Meet your driver at Heathrow airport, and take a private transfer to your hotel.
A welcome package with your vouchers, a city map, train tickets (if relevant) and any other touristic information that we deem you may find useful will be waiting for you upon your arrival at your first hotel on your trip.
The London Underground, or ‘the tube’ as it is universally known to Londoners, is normally the quickest and easiest way of getting round London. Greater London is served by 12 tube lines, along with the independent (though linked) and privately owned DLR and an interconnected rail network. The first tube train operates at around 5:30am Monday to Saturday and around 7am Sunday; the last train leaves between 11:30pm and 12:30am depending on the day, the station and the line. Remember that any train heading from left to right on the map is designated as eastbound, and any train heading from top to bottom is southbound- no matter how many squiggles and turns it makes. If your two stations are not on the same line, you need to note the nearest station where the two lines intersect, and it is here that you must change trains. Step out into this fantastic city and explore with your travel card - the best way to see London!
Spend the afternoon on a shared tour taking in some of the highlights of London from St. Paul's cathedral, the the Tower of London and a river cruise along the Thames. Enjoy a guided tour of St Paul Cathedral - crowned by the magnificent dome that is so much a part of the London skyline. In recent years it has seen the wedding of Charles, Prince of Wales, to Lady Diana Spencer and, most recently, the thanksgiving services for both the Golden Jubilee and 80th Birthday of Her Majesty the Queen. Explore London by cruise.
Founded by William the Conqueror in 1066-7 and enlarged by successive sovereigns, the Tower of London is one of the is one of the world's most famous and spectacular fortresses. Over the past 1000 years it has been a Royal Palace, an armoury and a place of imprisonment and execution. The Beefeaters who guard the Tower will regale you with stories of its past. Visit the Crown Jewels, including the magnificent solid-gold crown used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, the enormous Cullinan diamonds and the extraordinary Koh-i-Noor.
You have the choice to take a River Cruise along the Thames and end your tour at Westminster Pier, or take the cruise on another day and go with your guide back to Victoria Station.
Accommodation: Strand Palace (3*) Inhabiting its own block on London's busy Strand, the Strand Hotel (3*) is two blocks from Covent Garden, three blocks from the River Thames, and a half-km (a quarter-mile) from Trafalgar Square. The Strand Palace's 785 guestrooms include beds with teak headboards and brass reading lamps, plasma TVs with digital channels and pay movies, and roomy, white-tiled baths with heated towel rails. Along with an arcade of shops, the hotel has a business center, conference rooms, two restaurants and two cafés, a teak-paneled bar popular with the corporate crowd, and a sports bar.