I’m finally going to London: where do I start from? Gather your thoughts and ask yourself a few questions: what type of visit I want/can do, how many days do I have available, how much do I know, even just from hearsay, about this wonderful city… Should I go alone… or in the company? Is it a business trip but I still want to get some spare time for myself? Once we have understood how much time we have for our holiday and what type of trip we want to do – total relaxation, dynamic, cultural, etc… – we must establish the available budget and proceed with some research. Today, with internet and online maps, making a basic plan and moving around the streets of an unknown city is certainly easier. But let’s never underestimate a good map! There are maps for all tastes, traditional, with highlighted attractions, with bus lines (day and night) and underground railway lines.
I love this city very much, so far I have been there seven times, always doing different tours. I reached London by plane, by train from France and Edinburgh, and by bus from Birmingham, too. In this virtual tour I will try to take you to as many places as possible so that you can build your own tailor-made trip, but let’s start with a divertissement. On the left, the last interview I conducted for Radio Kiss Kiss within Stefano Piccirillo’s program Kiss Kiss Weekend, a two-minutes weekly appointment and many photos to tell anecdotes from various cities; here we are in London, on the splendid HMS Belfast where the legendary Depeche Mode shot the video for People are People. Plus a little off-air 😁 Happy surfing!
Research: if we are unfamiliar and maybe even inexperienced, the first thing to do is buy a guide that tells us something about the place we are going to. I recommend to go to a bookshop first, simply because there are excellent guides, but maybe not all of them are right for us; by leafing through the pages, we will be able to understand which one resonates with us; we could say that this gives us a wide selection of choice in one click, so to speak. After that, I would deepen what interests us most by searching the web- on the official websites, please! – and once we get into the city we want to see, I also suggest to pay a visit to the tourism office. Often we can find discounts or proposals that are not available online, yet. For the same reason, I recommend a visit to a tourist office even when you go in the surrounding area and you already have a brochure bought in the main city. You might have some wonderful surprises 😉
As an example, when I went to the Cotswolds, I already had a series of generic information but I didn’t know about a wonderful exhibition that I discovered while walking along the avenues of Burton On The Water, that of Rodney Matthews, an extraordinary illustrator who I didn’t know at the time, but who caught my attention thanks to some flyers that represented his vision of my favorite book, Alice in Wonderland. As I said, it just depends on the type of trip we want to do. I am a documentary filmmaker, doing research is an integral part of my nature, but the journey is yours and mine are just ideas. 😉 A little note about the map. Sometimes there are guides that cost a little more because they house one inside, and this is an element that could influence our buying; or maybe they can be purchased separately. Know that in tourist offices, in most hotels and in various parts of the city where excursions of one or more days are sold, you can take them for free. Let’s start our journey with a small saving 😊 Furthermore, if we take them locally they often provide a 20% discount on admissions, (another saving), while you can usually find the tube map inside the stations (it is minimal , but convenient and free).
Ok, we have started to familiarize ourselves with the places, monuments or things we want to do and now we are in a hurry to book our journey. I would be patient a little longer to dedicate myself to optimizing our experience. Generally I make an outline on the computer in which I draw up the list of attractions that I don’t want to miss and I assort them by proximity, taking a first look online from home – with the convenience of all the gigabytes we have available with our subscription – . This allows me to understand which is the closest underground stop, the distances between one point of interest and another and get an idea of how many things I can do or see that day (without wasting time when I’m there), the costs of the various entrances and what else interesting I can find nearby that perhaps I hadn’t considered, projecting myself already into the route I will take. Although, once we have fixed the things we don’t want to give up, it’s also nice to enjoy the journey and be surprised by what we didn’t expect. After all, we are on holiday, not everything is work!
Train, bus, shuttle or escorted tour? Again, it depends. Sometimes it is better to buy an organized tour, sometimes it is better to be independent even if in my opinion it doesn’t exist a fairer way than another, you have to follow and respect your own nature and your own needs. Sometimes I like to challenge my abilities and generally I like to explore. To go to Legoland, for instance, I took the train to Windsor from London Waterloo, (8 pound return ticket and about an hour’s journey). For Stonehenge, I remember taking the train to Salisbury and from there three stops with the shuttle; definitely a different trip, more adventurous and independent (and economical). But we will see it later in detail. For the Cotswolds however, I remember that I landed at London Heathrow and looked for the National Express bus inside the airport and from there in an hour
sono arrivata a Oxford che è stata la mia base per recarmi nella campagna inglese; ma anche il lasciapassare per i meravigliosi mondi di Tolkien, Lewis Carroll e Harry Potter; ma ne riparleremo più avanti. Evans Evans, Golden Tour, Rabbie’s, sono tutti ottimi secondo me, dipende sempre da cosa cercate. Consiglio anche un’occhiata al sito di Get Your Guide per tour fuori Londra – valutate voi – ma se per il momento scegliete di rimanere nella capitale e preferite viaggiare in superficie, ci sono sempre gli hop on hop off che vi permettono di orientarvi portandovi nelle mete principali della città.
Giga: se non avete la possibilità di usufruire di tanti giga all’estero ci sono molte aree in cui si può usare il wifi libero, sia nelle caffetterie che nel centro della città registrandovi con la vostra mail. E naturalmente l’albergo. Biglietti metro e autobus: al di là dell’abbonamento ricaricabile, la Oyster, oggi è possibile entrare e uscire passando direttamente il proprio bancomat (contactless) al tornello. Documenti: serve il passaporto, controlliamolo con anticipo! E adesso non ci resta che prenotare volo e albergo. La via più economica e rapida è il pacchetto che abbina entrambi; Volagratis, Booking, Lastminute.com, sono tutti validissimi; personalmente, muovendomi così tanto all’interno prenoto il volo a parte e gli alberghi pure, in quanto ne prendo più di uno o magari per giornate diverse. Naturalmente occhio al free wi-fi e se possibile alla colazione inclusa. N.B. A volte in estate o durante le feste si può usufruire delle students accomodations, vale a dire gli alloggi per gli studenti universitari che in quel periodo tornano a casa dalle famiglie lasciando la stanza. Se siete da soli o il vostro budget non è altissimo, fateci un pensierino, sicuramente più economiche rispetto a un albergo, sono sempre pulite e ben organizzate e c’è sempre qualcuno all’accoglienza pronto a consigliarti o, all’occorrenza, anche a darti uno spazzolino nuovo. Le camere hanno il bagno privato, per entrare nelle varie aree bisogna passare un badge che vi consegnano all’arrivo, e c’è un’area in comune per mangiare anche se spesso, essendo alloggi universitari appunto, hanno vicino supermercati e caffetterie per ottime colazioni a prezzi accessibili. Generalmente scendo a Kensington Gardens, area 1; è vero, è residenziale, ma nonostante le apparenze si trovano anche delle ottime occasioni. Valutate sempre la vostra scelta. Bene, se abbiamo preso tutto, si parte!
Primo Itinerario: London Sea Acquarium, London Dungeon, London Eye – Tube: Waterloo Station (lato Westminster Bridge). Tate Modern, il Globe Theatre e la Hms Belfast (verso il London Bridge) – lo trovi qui
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