Slashdot Mirror

I'll second the Imperial War Museum, the Science Museum, Tate Modern, etc. Someone else also mentioned the Design Museum -- that's pretty cool, too.

On the laptop question: If you have a netbook, or something under about 3 pounds (~1.5kg) I'd consider taking it. Otherwise, leave it behind. I've traveled quite a bit in Europe, and I often bring along my 2.2 pound (1kg) Toshiba Portege 2000 (ancient ultralight notebook, more or less equivalent to a netbook, but a little slower.) What I've found is that on short trips (2-3 days) I hardly use it and wish I'd left it behind. On longer trips, especially when traveling around with no pre-set plan, I find it useful for getting directions, booking tickets to events, hotels, flights, checking the opening and closing times of certain attractions, and the occasional e-mail, but I still use it less than I thought I would. Anything heavier/larger is just a drag. The key to having fun is to travel light. Of all the times I've stayed in London, I've never been on the first floor of the hotel, and only about 25% of the hotels I've stayed in had elevators. If you simply fly to London and stay in the same hotel for two weeks, that's not a big issue, but if you travel around a bit (and if you are there that long you SHOULD) the extra weight and bulk of a laptop is really annoying. Bring a carry-on sized bag and *maybe* a small shoulder bag and that's it. Anything more and you stop having fun because you are dragging around your closet with you. Do a load of laundry after your first week rather than bringing two weeks worth of clothes. There are internet cafe's all over London (and most of Europe for that matter.) Easy Internet has several large internet cafe's in central London -- just look for a bright orange sign. (There are loads of other places to go, too.) Bring a digital camera and a bunch of memory cards (they are cheap) and take lots of pictures.

With two weeks, I would strongly consider seeing more of the country (or even other countries.) Easy Jet and Ryan Air have cheap flights all over the place (warning though: these airlines often fly to regional airports rather than major airports, so you have to take public transit to actually get where you want to go even after getting off the flight. Sometimes, it just isn't worth the hassle, and you are better off taking a "regular" airline -- research before you book! They also charge fees for EVERYTHING, so pack light, and bring your own snacks.) Still, it can be a cheap way to dash up to Edinburgh for a few days or see Paris for a weekend. It will make your trip so much more memorable. Get on a train and go somewhere -- many other posts here have great ideas (Bath, Bletchly Park, etc.)

Also, WALK places. You see and experience so much more. Go into Soho and just wander around. See a show, stop off in a pub for lunch, find a little hole-in-the-wall curry place filled with locals (you'll recognize them because they will not be wearing t-shirts, jeans, or sneakers.) It is nearly impossible to get lost in London, because if you get turned around, just ask a passer by where the nearest tube stop is, check the map in the station to see where you are, and take the subway to someplace else you want to be. (As many have said already, get an Oyster card.)

Don't stay at big chain hotels, don't eat at places you've been to in the U.S. (McDonald's, TGI Friday's, etc.) Ask locals for recommendations of where to eat. Don't ask them for what to see -- like locals everywhere, they rarely see the sites that are next door. Get a good tour book for that. Generally spending more (on food, hotels, transportation) simply isolates you more from the people in the country you are in, and robs you of the experience of being somewhere with a different culture. Take public transit, walk, and go to a local pub and talk to people. You'll have a lot more fun!

Every so often when I need to log into the office and I've not got my laptop I go to easyInternet Cafe which is one of the tacky cut price business ideas of Stelios the easyJet guy. However, they're quite handy - loads of them around the city.

Their setup is Windows 98 and IE6, you can install what you want on the machines because they get automatically reimaged after you log out (or it crashes). Their motto is cheap, they won't do anything they don't have to if it costs money (there's no staff on site), but adding Firefox to their images wouldn't cost them anything, they seem to update IE when required.

After emailing their customer services requesting firefox, I got an email back saying they had no plans to put it on the default image, but I had a good taste in browsers and they knew a lot of their customers downloaded and used it (presumably looking at the logs in the proxy server).

So if you ever have to use that place, let them know you use Firefox and you'd rather not have to download it each time.

EasyInternetCafe branches charge about 1 euro per hour. They are located in various cities throughout Europe, but there's also eight in the USA (all of which happen to be in New York).

I am a foreign student currently studying abroad in Europe, meaning that probably I represent one of easy*'s biggest demographics. I (and all my friends) almost always fly easyJet to travel, we rent easyCar to drive to France or Andorra, and we check our e-mail abroad at easyInternetCafe. easy is the real thing--it's cheap as hell, especially if you book really early. On the other hand the "customer experience" leaves a lot to be desired. For example, in an effort to cut costs even further, easyInternetCafe literally fired all their employees except for about 15 at the home office. No actual easyInternetCafe employees, work in the easyInternetCafes. Which is at once dumbfounding and frustrating. If your computer crashes or the machine eats your money when you try to buy time, well, you're fucked. No recourse. Lots of the computers are broken, people leave their trash laying around, there are always wierdos looking at really sick, graphic porn, and worse, the cafes are unsafe. Twice now I have seen people brazenly mugged, in broad daylight, in nearly packed easyInternetCafes. Similar experiences on easyJet; they farmed out the personnel contract (at least here in Spain) to some company named EuroHandling, whose ticket agents are assholes and unwilling to help you out in any way, especially if you arrive after 40 minutes before departure time. So I'm a little skeptical of easyCinema, even though I'd probably give it a whirl if it came to a town near me. But sentences like "All we ask is that you don't leave any litter behind" sounds like a sweet way of saying, "we're not paying for janitors, please don't trash our theaters." Personally, I'll gladly pay the extra 2 to avoid sitting on someone else's half-eaten nachos, but hey, that's me.

Is this the same guy who owns easyEverything?

Don't lug around a laptop. When I was in London recently my travelling companion and I bought a one-week pass at an internet cafe (see http://www.easyinternetcafe.com for the one we used). It was cheap and reliable except for the often beat-up mouses and keyboards.

I've traveled to the UK at least once a year since 1995 for Internet conferences, and if I wasn't speaking I'd travel light and leave the computer at home.

There are several EasyInternet cafes in London -- one is just outside Victoria Station -- and it's a lot nicer on your body to carry an Easy login slip in your shirt pocket than lug a piece of computer junk around with you. EasyInternet operates on an auction basis -- when load goes up, the price goes up, and when it drops, you get more time per quid. You can loaf online all Sunday morning for practically nothing. I believe an account is portable between cafes, too. Just look for the large, bright orange signs.

I've never had anything stolen while traveling (knock on wood) but that's always a possibility, too.

I'm going to Zurich in January for a small private conference, and since I'm not doing a speech, the laptop isn't coming along for the ride.

In general, when traveling internationally, Americans carry way too much luggage. There's no reason to have more than one carry-on bag, period. The OneBag guide to traveling light is full of great advice on how to travel without carrying so much junk you wind up on a chiropractor's table.