This blog, way back in the day, began as a study abroad blog. So much life has happened since then and it’s been an entire six years since I last visited England.
Back in October, Chase and I booked a week-long trip for March of this year, and I spent those six months furiously planning both my first trip back in ages and Chase’s first trip to the UK ever. We were there from Tuesday, March 21st to Tuesday, March 28th and had a blast. I mostly focused on this trip being an action-packed “first ever trip” from the perspective of someone who’s spent a not-insignificant portion of their adulthood traveling to London and living in the UK.
I’ll post later with UK travel tips and packing advice, but for now, here’s our itinerary with everything I chose to do with five full days (and two half days) staying in London!
DAY ONE
You’re Really Here
2pm: Arrive in Heathrow
I was amazed by how quickly we got through immigration and customs with the new “eGate” system. I was prepared to spend up to an hour waiting to be interviewed by a border agent (“what’s your destination?” “what are you here for?” “how long is your stay?” etc.) Instead, there was an area with machines that scanned our passports, took photos of our faces, and let us into the U.K. I’m not sure if we were just lucky, but we didn’t even have a queue. It took us all of five minutes to get through customs. We didn’t even have to fill out the landing card on the airplane anymore. Unfortunately, that also meant that there were no passport stamps either.
2:30pm: Take the Heathrow Express to Paddington
We bought our Heathrow Express tickets at the airport. The journey from Heathrow to London on the Heathrow Express to Paddington is 25 GBP (round trip tickets are 37 GBP). It takes about 15min to get there, and after a long journey, the price felt worth it (to me), to get into London fast and comfortably. The train carriage is wider, with more storage space for luggage than the tube.
However, the cheaper option for your trip is taking the Piccadilly line on the London Underground. Taking the Piccadilly line from Heathrow to central London costs about 5.5 GBP and takes about 50min. We actually did this on the way back, when we were less pressed for time and less travel weary.
We also bought our Oyster Cards when buying our Heathrow Express tickets. We loaded the Oyster Cards with 30 GBP each initially, but ended up spending 45 GBP during our trip.
3pm: Buy a souvenir from Paddington Station
Paddington station has a dedicated Paddington Bear store, which is a great location to grab a souvenir for any wee ones on your souvenir list. As parents, we bought a Paddington Bear and a Paddington board book for our son as a fun souvenir from London. In the past, I’ve done the same for my nephew. We took pictures with our Paddington to put in a baby-friendly picture album, but alternately, you can just buy one of the Paddington books that feature iconic London sights, like Paddington at the Palace, Paddington at the Tower, or Paddington and the Grand Tour.
At Paddington Station, you can catch a number of underground lines.
3:30pm: Check into hotel
We stayed at The Rembrandt in South Kensington. I liked it because of its central location (our room had a view of the Victoria and Albert museum, just across the street!) and Chase liked it because it had king beds for a reasonable price. Our room came with a breakfast buffet each morning, where we could fill up on a full English breakfast before starting each day.
4:00pm: Have a cup of tea at the Morris Refreshment room at the V&A
Originally, we had planned to get into London earlier, and would have spent the afternoon touring both the Natural History Museum and the V&A Museum (of applied and decorative art), giving each place an hour and a half to catch their highlights. However, our flight was delayed three hours, so instead, we simply had tea at the William Morris room at the V&A. It is a beautiful dining room dating back to the 1860s, designed by Morris himself, with wooden wall appliques, stained glass windows, oak panelling, and gilded detailing. William Morris’s romantic designs are featured throughout the museum and are inspired by medieval design and Britain’s flora and fauna. They have earned their place as icons of British design.
5:00pm: Grab some hotel room snacks
Next on the list was to grab some British snacks from the nearest grocery store (Tesco, Sainsbury, M&S, Waitrose are all options you’ll find in central London). I highly recommend some McVities Biscuit Digestives (the kind with the chocolate coating) and anything from the Mr. Kipling brand (my favorites are the mini Battenburg cakes, French Fancies, and Bakewell Slices).
Even if you don’t want to stock up on treats, it’s a smart idea to grab a few bottles of water and some sort of food to have on hand to avoid paying room service prices when your stomach grumbles in the middle of the night!
We grabbed some digestives and a couple of liters of water from a Little Waitrose near our hotel.
Another souvenir tip: teas, chocolates, and treats make for enjoyable, economical treats to bring back for the break room at work (or to your book club or D&D group, or what-have-you), if you’re so inclined!
We brought it all back to our hotel room and took another short breather in our hotel room before heading out for the evening.
6:00pm: Pre-Dinner Drinks on the Thames
Take the tub to either Embankment or Westminster (depending on where you’re heading from) and make your way to the River Thames. In between these two stops is Tattershall Castle, the pub on the Thames.
We took a moment to enjoy being on the river, with views of the London Eye, Big Ben, and Parliament, and stayed just long enough for a pint each before heading onward.
This is the You’re Really Here moment.
6:30pm: Rick Steves’ Westminster Walk
Rick Steves has a great audio walking tour of the Westminster area, starting on Westminster bridge and ending in Trafalgar Square. On it, you’ll see the London Eye, Big Ben, Parliament, a statue of Winston Churchill, Westminster Abbey, 10 Downing Street, Trafalgar Square and more.
This is the walk we did to get to our dinner, although I listened to the tour before we arrived. On it, there are so many iconic, bucket list sights.
We stopped right before the end before the perfect dinner to cap off a first night in the UK: a pub meal.
7:15pm: Dinner at Horse & Guardsman
We had actually booked dinner at a more historic pub (The Red Lion), but its size and the time of day meant it was a little too crowded for our comfort (in central London, you can usually spot a popular pub a few blocks away by the crowd drinking in the fresh air outside of it).
There are a number of pubs leading into Trafalgar Square from Whitehall, however, but we chose Horse & Guardsman, where we ordered from the “Pub Classics” section of the menu. Chase enjoyed fish and chips, I had a delicious chicken, ham, and leek pie and for pudding we shared a Belgian waffle. It was delicious, atmospheric, and made us feel like we had really, truly arrived.
At the end, we made our way back to Embankment and took the Underground to our hotel. (Although Charing Cross is the closest station to Trafalgar Square, it didn’t have a line that would take us directly to our stop, while Embankment was only an additional 5min walk and did).
DAY TWO
Iconic London
8:00am: Walk London’s Green Lung and See the Palace
After an early night, we woke up refreshed and enjoyed breakfast at our hotel, before making our way to Hyde Park. Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James Park are four continuous royal parks that make up the “Green Lung” in the center of London. We started by the Albert Memorial in Hyde Park, walked along the Serpentine to Green Park, where we walked alongside the back garden of Buckingham Palace.
We stopped to take photos and gawk at the guards at Buckingham Palace. The flag flying atop the palace while we were there was the Royal Standard not the Union flag, which signaled that King Charles III was in residence.
After the palace, we made our way to St. James Park, where we spotted one of its famous white pelicans (turned pink!), stood on the bridge and gazed out at Whitehall through the greenery on one side and Buckingham Palace on the other, grabbed coffees at St. James Cafe, and journeyed onwards to our next stop.
9:30am: Tour Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey is just a short walk away from St. James Park and is truly unmissable. It costs £27 per person to get in and entrance includes an audio tour of the Abbey. Some of the best sights include the coronation chair, the tombs of royals including Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots, the cloisters, the graves of Charles Darwin and Sir Isaac Newton, the oldest door in Britain (dating back 1000 years), and the Poet’s Corner (and the tomb of Geoffrey Chaucer and grave of Charles Dickens).
It was extra exciting to see it before the coronation happening little more than a month later!
12:00pm: Tour the Tower of London
From Westminster Abbey, we took the Underground from Westminster to Tower Hill. It’s a short walk from the Underground stop to the tower, but we made sure to stop and see a surviving piece of the Roman city wall of Londinium.
While I bought tickets to the Tower (£30 each), Chase grabbed some fish and chips, and we entered the gates just in time to catch one of the guided Beefeater tours (every 30min), which lasted about an hour. Then, we saw the crown jewels, toured the White Tower, toured the Bloody Tower, and left out a gate with views of the Tower Bridge.
There was a lot to see in the Tower, from jewels to suits of armor to torture devices to hundreds of years old graffiti left by its prisoners. Our 2 1/2 hours there barely seemed to cover the essentials, and I recommend making a bit more time for it if you can.
3:00 Tea at Fortnum & Mason (at the Royal Exchange)
We left the tower at 2:30 and walked through the City to the Royal Exchange, where we had afternoon tea at Fortnum & Mason. It was a lovely experience, and I think it’s important to have afternoon tea (a service in which you get a pot of tea and tower of treats including cakes, pastries, and sandwiches) at least once while in London.
Fortnum & Mason tea can be especially exciting because it has a royal warrant marking it an official supplier of a royal household. It’s also just really, really good tea in my humble opinion.
After tea, we were pretty exhausted from the day’s walks and touring, and so we decamped to the hotel room for a few hours’ rest. If we’d been up for it, however, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Leadenhall Market, Borrough Market and Tower Bridge were all on the list of further sights in the area.
7:00 The Gunpowder Plot Experience
Starting at 6pm, we made our way via the Underground back to Tower Hill, where we had tickets for the Gunpowder Plot Experience. I honestly don’t know how to accurately describe it—it’s an interactive, immersive experience where you’re lead by actors through the Gunpowder Plot as though you’re part of it. They utilize a combination of dressed sets and VR to make the experience feel lived. We got two VIP tickets (£110 each) which included dinner and an intermission cocktail at a bar themed after a 17th century pub.
It was a fun and unusual night out/history lesson.
DAY THREE
Day Trip to Bath
10:30am: Train to Bath
We slept in this morning, in part because of how busy the previous day was, and in part to get super off-peak train tickets.
Trains to Bath leave every 1/2 hour from Paddington Station, and a super off-peak return ticket is about £100.
Unfortunately, the day we went, both routes towards Bath were blocked and our train was stopped for almost 2 hours in the middle of the British countryside, but we still had a nice afternoon in Bath
2:30pm: A Late Lunch at Sally Lunn’s
Sally Lunn and her buns are a Bath establishment. Also called a “Bath” bunn, these pieces of brioche bread are like taller, fluffier hamburger buns and they are absolutely delicious.
At Sally Lunn’s they’re serves as parts of sandwiches, desserts, and bread soup bowls. I highly recommend a “trencher” if you visit.
Meals are served in cozy Georgian dining rooms that makes you feel as if you’ve fallen into a Beatrix Potter storybook. Speaking of storybooks, Jane Austen once wrote in a letter about “disordering my stomach with Bath bunns.”
When you’ve finished your meal, head down to the museum downstairs where you can see the medieval oven and the various levels (in height) of the city over time.
3:30pm: Visit Bath Abbey
The first King of England was crowned in Bath Abbey although the current structure dates much later. Tickets are £6.50 and include entrance into a new Discovery Centre below the Abbey that walks you through its history.
4:00pm: Tour the Roman Baths
The Roman Baths are the crowning jewel of Bath, the reason for its name, and they are truly an amazing sight. You’ll feel lost in history standing in the ancient construction, staring up at the 17th century Abbey and Georgian buildings above you. It’s a breathtaking experience in a wonderfully set-up museum, with an audio guide leading you along. My (and I think everyone else’s?) favorite bit? The curse tablets, of course.
5:00pm: See the Circus and the Royal Crescent
If you’ve been watching Bridgerton, the Royal Crescent, at least, should be familiar to you! These terraced houses designed by John Wood in the late 1700s date back to the when the city was rebuilt in the Georgian period, just before Jane Austen’s time, and are powerful (beautiful) pieces of architecture. At the Royal Crescent, I also like to gaze out at the hills of Bath (the city sits in a valley, surrounded by the picturesque Cotswold Hills) and appreciate how the boundaries between the city and country fade away here.
6:00pm: An Early Dinner at Dough
We walked back down to the center of Bath to have dinner at Dough, a pizza place I enjoyed when I lived here, grabbed coffees at the Caffe Nero across from the Guildhall
7:00pm: Take the train back to London.
I wish we’d been to bath a little earlier and had a chance to visit the Jane Austen Museum, take a stroll through a park or two, or even gotten a chance to catch a bus to the town I used to live in, Corsham, but the city is a sleepy one, and shuts down pretty early unless you’re looking for a drink. So we took the train back to London at 7pm, caught the Underground to our hotel, and were back in for another early-ish night.
DAY FOUR
Vibrant London
10:00am: Take the Underground to Camden Market
We slept in this morning, again, because it is a vacation after all, but were on our way to Camden Market by 10. Saturdays in London are incredibly lively and Portabello Road and Camden come to life especially on them. We chose one of the two and headed to Camden, taking the District line to the Northern line.
At Camden, we shopped, ate, and watched boats navigate the locks on Regents Canal. Camden is known for birthing the punk movement (notably out of the Dingwall Building in the 1970s) and the area is colorful and eclectic.
1:30pm: Take the Underground to Covent Garden
From Camden, we continued on to Leicester Square, where we wondered around and saw Piccadilly Circus and China Town, before heading to our next stop.
2:30pm: See Les Miserables at the Sondheim Theatre on the West End
There are too many choices for shows to see on London’s famous West End, but after some discussion we decided on a classic: Les Mis. I have loved the 2012 film version for a decade, however, this was Chase’s first experience with Les Mis.
It was a phenomenal one.
We see shows that come to New Orleans on a national tour all of the time, but to see a show that has been at a theatre for almost twenty years, that is built into that theatre, was awe-inspiring, with some literal gasp-out-loud staging moments.
We’re still humming the tunes.
7:00pm: Dinner in Covent Garden
After Les Mis, we walked to Covent Garden, to visit our second market of the day. It’s not a must-visit, but I had pad thai at my beloved Wagamama (think British P.F. Chang’s) and we got pastries at Laduree. We also made a pit stop to the colorful Neal’s Yard, even though it was so late that most of the places there were closed.
We had reservations at Mr. Fogg’s Gin Parlour, but canceled because we weren’t up to drinking (I’ve been to a Mr. Fogg’s before however, and they’re a lot of fun!).
DAY FIVE
South West England
7:20am: Take the Underground to Victoria Station
This was not a morning to sleep in, because it was going to be an absolutely jam-packed day visiting as many outside-the-M25 bucket list sites as possible. Our first stop was Victoria Coach Station, which confusingly is about a 5-10 minute walk away from the Victoria Rail/Underground stations.
8:00am: Catch the Evan Evans tour of Windsor, Stonehenge, and Oxford
I’m a big fan of bus tours while on vacations in other countries. Even though when I picture a “bus tour” in my mind, I still imagine stereotypical tourists in Hawaiian t-shirts and socks with sandals loudly asking a local whether they speak English, and even though they have the major downside of a strict schedule and of traveling wherever you go with a crowd, I think they provide great opportunities.
In our limited time in the UK, and fresh both from a pandemic and into parenthood, I was less concerned about getting enough time to ponder every interesting item in a museum or to do a deep-dive into “real” non-touristy London.
I wanted to make sure that at the end of the trip, we had hit as many “you have to see it once in your life” items as possible.
A bus tour allowed us to do just that on a day outside of London. Our time at each place was shorter than we would’ve liked (I almost abandoned the bus so we could have a few extra hours in Oxford and still wish we had), but we seized the opportunity to experience them just the once, a feat that we wouldn’t have been able to manage navigating to each place on our own using trains and public transport.
The schedule was this:
8am: Leave for Windsor
8:50am: Arrive at Windsor, wait for opening at 9:30
10:00am: Tour the state rooms of Windsor
I recommend having a cup of tea/coffee in the Undercroft and using one of the public bathrooms, which is pretty fancy as a bathroom goes and will give you the ability to say you’ve peed in a castle. You know, if the subject ever comes up.
11:00am: Run back to the bus, head to Stonehenge
12:30pm: Arrive at Stonehenge
1:00pm: Walk around the stone circle, take as many pictures as possible.
2:30pm: Leave for Oxford
4:00pm: Go on a walking tour of Oxford (although I wouldn’t recommend it, run straight for the Ashmolean or Bodleian Library instead or have a pint at the Eagle and Child and spend your hour really getting to experience one thing.
5:00pm: Leave for London
7:00pm: Return to hotel
After such a long day of travel, we took this night to have dinner at the hotel and take it easy.
DAY SIX
Last Full Day
10:30am: Take Underground to St. James, walk to Buckingham Palace
The nearest Underground stations to Buckingham Palace are St. James Park, Green Park, and Victoria Station. From Green Park or St. James Park, you can usually just follow the crowds to the Palace.
10:45am: Watch the Changing of the Guard
To be frank, I don’t find the Changing of the Guard that interesting, but it’s one of those things you want to be able to say you’ve done once, right? The crowds get pretty intense, but if you can, try to grab a spot on the Victoria Monument, where you’ll be elevated and get a better view.
The Changing of the Guard doesn’t occur every day, so if you want to see it, you should check the schedule first. I also highly recommend stopping by Buckingham Palace twice, like we did: once to see the ceremony and once for a clearer view of the Palace.
12:00pm: Ride the London Eye to the top of London!
From Buckingham Palace, it’s a pleasant, sight-filled walk along St. James Park, towards Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, across the Thames on Westminster Bridge, to the London Eye.
The London Eye costs about £40 per person and your ticket doesn’t give you a time to ride the Eye, but a time to get in the queue. Obviously the queue can be much longer during certain times of the year, but in the off-season, the wait isn’t more than a couple of minutes.
We got to the Eye a few minutes early and were able to get in line before the time on the ticket.
I’m personally claustrophobic and acrophobic, but despite being in a small enclosed capsule traveling over 400ft above ground, the London Eye provides a smooth, relaxing journey above London.
They do stuff about 30 people in one pod, which IMHO is about 10 too many to be able to enjoy the views (you have to rely on the kindness of others not to hog the most iconic view of Buckingham Palace and Westminster), but it’s still a worthwhile and exciting experience.
1:30pm: Cross Abbey Road (and buy some souvenirs at Abbey Road Studios)!
From the London Eye, we took the Northern Line to St. John’s Wood and walked about 5min to the iconic street crossing on Abbey Road. There’s no street light on the crossing, so the poor motorists in the area do have to wait for tourists to take all of their pictures before driving down the street. To be mindful of the community we were in, I took a video of Chase crossing the street, let cars go, and then crossed myself.
After crossing, we walked a few houses down to Abbey Road Studios. Even though Abbey Road Studios is most well known for that famous Beatles album and cover, it has a cool and important history beyond the Beatles, as one of the first purpose-made recording studios (opened in 1931). They recorded the famous King’s Speech (transmitted from telephone) as well as the score for The King’s Speech film. Most major recording artists you can name have recorded there (from Glenn Miller, to Pink Floyd, to Lady Gaga), and iconic movie scores for films including Raiders of the Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter have been recorded at Abbey Road Studios.
At the studios, you can write on their graffiti wall, wave to family on their street cam and, of course, visit their gift shop. We bought a number of souvenirs.
3:00pm: Afternoon Tea at the British Museum
From St. John’s Wood, we took the Underground to the Tottenham Court Road station, and walked a few minutes to the British Museum. It was late in the day, and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast, so our first stop in the museum was… the restaurant.
The British Museum’s restaurant is located at the top of their atrium, which provides a stunning view of the glass ceiling and internal architecture of the museum. We got another afternoon tea here, which was an excellent selection of sandwiches, treats, and scones.
3:30pm: A Quick Tour the British Museum
After the quick tea, we went out in search of the museum’s highlights.
I wouldn’t recommend trying to see everything in the museum. It is absolutely enormous. Instead, my advice is to figure out which highlights you absolutely want to see and scope them out. I also recommend Rick Steve’s audio walking tour (and map!) of the museum.
Here’s a list of 14 highlights that the museum itself lists. And here’s a New York Time’s guide.
Entry into the British Museum is free.
5:30pm: Stop by Platform 9 ¾ & the British Library
From the British Museum, we walked around Russell Square (spotted one of the last green cabbie shelters), grabbed cappuccinos at Caffe Tropea, and took the Underground from Russell Square to King’s Cross St. Pancras. There, we visited Platform 9 ¾ (join the queue and take a picture, or just enjoy spotting sights from the movies).
We counted stick around for long because we were meeting friends for dinner in Covent Garden (at the delicious Din Tai Fung), but if we’d had a bit more time, our last stop would have been the outstanding British Library (just down the road from King’s Cross and St. Pancras).
At the Treasures of the British Library Exhibit, you can see Jane Austen’s writing desk, Shakespeare’s First Folio, the Magna Carta, notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, the Mana Carta, and more.
Entrance into the British Library and the Treasures Exhibit are free.
DAY SEVEN
Crossing the Pond Pt.2
10:00am: Tour the Museum of Natural History
After having breakfast and checking out of our hotel, we had two choices for what to do that morning: the place we missed out on due to our missed flight or the planned itinerary item. I let Chase choose and he chose the former, so we walked just across the street to the Museum of Natural History.
The Museum of Natural History would claim that its best sights are its dinosaur and whale skeletons. This is patently false.
The best sight at the Museum of Natural History is the building itself. It is a cathedral to science, made of terracotta tiles carved into relief sculptures of the flora, fauna, and fossils. The grand central hall is multiple stories in height with large stained glass windows, skylights, and a ceiling painted with endless blocks of gilt botanical illustrations.
Entry is free, but if you’re visiting during the high season, you can get a ticket reserving a time slot.
10:00am: Harrods
The other option for us today would have been walking down the road and visiting the famous Harrods department store, getting treats from its famous food hall, and both souvenir shopping for last-minute gifts (in the places we could afford) and window shopping (in the places we couldn’t).
12:00pm: Take the Underground to Heathrow
Once we’d finished up at the museum, we took the Piccadilly line back to Heathrow airport. It was a longer journey, but we had more time. For international flights, Heathrow doesn’t let you check in/drop your bags until three hours beforehand anyway. Once there, we got some coffee at Cafe Nero while waiting to drop our bags, pretty quickly made our way through security, had one last Fish & Chips at the Terminal 5 Wetherspoons, shopped at the airport’s mini-Harrods store, and boarded our flight home.
There is so much to do in London and in the UK that you could spend half a year doing nothing but touring what I would consider “essential sights.” However, I’m really proud of this trip: of everything I was able to fit into it and of the first experience of the UK that I was able to give my husband.
If you’re planning a trip to London too, I hope this itinerary is helpful to you in planning your own trip!