If you've been there before you know how amazing London is and if you haven't I insist you check it out whenever possible. London is one of the biggest cities I've ever explored and is not always the cheapest, but there are ways to travel cheaply and experience all that London has to offer. This first post will be all about places to go and things to see! Check out Part 2 that focuses on food, food and more food, oh and drinks!
Let me preface this post with the fact we were only in London for 4 full days and this is basically everything we did!
First, MOST museums are free! This is a major plus, because you can do sightseeing activities without breaking the bank! This is always something to consider when traveling on a budget, it saved us money since we did spend more on museums in Paris. We went to 3 of the big museums, again ALL FREE! London also is home to a ton of markets, a great place to eat cheaply as well as see some amazing art! Note: we went over Easter weekend and it was hard to see Westminster Abby due to the services so just be warned if you go over a religious holiday weekend it maybe hard to get in!
The Arts
Let's start with the museums! First up the
British Museum. Just like Paris we traveled by the Underground, if you have ever been to D.C the metros are very similar. It doesn't run as many trains as the Paris metro rail and because of the Easter holiday we ran into more delays and busier cars. There are two stops you can take to get to the British Museum, Tottenham Court Road or Holborn, both off the Central Line. This was similar to the Louver in its size and could take all day or multiple visits. My suggestion, look at the museum map and decided which wings you want to hit most and just do a few. The Egyptian and medieval wings were my favorite!
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| I like nice butts, what can I say! |
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| Caught in action! |
Our second favorite museum was the
Natural History Museum. This was not as big an the British Museum, but it gets just a busy and had 3x more kids, so go early! The two metro stops you can take are the Gloucester and South Kensington, both off the Circle, Piccadilly and District line. The other bonus is that across the street is the
Victoria and Albert Museum, so you can hit them both up in one day. The Victoria and Albert Museum has more textiles which was really amazing to see. We had limited time that day and did a quick walk through the main level of the Victoria and Albert Museum, but if you can dedicate a whole day for both!
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| They had a butterfly museum, in the background. Wanted to go, but didn't have the time 😖 |
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| Wish this was a Snapchat filter! |
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| Victoria and Albert Museum |
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| I call this man and woman.... |
Leisure
Let's talk about a more decadent experience, afternoon tea. We stayed nearing Kensington Palace and booked a reservation at The Orangery Restaurant. This was something I will never forget and was a little costly
(25 euros a person), but totally worth it, getting dressed up and sitting for an hour over tea and a tower of finger sandwiches and crumpets.We didn't go to the Kensington Palace museum, but just having afternoon tea was an experience of a life time. This was the most expensive place we ate, but because we saved so much on free museums we had the money to splurge.
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| I mean come on you can't deny this table of gorgeous food, even if your not a tea drink! You can get tea with champagne as well if your feeling extra fancy! |
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| We went with the English Orangery Afternoon Tea, 28 eruos a person. |
Markets
Market, markets and more markets. Like the museums going to the markets in London can be a cheap and fun experience.
On the east end of London check out the Brick Lane market and the Old Spitafields Market. They are close together and offer tons of good food, art and vintage clothes. We got off on the Algate East underground stop and walked the 0.3 miles to the Old Spitafields Market. We also went to Borough Market in Southwark. This is a food market and let me tell you it was a great place to try some traditional foods! We went in the morning for breakfast and shared a ton of small treat! You can get there on the Jubilee and Northern line at the London Bridge Station. When going to the markets, I always do a walk through just to see everything and then make a decision on what I want to buy. The worst feeling is when you get excited, buy something then 10 minutes later see something better and regret what you just bought! So take a walk through see what there is to offer and trust me there is a lot, then make your decisions! Also, when it comes to clothes and art, don't be afraid to haggle! Don't try to low ball the vendors, but if you think you want two or more of something don't be afraid to ask for a deal! I got two purses for 15 euros each, instead of 1 for 25 euros!
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| Brick Lane had some really amazing street art! |
Churches
We didn't check out any other churches than Westminster Abby and well it was closed, but just walking round it was really cool! Like I said earlier, it was closed because of the holiday weekend!
Other
The last two big locations we went to was Harrods
and Buckingham Palace. Harrods is amazing and almost like a museum, you
could spend a whole day there and won't buy anything 😂 unless you
roll like that! It was just fun to walk around the different departments
and look at all the fancy booze, food and clothing! We did get a snack
there and bought a few gifts for family there. Buckingham Palace is just
a cool spot to walk around and get some good pictures. We didn't see
the changing of the guards because it gets really crazy and didn't go at
the right time which was fine with us, but is a really cool experience
you may want to see if you have the time!
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| Buckingham Palace |
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| Outside Harrods, I mean come on it's huge! |
Part two will be posted soon!
Comment below if you like what your reading and want to see more similar posts or let me know things you'd like me to hear me review, or really, rant about!
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