30 and 7 besides the London eye? Are we missing anything we HAVE to see. (not too pushed on seeing the palace or anything).

That doesn’t really give you a whole lot of time. Seeing as you’re going to be around Piccadilly, I might suggest having a mosey around Covent Garden, but it will be busy on a Saturday. You’ll also be right by The National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts.

Whispered wrote: »

Is there any night tour you'd recommend? We're looking at the bus tour and a walking ghost tour. I also fancy the idea of a horse and carriage. Any suggestions?

I’ve not done any tours in London so I can’t suggest anything I’m afraid. However, I would steer well clear of tourist traps like horse-drawn carriages.

I think, overall, you’re trying to squeeze far too much into a very short space of time. I would cut back a little, otherwise you’ll just get pissed off and stressed and go away with a very bad impression of London. London is big and very, very busy (even more so when you’re hitting some of the main tourist spots) – getting around takes time (and lots of patience!).

Fysh

You might just about get through that schedule, but you're not leaving yourself any margin for error, missed trains, transport delays, queues or even just needing a breather. Bear in mind that TFL have several planned closures this weekend which make any travel within the city a bit more of a guess in terms of timing.

If it were me planning the day, I'd say ditch the wax museum - gives you more time to get into town and get lunch before the show, and removes some of the travel pressure. Getting to and on the London Eye in an hour and half is optimistic - I'd say the only way you'd achieve it for sure is if the weather's grim enough to put most people off, at which point it's not necessarily worth it.

I was going to suggest checking out the Duck Tours as I've heard good things about them and I think they leave from near the London Eye, but your schedule won't allow it.

Hope you enjoy your day visit, but if you decide to come down again in future give yourself both days of the weekend, you'll be able to do a lot more and relax a bit while you do it.