Travel Channel

The street plan of London is among the most complex in the world, which is testament to the city’s organic growth. Use this to your advantage and explore it. Take any point in central London, walk in any direction, and in ten minutes, you will find yourself in a different city. Just wander around and see where you end up. That’s the only way you’ll make your own discoveries. To help you on your way, here are some suggested starting points: Covent Garden tube station, the South Bank of the Thames, Kensington Gardens, Sloane Square, Hampstead tube station, or Highbury & Islington tube station. I could go on and on…

All good suggestions for those unfamiliar with London. We went two weeks ago and although I'm familiar with London, I've never actually just walked around. So we started our vacation at the Tower of London and managed to hit up about a dozen attractions by just walking. We saw Tower Bridge, Tower of London, London Eye, National Portrait Gallery, Harrods & Knightsbridge, Hyde Park, etc by foot that first day and were able to plan the rest of our trip from that! We're going to aim for a pedestrian-friendly place again for our next vacation and see what happens!

Walking the streets of London, and many other European cities, IS a the best way to experience the place.

One tip that I would give, though, espcially if you don't have many days to wander, is to take one of the "hop-on/hop-off" tour buses. They have them in many cities (I've taken them in London and Dublin).

It's a great way to get a guided orientation that lets you pick out your choices of the most interesting places while also getting a feel of the real distance between sites.

These bus tours usually last about 90 minutes for a full stay-on-the-bus ride curcuit, but you can use your ticket all day if you want to get off, see a place, then wait for the next bus to come and continue you tour.

I found that taking this bus ride allowed me to better plan my city walking trips for the next several days.

One note, though: even if you are committed to walking around London, get yourself a Tube/Bus pass. Like any large city, there are areas of London that you don't want to be in at night, and a few attractions that are a bit far to walk. You can purchase day or weekly passes in London, but you can also get some discounted passes from travel agencies here in the USA.