Live Your Style in London!

This past month, I traveled to London for the first time and it was love at first sight!  It was such a cool experience.  This was one of my first personal trips abroad and getting to experience a new place with so much history was a spectacular experience.  I thought I would share some of my top tips + suggestions in case you are lucky enough to visit!

Weather- We were very lucky with the weather.  I live on the east coast and I would say that the weather was very similar to what our typical March days are like.  It didn't rain once on my trip, but I did pack a raincoat and umbrella in case since we spent a lot of time outside.

Getting Around- The underground, which is similar to the subway is a easy way to get around and walk.  You can also use Uber or taxis, although these are a bit more expensive.  I liked Uber because you could get a gauge for the cost and timing.  London is not like other large cities like NYC or Philadelphia in the sense that it isn't a grid, so getting around is a bit more of a challenge.  One thing to keep in mind is timing...things that are let's say 2 miles away could take 30 minutes via a car.  Everything is walkable, you may just need to get to a central spot to move around.  

Pro Tip- The hop on hop off busses are great for this and you can get a 2 day pass for a decent price.  This will take you to the popular places and you can hop off, walk to a different area and then get on another bus.  We had a stop around 5 minutes from our hotel and it made it easy to hop on and get around.

 

Bars + Restaurants- One thing that was a little different in the bars was that there weren't typically bar stools.  It most places, you just went up to the bar for a drink and then took it to a spot in the restaurant, or outside.  There were always lots of people outside of the bars hanging out.  Also, a lot of the restuarants aren't the typical walk in and be seated and more self service.  You order via QR code.   If you can, I highly suggest going to a  Sunday Roast! It's offered at many pubs and restaurants.  We went to Blacklock Chops for ours and it was amazing!

Here are a few places we went + reccomend:

The Hung Drawn + Quartered- Fish & Chips were great!

Old Compton Brassiere- This is in the theatre district and walkable to the theaters. g

Blacklock Chops was amazing for Sunday Roast + they have several locations around the city

Tipping- Many places include a tip on the order and so you don't need to tip additionally.

What to See- There are so many museums and sites, it can be a bit overwhelming.  My suggestion would be to pick your top 5 things and then make a loose plan around that.  In some cases, these places may require a lot of time, so you want to make sure you can get to visit your top picks.  This is why the bus tours are great, since you can see around the whole city and then get an idea of what things are near each other.  My suggestion would be to do this on your 1st day for a lay of the land.   

These are some spots I visited and my thoughts:

Tower Of London- Really Cool, and they offer free tours which I suggest.

Buckingham Palace- You can view this even see the changing of the guards, but you can't go inside

St Paul's Cathedral- This was beautiful and also offers free tours, which was incredible...there is one area here where they filmed a Harry Potter movie

The British Museum- This is an amazing museum...if you get tickets online, they are free.  It's huge, but worth it. Also, there is a beautiful library in the middle which is such a cool phot spot.

Paris- This is somewhere you can visit by train.  It takes about 2.5 hours.  While it was beautiful, I wish I would have had more time or planned it out better. We went for the day and had about 5 hours.  Everything is very busy, so we did a bus tour and picked one attraction to see, The Eiffel Tower.  My suggestion would be that if you do this, pick the thing that is your must see and plan around.  In retrospect, I probably would have skipped this because London was so wonderful, but if you have the opportunity to visit or stay a night here, it is a unique experience. 

Shopping- The Soho area is awesome + full of brands you know and some cool other shops.  If you can, I highly suggest Liberty of London...it's such a gorgeous store, my fave store I went to.  There is another store called Fortnum and Mason, it is another stunning place where you can get gourmet gifts.  There are 2 great department stores, Harrods and Selfridges...both really beautiful.

If you want a cool view of the city, there is a place called Sky Garden where you might be able to get free tickets.  There is also a great restaurant that is at the top of a building, called Duck and Waffle, that is open 24 hours a day.  We had a great view!

I highly recommend London + can't wait to visit again!

Until Next Time...