London Tips

I have a trip scheduled to London in February, and I'm in the process of figuring out what I want to see while I'm there. Assuming I have only 1 day allocated for sightseeing, what are the must see places that I should add to my list?

The London Eye. That way you get to see (the outside of) everything else.

As long as the weather's good, of course.

I know it sounds cheesey, but the open bus tours are pretty good. My girlfriend and I took those tours in several European cities (to start us off on the site-seeing), and the London tour was the best. But that's also because we were lucky to get a good tour guide. He was pretty funny, with a dry sense of humor, whereas others are probably just going through the motions.

* side note *
If anyone takes an open bus tour of Berlin, don't take the German/English one. Our tour guide spent about 80% of the time speaking in German, and always at the best times. She made the English speakers on our bus completely miss the Berlin Wall.

The river tours are great, an excellent and alternative way to see London, you can get off at places like Tower of London, Greenwich, Kew, Hampton Court etc.

The Jazz Cafe in Camden is my favourite place to see bands, they have "an eclectic mix" of jazz/soul/dance/latin acts. It's tiny and you can get as close to the stage as you want, also got a fairly decent restaurant overlooking the stage.

There's a good cheap(ish) Japanese restaurant chain in London called Wagamama, worth checking out for high qualuty fast food and the excellent Sapporo beer.

If you want cheap and decent Indian food the best places I know are Tayyabs in Fieldgate Street, and Mirch Masala in Commercial Rd (both Whitechapel) neither sell alcohol but you can bring your own (I think)

There's a good Indonesian restaurant called Melati in Brewer St (nr Picadilly Circus)

The best shawarma in London is at Maroush in Edgware Rd

Cafe Mandola in westbourne Grove is an excellent Sudanese restaurant.

If you've only got a day I might croos to the south side at Westminster, that's where the London Eye is, it's also got the South Bank Centre, which hosts all sorts of events, this is not far from Tate Modern, you can carry on walking down to Tower Bridge via Bermondsey, have lunch at one three different Conran restaurants go to the Design Museum, cross over for the Tower, and walk back through the city, possibly via Whitechapel or St Katherines Dock (I recommend the Mala Indian restaurant).

The London Eye is definately on my list. I'd also like to ride on a double-decker bus, just to have the experience. I don't really want to freeze my butt off all day, so I'm trying to determine if I would rather purchase a day pass for the tube (which I hear includes bus fare, as well).

I also hear good things about the river cruise, so I'll have to determine whether it fits into my schedule. I'm a bit of a shutter bug, so I'd really like to hit some pretty famous stuff throughout the day.

I'm not much of an eater (or drinker), so restaurants are a low priority. The Japanese restaurant sounds good, though. Keep in mind that I live in the Middle East, so I've got shawarma running out of my ears.

Thanks for the tips. Keep them coming.

I had a tour of the emergency health services and hospital followed by an impromptu self-learning bus tour. I wouldn't recommend it.

The Tate Britain was nice. You apparently shouldn't expect they'll be open their posted hours, though.

There's still some bits of old Jack The Ripper London left (Spitalfields), nice walk from Liverpool St. Alternatively if you're a walker then walking from the West End to there will give you loads of photo opportunitires, British Museum, St Pauls, the Lloyds building, Leadenhall St Market, the Gherkin etc

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There's a good cheap(ish) Japanese restaurant chain in London called Wagamama, worth checking out for high qualuty fast food and the excellent Sapporo beer.

It isn't actually Japanese considering the guy that started it was Chinese and the cooks are whatever random nationality applied for the job Saying that, the food is not too bad. I eat at one every so often with friends etc...

If you want pretentious Chinese Dim Sum then go to Yauatcha over in Soho which was also started by the same guy. I've been a few times and the food is good but expensive. It's got a Michelin star if that counts...