Fast-Track your Way around London

Only got a day to spend in London AND hate queuing? Then buy so-called ‘fast-track’ or timed entry tickets, which bypass the long ticket queues. Infamous for its mile-long queues is Madame Tussauds, so pre-booking tickets is a definite must for this attraction. However, there are lots of other attractions you might not be aware of that get extremely busy, especially during the school holidays. So plan ahead and get fast-track, trust me it’s worth it!

Fast-track or timed entry tickets:

London Zoo
The London Dungeon
The Edinburgh Dungeon
The York Dungeon
London Eye
Buckingham Palace State Rooms
Houses of Parliament
Tutankhamun Exhibition Golden Ticket

Staying At Home This Summer?

The credit crunch and falling house prices seem to be hitting the headlines every other day at the moment… And now it’s the British holidaymaker who’s going to be hit by the weak pound. So, if you’re going on holiday in the eurozone, be warned as apparently your costs will be much higher than ever before.

To be honest, most of Europe is generally quite a bit cheaper than the UK so I doubt that a holiday in Spain or France will be impossibly expensive this year. I’m definitely still going to Madrid for the May bank holiday weekend, so will report on any major revelations after my visit....  Looking at the flights though, they are not that expensive yet so maybe everyone has decided to stay at home after all??? Or maybe they’re just booking a flight to the US instead.

“Big Ben” Named Britain’s Favourite ‘Landmark’

"Big Ben” was named the country’s favourite landmark in a survey by construction firm Faithful & Gould to celebrate the engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s 202nd birthday. No big surprises there, but what exactly is it that people love about Big Ben? Maybe something to do with the number of times it’s appeared on TV and the big screen - after all, it was voted the most iconic film location in a recent poll!

Other top 10 landmarks include the London Eye, Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. 

Cool & Scary Walking Tours Added to Original London Sightseeing Tour!

Three walking tours have been added to the Hop-On, Hop-Off Original London Tours and are FREE!

- Changing Of The Guard Walk: See Buckingham Palace, St James’s Palace and the regiments that guard them in this exciting walk as you march alongside the guards at Buckingham Palace.

- Cool Britannia Walk: From Leicester Square to Carnaby Street, from Soho to Saville Row, and from the Beatles to Austin Powers: music, movies, fashion & food.

- Jack The Ripper Walk: Walk in the footsteps of the world’s most infamous serial killer as we reveal his murderous tale from the streets of Whitechapel in 1888.

Customers can validate their 365 vouchers and join two of the Walking Tours at the new Original London Visitor Centre at Trafalgar Square (Open daily 9.30am to 6.30pm)

Warwick Castle – the real deal

I had a friend from the States staying over Easter and she really wanted to go see a ‘real English castle’ so we headed up to Warwick Castle on Saturday.

From the moment we arrived, Warwick Castle ticked all the boxes. It was a really wintry day and our first glimpse of the castle towering over the town with a backdrop of dark storm clouds made some great photos. Inside, the castle has everything you want from a castle – towers to climb, ramparts to walk along, dungeons and even a torture chamber. Throughout the castle, there are also rooms set up in scenarios from different historical periods, complete with wax figures in period costumes and sound effects. For example, the new Kingmaker exhibit has a blacksmith at work and armourers making chainmail.

Despite the freezing weather, we ventured into the grounds to see the trebuchet firing its massive steel ball across the river and to watch the falconry show. Both shows add something to your day out, giving you a real sense of the place as a working castle. Plus I couldn’t help thinking how lovely it would be to have a picnic in the gardens on a nice spring day – better luck next time maybe!

London Bridge Experience – a real scream?

If you’re really just a big kid at heart, you’ll probably enjoy the new London Bridge Experience. The creators have really pulled out all the stops to make their two-part tour something a bit different - with live actors, CGI ghosts, animatronics and Hollywood-style sets, props and special effects thrown in.

Part One is a very light-hearted journey through the bridge’s history from Roman times forward but the whole point of going is for the second half – The London Tombs. This is an unashamed spookfest, where you’re taken down into the vaults of the bridge to be scared silly. Without giving too much away, let’s just say I did scream out loud!

Skiing or Sledding?

I flew to Salzburg last December and spent a lovely, white Christmas in the area. Since I was visiting family, we decided not to go skiing this year. Normally we do a bit of cross-country skiing - great for keeping fit, not so good if you like a bit of speed! However, apart from all the other things you can do (I would recommend a visit to a thermal spa for ultimate relaxation!) in the Alps, sledding can never fail to entertain. So we drove to Werfenweng, and climbed for two hours before sledding down the mountain in about 10 minutes. Not before having had a hearty lunch at the top though! So, remember that if you don’t like skiing or don’t want to break any bones (although some places recommend helmets for sledding!), old-fashioned tobogganing is the next best thing for snowy thrills. 

London Zoo

It’s not exactly the right weather for visiting the London Zoo but actually they have lots of indoor exhibits to keep you warm & cosy! New this year is the tropical bird exhibit inside the beautifully restored Victorian Pavilion. It’s the only place in the UK to see hummingbirds!

365tickets.com is 10 Years Old!

The sister website of 365blog.co.uk is celebrating its 10th Anniversary online this year. To mark the occasion, we’re giving away a whole load of great tickets, ranging from passes to see four of London’s most famous palaces, a weekend break at the Alton Towers Hotel, a dinner and brunch cruise on the World Yacht in New York and a private capsule for 25 people on the London Eye, plus tickets to many other great attractions in the UK & USA. 

Nederlande

Went to Holland last weekend for a visit to Eindhoven. It’s unbelievable how quick the flight is from London Stansted! 40 minutes later and you’re in one of the lesser known cities of Holland, which has grown in size mainly due the fact that Philips’ HQ is based there. However, it’s less than two hours to Den Haag (The Hague) and Rotterdam, and only a little further to Amsterdam. So a great base for exploring! Eindhoven itself is fantastic for relaxing, shopping, eating and partying (not necessarily in that order). We did a day trip to The Hague, and made it even further up to Scheveningen (the beach there) although it was too windy for a long walk so we had small Dutch pancakes (Poffertjes) drenched in lots of ‘powdered sugar’ and syrup on the pier instead. By this time, it was too dark to visit the miniature exhibition of Holland at Madurodam, so we decided to visit the pretty town of Delft on the way back. Delft is famous for its blue pottery but the town itself is typically Dutch in architectural terms and because of its many canals… If you’re going to Amsterdam instead, it might be worth booking escorted sightseeing tours around this area as it’s a much easier and quicker way to see all the essential sights.

London Dungeon - Take a Pumpkin & Get in For Free

What a great idea! Get your kids round the dining room table this year and start carving pumpkins. Why, you ask??? Well, firstly, it’s fun, secondly, Halloween is just round the corner and thirdly, children under 16 will get free entrance to the London Dungeon if they donate their pumpkin (when accompanied by a paying adult). Apparently the Dungeon always runs out of pumpkins & needs your help in keeping things scary for this year’s ‘Halloween Uncut’ season. So, go on - get scared witless at the Dungeons from 13th-31st October and lose your pumpkin, not your head! 

London Ducktours - Sightseeing with a Difference

I was probably more excited than my 4-year old niece when planning our trip on the London Ducktours this summer! I had been on something similar in Ottawa, Canada, a few years before and thoroughly enjoyed the blend between river and road sightseeing. The interesting fact is that the ‘Ducks’ used to be WW2 armoured vehicles, which have now been painted a bright duck-yellow and seat about 30 people. However, my niece seemed to be convinced that this ‘duck’ would be going ‘quack, quack’ in the river and ‘beep, beep’ on the road - maybe her parents promised her a bit too much! But she soon forgot all about it when the vehicle plunged, much faster and more dramatically than even I had imagined, into the Thames.

The short trip up and down the Thames, like the rest of the tour, gives visitors a really good insight into the most important landmarks in London, and the trained guide on that day also mixed facts with a great sense of British humour! Although there were babies and other younger children on the Ducktours, it’s probably better to take children who are able to absorb some of the history of London and can sit still for at least an hour. All in all though, it was a great afternoon out which I would recommend to anyone who wants to see London from a different angle.