Travel Guide: London

With so many iconic sights, London is at the top of most people's lists when planning a visit to England.

I was fortunate enough to visit recently and had such a great time that I want to share my top travel tips with you.

London is a very busy city with locals and tourists always on the move somewhere. The streets are full of people and it's standing room only on the underground trains. Coming from a very small town I found this particularly overwhelming to start with, but after a few hours I got used to it. Focus on where you are going and make sure you have all members of your group together. I don't want to put you off going, but these are things to be aware of.

Getting there

We travelled from Brussels to London using the Eurostar which brought us straight into the centre of the city at St Pancras station. I highly recommend the Eurostar as it was efficient and clean. The journey takes just over two hours and was a pleasant and relaxing way to arrive into the city. From St Pancras you can get on the underground and travel around, or hop in an iconic black cab and look at the scenery as you travel. I find the underground easy and logical to use, plus it's a cheap way to get around. There are maps dotted about the stations, but I advise downloading one onto your phone in advance so you can plan your route in advance. The lines are named and have different colours making the map easy to navigate; my teenage son enjoyed watching the stations go by and following our route as we travelled.

My Experience

Amazing. London is a busy city, but once you get used to the crowds and focus on where you want to go and what you want to see you'll have an amazing time.

We stayed in the Earls Court area which has plenty of restaurants for relaxing in at the end of a busy day. It's located on the District Line of the underground making it easy to get to the main sights and connect with other underground lines. The trains arrived every five minutes or so making it very convenient.

One of the best things about staying in Earls Court is that you are within easy walking distance of some fantastic museums. We visited the Natural History Museum; built in 1881 the building itself is a beautiful, and historical, structure. Inside, the museum is divided into zones to help you navigate around the many exhibits. My top tip is to look at the map online and decide in advance which exhibits you want to see then group them according to zone. We visited 5 exhibits in just over 3 hours, including a much needed stop for coffee.

The museum is very popular with school trips, I remember visiting it myself when I was at school. Go in the afternoon when the school trips are starting to leave. We did this and although the museum was still busy it was easier to walk around. Some of the areas, such as dinosaurs, are incredibly popular so be aware you might not have time to see everything you want to. Other museums in the area include the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert. These museums are all free to get into.

Getting to the main sights of London, such as Big Ben and the London Eye, was very easy from Earls Court. We took the District Line train and within about 15 minutes we were at our destination. My top tip is to plan what it is that you want to see in advance and make a route for yourself to follow. We went from Westminster, through St James' Park, past Buckingham Palace, into Trafalgar Square. From here we used the underground to take us to Monument (a monument placed to remember the Great Fire of London, 1666).

We had booked lunch in advance at a fabulous restaurant called Darwin on the 36th floor of the so-called Walkie-Talkie building. From here we had the most amazing views of London and the river Thames. The restaurant is set next to the Sky Garden for which you can book a ticket in advance should you want to look at the views without eating at one of the restaurants. I had not heard of this location before but thoroughly recommend it.

Having recharged with delicious food and taken in the views we moved on to look at the remains of a Roman amphitheatre which were found in 1988 and are in the basement of the Guildhall art gallery. The art gallery itself provided a lovely, quiet, place to admire artists impressions of London and have some time for reflection after a busy morning.

We had booked dinner at a restaurant in Covent Garden so took a gentle walk along the Thames, passing by St Paul's cathedral and the Millennium Bridge, to Covent Garden Market. We stopped to watch a street performer doing a juggling act and looked at some of the shops before finally sitting down again, tired, and ready for our delicious Greek meal.

Our day in London involved 16km of walking, but we got to see all of the sights on my son's wish list. We were very fortunate with the weather which enabled us to see everything. As you can tell this was a fly-by tour and we didn't go into any of the attractions. We will save this for our next trip.

Pros and Cons

Pros

There are so many famous sights to see and so many things to do, it's a city for everyone. When you need to sit down and relax there are plenty of cafes and in good weather I highly recommend sitting in one of the parks that are dotted all over the city. We walked through St James' park and office workers were taking a morning coffee break, heads turned up towards the sun.

People from all over the world live in London and this makes for some amazing food and restaurants. We sampled Thai and Greek, both delicious. Everyone we encountered in museums, shops, cafes and restaurants were super friendly. It was a great, big city, experience. I'm already planning my next trip.

Cons

It's busy. When you're travelling with a group make sure that everyone stays together as it's easy to lose sight of each other on a busy street. The underground doors open and close quite quickly so make sure everyone knows where they are getting on and off. If you visit on a rainy day, adapt your plans to spend as much time inside as possible. Walking around a wet city is miserable. Use the underground to get around instead. London inevitably involves spending a lot of time on your feet, either walking or looking around a museum. Wear comfortable shoes and plan in coffee and lunch breaks.

Visit London

In my other blog posts I have guided you to visit parts of the UK such as Cornwall, Northumberland, Glasgow. These are all absolutely worth visiting, but there is something special about London. Whether it's the achievement of finding your way around like a local, sampling food from around the world, taking in the sights you have only seen in movies or sitting in a park and watching the world go by, it's really worth a visit.

Top tip: plan in advance to get the most out of your trip. London is a big city and being organised will help you to see everything you want to.

Looking for some extra speaking practice before your holiday to the UK, Ireland or any English speaking country?

Click here to talk to me about conversational English coaching.

Chantal followed an English speaking course before her holiday to Australia and this is what she had to say:

“Very happy that I made the choice to learn to speak better English with Joanne.

My self-confidence has improved as a result. Joanne is very friendly and brought up really nice topics. Recommended."