Quick, what to do in London or Southern England

[Anomaly]

Traveling with adult family and we nixed a trip to York from London area so we have an extra day.  What are some ideas to see or do within a day?  Train accessible, we're just south, in Guildford.  We've done the more typical stuff over the years, so we need some fresh ideas.  No churches are going to beat St. Paul.  

[Nihil Obstat]

Any option to see a play at the Globe?

[Anomaly]

Day only per the group.  Though great idea. 

[darcy15]

http://www.visitsurrey.com

Welcome to my side of the pond 

[Didacus]

Same thing as you would do with a drunken sailor early in the morning.  

[Benedictus]

Traveling with adult family and we nixed a trip to York from London area so we have an extra day.  What are some ideas to see or do within a day?  Train accessible, we're just south, in Guildford.  We've done the more typical stuff over the years, so we need some fresh ideas.  No churches are going to beat St. Paul.  

York is nice. Try some nice parts of Wales or Scotland, if you ever get the chance in the future, and escape away from the English

In London I think Westminster Cathedral has good character though and it's worth a visit. It's one of my main churches for Mass whenever I visit London. The London Oratory is also beautful and it's very close to the Natural History Museum and Science Museum. All the Museums are free, at least most of them, so that could be an option. There's loads of stuff but it really depends what interests you all. Here's a website that could be helpful If you had a few extra days longer, and the weather was warmer, I'd say to visit the Lake District National Park and maybe a coastal place, such as Brighton or the Isle of Wight.

[Anomaly]

@darcy15. Not just your side of the pond, your neighborhood.   We're in Guildford. 

@benedictus.  Been / seen all that.  We've family here and visit.  We're hitting up British museum this week. Coming from Florida, our opinion is the weather here has been "brilliant" the last couple weeks.  Maybe something unusual like Box Hill, but less strenuous. It's the end of our holiday. 

[Archaeology cat]

The British Museum always gets my vote. I lived in the north, so I'm not much help with the London area. I liked St Alban's when I was there.

 

[Benedictus]

Maybe the Queen Elizabeth Oympic Park, it's right near Stratford station and the Westfield Shopping Centre too. I would say Lee Valley, but it's probably too far out. Greenwich is OK -  cutty sark, bars, shops and a big park too. Wetlands Centre or Royal Botanical Kew Gardens is cool too. The alternative feel of Camden can be good, but it's hardly scenic.

The only things I know in Guildford are the Paintball place in Cobham and the Trampoline Park

[beatitude]

I would stay out of London if I were you and head either somewhere rural or another city with a different character. Oxford is within easy reach of Guildford (ninety minutes on the train) and well worth a look around, especially now, as tourist season is ending and you should get the beauty without the crowds. Lots of historic buildings, a college with a deer park, a beautiful river, museums, libraries, a strange species of student, etc.

[Anomaly]

Culture failed. The BM was horrific. We had to retreat to a pub.   In London

Edited September 17, 2015 by Anomaly

[Winchester]

Get an audience with the Queen. She ain't no human being.

[beatitude]

The museum I like best in London is the Victoria & Albert. Unlike the British Museum, it isn't free, but they stagger the entry times so you aren't overwhelmed by so many crowds that you can barely see the exhibits. The British Museum is worth looking at (especially the Egyptology collection) if you go at a time when it's likely to be emptier.

[Anomaly]

The Egyptology collection was the only thing we saw.  It was impressive, but a little disconcerting, ogling remains in a circus atmosphere.  

The whole experience with the crowds of notably obnoxious tourists  was horrific.   We live in Florida and are accustomed to tourists.   We've been here and travelled a lot.  This was a Twilight Zone episode.  I literally had women shoving me and others using my shoulder as a camera rest.  

[Era Might]

The Egyptology collection was the only thing we saw.  It was impressive, but a little disconcerting, ogling remains in a circus atmosphere.  

The whole experience with the crowds of notably obnoxious tourists  was horrific.   We live in Florida and are accustomed to tourists.   We've been here and travelled a lot.  This was a Twilight Zone episode.  I literally had women shoving me and others using my shoulder as a camera rest.  

lol. David Foster Wallace has a good essay on tourism where he visits Maine..."Consider the Lobster":

“To be a mass tourist, for me, is to become a pure late-date American: alien, ignorant, greedy for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you can never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer ontology, the very unspoiledness you are there to experience, It is to impose yourself on places that in all non-economic ways would be better, realer, without you. It is, in lines and gridlock and transaction after transaction, to confront a dimension of yourself that is as inescapable as it is painful: As a tourist, you become economically significant but existentially loathsome, an insect on a dead thing.”[/quote]