Our London Trip Details (Where we stayed, transportation, what to see)
Things have been a little quiet lately, my husband had a few work trips so I’ve just been in single parent survival mode and trying to balance mom life, work life and just LIFE! I know you all understand 🙂
We just got back this past weekend from our first trip to Europe together. We took advantage of my husbands work trip to England to take a fun getaway for just me and my husband. The grandparents kept Ellie and my sister stayed with the dogs and it was a great reminder for me of just how important it is to make one on one time with your spouse. I’ve been getting questions on Instagram so I figured I’d do a quick recap of the trip here for anyone who may be going to London (or Dublin recap coming next) in the near future! I didn’t intend on blogging about this so I didn’t take pictures of EVERYTHING mentioned.. Next time I travel I’ll try to do better!
We only really had 2.5 days in London so we were limited on time and what we could do so we tried to hit the bucket list items! I am sharing where we stayed, transportation, our food favorites and a few of our favorites sites!
Trip Details:
Where we stayed: Doubletree by Hilton – London Ealing
Overall review: Nice hotel for a good price
Pro: It’s a little more cost effective since it’s outside of the city. This is not a touristy area, this is more residential but it was really close to the underground train station which made it easy to come and go!
Con: Super Super tiny rooms and bathrooms! I found this to be uncomfortable with our suitcases and two adults, there was just nowhere to put your stuff where it wasn’t in the way. But we were rarely in the room so it did the job and was overall a nice hotel!
Form of Transportation: London Underground
We used the London Underground system to get from the airport to the hotel and to travel into London everyday. We found it easy to use and get close to everywhere we needed to go! The only time we took an Uber was to get to the airport because we had to leave before the London Underground started for the day. We bought passes everyday but had we known how much we’d use that system we would have bought a 3 day pass from the beginning which likely would have been cheaper!
My Favorite Restaurants:
Here is the truth.. I just don’t love other countries food – I guess I just like what I’m used to! So for that reason I’m just going to mention my absolute favorites that I would eat again if we ever went back 🙂
Gail’s Bakery – This was probably one of my favorite places we went. It was exactly what you picture when you think of a London Bakery – classic and beautiful with so many yummy and beautiful treats. I had the almond chocolate croissant and it was TO DIE FOR!
Wahaca – This is a mexican tapas restaurant right off the river not too far from the London Eye and London Bridge. I had the grilled chicken club quesadilla with chips and salsa (it’s more like pico de gallo in the US) and the guacamole. It’s all super fresh and delicious! We had popped in a bookstore to ask for directions to another restaurant and one of the workers recommended this place and for a good reason!
Favorite Sites:
I’m not a big history buff and museums are not really my thing but I can appreciate pretty views…so my favorite part was just walking the streets of London. They have some of the cutest pubs and shops!
Big Bus – Hop on Hop Off Tours – The best way to see the most of the city in a short amount of time is to take the city bus tours. Some of them have live tour guides on them to talk about the sites and the stories behind them as you pass by, others just have recordings which is not as fun but still helpful (hence the ear buds) 🙂 It also will save your feet and legs from ALL THE WALKING that you’re still bound to do! You can hop on and off which is great when you see something you want to explore a little more! We did this on our first full day which helped us pick things we wanted to check out the next day!
Borough Market – One of you on Instagram actually told me about this market and it was a great spot to try a lot of things in one area! This is a super cute little market with all kinds of foods, sweets, coffee, cheeses and more. They have lots of ethnic and unusual food spots if you like that kind of thing – I’m not all that adventurous when it comes to food! 😉
London Tower – My husband loves history and things like this so he loved this! They have Yeoman Warders (who are actually really impressive military men – not just tour guides) giving free tours which I highly recommend since free with your ticket. You can spend as much or as little time here but we spend about 2-3 hours to see the crown jewels, walking through the tower, etc.
I wish I had more time to do some of the Harry Potter tours and attractions but we did manage to go see Platform 9 ¾ on our last day. The Bus tour will point out a few of the filming locations from the movies as you pass by which I loved as a huge Harry Potter fan.
My husbands highlight was the Churchill War Room Tour – He loves history and has read several biographies about Winston Churchhill so this was one of his bucket list items that I just tolerated for him 😉
So that’s the highlights! We did see Wicked one night which was amazing! I had never seen it before so I loved it, but I know that is something that many have seen in the US.
I left London feeling like we had seen enough and was ready to explore our next adventure in Ireland, which I’ll be sharing more about soon!
