Cyberluddite: ricewater_stool: The English British Museum is free and not to be missed. The Rosetta Stone is there, as is a shiatload of ancient stuff they stole from Egypt and Greece.

Yeah, if a person had time to see only one museum in London, the British Museum would be the obvious choice.  I would say that on any short of list of "must see" museums of the world, it would have to be right at or near the very top.

Subby here. That's the top reason I'm going. i love archaeology, so the Petrie Museum should be great as well.
Cyberluddite: I spend a fair amount of time in England (mostly on business, but sometimes on personal travel as well), but I should ask:  What do you consider to be "the obvious," Subby?  We may have some very different ideas about that, and I might be able to recommend some things that might seem obvious to me but not to you, or vice-versa.

Agreed. I was planning on hitting what i thought were the touristy destinations. British museum, churchills war rooms, tower of ondon, national gallery, Stonhenge, Canterbury. Figured there were some far ranging farkers that might have found interesting stuff that isnt necessarily listed on a website or book. Thanks for the replies people!

DO NOT USE PUBLIC TRANSPORT WITHOUT BUYING AN OYSTER CARD. It will pay for itself in one day if you use the tube extensively.

Eat fish and chips at Gordon Ramsay's The Narrow (or anything else, it's all excellent, but make sure you get a table near the water in the conservatory.)

IMHO the Natural History Museum is more interesting than both the Science and British Museums.

Go on the Thames Clipper. Relatively inexpensive very fast ferry that links Canary Wharf in the East to Tate Britain (art gallery currently not worth the effort owing to vast construction project), stopping off at or near all the tourist sites on the river.
 

naughtyrev: Go to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese in London (really old pub where literary greats hung out).

By all means go to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, but don't even think about eating there. IMHO it only has any customers thanks to its historical appeal and the fact the innumerable lawyers who work in the surrounding area get some respite from their Blackberries thanks to deep cellars made of iron-rich brick.

/lives by The Monument

I'm headed there with my wife in Mid June.  She's going for work whilst I while away the time on my own.

So what do you think the plausibility of recreating three men in a boat, but with it just being one man in a boat...and only for two days?   Do they still rent the skiffs?

Branniganslaw: i love archaeology, so the Petrie Museum should be great as well.

Sir John Soane's Museum is remarkable. Startlingly random selection of antiquities literally piled up in a Georgian house, 10 minutes' walk from the British Museum.

Prevailing Wind: So what do you think the plausibility of recreating three men in a boat, but with it just being one man in a boat...and only for two days? Do they still rent the skiffs?

You can easily hire a skiff, but you won't be able to navigate the locks or beach the boat single-handed.

The Indian food is pretty awesome.
Jimi Hendrix died in a pretty swank part of town, if I recall.
The cheapest pints I could find were on the college campuses.
Definitely take in a play.
Avoid British coffee at all costs.

If you like ww I or ii stuff, there is no better than the Imperial War Museum

nyclon: If you like ww I or ii stuff, there is no better than the Imperial War Museum

Yeah that was one of my top 3, and it just started renovations :(. Thanks again, and I'm off!

I second Bath, Avebury and some of the London recommendations.
I will add...
Cheddar - if you're in Bath it's quite local and a lovely place to visit. You could do a nice two day excursion of Bath, Bristol and Cheddar, possibly with Avebury en route.
Totnes in Devon - arguably not as interesting as it was before the property boom but still a nice example of alternative England, see also Glastonbury. Totnes is a good place to travel to by train too as the track follows the coast for a while at Dawlish and if the seas rough it's quite exciting.
Anywhere on the coast in Cornwall - well, other than the larger towns, but places like Polruan/Fowey... amazingly beautiful.
Exmoor or Dartmoor - I have lived close to Dartmoor so favor it but Exmoor near Lynton is pretty cool and I'll be going back myself this summer.
Jurassic Coast & Dorset - maybe try Weymouth as a base for some walking, or have a drive around and visit Cerne Abbas and Puddletown.
Salisbury Plain - mainly owned by the military and restricted access other than one or two principal routes, very interesting area. If you're visiting Stonehenge from London in a rental car don't drive directly between the two, take a detour via Pewsey or even Devizes, just to cross some of the Plain. Oh, and when you're at Stonehenge, you can see quite interesting stuff on the opposite side of the A303 (main road that cuts the site in half), such as burial mounds and if you have time walk along the chalky path to Larkhill and see a very English contemporary military village set-up. It's like being amongst the homes on a base minus the gate/security, quite odd.
For London just keep in mind that the neighborhoods are pretty much ALL mixed socially, where I used to live in Notting Hill was so varied that on one street there were celebrities like Kylie Minogue living alongside squatters. As such I guess I'm saying keep your guard up as you're never really in a good neighborhood (other than the few rich people ghettos) but also that's what makes it so vibrant, everyone living alongside each other gives areas an edge. This is quite pronounced out east in the more recently gentrified hipster places.
Can't do better than that without specifics, but wiki and Google know more than me anyway, these are just pointers.

AlwaysRightBoy: In London, go to the Churchill War Rooms, you won't be disappointed. I spent most of a day down in there.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms

I agree, well worth the time.

AlwaysRightBoy: In London, go to the Churchill War Rooms, you won't be disappointed. I spent most of a day down in there.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/visits/churchill-war-rooms

this!

If you like beer, seek out "free house" pubs.  And try Shepard's Neam.   A London bus driver turned me on to it.

A trip to Stonehenge will leave you unimpressed.

London is massive, so you're spoiled for choice.  For my money, the London Eye, the Museum of Modern Art, the British Museum, the Tower, and Westminster are don't miss sites.  If you've got the time, the London Dungeon is fun.  A Jack the Ripper tour of Whitechappel is fun as well.

In the south, again it depends on where you're headed.  Canterbury has a fair amount to see.  Bath is terrific, as others have said.  Dover sucks unless you're on a ferry and can see the cliffs.

For eating:  Burger and Lobster for a sit-down meal, for cheap on the go eats, I recommend Wasabi, Wagamama, and Eat or Pret a Manger.

If the weather is nice, go to Hyde Park.

I went to a nighttime concert at St Martin in the Fields and it was lovely and only 8 pounds.  I also recommend the National Gallery.  I enjoyed walking around Covent Garden and Leicester Square just for people watching.  Depends on the weather, though.

Second the vote for Churchill War Rooms - one of the highlights of my trip.

Have a great time!  London is awesome.

12349876: Figure out a way to get into a QI taping.  Assuming you're going late this month or next month.

Ha, I went to one back in 2007. It was brilliant, and that was before I knew what QI even was.

One of my former co-workers just got back from London and highly recommended a scavenger hunt called Hidden City.

You are so lucky!! I hope you have a wonderful and safe trip. Cheers!!! =)

I've mostly just been "Smart"-ing previous suggestions, but based on my six weeks in Oxford (and 2.5 days total in London), I'll do my best.

* Cotswolds bike trip. Recommend Moreton-in-Marsh as a good starting point, about 1.5 hours from Paddington by train. Nice pubs and English countryside.

* St. Martin-in-the-Fields concert. I happened to walk by when they had a "Handel by Candlelight" performance that night, and I got a front-row seat for 15 GBP. (I quite literally could've kicked the violinist, I was that close. That part, however, is not recommended.)

* Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Simply stunning.

* National Gallery of Art. Couldn't pay me to suggest going to an art museum before I ended up in there and pulled a Cameron from Ferris Bueller, just staring at all the amazing works.

* British Library, if only for a quick stop into the highlights gallery (Magna Carta, original copies of works by Shakespeare, Handel, DaVinci, etc.)

* Bath, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon, other such previously-mentioned towns are really quite beautiful. Also the Museum, the Tower, etc.

* If you're into trains (heck, even if not), the Didcot Railway Centre is about 10 miles short of Oxford by rail and runs steam trains on the weekends. It's the closest active rail museum to London I can think of (<1 hr) that's also easily accessible.

NOT recommended, but left to your discretion, are the London Eye and Stonehenge. Both are tourist traps, and you can't even stand that close to Stonehenge anymore. Between the two though, I'd go for the Eye.

/And don't forget to have a pint or three, for God's sake