An addition to an already discussed topic, but I had few more questions.

I am visiting London this month for a week. I have already bought the London pass with travelcard.

- I intend to buy a pay-as-you go service for cellphone, including data plan. Any good deals/pointers?

- Where can I buy 110-220 V transformer/charger with adapter?

- What are good breakfast options in London? Our hotel does not have a free breakfast.

- I plan to go to Brussels using Eurostar for one day. Depart in morning, come back in evening. Has anybody tried that? I heard that Brussels can be seen in one day.

- Good eating places & restaurants in London?

- Nightlife - any good musicals and theatre?

I was in London just a week before olympic's starting (2012) and though my trip was fully sponsered by my office, I can touch upon a few points.
London is damn expensive. One way of guessing prices will be to use the same CAD value but in british pound. For eg. a Mac D's mean of CAD 3.99 will be Pounds sterling 3.99 or 4.29.
Food is expensive. One way that I found tourists of saving money was eating bread, Butter and jam for lunch (applying it at a park).
I could not find any good eating place / restaurants in London. There were a few but scattered and hence I am unable to give you a definite pointer. Being vegetarian complicates things for sure. There was Saravana Bhavan but it was pricy.
You will be safe to have BF in Mac D and the like. Other option is subway vendors.
Better get the 110-220 V transformer (if needed) in Canada itself. Mostly your cellphone / laptop charger would be 110-220V anyways.
I used the Eurostar to go to paris fron London (late 2008). Unless you know someone in Brussels who can show you the way / accompany you, it is doubful if you can see it in one day, except for the experience of Eurostar. Remember to covert into Euro in Canada or a known place in London or you will loose money in exchange. In 2008, I got 90 Euro's for 100 Pounds sterling at a local Paris money changer.

Peace

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I am a Gents and not a Ladies.

I've only been on a few business trips so my perspective is a bit different and I didn't have to make some of the arrangements you are (i.e. I just carried my work mobile and the hotel had breakfast etc.)

First off, concur with TK that London is quite expensive - especially when you factor in the GBP conversion rate. For breakfast, if your hotel has the little fridge, you probably just want to buy some basic groceries on day one (bread, butter, jam, milk etc.) and have breakfast in your room.

For food generally, there are quite a few Indian restaurants however the couple I went to were very fancy and prohibitively expensive. For veggie Indian food, your best bet probably will be the Hare Krishna restuarant - this is a short walk from Trafalgar square (I haven't tried the one in London, but I was recently in Prague and tried the temple restuarant there, the food was excellent!)
http://www.iskcon-london.org/temple.html

Italian there is good too. I discovered a restaurant near Trafalgar square that had some of the best veggie pizzas I've ever tried and it wasn't too expensive. The name escapes me right now, let me know if you're into Italian and I'll try to dig it up.

Subway sandwich is another option for quick lunch (I think they make the veggie ones there with patties, which I found better than the ones here)

Any particular reason you need a transformer? Most travel devices/chargers (laptop, cell etc.) are dual voltage anyways so I never felt the need for one. I have a universal adapter though it comes in quite handy - you can find one at "The source" or Futureshop etc.

Nightlife in London mostly means going out with friends and getting drunk. it is very much the pub culture and one interesting thing I noticed there is you're allowed to carry your beer outside - you'll see throngs of young/old folks standing outside pub doors, lager in hand. I'm sure there's theater and stuff - though I didn't go to any plays/musicals so can't recommend any.

Some other tips
1. Make sure you carry GBP - Euros don't work in London (learnt that the hard way on my first trip :-)
2. Do the hop-on hop-off bus tour, I found this to be the best/easiest way to get around and see the sights, and there's plenty to see (the olympics probably adds more).
3. The National gallery at Trafalgar sq. has free admission and some amazing art.
4. Heathrow express (train) is the best way to get to London from Heathrow - much cheaper than taxi and quite comfortable. There is an information counter before the elevators and the nice lady will tell you exactly how to get to your hotel.

Enjoy!

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Are you there?

Hi TK & BL

Thanks for the information.

- Yes. I know that Britain still uses GBP. So I will carry GBP and some Euros from here. I plan to use credit card if required. I think that is a better option than traveller's cheque.

- I didn't know that the chargers for my cellphone and e-book reader are rated for 110-2450 V. You learn something new everyday.

- I believe Brussels can be seen in one-day if you use the sight-seeing bus. Another option can be Dublin or Glasgow. Any tips?

Euro star is good.

Food is really costly and if you are vegetarian, you had it. Tasteless.

I would suggest that carry 100 "Debra" Thepla and aachar (Gujju food delicacies). You can buy curd and eat at much lesser cost.

Carry a hot water kettle so you can make morning coffee on your own. Will save lots of money