First off, London is amazing. Definitely go. It is beautiful, old, has tons to do, and is absolutely a great spot to go for vacation. There is so much I could share, but I will try to hit the most important things, first off....
Where We Stayed
We are pretty hotwire.ca loyal, and have booked all of our hotels on hotwire since we've been married. We did the same for this trip, and it worked out great. For those that haven't used hotwire before, you don't know the hotel you're booking until you've checked out, but the deals are great. Since we don't know what we're getting, we always put in 4/5 stars, and select some areas that we'd be happy to stay in. If you're quite familiar with the city, you can sometimes figure out the hotel based on amenities and location but that wasn't the case for us in London. We ended up at the Dolphin House Serviced Apartments in Pimlico, City of Westminster. The main reason we ended up there via hotwire was that we chose a budget friendly option, that wasn't a double bed. With London being a big city, and historic, the rooms tend to be quite small and most had only double beds. The serviced apartment was a great deal and had a king bed, kitchenette, and lots of living space.
As far as the hotel goes, it was ok. I wouldn't say it was 5 star luxe, the bed wasn't incredible, but we slept great every night. The main things were the bed wasn't amazing, and there was no AC. However, I think in London AC can be hard to come by, so this wouldn't necessarily have been better at another hotel. They did provide a fan, so we put a table at the foot of our bed with the fan blowing on us all night. The great things about the hotel were the ample space, kitchenette if you want to make some of your own light meals, and there was never any noise or other inconveniences.
Pimlico as a location also turned out totally fine. It was extremely quiet/peaceful, had a tube station a few blocks away, and some cute cafes. It was about a half hour walk to the main tourist areas (Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, etc.), or of course the tube was an easy way to get everywhere. My favourite part was the design of the homes in the area, it was just streets upon streets of white townhouses with black doors and stately columns. So gorgeous to walk around and there was no traffic via cars or foot traffic. It felt safe, there were the occasional people at the tube station that were asking for money and that kind of thing, but otherwise didn't come across anything like that. The picture below was from the street our hotel was on, and all the streets were that colour of homes and just absolutely adorable. Excuse all the selfies in this post, that's what happens when you go on a trip just by yourselves and don't talk to any strangers.
If we came again, depending on cost I may try to get a little closer to the areas I loved - but if it was significantly more I would say Pimlico was plenty convenient to everywhere we wanted to go, and even walking wasn't too far. If I moved closer I'd stick to Westminster, or maybe west closer to Kensington Palace, both those neighbourhoods I found quiet and lovely - as opposed to Piccadilly Circus or one of the areas that gives more of the "Times Square" vibe of being super busy and crazy. I felt much more anxious in those areas than in the historic areas.
Getting Around
Transportation seemed to be a major theme in my mind as far as what we did well/items to share. Starting of course with a long travel day to get to London, we flew from Winnipeg to Toronto to Halifax to London. Mainly our flights were fine, although no TVs on the flights, not super long layovers for getting a sit down meal, and Philip got sick on our long flight over the ocean so we didn't sleep like we could have.
The first London transportation that we came across was the Gatwick Express. We arrived in Gatwick airport as we had booked with West Jet and that is where they land as opposed to Heathrow. It's a bit of a trek to downtown from Gatwick, but for those that are unsure - the Gatwick Express was awesome. We had pre-purchased tickets so we just walked right to the platform and got on, it wasn't crowded at all and there was lots of space for luggage and places to sit. The trip was probably about half an hour, and you get your first glimpses of London from the train window. The train drops you at Victoria Station, which was about a 5 min cab ride from our hotel. We could have walked but we had a fair amount of luggage and weren't sure of the area, or we could have taken the underground which would have just been one easy train, but they are fairly crowded so I wouldn't recommend taking the underground with full-sized suitcases in tow - not only would the stairs be a challenge in some stations, but also there is no room for luggage on most of the trains we were on.
Throughout the rest of the trip we took the underground/tube/subway (whatever you want to call it) for most of our journeys. The underground is only about 3 pounds per ride if you stay in central London, and caps at 10 pounds a day if you use an Oyster card. Comparably, a cab had a minimum 10 pound rate for a ride and we took one cab that cost more than all of our tube rides added together. It is also really fast and easy to use the underground, so we'd highly recommend it. Ahead of your trip, get a visitor Oyster card. You load them with money ahead of time, so that your trips on the tube don't require tickets. When you arrive at the station, you scan your card and get into the station, and then when you arrive at your destination, you scan again as you exit the station. Your card is automatically charged. Just make sure to check your balance occasionally so that you don't run out. We're still working this part out, but you are supposed to be able to get any balance remaining on your card at the end of the trip refunded so you shouldn't need to worry about having too much on the card. We had to mail the cards back to England to get refunded, so just waiting for that process to be completed. We didn't have much left on our cards, maybe 10 pounds. One thing that I loved about taking the tube was that you never needed to look at schedules or times to figure out where to go or what to do. There is always a train in our experience, we never had to wait more than 3 mins for a train to arrive. Just get yourself to the station, and head the right direction. Signage is pretty good, so we never had any issue with figuring out where to go. The scariest part is that the doors open for what feels like 10 seconds. If you aren't right by the door when they open, don't even bother. You can't be courteous and let people off before you get on, or you aren't getting on. Just get in there and find somewhere to sit or stand. It's also good to make a plan for if someone gets left behind. We didn't end up being separated, but there were some close calls for sure. We made the plan that if someone got on the train and the other person was left on the platform, get off at the next station and wait for the left behind person to arrive in a few mins on the next train. If one of us was left on the train and the other was able to get off, the one on the train would get off at the next station and head back the other direction to where we were getting off. Both of these situations almost happened to us, because I am not exaggerating when I say the doors were open for very little time, and the trains are very crowded at times so it can be hard to get to the door.
What We Did
Saturday: Walked down the Thames to the heart of Westminster. Saw Trafalgar Square, the Parliament Building, enjoyed St James Park, and toured Westminster Abbey with tickets we had pre-purchased at home.
Sunday: Sunday we had our first taste of Pret a Manger which is on every corner in London it seems. We then took the train to Kings Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4, and the station itself was gorgeous. Even saw someone propose to someone in a flash mob so that was exciting. Afterwards we walked to Buckingham Palace which was incredibly beautiful. Afterwards we walked through the park to the Churchill War Rooms which was another of our arranged tours. Churchill War Rooms was very interesting, the only downside was at the beginning you see some of the underground rooms where they lived and worked during WW2, and then you're in a museum about Churchill and you think that's all so you are really soaking it all in. Then, they announced 30 mins left and there are still 16 rooms, so everyone had to rush to see the last of the underground areas - so just pace your time if you go so you can see everything. Can always go back to the museum a bit if you wanted after the rooms are done.
Monday: This day we went to the British Museum, one of many free museums in London. The architecture is amazing at the museum, and it's in a nice area with bookstores and cute cafes. The only recommendation I would give is to maybe have an exhibit in mind that you are very excited about, because it is huge and overwhelming. With sore feet going in already, we were quickly tired out and seeing rooms upon rooms of antiquities got old fast. They have an amazing collection, but I think we would have enjoyed it more had we gone in with one exhibit we wanted to see thoroughly and then maybe leave. It was impossible to take it all in so it felt quite daunting. Afterwards we went to a number of bookstores, including Hatchards which was opened in 1797 and was 5 stories of beautiful books. Lastly, we kept up our vacation tradition of going to a nice movie theatre. We went to the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square and sat in a theatre that seats 800. The seats were all priced based on their location in the theatre, so there were about 10 of us in the theatre seeing Men in Black (not good PS) but we were all spread out. We sat in the nosebleeds because the close seats were 40 pounds each.
Tuesday: We spent 5 hours at the Tower of London on Tuesday. It was probably our favourite tour that we went on during our trip. It was incredibly moving to see inscriptions made by prisoners hundreds of years ago, the crown jewels, and buildings built in 1050.
Wednesday: Our main activity Wednesday was Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. We saw both parts on the Wednesday with the first at 2 pm, and the 2nd at 7 pm, dinner break in between. Overall about 5 hours of Harry Potter play! It was definitely worth doing, and I think we would have regretted it if we hadn't gone, but it was super expensive and could have used a musical number!
Thursday: Our last day in London! It was probably one of my favourite days. We went for a super long walk to Hyde Park, about an hour there, then through the park, and eventually to Kensington Palace. The parks downtown London are amazing, and we took our time as we didn't have anything scheduled. We walked the paths, saw the monuments, enjoyed the scenery in London for our final day. When we got to Kensington Palace, we found we had time for a tour so we went in and got tickets for the last time of the day. It was very cool to be in the house where tons of royals have and do still live, and even the room where Queen Victoria was born. It was also interesting to learn about Queen Victoria and how she became queen so young even though those responsible for her tried to get in the way, and when her husband died (also her first cousin) she wore black forever afterwards and really took a step back from royal duties. Definitely would recommend a visit.
Hopefully this covers off the trip fairly well! It was an unforgettable trip, mainly just seeing how old things are compared to Canada. I hope we'll be able to go back someday, but hard to imagine as there is so much world to see! While there, we decided we'd love our next trip to Europe to be Italy someday (way better food than mashy peas). Now have to go make some bucks so we can make that happen! If any are planning a trip to London, feel free to get in touch I'd love to share any tips!
