Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TIME
Greenwich Mean Time
(GMT) is used from the end of October to the end of March; for
the rest of the year the country switches to
British Summer Time
(BST), one hour ahead
of GMT. GMT is two hours behind South Africa, five hours ahead of the US East Coast;
eight ahead of the US West Coast; and nine behind Australia's East Coast.
TIPPING
There are no fixed rules for tipping. However, there's a certain expectation in restaurants or
cafés that you should leave a tip of ten percent of the total bill - check first, though, that
service has not already been included. Taxi drivers also expect tips - add about ten percent
of the fare - as do traditional barbers. The other occasion when you'll be expected to tip is
in upmarket hotels where porters and table waiters rely on being tipped to bump up their
often dismal wages.
TOILETS
There are surprisingly few public toilets in London. All mainline train and major tube sta-
tions have toilets. Department stores and free museums and galleries are another good op-
tion.
TOURIST INFORMATION
There is no proper, central tourist office in London, as there is in just about every other ma-
jor city in Europe. However, many of the 32 London boroughs have information offices,
the most central one being the
City of London Tourist Information Centre
, on the south
side of St Paul's Cathedral (Mon-Sat 9.30am-5.30pm, Sun 10am-4pm; 020 7332 1456,
www.visitthecity.co.uk
; St Paul's). Another useful borough tourist office is in
Green-
wich
at the old Royal Naval College (daily 10am-5pm; 0870 608 2000; Cutty Sark
DLR).
The weekly
listings magazine
Time Out
is free and and comes out on a Tuesday, but for
full listings, you need to visit their website (
www.timeout.com
)
. Other useful
listings
websites
include
www.londonist.com
and
www.londonnet.co.uk
and the website of the
free weekday
Evening Standard
(
www.standard.co.uk
)
.
TRAVELLERS WITH DISABILITIES
London is an old city, not well equipped for travellers with disabilities, though all public
venues are obliged to make some effort towards accessibility. Public transport is slowly im-
proving, with most buses now wheelchair-accessible, and up to a quarter of all tube stations
- they're marked with a blue symbol on the tube map.
