Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the end of the workday, when it's lively with office workers. It's ideal to see on your way
back from Greenwich, since both line up on the same train tracks.
See The Docklands Walk chapter.
London refashioned this park—the biggest new park to open in the city in a century—from
the site of the 2012 Olympic Games. You'll find miles of parkland trails and waterways,
kids' play areas, an array of sporting venues (London Aquatics Centre, Lee Valley
VeloPark, Copper Box Arena), quirky sculpture, and places to eat. The park is
huge—bigger than Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens. It's also quite beautiful, laced with
canals and tributaries of the Lea River. The best overview of the park is along a 500-yard-
long berm called the
Greenway,
which sits at the park's southern perimeter. The easiest
landmark to head for is the
View Tube,
a covered shelter with a free lookout tower, café,
WC, and maps. There's also the hard-to-miss red, 350-foot viewing tower called the
Orbit,
which was designed as an Eiffel-Tower-like landmark for London and has been compared
to a vertical roller coaster and a giant hookah. For help in planning your visit, drop by the
“Information Point” near the Aquatics Centre, where you can also ask about a tour with a
Blue Badge guide (
£
10, Thu and Sat at 11:00).
Cost and Hours:
Free and always open, toll-free tel. 0800-0722-110,
Getting There:
From central London by Tube, it's a 30-minute ride to the Stratford
station. Take the escalator up to street level (which is actually the outdoor part of a shop-
ping center), bear left past The Cow pub, and the park is directly ahead of you, across the
road.
For a fine riverside park and a palatial greenhouse jungle to swing through, take the Tube
or the boat to every botanist's favorite escape, Kew Gardens. While to most visitors the
Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew are simply a delightful opportunity to wander among
33,000 different types of plants, to the hardworking organization that runs them, the gar-
dens are a way to promote the understanding and preservation of the botanical diversity of
our planet.
Cost and Hours:
£
16.50 (includes
£
2 suggested donation), discounted to
£
12.50 45
minutes before glasshouses close, kids under 17 free; April-Aug Mon-Fri 9:30-18:30, Sat-
Sun 9:30-19:30, closes earlier Sept-March—check schedule online, last entry to gardens
