I first want to reiterate that I am by no means an expert on London but it does happen to be one of my all time favorite cities. I feel blessed enough to have gone twice already and I know it will be a place I consistently return to. People ask me why I go back to places when there are places we haven’t been to yet but there are so many things to do in London you can go so many times and still not see and do everything. We have lived outside New York City for almost two years now and I still have a huge list of things to do. I have done a lot of research on London and even went to a friend who lives in England for some help with this list. Hopefully that helps to make me more of a trusted source haha. I wanted to share all of our pictures but our backup disc with all our pictures is in Utah so once I get that I will post tons of London pictures but for now, here is strictly a guide with minimal pictures.
See:
Big Ben, London Eye, Westminster Abbey & Buckingham Palace-all close to each other
Piccadilly Circus- the London equivalent of Time square but I absolutely love it
See Kensington palace and the gardens
Marble Arch
Notting Hill, Primrose hill, Princes Gate Mews, Antherstone Mews for cute and colorful areas
The Shard
Tower Bridge- walk across it to the opposite side and you will have the best spot for pictures with very few people
Tower of London to see the Queens Jewels -You have to pay for this but it’s worth it. It also has free tours for no extra purchase on the inside that you should take advantage of. I love all the history with this and seeing all the different crowns.
Do:
Churchill War Rooms (ONE OF MY FAV MUSEUMS- No idea why but it’s so cool being down in the actual bunker)
Take your picture with 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station- Prepare for a huge line.
Shopping on Oxford Street – there is no place in the world I love shopping at more than London. They have the absolute best sneakers. I got a pair of nude Adidas NMD that you can not find in the states. They had these pink camo ones you can also not find that I wish I would have bought. They have huge amazing Zaras, Pull and Bear, Selfridges, Oliver Bonas and so much more.
Wander the streets of Camden for some knockoffs and a really cool atmosphere
Tea time at Sketch- this was a huge highlight to our trip. I felt pretty fancy eating my scones and sippin on my tea. This place is UNREAL. We booked our reservation first thing so we were the first people in the room and I could get some amazing pictures. The service is incredible and so are the desserts. You have unlimited amount of everything so if you like something you can ask for more of it. There are several rooms so if you want the pink room make sure you make a reservation ahead of time for the gallery room and don’t forget to check out the bathrooms! Regular tea is 58 pounds a person but it’s so worth it.
Ride bikes through Hyde Park
Get your quintessential red phone booth picture
Visit the British Museum and see the awesome mummy exhibit (FREE)
Victoria and Albert Museum (FREE)
Tate Modern Museum (FREE)
Natural History Museum (FREE) (Okay chances are you won’t have time to see all of these but I have done the Natural History and British Museum and they are both cool. I would recommend the mummy exhibit at British Museum and I really wanted to see the V & A museum but we didn’t have time!)
See a show on Broadway
(I saw Wicked with Lyle and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child with my mom. I recommend both.)
Take a ride on the London Eye
(I heard it wasn’t worth the money but I will probably still do this one day. If you have money and time to spare go for it)
Watch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace (FREE)
Portobello Road Market (the earlier the better, it gets crowded. It’s usually open Saturday but some stalls are set up throughout the week)
If you aren’t sick of markets yet you can explore Leadenhall market
Covent Garden
Take tons of pictures in and around the picturesque red phone booths
Walk around South Kensington for some home envy
Eat:
Absolutely anything and everything at the Camden Market- this is handmade pasta noodles rolled in a huge cheese wheel right in front of you. The guys are from Italy and it was so. dang. good.
Ben’s Cookies- the Oatmeal raisin is BOMB. Even if you don’t like raisins it tastes like cinnamon heaven. There’s a pretty good orange one too. Actually they are all amazing. Luckily they have one of these in NYC so now I can eat them all the time. They are so good warm.
Milk Train for fun and unique ice cream
Fish and Chips – I doubt this is the best but I absolutely love the Fish and Chips in Piccadilly that is a couple spots to the left of the Burger King. I went there both times I’ve been in London and its cheap and good. Takeaway is cheaper and you can sit in the square and watch all the street performers. I read Allens Fish and Chips is the best so if you try these let me know!
Shake Shack- this made me feel right at home!
Dominique Ansel Bakery- another place we have in NYC but if you don’t live near NYC you should try this!
Crumbs and Doilies Bakery- they had really good cupcakes and this biscoff marshmallow thing that was so good
Strawberries and Cream at the Bond Metro Station
Borough Market- get the amazing donuts.
Cereal Killer for some nostalgic childhood memories
We didn’t get to try these but my friend recommended them:
Dishoom Indian in Kings Cross (edgy and cool)
Shoryu Ramen (on Carnaby Street)
Bao (in soho)
Breakfast Club -Soho (go early)
Home Slice (Covent Garden)
Burger and Lobster (soho)
DAY TRIPS:
Try to leave a couple days on top of at least 3 days in London so you can do some of these amazing day trips.
Harry Potter Studio Tour- full day and it’s amazing.
Bath, Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral tour- I don’t typically love tours but if you don’t rent a car and explore the countryside this is the best way to see the most things. Lyle and I did this tour and it was really good
OXFORD- I love Oxford and have a whole post coming about it
Cotswolds- I think you need a few days to explore them. So beautiful.
You can also venture out to see one of the many castles: Windsor, Highclere, Warwick or Leeds to name a few
**Check ahead of time the special events happening in London and maybe you could catch a match at Wimbledon, head out towards the Glastonbury festival or see the London Film Festival that Lyle and I stumbled upon in Piccadilly Circus.
Some basic tips:
-the London tube is surprisingly easy to maneuver around. It feels entirely safe and a lot cleaner than in NYC. Get the oyster pass too. For this you can just add money to it and use it throughout the whole time you are there. Each person needs one though, you can’t share. We actually walked a lot more than I thought and barely used it. There are a lot of employees there that you can just walk up to and ask for help so don’t worry too much. We used a maps app that I would look up where we were going and look at what station it was near and then follow the SUPER EASY boards they had for the tube. (that app will be talked about in detail in another post because it will save you all sorts of $$$).
-We used hostelworld to book a room at the Holland House in London and as you probably saw I was obsessed with the views from our room. It was the most spacious room we had the entire trip. It was in a safe and quaint little neighborhood about a half a mile walk from big ben. We opted for a shared bathroom (which was never a problem) and it was 33 pounds which I think at the time amounted to like $40 a night? A lot of places in the U.K. don’t have air conditioning since it gets so cool and this is no exception so unless you are staying at a super nice hotel you probably won’t have that.
-They use pounds there so make sure you convert your money as soon as you get there.
-If you are dying to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child it is possible! They are bringing it to NYC but it is one of those shows that seemed so perfect to see in London. As soon as you can head over to the Palace Theatre and ask if they have any returns. The employee told us to come the next afternoon around 2 but as we were leaving we met a couple from New York who just snagged the last two tickets for that day. They told us to go the next morning as soon as the Theatre opened (which I think was 10) and we were the first ones there and they told us they just had two returns! It was so lucky! There were a couple people behind us in line already. You have to be frequently checking in or looking at the website. Another tip that we tried to do but we didn’t get internet is the Friday 40. Every Friday at 1 (theres a countdown) they release 40 tickets with some of the best seats in the theater at low prices! Heres the link: Friday 40 It gives a lot more information on it. They are tickets for the following week so keep that in mind. The theater will also tell you that the morning of a show they do a standby line where people are in line at like 6:00 a.m. and the employee told us they almost always have tickets they just don’t know how much and you have to wait for hours. You can also constantly check the website for tickets because when they have returns they add them on there but from what I saw most of the returns were very expensive tickets. Hope this helps, the show is amazing!!
-there are several airports to fly in and out of London but the easiest is Heathrow. They have a tube that takes you all the way from the airport straight into London. We flew out of Stansted to Ireland and that was a huge pain even though it was a lot cheaper. Keep in mind you will either need a taxi or uber to get there which will cost you at least $100 depending on where you are coming from.
XO Cait