London, baby. Yeah!

headn00b

Despite living in the UK I have never been to London before.

For my girlfriends birthday next month I'm taking her to the Capital for about five days. What do you guys recommend we see? Where's the best area to go shopping? What are the nice restaurants? What sights would you recommend?

Currently the only thing we both know we want to do is visit the Forbidden Planet Megastore, because we both love comic books. Hamleys and Harrods are also very likely destinations.

Janson

Hamleys and Forbidden Planet are great choices. Don't forget that Harrods has a strict dress code, though!

I'd recommend taking a walk along the Thames - it's usually fairly quiet, and you'll see (in order) Westminster - London Eye - Tate Modern - St Pauls. Trafalgar is close by, and from Trafalgar it's a short walk to Covent Gardens, where there are some good pubs and lots of interesting stalls.

Hamleys is on Oxford Street - the length of which is not to be underestimated. You could easily spend an entire day down there.

The Natural History Museum and Science Museum are both worth checking out and are right next to each other.

You can pretty much walk along the Thames/in the centre of the city and see all the major sights in one go. It's really quite nice just to wander around - just make sure you have a map on you! It is very, very easy to get lost. There are street maps but it can still be confusing because the roads rarely run parallel to each other and distance is hard to judge.

GrimmyTOA

You need to check out the British Museum, obviously -- I mean, the actual Rosetta Stone, the actual Code of Hammurabi, and more of Greek History than actually remains in Greece? All in one building? Sign me up, anyway.

The Tower of London (including the Crown Jewels), Buckingham Palace, Big Ben & Parlaiment are all sort of the obvious touristy ones that everyone goes to -- but there's a reason that everyone goes to them.

Check out the New Tate for more modernish art, if you've got time and the inclination -- and I hear there's some good art being shown out in Battersea, but that's secondhand info.

Umm... hmm. That's all I can really think of offhand as far as mandatory stuff goes, but the city's so big and varied that you could, I'd imagine, stay there for months and not see everything worth seeing.

Draco_Auric

The Victoria Albert Museum has a bunch of neat exhibits including the coolest piece of metal work I've ever seen, the Paradise Lost shield.

London's new city hall is also worth seeing if you enjoy modern buildings.

corcorigan

Remember a lot of these places are free, which is very useful, as nothing else is. I'd try and get to see Canary Warf if you can. It's hardly as interesting as other places, but the big buildings and actual planning are rather unlike anything else in the UK. Nice mall too.

Silmaril

I'd recommend the eye. Its incredibly touristy, and a bit pricey, but its certainly something I'm glad I went on. If you get a clear day, the views are truly spectacular.

Catching a good film at the Leicester square Odeon is worthwhile too, especially if they are running a film in digital. Its quite some cinema (though I have a family bias there)

There are a million and one good restaurants and pubs in London, and eveyone will tell you somewhere different, so just try some places out wherever you find them. There are some really good Chinese restaurants just off Leicester square.