Two Weeks in London: Top Sights, Markets and Attractions

Our August 2019 trip to London could have been three weeks, and we still would not have seen all that London has to offer. Dense and busy, London reminded me a lot of New York City, especially when I kept getting in local residents' way! The weather was great, with highs mostly in the 70s and lows in the 60s (although just before our trip, the highs reached over 100 Fahrenheit!), and there was hardly any rain beyond an occasional drizzle. We also took a short flight up to Scotland for a few days, and used the train system to make day-trips to York, Brighton, and Oxford.

Our flights to and from London were on British Airways, between Tampa International Airport and London Gatwick Airport. The total price for two round-trip tickets was just under $1,000--we bought the tickets in February, and BA was actually a little cheaper than Norwegian Airlines, with whom we have travelled twice previously. Compared to Norwegian, the plane was a little less cozy, but BA gave us earbuds, pillow & blanket (kinda gross though), and a meal that was actually decent! Getting into London from Gatwick Airport is generally pretty easy with the Gatwick Express to Victoria Station (we had an hour delay on our first trip, but all others went smoothly), or if you fly into Heathrow you'll use the Heathrow Express to Paddington Station--both are huge stations with connections for the Underground. TIP: You can save money on these Express trains by purchasing your ticket in advance, and/or using a discount pass such as the Two Together Card. We stayed at the St. James/Westminster Hub by Premier Inn, for about $87/night in a very quiet, clean and modern room that was pretty small and had no window, located about 25 minutes walking distance from both Buckingham Palace and Victoria Station. With just our backpacks for luggage the "Standard" room size wasn't an issue, and the location and hotel staff were fantastic.

Crowd waiting to see the changing of the guard

Natural History Museum

Much like Paris, you can really see a lot of incredible parts of London by simply wandering around areas near the river running through the city--in this case, the Thames. Top attractions like Big Ben and Westminster Palace (Parliament), Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, Tower of London and Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Borough Market and so much more are all within sight of the Thames, not to mention spectacular views of the city itself. Many of the most interesting and unique parts of London are spread widely around the city--thankfully, London has the efficient and sprawling Underground system (part of which is the world's oldest underground passenger railway!). For a five Pound deposit you can acquire an Oystercard, which is a refillable fare card onto which you can load monetary amounts or an unlimited weekly pass (much easier than sorting through a pile of individual tickets). There are a lot of nuances to the Oystercard and further UK train travel, such as discount passes and daily max fare caps, so definitely do some research in advance--I'll be posting some tips here soon, too. TIP: Check the TFL website occasionally for updates on lines and stations that may be closed, so you can plan accordingly!

A Few of Our Favorite Things

Spitalfields Market

With so much to see and do, it's hard to know where to start, and what to skip if you're short on time. I had to educate myself on the difference between Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, and the Palace of Westminster (where Parliament meets)--not to mention St. James Cathedral--all of which are certainly worth a visit, though all but Westminster Cathedral have an admission fee. Westminster Palace and Buckingham Palace are essential if you are fascinated by the British monarchy, government, and their histories (not to mention the ornate interiors), but if not, you could skip them and save your money for other attractions. In fact, neither allow photos for much of the interior tours. If you do visit any of these amazing spots, be sure to get an audio guide to satisfy your thirst for history and trivia! For museums, our favorites were the Natural History Museum, the Victoria & Albert Museum, and the Barbican. The National Maritime Museum is also worth a visit if you have the time, plus you can visit Greenwich Market and the Prime Meridian while you're in the area. Speaking of markets, our other favorites were (of course) Portobello, Camden (plus the Stables and Horse Tunnel markets), Borough, Old Spitalfields, and Brick Lane Market--the latter two are also very close together. We also had a great time at the Warner Bros Studio Making of Harry Potter Tour (about $50/person), which takes under an hour to get to from London, and where we spent a few hours examining thousands of set props from the films. Finally, Covent Garden is a lovely collection of shops and restaurants, with nearby Apple and Jubilee Markets. Other than shopping, all of these markets are a great place to grab a meal, with lots of food stalls spread around--just keep an eye on where the bathrooms are!

A few other highlights would have to include the Emirates Air Line, which is a cable car that takes you across the Thames--a round-trip ticket is only £8 per person, and you can easily visit the O2 and Canary Wharf nearby, both of which are essentially shopping malls, but have some neat architectural elements. Harrod's is another shopping destination, worth visiting just to see the exquisite decor, if nothing else. While it contains plenty of high-end goods and several restaurants, there's a reasonably priced market of pre-made food (The Market Hall), where you can grab good food to-go and eat outside on a bench. Coal Drops Yard is another unique, and pretty new, shopping destination built in a Victorian-era coal distribution center--they also host Canopy Market on weekeds. Coal Drops is walking distance from Kings Cross and St. Pancras stations, and Regent's Park, which is definitely worth a visit if you love strolls through beautiful parks. I also highly recommend Hyde Park, and St. James Park is nice as well, although smaller. For a fun day spent around the Thames, you can explore the shops around the OXO Tower, breeze through the stalls at Gabriel's Wharf, catch a show at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, and cross the Thames on the Millenium Bridge to visit Temple Church or St. Paul's Cathedral. Finally, there's a lot of shops around Carnaby St., from vinyl records to vintage clothing and historic high-end department store Liberty.

The Stables Market

Coal Drops Yard

Westminster Cathedral

Inside St. James Cathedral

Hello, Disappointment
On any trip there's going to be a few let-downs, so here's a few things that, in my opinion, aren't main attractions for a visit to London. Both Shepherd Market and Leadenhall Market have somewhat misleading names, in that neither is a market like Portobello, Brick Lane etc. with individual stalls. Leadenhall is more of a shopping "arcade" that has a charcuterie and a few pubs--granted it's a beautiful space, but not really a market. The Maltby, Netil and Broadway Markets all left us a little flat--Maltby, mostly a food market, and Netil both being quite small (although we had a great vegan pie at Death by Pizza), and Broadway being a ghost town by 3pm on a Sunday (supposedly its main day). I'm sorry to say that, especially compared to Edinburgh Castle, the Tower of London was fairly boring. Its only saving grace are the Beefeaters that lead entertaining (if graphic) tours of the Tower and its history. Be prepared to stand in line for an hour to see the crown jewels! As mentioned, Buckingham Palace will be interesting for some, and boring for others. Lastly, the Tate Modern and Design Museums were both a bit stale, although featured interesting architecture.

London served as the central base for our vacation (or "holiday" as the Brits would say), and it served that purpose well because of how connected it is to the rest of the UK. For your reference, here is the itinerary I created for us--note that other than flights and trains, nothing was "set in stone." For example, we caught the changing of the guard on our first day, and toured Buckingham Palace and Westminster Palace on our second day. Also, some of the markets are larger or more antiques-focused on certain days (generally the weekends), so in order to see them on their best days, we visited Spitalfields and Portobello Markets each twice (just in case we missed a treasure 😁). I always had this document on my phone, so if we finished exploring and wanted to keep exploring, we just picked something from another day.

Aug 6th Flight departs Tuesday (6:30 pm)

Flight Lands (Wed 8am) Gatwick Express – buy 7-day card @Victoria... explore

Aug 7-8 Thames-BigBen, Graffiti, OXOTower+Gab'sWharf, Chinatown/Soho, Temple Church&place, St. Pauls Cath, Canary Wharf

9 London Portobello Market & Notting Hill... Covent Garden & Jubilee or Maltby or Netil Mrkts

10 Sat. Daytrip to Oxford (1 hr train) (print tix in Paddington) (9:15am – 7:30pm return)

11 Sunday: Brick Lane: Spitalfields & Brick lane Mkt, Broadway mkt? Barbican?,, vintage etc.

12 London morning, 1hr fly to Glasgow via Gatwick 4pm (Mon)

13 Glasgow

14 Train to Edinburgh – Castle @1:30pm-3pm…train back to Glasgow *buy train tix day-of

15 Glasgow Morning...Fly Back to London Gatwick 6pm (Thurs)

16 London Tate museum, More Soho/Carnaby&Kingly Court, Tower London

17 London.. DesignMusm10am, walk->Natl History Museum, V&A Harrods

18 Sunday: Camden mrkt (open daily).. Coal Drops via train to Kings Cross..Regent's Park

19 Daytrip to York (2 hrs) Kings Cross (8:30am - 9pm return)

20 Day trip to Brighton (1hr) pickup tix at Victoria station (9:30am dept-8pm return)

21 Day trip to Harry Potter (Watford) Tour @12:30 (cafe on-site)

22 Westminsters – Tours & Change Guard Last day....Buckingham & Trafalgar Sq.

Aug 23 Friday Fly Home 11:45am (land 4:15pm)

From our previous trips abroad, I learned the value of Google Maps, and saving locations to your account. Even with your cellular data turned off, by leaving voice roaming active you can use the app for GPS, and see all of your saved spots--just be sure to download the Offline Maps for cities you'll be visiting! TIP: Look for cafes and restaurants around the major attractions you plan to visit and add them to your favorites--then you'll have quick options if you get hungry while exploring. Also, you can add "labels" to places, which is handy when you aren't using data and mark a place called "Happy's" for example--you might not remember if this is a cafe, shop or what unless you add a note to yourself. Here's my map of London, including lots of places that we didn't end up visiting. You can see how essential the Underground system is when visiting places like Portobello Market and Canary Wharf.

So what does a trip like this cost? All together with food and shopping, for the two of us the total we spent was around $4,700 on our two-week+ trip. That includes about $2,600 for the flights (Tampa-London-Tampa and London-Glasgow-London) and hotels together, $875 for ground transportation including day-trips, and around $550 for admission to attractions like Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, St. James Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, and Warner Bros Harry Potter Studios. At the time of our trip, the US Dollar was equal to 80p in British Pounds, which is a pretty good conversion rate, historically. Other than a handful of meals at market stalls, we mostly stuck to a low-to-mid priced chains for dining, such as Pret a Manger (there's about 50 of them in London), BYRON, Marks & Spencer, Wagamama, etc. See our post here for tips on how to prepare for and save money on your next trip abroad!

Regardless of the length of your visit to London and the UK, you will have an endless supply of things to see and do--and, given that we are from the USA, it was certainly nice to not have to worry about a language barrier for this trip. Even though Big Ben was undergoing restoration and lots of areas had construction going on during our visit, we still enjoyed being surrounded by so much history, and the settings of many of our favorite shows and movies! This was not a relaxing trip at all, and yet the energy of London is envigorating--we look forward to returning one day to re-visit our favorite places and discover new ones.