London Walks

The Shakespeare & Dickens tour of London takes you hidden alleys and passages that would have been familar to Shakespeare and Dickens. David Rucker, our tour guide, tooks use to parts of the city that you probably wouldn't come across as a normal tourist, and cited passages from their works that described the buildings we stood amongst imaging the people and characters of their works. If you want experience the old city beyond the typical tourist attractions, I highly recommend you take one of London Walks tours.

I was interested in doing a London Walk; the reviews were promising and I liked the set up: You just show up! No reservations, no problem if you change your mind or don't get there in time.

At first, I was sorry that the Mayfair tour was the only one that fit into my schedule. It was far from my first choice of subject matter, but it ended up being a really interesting, amusing, informative walk. You see a lot of expensive London real estate on this walk, but you also hear a lot about London that helps you understand the rest of the city. Good stories, interesting trivia, and excellent narration of the landmarks we passed. I found myself repeating tidbits to my travelling companions (who didn't go with me on the walk) for the rest of the day.

I'd definitely do another walk on a future visit; it felt like a great deal at 7 pounds. We had about 20 people on the walk--much more than that might have been cumbersome, but our well-informed and very experienced guide made it work. I think he knew everyone we met on our route!