Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
To take a walking tour, simply show up at the announced location and pay the guide.
Then enjoy two chatty hours of Dickens, Harry Potter, the Plague, Shakespeare, Legal Lon-
don, the Beatles, Jack the Ripper, or whatever is on the agenda.
Essential London Walk
Blue Badge Tourist Guides offer their basic two-hour Essential London walk to Rick
Steves readers for £6 (otherwise £9, tours depart 365 days a year at 10:00 from the Eros
statue on Piccadilly Circus—look for the guide with the Blue Badge umbrella,
www.guidelondon.org.uk ). Tours go rain or shine, and there's no need to pre-book—just
showup.With the discount, this isthe best deal going,asyouknowyou'll get awell-trained
guide leading you through the historic core of London (from Piccadilly, you walk to Trafal-
gar Square, Whitehall, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and the Thames, and
end at Buckingham Palace—just in time for the last part of the Changing of the Guard).
London Walks
Thisleadingcompanylistsitsextensive andcreative dailyscheduleontheirwebsite,aswell
as in a beefy, plain London Walks brochure (available at hotels, St. Martin-in-the-Fields'
Café in the Crypt on Trafalgar Square, and the City of London TI). Just perusing their fas-
cinating lineup of tours inspires me to stay longer in London. Their two-hour walks, led by
top-quality professional guides (ranging from archaeologists to actors), cost £9 (cash only,
walks offered year-round, private tours for groups-£130, tel. 020/7624-3978 for a live per-
son, tel. 020/7624-9255 for a recording of today's or tomorrow's walks and the Tube station
they depart from, www.walks.com ).
LondonWalksalsooffersdaytripsintothecountryside,agoodoptionforthosewithlim-
ited time and transportation (£12-16 plus £10-50 for transportation and any admission costs,
cashonly:Stonehenge/Salisbury,Oxford/Cotswolds,Cambridge,Bath,andsoon).Theseare
economicalinpartbecauseeveryonegetsgroupdiscountsfortransportationandadmissions.
Sandemans New London “Free Royal London Tour”
This company employs students (rather than licensed guides) who recite three-hour spiels
covering the basic London sights. While the fast-moving, youthful tours are light and irrev-
erent, and can be both entertaining and fun, it's misleading to call the tours “free,” as tips
are expected (the guides actually pay the company for the privilege of asking for tips). With
the Essential London Walk (listed earlier) offered daily at a reasonable price by professional
Blue Badge guides, taking this “free” tour makes no sense to me (daily at 11:00 and 13:00,
meetatWellingtonArch,Tube:HydeParkCorner,Exit2).Sandemansalsohasotherguided
tours for a charge, including a Pub Crawl (£20, nightly at 19:30, meet at Verve Bar at 1
Upper St. Martin's Lane, Tube: Leicester Square, www.newlondon-tours.com ).
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