London

As an avid lover of all things English, I am so excited to share my London trip! I can’t believe that I haven’t properly been to London till now (the airport layovers don’t count 😂).

London was an absolute dream. My whole life I’ve wondered what it would be like, I grew up as a fan of The Spice Girls and Jane Austen, I’ve watched royal weddings and funerals and have built traditions which involve British films around Christmas time.

I hope you enjoy reading about this trip.

The details:

Accommodations: We stayed right in the heart of the Westminster area which was an absolutely perfect location to easily visit the main attractions on the list.

This was our hotel– very well priced for the area and a great stay. If you are used to hotels in the US, you might find the rooms to be a tad small (Which is not uncommon). We were upgraded to a suite and that was on the smaller side, compared to other hotels. Nonetheless, we barely spent any time in the hotel so having a warm shower and comfortable bed was all we needed.

Transportation: One thing to note- to get to downtown London, if you are grabbing a taxi, uber or renting a car – there is a surcharge of ~ 20 Pounds (a day) for non-electric cars. Before getting in the Taxi/Uber ensure that the driver knows where you are going (if downtown). I mention this because we had a weird experience getting from the airport to our hotel. That experience taught us to order electric cars for the rest of our trip.

From the airport to the hotel – Uber – this works in England just be sure to use the green car feature. There is also another app called Bolt that is like Uber (sometimes this works better).
Around London – we mostly walked to our destinations or used Uber if it was late or a bit farther away. We also took a boat ride down the Thames River which is a great way to see the city!

Pro Tip: If you are an American, sign up with the State Department’s Smart Traveler Program. You’ll get notifications and security updates from the nearest U.S. embassy in the country you are visiting. Take a look at their website.

Itinerary

Of course, my list isn’t an extensive one, there are many things one could add in. Just like any major city, London has new attractions and buildings pop up often. However, I absolutely love what we saw! I’ve grouped the itinerary by areas- these are pockets of the city you could see in the same outing. Additionally, there are many hidden gems in these areas that are not explicitly listed below- there are many monuments and squares of significance that you see just getting from point A to point B.

Borough of Westminster

As mentioned above, we mostly walked to these attractions – however there are lots of hop on hop off buses that operate in this area.