- Lots of London tourists come to the city
and they spend their money and their time
on these characterless, man-made attractions
that don't actually show the real side of London
and I'm the type of traveler that likes to go to a city
and see what the locals love doing.
So if that's how you are too,
I'm going to tell you the things that you should avoid
when you come to London.
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Now, if you want to do some of these things
that I've mentioned, listen, it's you're a trip, you do you,
that's totally fine,
but I personally want to steer you in the direction
of being able to see the best parts of the city
and these places are just not gonna give you that.
Let's start with Leicester Square.
There is nothing to do in this square except for eat
at terrible chain restaurants,
like literally the worst chain restaurants in the UK,
and this is also home to the absolute bane of my existence,
(air whooshing) M&M world.
If you're planning on going to M&M world
I think you should just unsubscribe from my channel
'cause I just cannot have that energy here.
Just can't do it.
If you find yourself nearby Leicester Square though,
and you need a good place to eat,
it's really hard to find like the good local spots.
But if you have my three day London itinerary,
you'll find lots of options right around the area
that are actually good.
Oxford Circus is the, potentially, most famous shopping.
Oxford Circus is potentially the most famous shopping area
in the entire world
and because of that it is always super crowded,
so crowded that Oxford Street gets on average
one million visitors a day,
one million people on one street.
Londoners actually will add minutes
to their walking journeys just to be able to avoid
Oxford Street because it's such a pain to walk on.
I also don't recommend going shopping here
because Oxford Circus and Oxford Street
pretty much just have the usual chain shops
that you can find in many other places and cities
around the world.
If you do want to go shopping,
I would recommend either going to the nearby area
that's called Carnaby or you should watch my video
about really cool alternative shops
that you should visit in London,
and you can watch that by clicking the card
popping up in the corner of this video.
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I'm a New Yorker and New Yorkers hate going to Times Square
and Piccadilly Circus is the Times Square of London.
It's pretty much just full of tourists taking photos
and some really terrible souvenir shops,
plus a really big screen that just has advertisements on it.
I would say instead, skip Piccadilly Circus
and go explore Soho and I actually have a video
with Papa Teach me where we show you
some great hidden gems to check out in the area.
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If you want to scream from the rooftops
that you are a tourist,
then go on one of those hop-on hop-off bus tours.
They only take you around to the most touristy attractions
in London and usually get stuck in a lot of traffic
while you're on them.
Instead, I would really recommend that you just
take one or two areas to visit in a day
and explore those by foot,
and if you're having trouble figuring that out
then my three day London itinerary
already has that done for you.
Everybody who comes to London knows about Harrods
which means that pretty much everybody who comes to London
goes to Harrods so it is always packed to the brim
of people just walking around and exploring
but not actually buying anything.
Honestly, I don't really think it's that big of a deal,
plus it's in an area that there's not really
very much else around it to check out afterwards.
So if you're not planning on buying anything,
I would skip it and if you still do want to see
a department store I'd recommend Selfridges
near Bond Street Station, or Liberty by Carnaby Street.
They're both a little less crowded
and they are also in better areas
where there's some other things that you can see
along the way.
But again, if you're not planning on buying anything,
maybe just skip it 'cause I feel like wandering around
a store and not being able to buy anything
is kind of torture.
(helicopter rotor whirring)
We're trying to film helicopter,
can you be quiet for a little bit, please?
Please?
There are four attractions in London
that are usually grouped together in ticket bundles.
I call them the Awful Four.
They are soulless, they're expensive.
You can do them in pretty much any other part of the world.
They're not London based really.
And they're just awful so please, for the love of God,
do not go to one of the places in the Awful Four.
So the Awful Four is the London Dungeons,
the London Aquarium, Shrek's Adventures,
and, that creepy wax museum, Madame Tussaud's.
Just avoid all of them, please.
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Right near a couple of the attractions in the Awful Four
is the London Eye.
And, honestly, Londoners do not get
the fascination with this.
You pay a lot of money for a ticket to go into a capsule
for 30 minutes that spins you around
and maybe you get to see the skyline of London
if you get a non cloudy day,
but there are so many other viewpoints that you can visit
in London that are either free
or just a little bit more interesting
and I do have a video which tells you about some of them
and you can watch that by clicking the card popping up
in the corner here.
Also the area in front of the London Eye
gets so, so crowded during the day,
especially in the summer,
so even if you buy a reserved time ticket
for the London Eye,
you'll likely still end up waiting in line
with like thousands of other people to get onto the Eye
and, honestly, it's very stressful.
I don't know why we're all subjecting ourselves
to things like this on our holiday.
Lots of people who visit London want to go to a pub,
and that is great, you should definitely do that
because that is very much a part of British culture,
especially for Londoners.
So it'll be cool to get involved with the local things
that people do here.
However, the pubs that are located
near the major tourist attractions in London
are usually pretty awful.
Are we seeing a pattern here?
Anything that's near like the major attractions
is usually pretty bad.
So avoid those pubs because they're going to be overpriced
and also the food is going to be awful.
London has some beautiful and really interesting
and fun pubs that you can go to
but they're not usually in the center of London.
So you'll want to venture a little bit away
from Central London into one of the areas
that feels a little bit more neighborhoody
and that's where you'll find some really great pubs
that you'll be able to hang out in,
have some nice food and also hang out with the locals.
Two areas that I would recommend starting your search
for a more neighborhood local pub
is Notting Hill and Camden.
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Pretty much anything around Buckingham Palace
Londoners avoid at all costs
because it's all made for tourists so it's very expensive
and if it's like a pub or a cafe or a coffee shop
it's usually pretty terrible as well.
So you'll never find a Londoner going to Changing the Guard.
You get stuck there for like 45 minutes,
especially because it gets really crowded,
especially in the summer,
and it's just like, why?
I mean, it's tradition, yes,
but it has nothing to do with the heartbeat of the city
or how the locals experience the city.
So if that's what you're trying to get on your trip
then I would avoid Changing the Guards.
When you go to the most touristy areas of London,
many of which I have mentioned,
you will see lots of these flashy big souvenir shops
and, honestly, anybody who has any taste
hopefully will see that those weird Mind the Gap t-shirts
and anything in these shops are really tacky
and all that stuff, of course, is overpriced.
So instead, what I recommend for souvenirs
is trying to find something that you can get in London
that is special and unique
and also that helps to support the local community.
If you need some ideas for alternative souvenirs
that you can get while you're in London,
then watch my video that literally talks about all of that
by clicking the box popping up right below me
and let me know what you end up picking up
while you're here.
In the corner of this video,
Is that the right, am I pointing to the right corner?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.