Hi everyone, as most of you will know from my Instagram (@chips_adventures_ for those of you that don’t follow me, shameless plug I know) I’ve just come back from London. When I first decided to book London I was really confused about which airport I should choose, so I thought I’d do a little blog to tell you how I travelled to London and some fun things to do!
Travelling to and around London:
Before booking my flights I already had my hotel booked, so I did what most people would do and I googled the distance from each airport to my hotel. My hotel was in Clapham South and after comparing each of the five airports in London I decided to go with South End airport. Each airport seemed to be pretty far away from our hotel and these flights were by far the cheapest of the five airports, it cost 15 euro for the flight over and 15 for the flight back, absolute bargain.
This airport is pretty small, it took us less than five minutes to get from the plane to the train station right outside. From the airport we took a train to Stratford, this was 15 pound and took around an hour which we didn’t mind because we arrived at 9:30am and couldn’t check into our hotel yet anyways. Once we were off at Stratford we went to the service desk and bought an Oyster card. I had read a couple of blogs before visiting London and they all mentioned getting these. The card is pretty similar to a leap card, you buy one for £5, then top it up by what ever amount you want. These cards can be used in and around central London, (be careful if staying outside the centre as they are not accepted everywhere) the cards are also capped at £7 a day so you don’t need to worry about spending a lot on travel. The Oyster cards are accepted on the tube, bus and trains. Personally I usually tend to go 50/50 with taxi’s and public transport on holidays but luckily there was a tube station right beside our hotel which was able to bring us everywhere we wanted to go. We topped up our cards by £20 and that did us just fine for four days. On your way home you can go to the service desk in the train station and hand your Oyster card back. In exchange you’ll get back the £5 you spent on your card. The public transport in London is amazing and the tube can take you to just about anywhere.
Things to do in London:
Since I was only in London for a few days I didn’t get to do a whole lot. I had planned on visiting the Warner Brother Studios, but because I had booked my holiday last minute the weekend of the Gringott’s Bank exhibition opening, the tickets were all sold out (every Harry Potter fans worst nightmare lol). In its place I decided to have a ride on the London Eye and go on a canal cruise along the River Thame.
When I booked my tickets to the London Eye I asked about the canal cruise they offered aswell. The girl behind the desk was so helpful and told me it was only £33 for both, including a free 4D cinema experience. We went on the London Eye first but I would recommend going for the boat ride first so you know exactly what your looking at. It was a pretty dull day but, being in a little bubble floating up over London was honestly a great experience. If your someone who loves to look out the plane window you’ll know what I’m talking about. Anyone who loves to get a pic for the Gram you’ll definitely get one on the London Eye the view is unreal. It takes around 30 minutes for your pod to loop around the Ferris wheel which to me was plenty of time to get a good look at London and take pictures. Once we were off we went straight to our boat (which was literally right beside the London Eye). This trip was around 40 minutes and took us all over the River Thames while a guide told us some historical facts and myths about the bridges and buildings along the side of the river. Fortunately for me, my guide was a huge Harry Potter fan and pointed out various buildings and bridges from the movies. For £33 I definitely think this trip was worth doing, especially if you haven’t got a clue where any thing is, chances are you’ll see it in the air or on the boat.
I’m sure most of you already know Oxford Street is great for shopping but I just wanted to give it a quick mention. Any shop you want to go to, chances are you’ll find it here. From Apple and Canada Goose to Penney’s and Bershka there really is a great selection. Just about every shop I went into was having a sale so definitely go in and have a nose there really is something for everyone.
Chips Adventures 