CE16 Transportation Around London?

I'm trying to lock down plans for my trip to London for Celebration this year and I'm in need of a little help/advice. Since I'm coming from the USA (Minnesota to be precise) for this great Star Wars event, I would like to extend my stay in London so it's longer than just the 3 days for Celebration so I can do some sightseeing. I've always been a big Harry Potter fan so would be neat to journey over to the Warner Bros. Studios exhibit to experience the Harry Potter tour. Plus, I see they offer day trips outside of London to Oxford and Stonehenge. I think Celebration would be the perfect way to conclude my trip to Europe, so I'll be arriving a few days early for the sightseeing. Question I have is how is transportation around London? If I'm staying at a hotel by the ExCeL Exhibition Center, what would be the best, most inexpensive way to go about traveling around London? Taxi or the subway? I am not going to rent a car for the weekend since that would cost a fortune by the time the weekend was over (hotel will probably charge for parking). Please any advice would be appreciated!

 

if you are a SW collector or SF book/comic reader you will want to check out Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue.

 

I'm not a Native to London but I went there last September and I visited so many things using the tube which is the best thing ever cause everything is connected pretty well!
I suggest you to get a Oyster Card!

If you are a Harry Potter fan you should do not miss the King Cross station!

 

I live near London and they are right that the best way to get about is the Underground, which the DLR will connect you to. One thing that is really useful to note is that you don't actually need an Oyster card or tickets to use the underground if you have any kind of contactless Debit or Credit cards; just swipe the card on the yellow card reader as you go through the barrier and it will calculate costs based on where you get on or off, and will give you Oyster card rates which are the cheapest.

 

Yeah I concur with everyone. I'm a Yank and live just a bit North of London and The Underground is the best public transportation system I've ever seen. I did the Harry Potter studio tour 2 years ago and it was amazing. I would also recommend downloading Trip Advisor and planning your trip to maximize what you can see. Stonehenge is a few hours travel by rail and while I have been, it's really less than impressive and if you only have a few days here I'd concentrate on things closer to London.

 

Windsor Castle and that town are also a train ride away from London Waterloo. It's on the same line I take to get to London and the trip is around 45 minutes or so. There are usually tourist buses going around the town and Eton as well.

 

Forbidden Planet is amazing.....was there for the first time a couple of weeks ago. Same night as BAFTAS so it was packed. Must go again soon.

 

A shot in the teaser-trailer for Rogue One was (according to locals) shot at the Underground station "Canary Wharf" which is not far away from the convention centre.
Many of you might be changing between DLR and the Tube at Canary Wharf anyway to get to/from central London.

 

Yeah I was shocked to find out that station is on the Death Star Main Line! It's cool though!

 

I bought a London Pass when I was there in 2010. I used it on the tube and the trains as someone mentioned I took the train to Windsor Castle (you have to change trains, but it is really simple) and also to Hampton Court. It also got me into other places including the aforementioned castles. Do a search for it to see if I includes the HP stuff.
Have an awesome time!

 

You can also buy a 'Visitor Oyster card', which will be shipped to your home address. This is a good option, so you arrive there with a working card. Using this can also turn out to be a cheaper option than buying paper daycards.

https://tfl.gov.uk/travel-information/visiting-london/visitor-oyster-card

 

I was just there! i would suggest a rail card. BECAUSE you can buy it for a week or however many days and it's a flat fee and you can ride the trains, underground and the tube. it also has a really cool 2/1 pass option where you can go and see some sites. we bought ours at the rail station and used it for 7 days. it was pretty cool...and we went to the wax museum and saw the Star Wars exhibit.

 

The World SF Convention was in London a couple of years ago; when we were there, we took the Tube for everything. For the convention, most of the activities were on the ExCel Centre end near the Aloft hotel. There are a bunch of other hotels on the other end. They haven't announced which parts of the ExCel the activities are in? It is a big place and it's a lot of walking, or another Tube stop if you're staying in a hotel on the opposite end of the action.

 

adding to the geekness, there is one of the few remaining police boxes (aka the TARDIS) just outside the Earl's Court underground station.

If you do want to see Stonehenge, i'd strongly recommend signing up in advance for a stone circle access time slot when the site is usually closed. very few people allowed in each hour time slot, you can walk among the stones instead of having to stay back on the walkway, and you can get great shots with either the sunrise or sunset.

 

Oh, yeah. I took a photo with the "Tardis" two years ago. I have a whovian friend, she got super envious. Haha

 

Me, too! The TARDIS was quite the nice surprise; we just happened to be staying near the Earl's Court stop when we were doing the museums. And the Oyster card worked well for us. We were able to turn ours back in at the end of the trip and get the money remaining on them.

 

Definitely making a jaunt over to Earl's Court then. My Uncle-In-Law (is that a thing?!) is a HUGE Dr. Who fan.

 

You might want to make sure it's still there before going. I know the area is either being or going to be redeveloped.