London is one of the most visited cities in the world, and for good reason. There is so
much history, culture, food, and all sorts of things that you can do here.
With these London sightseeing tips, I am going to show you
the essentials to save you some time and also money. So let's get started with the tips.
The most popular way to get around London is using London's transport system. It is amazing.
I have not owned a car since moving to London. I literally just catch the train, tube or bus
somewhere. So it is perfect when you're traveling here to just use the network, and the way that you
can use the network is by getting an Oyster Card. You can get one sent to you by Visit London before
you arrive, or you can just pick up one from the train station or airport. Alternatively, if you've
got a credit or debit card that you wish to use, you can just tap that on as well, along with your
phone. So they have Google Pay, Apple Pay. So there are all sorts of methods that you can use.
One thing to bear in mind is if you're an overseas traveler, then you might get hit with
exchange rates and fees from your bank. So do double check before using your card as an option.
Secondly, you can get an oyster card and you can put a weekly pass on it or a monthly pass.
So if you're here for five to seven days, then I totally recommend getting the weekly pass,
and then if you're here for a whole month, then getting the monthly pass. And that way
your card is topped up and you don't have to worry about paying for travel at all. They do
apply caps on your credit and debit cards. So you get a daily cap or a weekly cap, depending
on how much you use the public transport. Book London's most popular attractions in advance,
especially during the summer season. So if you want to go visit Warner Brothers Studios,
where the making of Harry Potter happened, this definitely books out months in advance during the
summer season. And if it's on your bucket list, you don't want to be missing out. Some companies
also offer discounts if you book in advance. So this can save you a bit of time and money,
and you may be able to skip the queue as well. So have a look into each attraction because some,
I would recommend booking in advance and others, I wouldn't, but I do have a whole post that explains
this, which I'll leave in the description below. Take advantage of the Days Out Guide two for one
offer. So with lots of attractions in London and actually across the UK, Days Out Guide offers you
two tickets for the price of one, or something similar like that. And the only thing that you
need is to have a voucher and also a train ticket. So if you've watched my Kew Gardens video,
you will see how I went through the process of getting my two for one voucher and the rail ticket
that I used for my journey. But it did save my friend and I 50% off. And as I pay pay-as-you-go
travel anyway, I didn't have an impact of the cost for it. So yeah, it's a really good way
to get cheaper tickets if you're traveling as a couple or a pair, or a group of even numbers.
Decide whether you want to get the London Pass. Now, this is only beneficial to some people.
It really depends on how you want to structure your trip, and what's really important for you to
see and do. For example, if you're going to Saint Paul's, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge,
they're all really close together and you'd probably make a lot of use by doing that in a day.
And then you can follow up with the other attractions that are on the list. It does have
over 60 attractions, so it can be quite beneficial and cost saving, but you just need to weigh up
what you want to do on your trip and whether that does actually benefit you.
If you are only seeing one attraction your trip here, then using the Days Out Guide or booking in
advance might be a better savings for you. There is nothing worse than rocking up to a place and
funding it's closed. So double check the opening times for the attractions because they do change
opening times, depending on the time of year or what's going on in London. So winter you'll
see places like Kew Gardens only being open for a couple hours during the day,
whereas during the summer months, they're open for a lot longer.
So double check so that you can plan your day around that. Be warned, there will be scaffolding.
I can't think of how many times I've seen a photo on Instagram of Big Ben in the last
couple of years, and it has no scaffolding on it. And it has been scaffolded for quite some time
now. And people get disappointed all the time when they rock up to London and find that Big
Ben is covered in metal sheeting and things like that. So be warned that there will be scaffolding
across the city, and you might not get to see the building or the site that you wanted to
just because they are really old and need a bit of maintenance. Get off the beaten paths. So one
of the cool things about London is that it is very diverse, it has a lot of things to offer. Some of
my favorite things to do is for example, going to Penge East, which has some awesome street artwork.
It's a little different to shortage, but there are some cool pieces here and it's very, very local.
Alternatively, do something like going to the Bermondsey Beer Mile,
or if you really love food, then go to some of the local food markets like White Cross Street,
which is a market open Monday to Friday, serving food during lunchtime. So it's just got lines of
food trucks, and then all of the local workers go there to get their lunch. And then around the
corner is a pub called, The Two Brewers, which you can sit and eat your food there and just
buy a drink. I also have a video on Brixton. So if you want to see a different area of London, that's
really cool. You can go to Market Row or Brixton Village, and there are cool little independent
shops, lots of cafes and restaurants, and a few local breweries that you can check out. I will
leave links to both videos in the description below, or click on the card popping up now.
One of my favorite things to do is get a skyline view of London. And there are so many places that
you can do this, and they are free. You don't actually need to pay to go to the
top of the Shard or the London Eye. Some of the alternatives you could do is go to Primrose Hill
and you can have a picnic over the park and see the view of London. You can go to the Sky
Garden. I also have a video about this popping up in the card now or in the description below,
and it's basically like a city oasis. It's got a beautiful garden and panning views of the city.
Another thing you can do is go to the Shard. So there is a bar called Oblix,
which is on the 32nd floor. And all you need to do is go to the bottom of the Shangri-La,
go up in the lift, and you'll get views of the city with a glass of wine or Coca-Cola,
for basically the price of a drink. So it's a great way to chill.
Another place that you can go to is the Tate Modern, and they have a viewing platform there
along with one new change. There are so many great view locations
that I can just ramble on for hours. So make sure that you take advantage of these
and get some beautiful sweeping skyline views. Check for planned engineering works before you
travel. For some reason on the weekend and during the Christmas holidays, there are
lots of planned engineering works. The other weekend, I was going to a friend's birthday
and they shut down the overground, which meant that I had a really long journey to get there.
There generally are replacement buses and things like that, but it's just worthwhile checking how
long it will take you to get there and what impact it has on the things that you're doing that day.
Look closely at the map before booking accommodation, there is nothing worse
than realizing you're 20 minutes away from the closest public transport, there are no
restaurants or shops that you can go to, and it's not near anything that you wish to see.
If you're only here for a short time, then it might be worth staying within the center of
London. If you're staying here for longer time it might be worth going to the suburbs as an example,
but just double-check the transport links and all of the amenities that you would need for your trip
so that it's nice and easy and you have a wonderful time here. Don't over-cram your
days in London. I see too frequently, people have these long lists, and you're just never
going to be able to achieve it, and you're going to add additional stress. What I do
when I'm traveling is I'll put all of the things that I want to see on a map and I'll color code
them for the most important things that I want to see. And then things in the surrounding areas
to make sure that I know the closest restrooms, cafes, coffee shops, because I love my coffee.
And that way I'm not going from one end of the city to the other end of the city,
especially when it's somewhere like London and it's massive. So this will help you plan your
day in that area and you'll get the most out of your trip. Go to the free museums in London.
London has some of the most incredible museums, like the Natural History Museum. The architecture
in there is just so gorgeous, and you can just imagine David Attenborough walking around,
giving a speech around there. He does actually have a series about that. Or if you're more
into art, then you can go to the Tate Modern or, history, then there's the British Museum.
There is the Welcome Collection, the Wallace Collection, there are so many art galleries,
museums and things like that and you can fit it, and they're totally free. I mean, there's not many
places in the world that you can go to amazing venues like that and not have to pay a thing.
Go on a free walking tour in London, or just any of the tours. There are so many fantastic ones,
Sandemens and a few others run them from the Churchill statue, which will cover mainly
the west of London. Or you could do a shortish street art walking tour, or do a Jack the Ripper
walking tour, which is generally held at night, and you can kind of see all the spots where
Jack the Ripper's victims were taken, and the history and the areas around that, which is super
interesting. Those were some of my top London sightseeing tips, and let me know in the comments
below what tips that you have for saving time and money when visiting this wonderful city. And there
are some more videos now popping up to show you what else you could do in this wonderful city.