Hello everyone and welcome to our guest vlog with Education First.
I’m Emma and this is Alex from the YouTube channel, Travel Beans.
We are digital nomads and full-time travellers from the U.K.
and, today, we will be showing you our ultimate weekend in London.
Whether you’re coming to study in London, or if you’re studying somewhere else with EF
and want to visit London for a weekend, this list will include some great tips
for enjoying your time in one of the most visited cities in the world.
In this video, we’re going to split up our favourite things to do over two separate days.
Now, this should just be used as a guide because there’s so much to do there
that it’s going to be impossible to cover it over your stay.
Once arriving in London,
one of our favourite things to do is to head straight over to Notting Hill.
Many of you may have heard of Notting Hill from the movie Notting Hill,
where there’s a very famous bookshop.
Keep your eyes peeled for the bookshop, but you probably can’t miss it because
there’s going to be loads of people outside taking photos.
After walking along those gorgeous, colourful streets down Portobello Road,
you will come across Portobello Road Market.
This market is awesome.
They literally have anything you could possibly imagine here and,
weirdly enough, about eight years ago I lost a pair of gold leaf earrings in Cambodia
and I’ve been looking for a replacement pair ever since.
Weirdly enough, just now, I found a pair at a market stall for 8 £.
This is a great place to pick up some trinkets as souvenirs from your time in London.
You’ve got a very good chance here of finding something unique.
For those of you out there who are foodies coming to London,
you have to make sure to check out all the events going on
because there are a ton of food festivals that are always happening in this city.
The last time we went to London, there was a chilli festival
where we got to go explore the delights of chilli peppers around the world.
This has the hottest chilli in the world inside this.
I am extremely nervous. It’s extremely gooey and I … This thing stings the nostrils.
Maybe your taste buds can’t handle a chilli festival,
but make sure you keep an eye out for many different things
because there’ll be something to suit your needs.
Notting Hill is not the only place with beautiful streets.
There are so many good streets peppered around London and it’s going to feel like you’re in a movie.
Make sure you keep your eyes peeled for some beautiful, historical architecture
and remember to look up because that’s where some of the amazing details can be found.
For something a little bit different, you can head on over to Chinatown,
which is an incredible area of London filled with - again - amazing architecture,
but also some amazing Chinese food.
A local showed us her favourite dim sum restaurant in Chinatown
and we had to put it on this list now because you’re never going to taste anything like it!
The final stop on day 1 is, I know for Emma, her favourite thing to do.
If there are any Harry Potter fans out there like me,
I highly recommend you visit The Cauldron. Moguls not allowed!
In this crash course in potion making, you’re going to work as a team
and you’re going to produce two potions for me.
The Cauldron is a unique and magical experience where you get to brew your own potions
- either alcoholic or non-alcoholic - and taste them with your friends.
I think Emma is missing one of the key aspects here, which is that you get to dress up like a wizard.
You get to wear your own cloak
and you even get a magic wand to help you make some potions.
After a good night’s rest,
we always like to start our day with good food and coffee over at Camden Market.
There are so many things to see in Camden Town.
There’s street art galore, food stands absolutely everywhere,
as well as the best veggie burger I have ever had in my entire life.
I understand that you’re probably thinking, why is there so much food here on our trip in London?
That is because it is an amazing place for food. You are not going to go hungry.
You’re going to find something that is so delicious that you’ve probably not had before,
so make sure you keep looking out for something to eat.
For example, if some of you out there love fried chicken,
but you want to go for the veggie version,
I highly recommend you visit Temple of Seitan, which is located in Camden.
It is just a short walk away from Camden Market where you get to stroll along the beautiful canals
and look at those interesting houseboats.
I would love to say that you are guaranteed to get nice weather like in this footage,
but the likelihood is that when you come to the U.K., it is going to be raining.
Next up is my favourite thing to do in London,
and that is to walk off all of this probably-unhealthy food and get to the parks.
The parks are free, they’re vast, and there’s so much nature to see.
One of the most well-known parks in London is Hyde Park, which is enormous.
And, right alongside Hyde Park, you have Kensington Gardens.
Here you can find swans and they have Kensington Palace,
which is an extremely beautiful royal building.
But for me, my favourite spot is nearby here, and that’s Holland Park,
the lesser known of these parks, but inside you have an array of wildlife.
You are almost guaranteed to see the resident peacocks.
When I see peacocks, they always kind of remind me of a woman in wedding dress.
It just looks awkward, you know? They’re just walking around like that.
Look! It’s starting to raise its feathers!
I’ve never looked at a peacock so up close here.
They’re very friendly. They do come quite close.
And they’ve got this leathery underbelly of feathers,
which is just something really interesting I’ve never seen before.
Exploring London by foot is wonderful, but the public transport is really easy to use.
You can even just use your bankcard, scan it on the machine
as you go in and out of the station, and not have to buy a ticket at all.
With that in mind, the final stop that we recommend is to jump on a tube and head to the MM Market.
This place is absolutely banging!
This seems like such a great place to come and hang out with friends,
more so than Baro Market and the other places.
If you want to sit down, have a few drinks, and enjoy yourself a nice pizza,
Experience a bit of the local life - Exactly! This seems much more like our kind of vibe.
The food choices here are unbelievable.
I’m pretty sure you could name any style of food in the world and you will find it right here.
They’ve got Colombian ceviche, Thai food, Mexican food.
They’ve got Italian pizza,
which actually is probably one of the best looking pizzas I’ve seen in England so far.
If you’re looking for one, final bite to eat in London,
and to practice some of the English you’re learning with EF,
then we highly recommend here.
Half the fun of spending time in London is finding your own favourite spots to go.
Luckily, there are so many events, festivals, markets, food, cultures – all to enjoy.
Hopefully, this list can help you get started with exploring one of the most famous cities in the world.
Make sure you like this video if you found it helpful and leave us in the comments:
What’s your favourite spot in London?
Or, if you’ve not been to London before, what are you most looking forward to seeing?
And don’t forget to subscribe to both EF and the Travel Beans
for more travel tips and experiences.