Local Tips for a Trip to London
If you’re traveling to London for a short stay, you may be wondering how to see the main London sights as well as get off the beaten path a little. These travel tips for London will help you do both.
Updated: July 2020. Originally published: July 2015.
Table of Contents
Our London Trip
When we flew into London, we spent two brief nights in the city before continuing on to France for a wedding. I had been to London once before, back in high school, and it was Jedd’s first time to the UK.
Our typical method of travel involves spending a lot of time outdoors, getting a feel for each place by exploring on foot, and participating in free or low-budget activities.
This, paired with the fact that we’d also be recovering from jet lag, deterred us from using our precious time (and money) in London inside museum walls or trying to stay awake in a theater. Instead, we spent most of our time walking around town.
So for this guide, we pulled together some additional insider travel tips from local London travel bloggers. We hope these London travel tips help make your stay in London meaningful and successful.
Local Bloggers Travel Tips for London
These days, I rely more and more on fellow bloggers to get recommendations on the best places to visit in a new place.
Top Sights to Visit in London
We didn’t have time to complete the full itinerary that Lady Relocated recommends, but we managed to walk to most of the main attractions:
– Westminster,
– Buckingham Palace,
– Hyde Park,
– Tower of London,
– Tower Bridge,
– Millennium Bridge,
– Borough Market, etc.
My parents had an extra day and visited Tate Modern and the British Museum.
An efficient way to see many of these London attractions is following this “Queen’s Walk” itinerary.
If we had more time, I think we would have added more neighborhoods to our walks. (Read on for neighborhood recommendations from local Londoners.)
Self-Guided Walk Around London (Maps)
Here are the two main routes we took to cover many of the sights in London:
(Click on the maps above for more detailed route on MapMyRun)
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of our links, we may receive a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
London Tours
The London tips that follow are recent recommendations from locals living in London:
How to go off the beaten path in London
Contributed by Jiayi Wang, The Diary of a Nomad:
London may be famous for its iconic red phone booths or the touristy London Eye, but what makes this city a true dream destination is all the beautiful and underrated hidden gems it has to offer.
One of the best, lesser-known spots in town is the Pergola and Hill Garden nestled inside Hampstead Heath Park. This tiny place is ornate with blossoms in the warm months and filled with enchanting and mysterious vibes — perfect for a quiet afternoon stroll or a picnic on the grass.
St. Dunstan in the East is another hidden garden that exudes a peaceful and mysterious vibe. This site was a former church that was destroyed during WWII. Today, it’s a public garden that looks especially stunning in the fall, when it’s painted with 50 shades of orange. There are practically no tourists there, so grab a book or have a chat with a friend on one of the quiet benches in the garden to enjoy London from a different perspective.
Last but not least, grab a drink at Madison’s roof terrace inside the One New Change mall. Most tourists don’t know about this spot, but it offers an absolutely breathtaking closeup view of St. Paul’s Cathedral minus the tour buses and large crowds that usually accompany it. It’s no doubt that this terrace is also one of London’s best photo spots.
Contributed by Mads of The London Mother:
Venture out of Zone One and don’t be afraid to travel further afield. Yes, most of the must-see places are in Zone One but you’ll get a better and more realistic view of London in the places the locals visit.
We love hanging out in Victoria Park in East London – in our opinion it’s one of the best in London. We also like window shopping in Chiswick (West London) and boutique and book shopping in Crouch End, North London.
Greenwich (South East London) is a firm favourite; you can spot the location where Thor Dark World was shot at the Royal Naval College, visit the market for food from around the world, antiques and hand made products or try some good old fish and chips and eat them along the river.
South East London has a lot to offer, try Peckham, Dulwich and Brixton for a multicultural look at London and some excellent local eateries.
Where to Try Coffee in London
There’s so much more to coffee in London than the chains! Ignore Starbucks and instead head South for Lomond Coffee in Market Yard, Deptford (they have their own roastery in store so the coffee is always fresh) or Browns of Brockley and The Broca (they’re next door to each other) in South East London.
Contributed by Jiayi Wang:
Unusual Things to Do in London
If there’s one city on earth that’s bustling with all kinds of quirky, bizarre, and eccentric events, then it’s definitely London.
If you’re looking to have a unique and unusual evening, join a silent disco ghost tour, where you’ll be dancing in the middle of the streets with your headphones on while onlookers watch amusingly. Your ghost tour guide is dressed as a priest for comedic reasons and will be teaching you and a group of 15 other people cool dance moves in between eerie ghost stories.
Alternatively, you can also attend a hip hop painting party at Sip ‘N’ Stroke, where a DJ turns the venue into a nightclub while you wait for your artwork to dry.
For less dancing and more sitting, grab tickets to Showstopper! The Improvised Musical and watch some completely improvised musical masterpieces (in the past, I’ve watched “Lady and the Trump” and “Sinky Boots”). For an equally amusing experience, sit down for the hilarious Sh*t-Faced Shakespeare and watch a group of actors and actresses get increasingly wasted as they try to perform a Shakespeare play.
If you enjoy singing, definitely join a Massaoke event, where you’ll be surrounded with anywhere between 50 to 200 people, singing your lungs out together to a massive karaoke screen at a theatre or pub.
These are only a select few of the endless quirky things to do in London to make your time here even more unforgettable!
Where to Stay in London, England
Contributed by May of Eat Cook Explore
London is a vast city so depending on what your visit is for, picking the right area to stay will make your trip much more enjoyable.
If you are in town for some shopping and culture, stay in Central London, around Marylebone or Fitzrovia. There are many choices for accommodation that will suit all budgets. This area is close to many bus and tube stations and within walking distance to the West End for theatres. A short walk down the road will take you to Picadilly Circus, Soho for restaurants and Oxford and Regent Street for shopping.
If you are in London with kids, stay around South Kensington or Gloucester Road. This area is near all the best London museums like the Science Museum, Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, all of which are free to enter.
A short walk away is Hyde Park, the biggest green area in Central London. A walk through Hyde Park will take you to the Princess Diana Memorial, Kensington Palace a, Speakers’ Corner and the Pirate ship adventure playground.
On the north side of Hyde Park in Bayswater where you will find a lot of hotels, from small boutiques to larger luxury hotels. This is a very popular tourist area with lots of restaurants, proximity to Marble Arch and Oxford Street and every Sunday, the whole street is lined with artists selling their artwork.
Where we stayed: Airbnb in London
On any trip, accommodations can make life easier or more complicated. I asked a friend to recommend good neighborhoods in London, and then I cross-checked their locations against the public transit lines coming from the London-Heathrow airport and going to the St. Pancras train station, where we would catch our train through the Chunnel to Paris.
Fortunately, both the airport and train station are on the Piccadilly subway line, and I found a nice apartment on Airbnb in the theatre district, just two blocks from a tube station on the same line.
The other benefit I’ve found using Airbnb is convenience and savings on meals. Of course, part of the fun of travel is eating out, but doing so on a daily basis is not budget-friendly when traveling long-term.
We dined out for both lunches and one dinner, sampling classic British fare like pot pies and bangers and mash at The Red Lion. For our breakfasts, we picked up yogurt, cereal, and fruit from a nearby supermarket. And our second dinner consisted of local cheeses, prosciutto, melon, and bread, purchased from the Borough Market.
Data and Wifi in London
We used travel apps on our phones with off-line maps to get around the city without paying for data.
Additionally, Jedd’s T-Mobile plan includes free international data and texting in many countries. Others in our family got international sim cards for their unlocked phones and paid for data, texts, and phone calls as they went.
Another great option we’ve used in Europe is a pocket wifi device or sim card.
Check out our review and video on the TEP Wireless travel wifi device >
✈️ Protect your London trip with Travel Insurance – We’ve started using Nomad Insurance by Safety Wing for affordable evacuation, international medical, and trip coverage.
What are your favorite spots in London? Do you recommend any tools or resources for improving your time in this area?
Like this post? Pin it for later or share with friends!
