Got a 48 hr. layover soon and wondering the best way to get the wife to hotel and back to airport. And how much time she should allow. Staying at Holiday Inn Close. Also, anybody do a tour of Churchhill's war room or Tower of London?

Thanks

 

Churchill war rooms are great. Go see darkest hour first. Do the audio tour If you have the slightest history nerd proclivities.

Tower of London is great as well. Hold out for the yeoman warder tour.

 

+1 on Churchill War Room Tour. fascinating. not sure where the hotel is located.

 

Cog,

She will take the Piccadilly Line from LHR, and transfer at either Hammersmith or Earls Court to the District Line. Make sure she knows to take the District Line towards Notting Hill, and exit at the High Street Kensington tube stop. She will exit the station, turn left, walk 10 yards and turn left onto Wright's Lane. The Holiday Inn is about 150 yards directly ahead, and she will literally walk right into the front door. If you land on a weekday she will most likely beat you to the hotel. Have her grab an Oyster Card and put 20£ on it, as it makes all the tube trips cheaper. Departing, just use Google to figure out what time to depart the hotel for her to arrive 90 minutes prior to departure. Your pickup will be 2.5 hours before departure if memory serves, and is about when she needs to leave as well. Pay attention to the 100ml/3.5oz make per liquid bottle and overall max of a 1 liter clear bag for all liquids and gels when returning.

+1 on War Room. Recommend (highly) doing one of the double decker tour busses to start, then figure out where you want to go back to. They are hop on hop off, so no worries on length of time. Some include a boat ride down to the Tower of London as well.

 

Also, go to picadilly square around 4-5 to buy last minute tickets to a current play/theater that are all blocks from Picadilly. The last minute tickets are usually not too expensive and the theaters are all good. Most of the shows start around 7.

 

And right across the street from Piccadilly Circus is St. Martin in the Fields church. They have good Classical music concerts, and a nice cafeteria in the basement.

 

If she springs for cell service over there google maps is pretty unreal. Not only will it give you tube routes, connections, etc, but has the times displayed as well.

Technology blows me away sometimes. Too old for this world.

 

Depending on how much luggage you have and how comfortable you are changing trains, could also consider walking from earl's court. It is only 10 minutes. If you go straight out of the station, cross the street, turn left then right onto Kenway. Kenway will take an abrupt left and there is a narrow pathway there that will take you to cross Cromwell on to Marloes rd. You go maybe a quarter mile, then right turn on Cheniston Gardens which will put you right in front of the Holiday Inn close. Look on google maps to confirm.

I have also heard (never tried it)that after dropping off the customs paperwork the bus driver can drop you off at the terminal and you could meet your wife at the tube Staton and ride together.

20 minute walk from the hotel to the natural history museum and science museum, both free. British museum (also free) is an easy bus or tube ride. All the other sites mentioned great as well. St.Paul's is 16 lbs, but beautiful and you can take stairs to a wrap around balcony near the top of the dome that gives an excellent panoramic view of the city, i much preferred over the London Eye. Google maps is your friend, tube is quick, but if it's a nice day riding the double decker buses can add to the sight seeing experience along the way.

I have brought my wife, mom, and daughter with me on layovers and had a great time every trip. Make sure they get business class on the way over and start checking the retuning loads early. Be prepared to send her back through a different city, Philly can work well.

Cheers

 

Thanks all.