there's a shrek 4d experience which
i mean if you want like shrek i don't
know go to universal or something like
that
a stereotype that i feel like gets put
out there in movies you see the
characters like trying to make the
guards laugh
first of all don't do that
[Music]
hey guys welcome back to the girl gone
london channel if you're new here
my name is kaelin i'm an american who's
lived in the uk for almost 10 years
and today i am telling you all the
mistakes that people often make when
they come to london
okay so like i said in this video i am
giving you the do's and don'ts of london
in particular
london is where i've spent most of my
time while in the uk not all of it
but most of it around london and the
southeast of england so again
these are london specific not
necessarily uk specific
london is a very different place people
will tell you than the rest of the uk
and so today we are mostly talking about
london
now if you want more information about
visiting london i would highly recommend
you check out my visiting
london course this is basically like an
online guidebook
and the benefit is that it gets
constantly updated because it is online
as opposed to a printed book that
you might get it and um you know it's
the run for the year and then something
changes and the book isn't
updated i've had loads of people tell me
that this
guide has really helped them make the
most of their vacation and it can be
super expensive to take an international
trip to london so
you really want to make sure that you've
got everything in place and you know
exactly what you're doing
so you don't miss a single moment or a
single attraction
that should have been on your must do's
okay let's
get right into it with mistake number
one
buying individual tickets for the tube
or paper ticket
so sometimes tourists will get to the
tube station
they won't have figured out their
transportation they've just landed from
the airport at heathrow
and they decide to buy individual tube
tickets these are going to be almost
double the cost
of your other options so this is really
for the unprepared
and no londoner ever buys really paper
tickets anymore there are
two options that you have the first is
to get an oyster card
and an oyster card is basically your key
to the london underground as well as
london buses they can also get you on
some boats but i'll talk about that in
transportation video
but the oyster card is a five pound
deposit
and what that means is that you
basically load this card with money
and then when you go and tap into the
tube station
the cost is going to come from the
oyster card kind of like
um any sort of like top up card that you
might use
for any other situation it's it's just a
pre-loaded card
that you put money onto but when you use
an oyster card
the cost of your journey is literally
going to be like
half of buying a paper ticket the other
option
is going to be using a contactless card
a lot of people will comment below i
know this they'll say
everybody uses contactless cards now you
know this
who nobody even uses oyster cards
anymore a lot of londoners
have transitioned into just using
contactless cards because it's the same
price
and works just like an oyster card you
would tap it in and tap it out when you
get out of the tube station
the only reason i don't say this is like
a must do for visitors
is that if your car doesn't work abroad
or
has like um pretty hefty foreign
exchange fees it is going to charge you
the amount in pounds so often for
visitors from outside of the uk
i would say go with the oyster card
option as opposed to using your
contactless card from another country
but if you do have a card with no fees
or something like that as long as it is
a
contactless card which means that you
don't have to
put it in a slot you can simply press it
on the reader and it will read it
then you can use that as well so the
next tip also has to do with
transportation
and that mistake people make is trying
to get on a london bus
with cash you cannot pay cash anymore on
a london bus
it's not accepted they won't take it so
a lot of times people are used to going
to cities where you just buy the train
fare or
buy the bus fare on the bus you cannot
do that in london you need to have your
oyster card or a contactless card at the
ready
no cash can be paid to the driver on
board now the third mistake people make
is thinking that they can mess with the
guards at buckingham palace this is
a stereotype that i feel like gets put
out there in movies you see the
characters like trying to make the
guards laugh
first of all don't do that because these
are
real guards who are doing their real
jobs not just tourist attractions
secondly this isn't possible anyway
because the guards are actually
in front of the palace which is set very
far back from the gates
so you can't just go up to them and talk
to them you can look at them
from afar but people can't come to
london with this
idea that they're going to make a funny
video or a funny picture of them like
trying to make a guard laugh not gonna
work
the next mistake i see people make in
london is always taking
the tube so visitors tend to be scared
of london buses not because there's
anything to be scared of but because the
map
and figuring out how the buses work is
more difficult than
looking at the very well-designed tube
map and secondly
people don't have a concept of where
things are so it's very easy to feel
like you need to take the tube
but honestly i would highly recommend
walking as much as possible there are so
many tube stations where it's
faster to walk than to actually get on
the tube
and in terms of buses you know if you've
got some free time
to take a bus ride around the city or
you are more confident when it comes to
public transportation like
take the bus you can sit on the top of
this double decker bus
you can actually see london as you go by
the tube is amazing but don't just
stick to the tube because you'll
basically be underground the whole time
and not actually seeing london
the next mistake that people make is
eating out in piccadilly circus or
lester square so these areas are
super super touristy which means that
when it comes to
the food and the pubs they're going to
be super touristy and mostly
not worth your time i would highly
recommend
definitely seeing them but as i
mentioned in my video
on things that are overrated in the uk i
talked about lester square
they're great to see they're great to
take some pictures in but don't like
plan your whole
evening to have dinner around there
because you're going to be
paying tourist prices and probably
eating
tourist food the next mistake that
people make is this idea that they want
to stay
central so people are used to cities
that have like a downtown
and then the rest of it where the
downtown has all the attractions that
they might want to see
and they consider this central london is
not like that
london has different rings if you look
at a tube map and so i'll talk about the
inner ring
zone one that's very central but it
extends
very far it's not like a single downtown
and when people ask like well where's
the best place to stay
to see the major sites it's very
difficult to answer because
the tower of london and tower bridge
huge london sites
are nowhere near other london sites like
um westminster and the houses of
parliament and westminster abbey and
things like that so
it really comes down to your personal
must-dos for your own trip on where
is best for you i do do london travel
planning
and i will link that in the description
on how to get in touch with me about
that people find that helpful because i
can kind of help guide you on where it's
best to stay based on what you want to
do
but get away from this idea that there
is one central place to stay in london
because there's really not
the next mistake visitors make in london
is a simple one but people make it all
the time
people think that what is actually known
as tower bridge the famous bridge that
you're probably thinking of right now
when you think of
london they think that's called london
bridge and i
remember watching olympic commentaries
and olympic coverage back in 2012
and even commentators were talking about
how we were now seeing the beautiful
london bridge that is not true the
bridge that is really
magnificent and grand in london is
called tower
bridge now there is a bridge called
london bridge
but there's nothing special about it so
you wouldn't really
you know it's not going to be like a
huge highlight of your stay
the bridge that you're thinking of is
called tower bridge now the next mistake
visitors make in london is getting fish
and chips
at a pub so there's a difference between
getting fish and chips at a pub
and getting fish and chips at what is
known as a chippy which is basically a
takeout place that only does fish and
chips they might have a couple seats
but it's not like a restaurant they do
fish and chips as their main
meal and it's always gonna be better to
go to a chippy
you you can get some good fish and chips
in a pub i'm not saying like it hasn't
happened
but typically the best fish and chips
that you're going to get is going to be
from somewhere that really only does
fish and chips
if you do find yourself in somewhere
like borough market they've got a really
good
fish and chips stall um but they're all
around the city and you'll notice them
because
they won't have like uh tons of sit-down
seating it will look
kind of like a takeout place that says
fish and chips that's where you should
go
okay the next mistake has to do with the
tube again and that is
visitors like to stand on the left of
the escalator now when you get to london
and you see the signs written all of the
escalator it will say
um please stand to the right and that
means that people who are on the left
are going to be passing because
londoners can be a very impatient breed
as they're trying to get to the office
so just know
when you're on the tube escalator if you
are not walking
up the escalator you need to stand on
the right hand side
to let people on the left pass you okay
so the next mistake
are people actually thinking that
londoners are rude
and i would say this goes for any major
city and i myself have made videos about
how
like i miss the outward friendliness
of americans as opposed to living in the
uk so i'm not necessarily saying that
like
londoners are as chatty as maybe their
um
friends up north definitely the north in
the uk is known for a bit
more friendly outgoing kind of
personalities um and culture
but londoners are just busy they're just
going from place to place
but often as long as you don't choose
somebody who literally looks like they
are late for a meeting
um often people are really friendly in
terms of helping you figure out where
you're going
i myself i guess once i adopted this
look
that appeared to others that i knew
where i was going i get stopped a lot
but don't be afraid to stop somebody
and see if they've got any directions
for you or can point you in the right
direction
as long as they're not like literally
rushing up the tube steps a lot of
people
are really friendly and will help you
out the next mistake that people make
when they come to london from overseas
is
not planning for jet lag i'm not saying
that jetlag is going to like ruin your
trip or take you down or anything like
that but if you are coming
for me i work with a lot of american
visitors to the uk
if you're coming from the west coast of
the us
to london first of all it's an
eight-hour time difference
your body is going to be out of whack
when you first get here and you're just
going to have to
accept that and plan for that do not
plan
your craziest day on the day that you
arrive because people often think well
my flight gets in
at 8 am well you're not taking into
account the fact that
to you it's like the day before and
completely the wrong time
and you probably didn't sleep on the
plane a lot of people can't sleep on the
plane
and now you've got this like jam-packed
day
give yourself some breathing space get
to your hotel or airbnb
plan something don't just give in to the
jet lag but
know that it will be a part of the
beginning of your trip so try and put
the things that involve like staying out
super late or
your must do's a little bit later in
your itinerary the next mistake people
make are
visiting tourist attractions like madame
tussauds
there's a shrek 4d experience which
i mean if you want like shrek i don't
know go to universal or something like
that
the london aquarium is also like um
pretty touristy not like super well
known for
being a world famous aquarium or
anything like that so
make sure to do your research and stay
away from
the more touristy attractions like those
i just think there's so much to see in
london
that it's kind of pointless to waste
your time with those when you could see
those
in another city that doesn't have as
much to do okay the next mistake that
people make and misconception that they
have about london
is they don't realize how global london
is
so london has i think every cuisine
possible um every language possible
you're probably gonna hear as you're
walking down the streets
obviously it is a city in the uk
but we're not talking like idyllic
cotswolds
uh kind of your more stereotypical like
british experience
london is a multicultural city and that
is what makes it
so amazing and so great to explore is
you won't
just be experiencing british culture you
have the opportunity
to explore food and customs and events
and
languages that span the world so really
be prepared and excited for that kind of
multicultural experience
the next mistake that visitors make when
they come to london in my opinion
is paying for the view from the shard
this is included in the london pass
which i do like so if you have the
london pass then go up the shard
but if you don't have the london pass
the shard costs like 20 something pounds
to go up and see the view you can see a
really great
pretty much equal view for free from the
sky garden if you book in advance
so when you take into account like a
family of four going up the shard and
spending like
over a hundred dollars it doesn't really
compare to the awesome
free view of the sky garden and people
just think that
because the shard is an attraction that
is included in the london past
that it's something that is worth doing
it's not really on my
top list of must do's i much prefer the
sky garden view
the next mistake people make is taking
london black cabs everywhere
so yes the
taxi drivers or the cab drivers for
london black cabs
they know the city inside and out they
they have to take a test called the
knowledge
which means that they know every alley
every street like everything there is to
know
about how to get you that's from point a
to b
and i'm not knocking that however they
can be relatively expensive
and also you've got to think about
london traffic
so unlike in some places where it might
be faster
to get in car to get in a taxi a lot of
times in london it's actually
faster to walk or to take the tube again
this is kind of a consideration with
buses as well i do think that you should
take them
but you've got to keep in mind if you're
taking a bus at 5
30 pm um on a weekday during rush hour
like you're going to be kind of stuck in
traffic so
unless you have physical limitations if
you are able to walk or to navigate tube
steps
i definitely say take a black cab for
the experience but don't plan on taking
them everywhere you go
my next tip is for those of you who are
planning london trips in the winter
if you come expecting a snowy winter
wonderland
it's probably not gonna happen like it
might happen
maybe like a small chance but when it
does snow in the uk
uh london is definitely not the first
place that it's gonna happen and
it's really not a very snowy city so if
you come in the winter again
make sure you bundle up warm and you can
hopefully dream of this snowy landscape
if that's what you're looking for but
you're probably not going to get it so
just prepare yourself for that
another tip that kind of has to do with
the snow kind of not is
a lot of visitors think that because it
does rain quite often in london
that they should come prepared with rain
boots now when i lived in pittsburgh i
remember rain boots being
something that i would wear um around
town on a rainy day
londoners do not wear what they would
call wellies
rain boots on a daily basis you would
wear them
like if you go for a walk in the
countryside in the mud or something like
that but people
get shoes here that are not that are
regular shoes but
are waterproof because it's not going to
be comfortable for your feet walking in
london
all day in rain boots and also the kind
of like off and on
rain patterns means that a lot of times
you might end up wearing rain boots and
then it doesn't rain and then it stops
for an hour and then it comes back and
then it stops and comes back
so you want to make sure that you have
waterproof shoes and accessories
but not rain boots okay so that brings
me to the end of the video
those are the mistakes i see people
making the most i would love for you to
comment below and ask any other
questions you have
like i said i do have multiple resources
for you if you are visiting london
check out the description and make sure
to hit subscribe i talk about british
life i talk about expat life in the uk
and i also talk about
the best most overrated worst uk and
london attractions
and i'll have lots more london content
and information coming for you
thanks for watching and i'll see you
next time