Hi everyone! This is a super late post from my trip to London, UK with my friend Ann back in April 2019. Two of my coresidents are going to London soon – and now my sister too! – so I thought it would be the perfect time to write this post and also reminisce a bit about a week filled with great memories. Also, my apologies in advance. This is a super long post because there’s so much to do in London!
To start off, London is expensive lol. The pound is 1.8x the Canadian Dollar so things add up but I guess it’s just something you need to be prepared for. The weather is pretty rainy in London so that’s why you will see us in rain jackets, umbrellas and rain boots (aka wellies as they say). There’s so much to do in London and the surrounding area but we were really happy with how we split our time while we were there.
London Pass: If you’ve been looking into visiting London you’ve probably heard of the London Pass. We got the 6-day and we thought it was definitely worth it. If you have lots of sightseeing plans then it will save you money. We also did some things that were included on the Pass that we otherwise wouldn’t have thought of doing and we really liked.
Day 1 (Saturday) – This first day was only a travel day. We took an overnight flight and got to London around 9am the next morning. A fun fact is that people in England only call high school “school” so when I told the guy sitting next to me that I just finished “school” he was like uhhh aren’t you a little old to be just finishing high school? lolz
Day 2 (Sunday) – First day exploring London! We first took the Underground to our hostel. We stayed at St. Christopher’s Inn for the whole week which was the cheapest option and very tolerable. Guys, the Underground aka the TUBE is literally the most tubular thing I have ever seen in my life. If you go/have been to London you’ll know exactly what I mean. The whole thing is so tubular!!
Our first stop after we changed and washed our faces (lol) was the London Eye – one of the only attractions not on the London Pass. I surprised Ann with the champagne experience for bday celebration #1 of many.
After the London Eye we decided to use the Hop-on Hop-Off Bus to get our bearings around town. You get one day of HOHO bus included with the London Pass! We got off around Wellington Arch and walked the rest of the way to Trafalgar Square, home of the lion statues.
Then we walked to Piccadilly Circus and you bet we had a photoshoot with the red phone booths.
We had Indian food for dinner at Hankie’s. Apparently Indian food is a thing in the UK and you have to have it at least once!
We didn’t do anything this night because we were exhausted from travelling.
Day 2 (Monday) – We started off today with a traditional full English breakfast. We went to Terry’s Cafe and it was super cute and they had a veggie sausage option, yum!
The Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace happens every Monday-Wednesday-Friday (I think, but you should check online because sometimes it changes) so we decided to do this today. Man, it is ever crowded. It starts at 11:00am and we got there around 10:15am and it was already very busy. Be careful for pickpockets!
After the ceremony we went to The Royal Mews (included on London Pass) to see all the fancy carriages.
Then we went back to Buckingham Palace to take some photos while it was less crowded.
We took a walk through St. James’ Park (I saw black swans IRL for the first time here) and had a quick lunch at St. James’ Cafe before walking to Westminster Abbey (included on London Pass). It was very cool to find all the famous people buried here!
Then we checked out the Churchill War Rooms (also on London Pass) which is a really interesting secret underground war bunker. This is something that we probably wouldn’t have done if we didn’t have the London Pass but ended up really liking!
We stopped at Big Ben on the way home but lol… it’s all covered up right now. I think it’s supposed to be like this for a couple of more years. Instead of taking the tube back to our hostel, we took a river ferry! It was included in our London Pass.
After dinner, we spent the night at our hostel bar meeting some people and getting recommendations for fun bars/night clubs later in the week.
Day 3 (Tuesday) – Today was the best day ever because we went to the Warner Brother’s Studio Harry Potter Tour! 10/10 would recommend this – it was such a cool experience, even if you aren’t the biggest fan of Harry Potter. Usually people book tickets months in advance but we only found out a week before our trip so we kept checking back at the site every day and there was a cancellation spot that opened up so we got it! This just worked for my friend too so keep checking! To get there we took the train from London Euston to Watford Junction as recommended by the website. You can take the tube to London Euston then buy a train ticket there. Then there’s a shuttle from Watford Junction to the WB studio which costs 3 pounds (cash only!). Ok anyways I’m gonna leave some photos here but seriously you have to do this!!
After we took the bus/train back to London, we went to Covent Garden which is an area with more expensive and boutique shops. We had some pies for dinner (another on the UK checklist) and then went to the very instagrammable Milk Train for dessert.
Last but not least, we took in the city views at night at The Shard observation deck (included on London Pass). Very pretty!
This night we did karaoke at our hostel haha. It was American karaoke where you sing only one song on stage whole night as opposed to Asian karaoke, which I like better.
Day 4 (Wednesday) – Another day trip day! We couldn’t really go to London without seeing Stonehenge, one of the wonders of the world. Is it the best thing you can do in London… no… but I still think it’s worth it to visit once in your life. We decided not to do a travel company tour but instead just went by ourselves. The nearest city is Salisbury which is a super cute, medieval-esque town, which is fun to explore as well. We took the train from London Waterloo to Salisbury (about an hour, bought these tickets online beforehand) then walked into the town.
The Stonehenge Tour Bus does a loop between Salisbury, Stonehenge, and Old Salum and you can buy tickets online or when you get on the bus (for some reason I think I remember this is cash only too but not sure). We spent about 2 hours at Stonehenge.
Then spent around 1 hour at Old Salum and had a cute little picnic on the grounds and felt very medieval and cool lol.
Finally we came back to Salisbury and walked around the streets and explored. It’s a small town so the stores all close around 5:30-6pm. Lastly we had wine and cheese at Maul’s Wine and Cheese Bar before catching our train back home.
Wednesday nights start to get fun in London and this night we went around Picadilly Circus. It starts to get busy pretty late but this place called the Picadilly Institute was pretty fun and had good music!
Day 5 (Thursday) – Today we had a very royal and fancy day. We started off at the Tower of London where the Crown Jewels are! (Included in London Pass).
Then we did the Tower Bridge Experience (included in London Pass) where we walked over the tall part of the bridge – scary!
The only fancy restaurant we wanted to go to in London was Marcus (one Michelin star, used to be two but got downgraded recently haha) and they have a reasonable lunch tasting menu for 55 pounds. The food was really good! Their specialty is a slow cooked egg and their bathroom was very fancy (sign of a fancy restaurant). We celebrated Ann’s birthday for a second time.
After this we went to check out St. Paul’s Cathedral and then walked over Millenium Bridge to Shakespeare’s Globe (replica, not the original) where we did a guided tour (included in London Pass, you can only do tours, can’t explore on your own) – very cool!
For the night we took the bus and explored Shoreditch. It’s a very hip and cool neighbourhood. We had Shoreditch Fish and Chips for dinner (another UK checklist item!) and we both loved the aesthetic of this bar called Tonight Josephine.
Day 6 (Friday) – Ok wait today was also a very fancy day haha I guess London is a very fancy place! We started off the day by going to the Sky Garden. There are times where you can go in for free but honestly the lines are super long and it’s crowded so I wouldn’t really recommend going unless you have extra time to kill. The view is blocked by a large blue-tinted glass pane.
We then took the tube to Notting Hill, a cute neighbourhood known for it’s beautiful pastel housefronts.
Aside from having a photoshoot in front of the houses, we had delicious rose and lavender lattes at Farm Girl and walked along the Portobello Street Market where we saw lots of antiques and vintage shops.
In the afternoon we had our third and final birthday celebration at Afternoon Tea (another UK must-do!) at Kensington Palace. We really liked the tea here but they have afternoon teas everywhere in London and they all looked really nice.
We then explored Kensington Palace (included in London Pass), and we found this exhibit rooms with tiaras and the security guard told us that if we stand in a certain position then the reflection of the tiaras looks like were wearing them lmao. So enjoy these photos.
We walked through the Kensington Gardens but unfortunately couldn’t stay long because it was raining, so we ducked for cover inside Harrod’s which is a huugeee OG department store you have to check out.
We started Friday night at Blame Gloria which was a tiny bar/club that was playing amazing music (aka, they played One Direction songs and Year 3000 – I was ded) and had a great dance vibe – definitely recommend!
Day 7 (Saturday) – Last day 😦 Today our plan was to visit Windsor Castle (included in London Pass – where Harry and Meghan got married) so we took the train there, only to see that the line was soooooo long! I guess it was our fault for going on a Saturday lol. After doing some reading online, the best time to go is actually on a weekday and in the afternoon (since most people go in the morning and leave by noon). Soooo we didn’t do Windsor Castle. But we did take a walk around the area and check out cute some shops in the area as well.
Ahh, time to head to the airport and go back to real life. Hope you enjoyed our London chronicles! Chip chip cheerio! But actually we were told no one says that and it’s kind of offensive, lol sorry.
Lizzy
Lizzysfood 