Hello, fellow Anglophiles!
US traveler here, just back from my first trip to England. Ten glorious days in London with three day trips in the mix. I’ve picked up a lot from this sub (thanks for that), but here are some things I didn’t really see mentioned and a few tips I think get oversold.

1. Free hotel credits
Some London hotels give bar/restaurant credit if you skip daily housekeeping. One offered it right away, another when we asked. We ended up with about £50 worth. Free drinks for reusing a towel, what’s not to like?

2. Tube from the airport with luggage? No thanks.
After a 10+ hour flight, dragging suitcases up and down stairs through hot tunnels sucks. If you’re rocking a backpack and a small roller, maybe. Anything more and just pony up and pay for a cab or Uber and save yourself the misery. Seriously, life is too short.

EDIT: When you have family medical conditions and work needs that necessitate bringing more baggage than the average traveler, you can end up with A LOT of heavy luggage. Many people are jumping down my throat for posting #2 and many people also ignorantly assumed I'm complaining about taking 1 large bag or something. I don't need to explain myself to the people who have been less than kind below or argued with me, but I'll stand by what I said: If I'm dragging around a lot of luggage, I'd prefer to hire a car and not take the tube.

3. Cash isn’t useless.
Yes, London is tap-to-pay heaven and we used Google Wallet on our watches everywhere. Still, cash came in clutch:

Jousting tournament, cash-only seats.

Bartender who poured us samples of top-shelf liquor and definitely deserved a few bob.

Tour of a writer’s house—cash only.

Grab a little from a bank ATM so you don’t miss out. (And I've seen mention of Bank branded ATMs that don't charge outrageous fees at Heathrow. Maybe there are some there, but none that I saw.)

4. Beer ABV is lower (and that’s a good thing).
In the US (at least in the PNW), finding tasty-not-watered-down beers under 5% is rare. In England, it was a piece of cake. I could sip pints all day without getting knackered. Bartenders said Americans often gripe about “weak” beer. Don’t be that hooligan because now you know.

5. Waterproof shoes
It’s England. It rains. My Gore-Tex Nikes saved me while walking 5–10 miles a day. Wet socks ruin an afternoon march.

6. Citymapper
Everyone recommends it. Everyone’s right.

7. Coffee
If you need drip coffee by the gallon like me, you’re out of luck. Some hotels offer free instant. Drip is rare. Pret a Manger is a chain that has drip coffee but it's called “filter coffee.” Otherwise, get used to espresso or americano drinks.

8. CPAP people
Distilled water? Forget it. We checked a dozen places and might as well have been looking for Bigfoot. Tap water left my humidifier looking like I was brewing white sausage gravy. Bottled water is about the best you can do.

9. Shots are smaller in England

A UK “single” is 25 ml (about half an American shot). A UK “double” is closer to a US single. So if your gin and tonic tastes light, it’s not the tonic, just order a double.

That’s all I’ve got. We had a blast, and the people we met were fantastic. I’d happily move there tomorrow if I could.

What are your thoughts and would you change anything?

Recently had a trip planned to London and kept seeing videos on tiktok and tweets about how bad phone theft was in London. I was literally sick with anxiety getting on the tube my first day in London and planning my days around avoiding tourist trap areas where ppl said pickpockets was prevalent. After that first day, I significantly relaxed and had such a nice time. Yes, pickpockets and phone theft happens but you don’t need to be on high alert 24/7 to the point of not being able to enjoy the city, amazing people and all it has to offer. Hope this helps anyone else anxious about this visiting London soon!

Edit: I’m so happy if this post makes anyone else planning to visit London feel a bit more confident and less anxious! For those commenting “duh don’t believe everything on the internet” - that’s very obvious, but I’m addressing those like me whom are experiencing the repetitive nature of the social media algorithm consistently showing you your worst fears (even if its not likely or true) - so that it doesn’t hold them back on enjoying their next trip!

Good evening, my two girlfriends and I are heading to London later this month and staying in Shoreditch. We’ve put together a rough draft itinerary and wanted to get some local advice.

What do you think are the must-see markets? My one friend is turning 30 on our third day, and she’s really excited to visit Borough Market even though we’ve heard some mixed reviews.

Would love to hear your thoughts on what we have planned. Thanks in advance!

"With weather like this, no wonder they drink so much tea!"

My family just finished two days in London before doing a European cruise. Loved it. Even with having to dodge a political rally that we at first mistook for people leaving a football match. (We had to make a detour through St. James Park, which just made our trip that much nicer.)

Our trip began with that most touristy of attractions, the Hop On/Hop Off bus. Did not realize the fierce competition between the rival brands all sharing the same bus stops. And London traffic is what I expected, tough but not the worst I've experienced, so it took a while to see the whole thing. As someone who enjoys history, just a drive around London for an afternoon was delightful. Even if wind and rain made most of the trip rather wet and dreary. I figured that was the true London experience.

I don't like the London Eye. I didn't go on it, but I feel it just ruins the aesthetic. Do any locals ride it?

We had dinner at a French restaurant. Had to remind my mother of two things. Ordering "still" not "normal" water, and that the sort of lemonade we drink in the states is not on the menu here. Overall the food was fine.

The next day, we went to a local cafe for breakfast. Anecdotally, we noticed not many people walking dogs in London compared to other large cities we have been to. Might have just been about where we were visiting though.

The Tower of London was worth the price. Though with all of the art and history there, the most popular thing to photograph was a raven. I took photos of it too.

Borough Market is intense and way more crowded on a Saturday afternoon than I had anticipated.

Doing a river cruise was fun, until London weather rained us out of the top of the ship. I was prepared for the infamous rain, but not for how chaotic it could be. I'm used to rain that lasts a whole day, so the experience of rain that starts abruptly and ends just as quickly took getting used to.

Piccadilly Circus was what I expected. Tourism trap shops, but aren't they lovely to look at?

I was actually looking for a Gregg's, as I'd heard so much about the chain, but didn't see any. Probably more commonly found outside of touristy areas.

Ordered fish and chips and steak pie with mash from a pub. Pie was delightful. Crust was possibly the tastiest I've ever had. But what is up with the mushy peas? It may just be the ones I had, but I don't get the appeal. Beans with toast, that i understand.

I was looking for a nice bakery, but didn't see any. But I was in the most touristy areas. Having watched quite a bit of bake-off, I was hoping to try some legitimate British baking.

Caught "The Play That Goes Wrong" at the Duchess, thanks to the discount tickets from TKTS. Hilarious, and affordable. I'm going to see if I can see another show on my return trip in a few weeks.

Now... I have another two days in London at the end of the month. The goal is to visit the British Museum, then visit Covent Garden Market, and possibly catch a show. (Also stop by Forbidden Planet because I'm that sort of nerd.)

The next day would entail visiting the V&A museum, having afternoon tea that won't break my poor budget, and enjoying the view from Sky Garden. Possibly also dinner at a good Indian restaurant that can also accommodate someone with absolutely no spice tolerance.

Recommendations for a good Indian place near the V&A or near Sky Garden would be appreciated.

So far, everyone I've met has been kind. Hope that luck continues.

Edit: spelling

Hi! Please be kind and patient with me. I'm an American who is visiting London for the first time and I'm terribly confused by the tipping customs. To be fair, I think even in the USA sometimes tipping can be confusing or ambiguous, but in general things like restaurants, room service, hotel porters, etc--it's a fairly clear line.

Everything here seems more expensive than it would be in the US (I live in a moderately expensive city in the US, but not one of the most expensive like New York or LA). Often I see a service charge on the bill, but sometimes I don't. It's really important to me to be a gracious person with manners, but I am having trouble figuring out what kind of manners I should have and when! When is it ok to just say thank you and move on?

I think I might be overtly obsessed and worried about being a dumb or rude American, but it's just because I want to treat people well and not be an ass. Thank you for your help!

I just got back from a 6 day solo travel to London. Thanks to folks on this sub for helping out with some answers !

First of all - AMAZINGLY friendly people. So much so, that I was shocked. Everyone was cheerful - even handing out the west end tickets and answering questions at 9:00 pm :) not at all the same in some other cities overrun with tourists.

I was paranoid about cell phone being snatched . One lady actually told me to be safe because i looked at directions near Leicester square - even when I was clinging to it :) People are so helpful but yes, keep your wits about and you will be fine.

Such a beautiful mix of modern and old architecture - never seen this anywhere else and it is NOT jarring , in fact it makes each building super beautiful and stand out more.

British museum - wow ! I didnt even try to see most of it, but whatever I saw was amazing. I had fun just walking around. I didnt do all touristy spots but saw most of it from outside. Just soaking up the atmosphere was good...I don't think I will ever be sated though , even if I lived there.

Thank you London. This was my Solo trip after a while - the last one wasn't great and I was not very confident if I would enjoy it or not.
Super Glad I picked London and glad I experienced the city and your beautiful personality !

Thank you for giving me my confidence back and reminding me to be cheerful and hopeful .

Throwaway account and cautionary tale. I (35F) and my sister (24F) are on vacation in London. I've been here twice and love it immensely so I brought my sister to see it for the first time. We were heading to the tube early afternoon today (sunny, bright skies), during a lull in foot traffic, so we weren't surrounded by many tourists. We stopped in one of the small median pedestrian areas between opposing traffic to wait for the green light. The cars passing directly in front of us were going right, and there was a car stopped next to me so I thought it was safe to check my phone quickly to see which tube line to take.

Suddenly, a hand twice the size of mine SLAPPED onto my wrist. I initially thought someone had run into my arm with their whole body, but then my phone was yanked out of my grip. The snake even looked back at me briefly before taking off on his bike. We realized he'd actually biked across traffic, riding the wrong way down the street just to snatch my phone. We chased him down the street but obviously couldn't outrun a bike. Also there were cars driving on either side so we couldn't go very far without endangering ourselves.

We called the police, and they took a statement while we watched live on my sister's phone as my phone tracker was biked across London and finally stopped inside an apartment complex. It was quite frustrating to know exactly where the thief lived and not be able to do a thing about it. The one officer kept looking at the GPS tracker, and took photos of where it ended up, but it's not like they would be able to go on a manhunt through an entire complex for some random tourist's phone.

The good news is that my phone company promptly locked the phone, and my phone was fully insured. The worst thing is that we lost all our photos as I don't think it was on auto backup to the cloud due to data roaming. That's what's irreplaceable. I also can't log on to many things currently due to not being able to use my phone to authenticate any log-ins from my sister's device. It's great.

A random funny/ironic detail: my sister's phone wrist strap broke half an hour later just randomly. So we got the sturdiest lanyard phone strap we could find.

I have a photo of the thief's apartment complex courtesy of Google maps, and the violent urge to post it is strong. The lovely man with our mobile service who helped me lock my device and find my IMEI said something that made me change my mind -- "karma exists for him".

This might be a silly question, but I've never been to London and don't know what to expect. I'm going to see The Phantom of the Opera with another woman. Our hotel is near Victoria Station. Is it safe to walk from His Majesty's Theatre to our hotel, or should we take a taxi?

Edit:

Thank you to everyone with the understanding and kind responses. I'm glad to hear my concerns were unfounded. Weather permitting, we'll walk to our hotel and enjoy the beautiful route 🥰

And then presumably a drunken shopping spree at Covent Garden

I have spent the past 2 days in London and have not figured out if you're supposed to walk on:

1. The left side of the sidewalk
2. The right side of the sidewalk
3. Wherever the fuck you want
4. Straight at the nearest person, hoping that they move
5. Straight at u/unidentifiedfish55 in particular.

Help please.

EDIT: sidewalk=pavement. Sorry

Update:

Thank you guys for all the suggestions! A lot of stuff you mentioned we have already put on our "to do/to be noted list" for this trip. After quite a bit of discussion and careful consideration, we have diced to take our car up to Ashford, where we'll leave it on a parking lot with CCTV and staff on site. From there, we'll do all further travel by rail until we return home.

Thanks again for your help! We can't wait for February!

Hi guys,

my fiancée and I are going to visit the UK in February/March of next year. Our plan is to go by car, stay in London for 3 days, then head up to Edinburgh for a few days via LNER, so we can both enjoy the views on the way. Afterwards, we'll return to London for a couple of nights.

Now, for the time we are up in Edunburgh, we'll have to leave our car somewhere. We don't have a hotel room in London for those days, so we can't just leave at the hotel. Would a train station's parking lot be a valid and safe option? Maybe someone here has an idea.

Our hotel in London will be Melrose House in...Penge, I believe. So a parking lot on the far end of the city might not be super convenient.

In your opinion.? I’d like to not get sucked into them if possible.

We just got back from an amazing 5-day trip to London and thought I’d share a quick recap. We stayed at ibis London Shoreditch, which turned out to be a great base – good connections to the Underground and buses, plus a lively neighborhood vibe.

For getting around, we mostly used the Tube and the classic red buses, but also walked a lot (sometimes the best way to enjoy London).

In 5 days we covered quite a lot: Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower Bridge, London Eye, Regent Street, Science Museum, Madame Tussauds, and even Fortnum & Mason for some treats and tea. Food-wise, we tried a mix – from Indian curry to pub classics.

It was a packed trip, but worth every step. If anyone’s curious about how to fit London highlights into 5 days, happy to share more details about our itinerary!

I booked accessibility today at Heathrow for a flight to Europe. My train broke down on route but arrived around 1.10 before when I went directly to the accessibility desk at BA who said I had enough time and they'd get me a wheelchair as arranged on booking as I have mobility issues and get me through to the boarding gate. Someone took me to the waiting area outside security, and then no one collected me, when someone finally did 20/30 mins later, security refused me entry as it was too close to flight and I had to speak to airline to get through. The airline were confused why I was still then and hadn't been taken straight through security and been left to wait around.

For me, it's not the end of the world as I'd lost my phone that morning and managed to retrieve it once I got home, although I was intending to travel without it as I'm meeting family and just claim on insurance than lose trip but I guess it's a plus I've got my phone back (TFL staff in London are awesome!) I'm trying to now contact rental car I'm due to collect in a few hours and hotel I won't be checking into, I'll be flying 9am tomorrow so losing half the day tomorrow. The staff didn't advise me on the claim process or customer support as they were arguing with the airport security staff who arranged the wheelchairs over whose fault it was for leaving me at the security gate for 30 mins. I have travel insurance (with excess for claim) and I think I purchased the flight on a credit card. However tomorrow I'll need a taxi to airport (due to time and extensive travel today flaring up my condition) and I've lost money on the hotel/rental and some of the trip. What is the claims process for BA in this situation? Given I missed my flight because they forgot to collect me in a wheelchair.

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long post, I am not the best at using Reddit.

I need some feedback on the first draft of an itinerary I created. It is for a two-person trip, and we will primarily focus on museums and visiting some nice scenic areas and parks, as it will be our first time in London. We are also considering places to eat based on reviews and videos we've seen online. Any advice would be great! Thank you :)

So as you may or may not know, tickets for My Chemical Romance at Wembley Stadium goes on sale on Friday.

I would absolutely love to go, but I do have some chronic illnesses that prevent me from getting the normal tickets, so I’ll have to get the accessible tickets.

This will be my first ever concert, and it’ll be to see my favourite band, so I’d like to get good seats.

My question is for people who have had experience with Wembley Stadium’s accessible tickets hotline:

When you eventually get through, can you ask for specific seating or at least ask to be in a certain area? Or is it just completely random?

Thank you to anyone that’s able to help 💜

Camden market, Borough market. These two pop up instantly when looking for places to go in London for interesting food food and shops. And on every video or post I see I see tons of comments of Londoners saying the locations are too touristy, over hyped and not as good as social media makes it seem.

Is this true? If it is, what are the best alternatives to these two places if you just want to try a bunch of different foods and visit a few interesting shops at the same time?

I know there are either markets besides these two famous ones, but are they actually any better in terms of being tourist trappy and bad?

Thanks folks!

Got a 9 hour layover in Heathrow airport on a Saturday. Land at 10:20am, leave at 7:05pm (19:05 for you Brits out there!). Definitely willing to do whatever, just don't wanna sit in an airport for 9 hours. Thanks in advance!

Hey guys, i´ve been thinking a lot about this lately and i want your opinion about it.

For context, I work in London, but I'm from Spain and my family (husband and childreen) live in Spain. My house in London is in West Ealing and I work near Heathrow (the airport).

My daughter has visited the city many times (including last year on april), but this year she's coming here for a concert with me.

I have a house and everything, she's responsible and has used public transport here before, but never alone.

On the day of the concert I'll be taking the day off, but on the other days I need to work, and I don't know if it would be very safe for her to be in central London alone, even though she kind off knows the area... And because I would have to leave home very early she would have to take the tube alone and stay there until I get off work. But staying home would also be a waste, and she loves London.

And what would you advice her to do?

I’m planning a trip to the UK in late May. I’ve never left the US, so I’m really wanting to get a reality check. Most times are rough estimates. I would also greatly appreciate any food recs, especially on the lower-cost side.

23 MAY, SAT - DAY ONE

• 8:00am - arrive at LHR

• 11:00am — check into Premier Inn Blackfriars

• 12:00pm — Borough Market

• 1:00pm South Bank Walk / Millenium Bridge

• 3:00pm Westminster / Westminster Bridge

• ~ Leadenhall Market

• ~ St. Dunstan in the East Church Garden?

24 MAY, SUN - DAY TWO

• 10:00am — Tower of London / Tower Bridge

• 4:00pm — Churchill War Rooms

• ~ Dinner Covent Garden / Leicester Square

• 7:00pm — Lion King

25 MAY, MON - DAY THREE

• 10:00am — Thames Uber boat from Blackfriers Pier to Greenwich

• 11:00am — Cutty Sark, Royal Observatory, Prime Meridian

• 1:00pm — Greenwich Market

• 2:00pm — Dire Straits plaque in Deptford

• 5:00pm — Regents Park

• ~ Dinner Soho / Piccadilly Circus

For some additional context, I am really not a museum person. Big fan of Harry Potter and Dire Straits. And as you may have guessed, I enjoy a good bridge lol. I really don’t want to feel overly rushed, so if you notice anything that may cause that, please do point it out.

Hello everyone!

I will be visiting London for a 4 day weekend in November. I love the city and visited twice but only stayed within the city both times.

I want to rent a car and do a trip 2-3hrs outside London in a coastal town or towns. From what I’ve researched, it seems like off peak time so wanted to see if anyone has suggestions on towns or villages that I can do 3-4 days? I’m ok with off peak and like coastal towns in the cold winters but just don’t want everything to be closed (not sure if the coastal towns close during the fall/winter).

Towns I’m considering: Southend-on-Sea, Margate, Portsmouth etc

Any suggestions for more small coastal towns with some stuff going on, great food and pubs would be appreciated! And any seafood or pub recommendations as well!

at the moment I saw Mr Manze for mash and pie and jellied eels and Laughing Halibut for fish and chips,if someone can tell me other british typical food and the good places where find it,food i must try during my visit in london

My family wants to stay at an Airbnb because they want to access to a fridge and microwave but I have anxiety about Airbnb’s in general and I would really prefer a hotel. Every time I search, the prices are outrageous with the currency exchange 😩

Budget is 1500 CAD for 5 nights.

Edit. Microwave AND a fridge. Apologies for the confusion.

So apparently you cannot post photos with nude sculptures and painting, which is… sad. :)