Life is full of unexpected twists. One of those took me on a quick trip to the United Kingdom in June, with London and Oxford as my main destinations. It is possible to do London in two days – it’s brutal but achievable- if you don’t go into a lot of museums or places where you need to wait in line, e.g. the London Eye. During my UK visit I would spend two days in London and one day in Oxford, which I’ll write about on a separate blog post.
Since my trip was a budget trip (when has it been otherwise though?), I focused on walking around the city, visiting the landmarks and even a museum. I was lucky to have such a great weather, 30° C/86° F!, due to a heat wave that made the city hotter than my homeland in the Caribbean.
If you’re planning on visiting London soon but you’re on a budget and a tight schedule, this is what you could do:
Day 1
Landing – 8:30 hr
My flight landed at 8:30 hr so it was perfect to spend the whole day exploring the city. My airport was Luton, around 40 minutes from St. Pancras International station. I bought an open round-trip ticket, the cheapest option at the moment, for around 25 pounds. Once at St. Pancras, I would go straight to the tube (London’s underground train system) and visit the Buckingham Palace. I took the Victoria line towards Brixton and stopped at Green Park. From there I walked to the palace.
Buckingham Palace at 11 hr – Changing of Guard
💡 Tip: Be there an hour early if possible – you will have a better chance to get a good spot to watch this famous activity.
After the change of guard, I moved on to explore the area for a short time before going to my Airbnb.
Westminster Cathedral at 12 hr
For 3 pounds if you're a student, you can go up to the top of the Cathedral and have a great view of the London skyline.
Checking-in at my accommodation at 13 hr
After checking-in at my Airbnb, I had lunch with my lovely host Evie, and we discussed the best sightseeing and transport route. As I always say, I love booking through Airbnb so much because it allows me to feel like I live at any city I visit. Plus, most hosts are eager to share travel tips with you so it ends up feeling like you're staying at a friend's house. If you use this link when making your airbnb reservation, you can get 35 euros off your first trip of 65 euros or more*. 😉I continued my visit. I planned on walking the most I could because transport is pretty expensive. I left at around 15 hr.
💡 Tip: About paying for your transport – If you have a European credit/debit card, it is most likely contactless. Use it to pay easily for your transport. It will be the most cost-effective way of payment because there’s a daily cap of around 12 pounds, meaning that once you reach that quota, the following trips that you make won’t be charged to you. If you don’t have a contactless card, purchase an Oyster card in London. It has the same cap and system as the contactless. Try to avoid buying the 1-day card priced at 12 pounds because you might not use all the money worth in trips.
Explore the rest of the city: 15 hr – 20 hr
Tower Bridge
London Bridge
💡 Tip: Try to stick to one mean of transport on a single journey – I know it sounds ridiculous but the public transport system is not integrated like in Barcelona. That means that if during your journey you change from tube to bus, you will be charged twice. I know it would be the most effective way and often changing will take you to your destination faster, but that’s the way it is. If you start your journey by bus, try to stick to buses and if traveling on the tube, try to end it by tube.
London Eye
Westminster bridge
Big Ben
Westminster Palace
Westminster Abbey
Down Parliament Street
Trafalgar square
From Trafalgar Square I walked to Picadilly Circus, wandered around the streets full of stores for a while, bought a sandwich for dinner, and took a bus to my airbnb.
Day 2 in London
Since I needed to leave to the airport by 17 hrs, I didn’t have much time to be around the city. I had seen most key places on my first day, so I decided to visit the amazing Natural History Museum and Hyde Park. Great to note that most museums are free every day, so jackpot!
💡 Tip: Consign your luggage at your hostel or accommodation whenever possible - Luggage storage is expensive and only available at a few stations. My host was great and she let me leave my luggage there even after checkout. That saved me around 12 pounds! Most accommodation places offer this service so you definitely want to take advantage of it instead of walking around with your luggage or paying crazy money for a few hours.
Natural History Museum
💡 Tip: Schedule around 3 hours to visit – the museum is huge and incredible. You really don’t want to miss a single area so I advise to schedule your day accordingly. The museum has everything: space, earth life, dinosaurs, earthquakes, human body, sea life. It is interactive, entertaining and interesting. Definitely the best museum I have visited to date.
After the museum, I walked towards Hyde Park.
Hyde Park
 |
| The Albert Memorial |
 |
| Kensington Palace |
After crossing the park, I took the tube at Queensway station, went to my Airbnb to pick up my luggage and then went to the airport. It was time to go back to Barcelona.
--
On my next post I will write about my visit to Oxford, a charming city with breathtaking architecture. Until next time!
--
*Disclaimer: Airbnb has not paid me to write about the company. I just truly love staying at airbnb places when I travel and if you haven't done it before and want to try it, then using my referral link could get you a discount. When you click on the link you can read the full terms and conditions.
