My wife and I will visit London for 5 nights and 6 days in October 2008. Day 1 Thursday: Stansted: We will fly to Stansted, take the train to Liverpool Station, arriving around 6PM, and a taxi to our apartment (Gunterstone Road Apartments, located in S. Kensington (SW5). If we only visit South Bank,Soho, and Kensington Gardens, do we really need a travel card? Do we really need an Oyster Card? Would buses be cheaper than the tube?

Day 2 Friday: South Bank: Boat from Tate Britain to Tate Modern. Walk to Shakespeare's Globe, Borough Market, walk across the Tower Bridge to Tower Hill Station. Home to S. Kensington from there. I am 61 years old and can probably walk 2 miles comfortably 3 if I stop for a pint. If I start at Tate Modern will I be able to walk to Tower Hill Station? Do you know a good pubs along the way? We really like locals.

Day 3 Saturday: Kensington: Most of our plans are to enjoy Free London. We will visit the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, and if time permits the V&A Museum. If the weather is good we will take our lunch to Kensington Gardens because we want to see the Princes Diana Memorial. Can we walk this from the SW5 area? Dinner, drinks and entertainment will be around the Earl's Court area. Do you have any places you really like in this area? Our budget allows for about £40 for dinner and drinks.

A word about entertainment. We have discussed concerts and plays as a possibility, but the cost of £60 to £80 is at the top end of our budget and we are traveling light so the tux stays home. I think London must have some great music and theater hiden away for much less money, but finding it is another matter. Can you recommend some places to catch some good live entertainment cheap? We like all types of music but please remember I am 61 years old. Blues, rock, international, classical, and folk are all great.

Day 3 Sunday: Soho: Can we get from S. Kensington to Soho by bus? We will visit National Gallery and NPG. We will eat and drink in the Floral St. and Flower Market areas. Can we walk there from the NPG?

Day 4 Monday: We will go home on Tuesday so this will be a "take it easy" day. I have no plans at the moment. We have seen the London Eye, Madame T., and Greenwich on a previous trip. Do you have any ideas for this day?

As a VT member you know that planning for a trip is important but flexiblity is also a must. Nothing here is cast in stone. All comments and recommendations will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance for your help. Lee and Maria

Travel and Oyster cards work on buses as well as the Tube. Bus fares may be cheaper, but buses are prone to traffic delay (which can still be substantial even now the congestion charge has reduced traffic in central London).

All parts of London are walkable, of course, but it is also a huge city: rmember that it grew from a series of small 'villages', which only really began to join up into one massive conurbation in the late Victorian era. When Dickens was first writing there were fields and cows etc just outside the 'City', and agricultural land between each 'village' (Chelsea, Hampstead etc etc). Thus the sights you might want to see are further apart than in many/most other cities.

I find walking in London to be surprisingly tiring: it's the crowds and the busy-ness, I think. You will need to use public transport at least some of the time, if you want to make the best use of your time so a travelcard or Oyster would, I think, be a sensible purchase.

Hi you have a pretty good framework already. I am an Oystercard fan because they work out a lot cheaper and you can use them on buses and tubes. Cost £3 plus pay as you go money but you get the £3 back at the end. Saves all the buying of tickets too,

The walk from Tate Modern to Tower Hill is super so I suggest you go ahead with that. Plenty of benches for a sit if you need. Can't think of any Pubs but doesn't mean there are none.

You are probably near Barons Court or West Ken stations so tube to S Kensington and walk through the tunnel to Museums then carry on up up Exhibition Road to Hyde Park and (turn left for) Kensington Gardens. Not an appealing walk from SW5.

Earls Court is alive with restaurants so no worries there.

Floral Street easy walk from NPG up St Martin's Lane and turn right.

Live music is advertised at O'Neills in Earls Court, usually the Irish music scene is roughish pubs but great fun, I have not experienced this particular one.

http://www.beerintheevening.com/pubs/s/79/799/

Try the cut price ticket booth in the middle of Leicester Square

http://www.thisistheatre.com/halfpricetickets.html

Have a great trip.

Never been a great fan of London pubs but a good one springs to ming looking at your plans is called "Market Porter" it's opposite Borough Market, address is 9 Stoney Street SE1 9AA. The attraction here for me is the range of real ales and the food was decent last time I visited. Nearest station and Underground - London Bridge.
Have fun

My sister returned from London yesterday and she is a great theatre and music buff. She was saying that there are lots of bargains to be had in the theatres at the present time. She saw "Billy Elliott for 19GBP and some fantastic concert in the round at the Royal Albert Hall for 20GBP. I would think that you could source these on the website given in the previous post.
As for Day 4 when you don't want to do much. I would opt for a Krispy Creme Doughnut and Hot Mocha at Harrod's followed by a wander round the store pretending that a rich uncle had just died and left me a couple of million dollars or pounds. Just a thought!

Thanks to all of you who have responded so far. I check here everyday, look at all the websites recommended and save names of places recommended. I appreciate the time you take to help me. I have a couple of questions which I will post later. We will walk the southbank area and try the pub recommended. Just to clearify my apartment location I will be between Hammersmith Road and Talgarth Road, on Gunterstone Road. We will take the bus to the Kensington Gardens and work our way back towards the museums. If I get to tired of walking we can always find a bus. I like the idea of Harrod's on the last day. We will probably go with the £4 a day bus pass. If it proves to be too slow we will opt for the tube. I am insecure about the Oyster as some have said it does not always work and there is a penalty involved if you don't swip the machine when you get off. The web sites are appreciated and I will check them out today. Thanks again

Yes, it is right what been said about entertainment. It is quite easy to find cheap concerts and plays tickets from £10 (National theatre http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/ ) to £30. There are a lot of places selling discount tickets: if you would walk around Leicester Square, you will see a lot of offers for half-price theatre & concert's tickets.
Also, have a look here:
http://www.londontheatreboxoffice.net/?gclid=CMfesMuKr5QCFQ9oQgodVxNytA
and
http://www.londonwestendtheatretickets.com/?gclid=CJmPrK-Jr5QCFQoUQgodVwcLtg
and www.londontown.com

Thanks for the web sites. I have added them to my favorites and will use them in October.

We are back and would like to thank everyone here for your help. Your information was very helpful. As with most of our trips we plan ahead and then go with the flow once we arrive. It is much less stressful that way. Day one was spent traveling and went as smooth as could be expected for a first time visiter to London. Transfer by bus from Stansted to our apartment near N. End Road took 3 1/2 hours. We gave ourselves 6 hours to return including lunch. Thanks to those who said it would be a slow trip. Your comments made the return stress free. We did the Tower, Borough's Market, and the river walk to tate on day 2. A very long day, but wonderful. Day 3 was Little Italy via Abbey Road, a boat to Camden Market, fast food and dinner at home. Day 3 a museum, lunch at Prince Albert's Pub, dinner at Pizza Express. We did lots of walking and just soaked up the London sun. Day 4 the IMAX at the Science Museum and art at the T. Square Museum. Fish and chips for lunch dinner at home and a local pub for some open mike and a couple of bottle of red. Day 5 Whitehall, St. James Park for a picnic, Buc. Palace, Hard Rock for a Purple Haze and photo's in the Vault. Wine bar at Earl's court and late dinner nearby. Day 6 travel home. London is the best. Your comments helped so much. Thanks again.

Great to hear that you had such a good time. I hope that you are going to write about your visit to London in your travel pages. I shall look forward to reading up on your adventures.