As a student who studies in United Kingdom, I think they will not miss out London as their bucket list. I have been to numerous times to London during my study period. All I could say is you will never get bored of London.
Many of my friends have asked me about London like the places to visit, the budget, transport, food, etc. Well, by this blog post I am going to share about my travel experience in London and might as well summarise my answers to these questions. Hope you all have enough patience to read my long-winded posts.
Firstly, I would start off with places to visit. So what does a typical tourist do? I had grouped them into few categories.
Tourist sites
1. LONDON EYE, BIG BEN , PALACE OF WESTMINISTER
I think I don't need to introduce much about this as everyone will be visiting this place when you're in London. London Eye, Big Ben and Palace of Westminister are the symbols of London. The station you need to stop is at Embankment. The whole tourist site is like a circle. You can start off from a bridge right outside the station. Walking along the bridge you will see these tourist sites.
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| London Eye |
London Eye is the Giant Ferris Wheel. If you observed the picture clearly, it has only one red cubicle among all the cubicles in London Eye. Details about the ride is in this website. You can also buy combination tickets to London Eye, Madame Tussauds, Sea Life London Aquarium and the London Dungeon online which saves up to 40%.
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| Palace of Westminister |
Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster. It is also often extended to refer to the clock and the clock tower (Picture below).
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| Big Ben |
I would want to remind all tourists to be careful whenever visiting these places. I can say these places are always crowded with people all year long. Be careful with scams like asking you to donate money (above 20 pounds) , offering to help you to take pictures then collect money from you, asking you to take picture with their mascot, etc. These people are kind of cunning by means they will force you in some ways to pay them money. And also becareful of your bags or important belongings.
Admission: All free by sightseeing (except London Eye if you want to take the ride)
Station: Embankment
Just my own personal preference, I would like to visit Tower Bridge during the night time. As you can see it is really amazing during the night.
You can also have a chance to visit inside the Tower Bridge. From what I see from Google images, they kind of look awesome (hope Google is not deceiving me :P ) . This is called the Tower Bridge Exibition . I never been in there so I would not make any comments about it. Further details about the ticket prices and opening times are in the link I stated. You can save some money if you buy the ticktes online. Furthermore, if you're interested in watching the bridge lift, the details are in this link. They varies every day so make sure you do some research before going.
Admission: Outside free, exibition fees varies
Station: Tower Hill
3. Buckingham Palace
This is also one of the place where you can see most of the tourists. I went to visit Buckingham Palace during the night. I think Buckingham Palace is nicer during the day. Below photos are taken from my freind, N Lyn during the day.
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| Victoria Memorial |
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| This is part of the changing guard ceremony. |
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| The main entrance of Buckingham Palace |
For more information about things to do at Buckingham Palace or prices , etc link at this website.
Station: Victoria
4. ST PAUL'S CATHEDRAL
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| Front view of St Paul's Cathedral |
St Paul's Cathedral is one of my favourite place to visit. It is famous for its bell ringing. You can get this opportunity to listen to the beautiful ring tones in some period of time. The admission to the church is free. However, if you would like to join sightseeing at St Paul's Cathedral, you need to buy an admission ticket. The prices are at this link. You can buy online before your visit and save up to 1.50 pounds per ticket as well as getting a fast track entry. The sightseeing tour allows you to see the view of whole London. I didn't manage to go to the sightseeing tour as I didn't know it was close on Sundays. Few things you might need to take note of:
- St Paul's Cathedral is open for sightseeing from Monday to Saturday between 8.30am - 4pm.
- Last tickets are sold at 4pm and the cathedral closes for sightseeing at 4.30pm.
- On Sunday the cathedral is open for worship only and there is no sightseeing.
Admission: Free but need to pay a fee if sightseeing at St Paul's Cathedral
Station: St. Paul's on Central Line
5. TRAFALGAR SQUARE
Just something personal, I had watched Edge of Tomorrow by Tom Cruise and got excited when I am able to spot a scene taken at Trafalgar Square. I think it would be nice during the sunny days to explore Trafalgar Square. Below are some pictures during the night at Trafalgar Square.
Basically it's just a square with some buildings on it. I realise that it is quite common for Europe countries to have squares as their tourist sites.
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| Some wall arts at Charing Cross Station |
Admission: Free
Station: Charing Cross
6. QUEEN ELIZABETH OLYMPIC PARK
Basically I don't recommend someone to visit this place but if you're an Olympic fan you can just go ahead. It was a disappointing journey for me when I came so far to see the Olympic Stadium and the ArcelorMittal Orbit. I was shocked to see that this place seemed to be abandoned after the 2012 Olympic games. As you can see the place seems undeveloped and organised. Just some pretty sunsets we manage to catch during our journey.
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| From the left: ArcelorMittal Orbit and Olympic Stadium |
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| The Olympic Park is huge and quiet. Maybe because I expected there would be a lot of people but it turned out to be the opposite way. |
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| This sunset is so pretty :) |
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| On our journey walking towards the Olympic Stadium |
Admission: Free (but Olympic Stadium and ArcelorMittal Orbit varies within a fees)
Station: Stratford
Stations to visit
1. KING CROSS STATION
I think King Cross Station is one of the busiest stations among all.
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| The interior view of King's Cross Station. Just something nonsense, the purple light can change to many colours :P |
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| The outside view after we left King Cross's Station |
It's because of UK's favourite Harry Potter! This is a place where Harry goes into his magical world at Platform 93/4. So I think everyone was queing wishing to go through the wall to see Harry. haha
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| Something you can do to break the box with your friends. |
Sorry if I said something wrong because I am not a Harry Potter fan. haha
Admission: Free
Station: King Cross
2. ST. PANCRAS STATION
Another station that most people will probably visit is the St. Pancras Station. It is a place where passengers take Eurostar to travel to Europe. Besides, there are also numerous film and tv shows being filmed at St. Pancras Station. For instance, UK's latest television series Apprentice, batman begins, Bridget Jones’ Diary , the music video for spice Girls Wannabe, etc.
Admission: FreeStation: St. Pancras Station
Places for shopping
If you're planning a shopping trip to London, my advice is don't go during weekends. These shops closes mostly at 5pm during weekends.
Oxford Street is Europe's busiest shopping street. You can get similar shops along the street. What I meant is you can get 4 Mango shops along the street (just for an example).
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| The night view of Oxford Street during Christmas |
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| A cold windy nigh at Oxford Street |
Stations: Holborn, Tottenham Court Rd, Oxford Circus, Bond Street and Marble Arch
2. Reagent Street
Reagent Steet is situated in the middle of Oxford Street and perpendicular to Oxford Street. What I realise is that Regent Street has more high end shops. You can get directly to Reagent Street by taking the tube to Oxford Circus Station.
Station: Oxford Circus
3. COVENT GARDEN
I kind of like Covent Garden. Most probably because there are no cars are allowed to pass through Covent Garden and it gives me a campus feel (jut my own opinions). I would recommend you to take a stroll through London's Covent Garden area where you can find numerous hotels, restaurants, bars, pubs, theatres, street entertainment and shopping. I enjoyed looking at these pretty decorations during Christmas. :)
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| Music is everywhere |
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| It was still so bright although the stalls had closed. |
I am loving the lights here in Covent Garden during Christmas. You can get any shops here at Covent Garden. Another ideal place to hang out with you love ones. :)
Station: Covent Garden
4. CHINATOWN LONDON
Chinatown is one of the place you can see most Chinese. DUH. You can get numerous Asian food in Chinatown, ASIAN FOOD THAT I REALLY MISSED !!!
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| The main entrance in Chinatown |
If you ever wonder which Chinese Restaurants are worth try, I would recommend you to visit Li Du . It is at the left side after you enter ChinaTown from the main entrance. Normally I would have dim sum there. I also like to have some Asian bread, Soy Milk and Tao Fu Fa at Chinatown. There are numerous bread shops which made good Asian breads. The reason why I mention Asian breads because the British breads are kind of different than the Asian breads. British breads are more hard and plain. Unlike the Asian breads, you can find cheese, hams, tomato sauce toppings, etc toppings or fillings in the bread and they are softer. Well, I like both them. I am still working on my reviews on restaurants to visit in London in my future blog post. Remember to read them and let me know if you have any questions.
There are several stations that will lead you to Chinatown but most of the time I would get down from Leicester Square. Leicester Square is a super crowded area. During the midnight if you wandered around a quiet street in London and wondered where these people had gone to, most of them are at Leicester Square. Speaking of Leicester Square, you must visit the M& M shop in London. It's one of my favourite and you will never regret visiting the shop. It's free visiting so why not. I will also be writing a review in my future blog post about this M & M Shop so go view it to see more photos! :) (Shall be updated soon )
Station: Leicester Square
5. HARRODS
Thinking of buying some branded stuffs for your loves one? Well, you can pay a visit to Harrods. Harrods is an upmarket department store where you can find many branded stuffs here. Just some extra information, you're not allowed to take any pictures inside Harrods or bringing in any luggage into Harrods. For those who are interested, you can check out their stuffs online as well. Link to this website.
Owh and make sure to take a picture with Harrods huge bear outside Harrods which I did not managed to take with them. :(
Station: Knightsbridge
Somewhere near London
1. WINDSOR CASTLE
One of my favourite places to visit is Windsor Castle. It is a 47 minutes train journey from King's Cross Station. Although it wasn't a good day for me and my friends due to the rainy and windy weather, overall I still love this place especially Windsor Castle. I was amazed to know that Windsor is actually a small town in London. The train station is actually inside Windsor Royal Shopping which looks like an outlet store at Windsor.
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| One of the entrance to Windsor Royal Sho |
To visit the Windsor Castle, you will need to buy an entry ticket. The prices and opening times are in this website. We bought our return train ticket rather early so we did not manage to go inside Windsor Castle. I believe it will be a super nice experience visiting one of the Castle in England.
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| Another entrance to Windsor Castle |
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| MY FACEBOOK PROFILE PICTURE. HA! |
Unlike other places, you could not reach Windsor by underground tube. You need to buy a train ticket operated by First Great Western.
Station: Windsor and Eton Central (by First Great Western Train)
2. GREENWICH- where east meets west
Not sure anyone knows that Greenwich is a town in London where you can see the prime meridian line. Prime Meridian is north-south line selected as the zero reference line for astronomical observations. It also sits at the centre of our system of time zones.
It was also an unfortunate day for my friends and I as we didn't manage to see the prime meridian line. Everything was closed on the day we went. How unlucky we are! There are several places that you can visit when you are at Greenwich such as Royal Observatory Greenwich, National Maritime Museum, Old Royal Naval College and Cutty Sark. I manage to took a photo of Cutty Sark.
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| Cutty Sark |
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| Town of Greenwich |
This is what greeted us when we arrived at Meridian Park. So I did not manage to see the Greenwich Meridian line as the park is closed.
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| We were greeted by this after all the long journey. To smile or to not? |
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| Meridian Park taken at the gate. |
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| Royal Observatory Greenwich from far |
a) Royal Museum Greenwich
b)Greenwich Meridian
Station: North Greenwich
3. O2 ARENA
We didn't plan to go to O2 Arena. We saw O2 unexpectedly on our way to Greenwich town by bus. I managed to take a photo on the bus. Yes, this photo was taken on the bus :)
O2 is a large entertainment district. Most of the concerts or large events were held at O2 Arena.
I believe it would be superb pretty at night for O2 Arena from what I see from Google. HAHA. If you're interested in watching any events at O2, link to this profile.
Museum
1) Sherlock Holmes Museum
I am still processing my review about this museum in my future blog post. Follow me for my future updates . BE PATIENT :p
Admission: 8 pounds
Station: Baker Street
London is one of the vibrant and prestige city which is known worldwide. There are still lots of places for you to 'discover' besides the one that I had been to. Below places are in my initial bucket list but I did not manage to go to.
Places that I have not been:
1. National History Museum
2. British Museum
3. Madame Tussauds London
4. HMS Belfast
5. Emirates Stadium
6. Tower of London
7. London Bridge
8. Camden Market
9. Royal Albert Hall
10. Harry Potter Studio
11. Legoland
Another thing that I will plan to do is to watch a musical in London. Perhaps the Lion King which is highly recommended by most people. You can buy cheap musical tickets at Leicester Square.
Transport:
Underground Tube:
For London underground, most people will use Oyster Card. The maximum amount for Oyster Card to be charged a day is 7 pounds. If you have a railcard, I would recommend you to buy a daily ticket or weekly ticket (depends on your duration of trip) as it is much cheaper than using Oyster Card. The daily ticket costs 5.70 pounds (zone 1-6). The drawbacks of having daily ticket is that you need to travel after the off peak time which is after 9.30am. Further information about the fares is in this website.
P.s. Remember to take an underground map when you reach the train stations or you can download the apps called Citymapper beforehand. However, there isn't any wifi and phone line when you are at underground.
Bus:
Oyster Card can also be used for bus. Single journey for bus is 1.45 pounds. Do note that the bus driver would not give you any change if you pay anything more than 1.45 pounds. I do not like to take bus in London as there are always traffic jam in London. And please do not catch as bus at places which are not the bus stations. The bus drivers will not stop for you if you're not at their bus stops on time. Details about the fares for buses in London are in this link.
Thank you for sparing some time to read this super long post I had made. You would not imagine how much time I spend writing these stuffs and recalling all of them. I dedicate this post to my so called sister Velyne Ryk as a gift for her before leaving to Manchester. Maybe she would be a better blogger about London than me after that :P
Stay tunes for my future updates and reviews about my favourite restaurants in London as well as Sherlock Holmes Museum and M & M shop.
even I can't wait for them to be published!
OKAY, maybe you don't :P
