3 Days in London: The NYC of Europe

My sister and I started our European adventure with three days in London! I studied abroad during college in Prague, but somehow I never made it to London.

It was almost daunting to plan this trip because there is so much to do, and I really did not give myself enough time to plan.  I got some tickets late, so we did have to cross the city a little bit more than I wanted, and we ended up walking over ten miles a day.  London is massive and I feel like we did see A LOT, but I could easily find more things to do (and plenty to eat), and I know someday I’ll be back!

HOW LONG SHOULD YOU STAY IN LONDON?

If you have three full days in London, you should be able to accomplish a lot! I think five days would’ve been ideal, but you could probably fill a week or two here if your wallet allows.

WHERE IN LONDON SHOULD YOU STAY?

It depends on what you want to do, so I’d recommend looking at where the attractions you want to visit are located and pick a spot around there. Below is a map of everywhere we went.  We only booked the Airbnb a few months in advance, so there weren’t a ton of budget-friendly options in the city center. We found a private room in an Airbnb near London Bridge, which was nice because that was a large tube station with transfers to several lines, but most of what we did was on the north side of the river. Looking at this map, I think it would have been a good idea to stay near Covent Garden. However, the tube system goes everywhere so you don’t have to be too picky about where you stay.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN LONDON

One day I want to take a double-decker bus, but we only took the underground subways “the tube,” which was pretty easy to use, just use Google Maps and read the signs in the stations. I looked into getting an Oyster Card, but it seemed like Apple Pay (set up your Apple Pay for public transportation here) and chip credit cards would do the same thing.  The fares depend on how far your trip is, so you need to tap your card when you enter the station and tap your card upon exit of the station. The ride from London Heathrow to city center is pretty long and I think it was around ~$17. There are daily caps if you stay within zone 1 (I believe it was ~$10), which includes most of the major tourist attractions.

PRO TIP: BOOK YOUR ATTRACTIONS EARLY 

Millions of people visit London every year, so to visit the popular attractions, I would highly recommend booking tickets at least 2 weeks in advance, but ideally at least a month out to get your preferred admission times.  Popular restaurants will also require early reservations since you don’t want to spend an hour waiting around to eat. If you’re taking the Eurostar to or from Paris, tickets are cheaper the earlier you book.

DAY 1: FRIDAY, 5/26

I logged off from work around 6pm on Thursday and went to the airport. My flight left LAX around midnight in Los Angeles and arrived at London Heathrow around 6:30pm on Friday. I dozed off a little bit, but for the most part I tried not to sleep so I could sleep when I got to London. This actually worked for me and I really didn’t experience any jet lag going to Europe, which was super nice!

I arrived at London Heathrow and followed signs to the tube.  The airport is massive and it’s quite a bit of walking just to get out of the airport.  London Heathrow is about an hour outside of the city center, while London Gatwick is only about 30 minutes away, but that’s a smaller airport so there are less flights available. Coming from Los Angeles, it was cheaper to go through London Heathrow.

My sister, Sarah, was flying in from New York City, and she had booked a flight that arrived in London about 12 hours earlier than I did. She was able to check into the Airbnb early and walked through Borough Market and around London Bridge while she waited for me. After I dropped my luggage off at the Airbnb, it was basically time for our 8:30pm dinner reservation at a vegan restaurant, Mallow, that would put all the Los Angeles vegan restaurants I have eaten at to shame.  First of all, we had no idea what like 75% of the menu was, all some obscure vegetables and grains (i.e what is muhammara borek, cardamom raita, ezme, pickled shimeji, shiso, etc.?). Second, the presentation was spectacular.  Also, it wasn’t too expensive ($30 per person), so we love that.  We skipped dessert, showered, and went to bed.

DAY 2: SATURDAY, 5/27

I was so tired, I slept through the whole night and woke up around 7am to start our first full day in London.  We started by walking to Tower Bridge, which was pretty close to our Airbnb.  Since it was so early on a Saturday morning, there was hardly anyone on the bridge and we got some good photos.  I believe you can pay to go up the tower, but we just crossed the bridge and headed to St. Dunstan in the East.

I had seen photos on Pinterest and it was a really pretty outdoor garden/church area that’s free to access. It looks straight out of a fairy tale.  One girl was shooting a music video there. It’s not very big, so we just took some photos and then carried on walking. Next, we went to Leadenhall Market. It was beautiful!  I am a sucker for a good dome. By that time, it was 9am and everything was closed, so no one was there.  One bakery, Aux Merveilleux de Fred, was open, so we stopped for a pastry. Then, we got a juice from Joe & the Juice, which I swear is more affordable in London than LA. One thing we noticed while walking is the lack of public garbage cans? Where do people throw things away out and about? We carried our trash until we got to a restaurant.

Next, we headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral just to see it from the outside, since we didn’t book tickets to go inside since we already bought expensive tickets for Westminster Abbey.  We were on our way, when I saw a garden, so we stopped there and there was a small pool and I got some cool reflection pics (looked it up later, it is aptly named the Reflection Garden). I love an unplanned photo stop!

We walked to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery area, but it was all blocked off for some big bike ride, so we kept walking down to Big Ben. In some ways I’m glad our trip got delayed a few years because the construction was done on the iconic monument. We took some photos at Mr. Fogg’s Gin Parlour, which is all over Pinterest. Then, we walked through Neal’s Yard, which had some cute shops and cafes. We found this big chair and rested for a bit since we had walked 6 miles before noon.  On our way to lunch, we walked through Chinatown, SoHo and found Kingly Court, which was a super cute food court.  I would’ve loved to eat somewhere there, but we had bigger and better plans: Dishoom.

Dishoom is an Indian restaurant and it is the one place everyone recommended when I said I was going to London.  There are several locations. We went to the Carnaby location since it fit in the itinerary. You can only make reservations for breakfast and lunch, but not for dinner. You don’t really need a reservation for weekday breakfast. If you don’t make a reservation for lunch, the wait is going to be at least an hour.

We had made a 1pm lunch reservation a few weeks in advance and ordered the house chaat (sweet potato and yogurt dish), murgh malai (chicken), house black daal (stew), matter paneer (curry with paneer cheese), rice, and garlic naan. Everything was absolutely delicious!! The house chai tea is unlimited and also fabulous, you must get it. You definitely don’t need naan and rice, but our server talked us into it. Everything had such great flavor, and we were STUFFED.

We were walking to Buckingham Palace when we saw the Veuve Clicquot Solaire pop-up exhibit, which I had visited in Los Angeles a few months prior. It was free and showed the history of the champagne and had a little café inside.

The palace had a bunch of barricades because of the cycling event, so we couldn’t get too close to Buckingham Palace. I had looked into getting tickets for Buckingham Palace, but it was confusing and it seemed like there weren’t any tours until the summer.

Around 3:30pm, we met up with my former co-worker, Taylor! She moved to London and transferred to an advertising agency there.  We went to Gordon’s Wine Bar, which is one of the oldest wine bars in London, and sat at a table outside, but the inside was dark and cave-like.  I tried a Kir Royale because I saw it in Emily in Paris on Netflix and it sounded like a drink I wouldn’t hate, but I didn’t love it.

After finishing our drinks, we walked across Waterloo Bridge and went to a festival called Between the Bridges, which has free admission, live music, street food, and drinks.  Sarah and Taylor got a Pimm’s and then we sat for a bit.

Then, we walked down Westminster Bridge and to Covent Garden.  Taylor showed us the Piazza Terrace rooftop bar at the Royal Opera House, and then Sarah and I walked back down Regent Street to our dinner reservation at the pink, Instagram-famous restaurant, Sketch.

We were early to our reservation, so they had us sit at the bar to wait. We were still full from Dishoom, so we just wanted to get dessert, but our waiter told us we had to each get an appetizer as well, so we did.  All the food was extremely mediocre and I was so disappointed in this experience.  It also took like 40 minutes to get the bill.  The waiters weren’t attentive and even the people next to us asked to remove the 15% service fee because they had bad service.  The only cool thing was the bathroom, but it was not worth the $120+ experience.

This day, we walked 14 miles and my knees hurt pretty much the rest of the trip ☹.

DAY 3: SUNDAY, 5/28

We took the tube to the Kensington area and stopped in front of a charming flower-covered pub called Churchill Arms and took some photos. Then, we walked to Candella Tea Room for afternoon tea, which we made reservations for, and was only 25 pounds per person.  It’s a very small tea room, with about six small tables inside and a few tables outside.  We chose from a large menu of teas. Sarah got a lavender earl grey tea and I got a chai tea.  They brought the teapots out, along with tiered plates of finger sandwiches, the fluffiest scones and jam, and delicious pastries. We finished everything, it was so good and a highlight of the trip!!

Next, we walked to Kynance Mews, which was just a cute little alleyway area. I’ve seen photos on blogs with flowered arches, but there weren’t any flowers when we went. It was still charming and there were hardly any other tourists. The homes and buildings along the walk to Kensington Palace seemed way more calm and residential that the areas we went to the day prior. It was really lovely and the only place I felt like I could live in. We stopped to take a few photos, then walked to Kensington Palace for our 12:30pm tickets.

Kensington Palace was a somewhat unassuming red brick building. It kind of looked like what I envision a boarding school would look like.  The queues were slightly confusing.  There were separate lines for on the hour and half past the hour and they let everyone in the group go in. I’m not sure what the palace is normally like, but there was an exhibit called “Crown to Couture” which featured a lot of different dresses, namely from past Met Galas.  There was also a room for one of Beyonce’s Grammy’s dress.

After, we walked into the garden behind the palace and saw the pond. We decided to go to Whole Foods for some juices, where we learned that British people don’t get a discount for being a Prime Member and we couldn’t scan our bar codes.  Then, we took the tube to Richmond, as recommended by Taylor since we are fans of the TV show Ted Lasso. We saw the Richmond Green, the street where Ted lives, and the pub where the fans watch the Greyhounds games and Ted grabs a beer, The Prince’s Head. Was this out of the way? Yes, but I love this TV show, so I thought the hour on the tube was worth it.

We looked for Ted Lasso souvenirs in the souvenir shop and couldn’t find anything we liked, so then we just took the tube back to the city and went to Notting Hill.  The doors are indeed pastel and as pretty as they are in pictures.  We grabbed a snack at Buns from Home, walked up the street to look at the stalls at the Portobello Road Market.  We also hit up Poundland, which is like the British version of a Dollar Tree and picked up a pack of tissues because my allergies were acting up. I would recommend stopping by if you need anything small for your Airbnb/hotel.

After, we took the tube to Little Venice via the Paddington Station stop. Paddington was one of the largest tube stations we had been in, and it spanned several blocks. It reminded me of the massive Fulton subway station in NYC. It was interesting to see the canals and we ended up sitting down for a while because our feet were so sore. Then, we walked around, all the way down the canal, and then went and sat on the steps of Sheldon Square Amphitheater behind some buildings while we waited until closer to our reservation time.

Finally, it was dinner time and we headed to Cheese Barge, a boat-turned-restaurant, for our dinner reservation.  They had outdoor seating on the top of the boat, or indoor seating.  When given the option, I usually make indoor reservations because you never know about the rain or the outside temperature. At night, it got super windy in the area, so I’m very glad we were inside.  The menu was obviously centered around cheese, and we ordered fried curried cheese curds, a charcuterie board, ricotta and lamb kofte, and a grilled cheese with cheddar.  We had eaten plenty of sweets that day, so we skipped dessert and took the tube home.

DAY 4: MONDAY, 5/29

After walking 10+ miles every day, my knees hurt so bad and walking was a big struggle.  We went to breakfast at Pret A Manger (fun fact it means “ready to eat” in French and carries ready-to-eat meals) and we got orange juice and coffee and I took some Zyrtec and Advil and then took the tube to Westminster tube stop.  We stopped at a Tesco Express (European supermarket chain) and picked up some more ibuprofen which was very cheap and then headed over to Westminster Abbey.

I had Sarah print out train and tourist attraction tickets we had booked in case my phone malfunctioned and I couldn’t pull it up on my email.  For Westminster Abbey, since we had a printed ticket, we were ushered into a shorter, separate line from the long mobile ticket line and were immediately able to enter instead of waiting.

Westminster Abbey was amazing.  I am not religious, but I love the architecture and opulence of old churches, and this was really cool.  You could grab a little device and headphones with a self-guided audio tour, but we decided to just walk around.  Unsurprisingly, it was really crowded, but it was pretty cold inside since it’s made of stone and marble. I loved the room with all the flags and stained glass. It was also really cool to be there since King Charles III’s coronation had taken place in this church only a few weeks prior.

The gift shop had the coolest souvenirs that I had seen so far, so I’d recommend going there if you’re looking to take anything home.

We exited through the gift shop and took photos with Big Ben and crossed the Westminster Bridge. We saw a wall of red hearts, which was the National Covid Memorial Wall.  We went toward St Thomas’ Hospital in hopes of finding a pharmacy with knee braces, but I think the pharmacy was just for patients.  So that was unsuccessful, but I did get some nice photos of Big Ben from the hospital garden.

Next, it was time for our Sky Garden reservation, so we went and got in line. Sky Garden in a free indoor/outdoor observation deck, but you do need to book tickets in advance, and these go FAST, so you need to be on it when they release tickets on Mondays on their website (around 10 am London time, around 2am PST time). We went in May 2023 and they were not taking walk-ins.

The observation deck was cool, but there wasn’t much to do. We walked around the garden and saw the restaurant. Then we looked at the view from the outdoor deck and then just sat on the couches for a little bit.

Around 12:45pm we took the tube to Chinatown. We got off at an incorrect tube station, but it was okay because we saw a pop-up installation called The Spaces In Between, which had cool designs and images on digital screens.

We ended up finding our way to Chinatown. We wanted to try a bunch of places instead of having a big lunch at one restaurant. We started at a place called Four Seasons, which is known for its roast duck. We shared a plate with roast duck, bbq pork, and rice. Then, we went to Dumplings’ Legend for some dumplings, but they didn’t really have a lot of dumplings we wanted.  We went to Lucky Tea for boba, and then ended our tour at BAKE and grabbed a big fluffy barbecue pork bun to go.

We were kind of out of things to do, so we went to the Tate Modern museum, because I knew it was free admission.  It wasn’t my favorite museum, but they had a bathroom and places to sit so we love that.  We spent around an hour and a half there, then we went back to the Airbnb for a little bit to rest before our 7pm tickets for the Shard.

The Shard is a 72-story skyscraper with a three-level indoor observation deck and a partial outdoor deck on the top floor.  There is a bar, but there really isn’t a lot to do besides look at the view, and there isn’t anywhere to sit at the top, so it’s a fairly quick experience.

The sun wasn’t supposed to set until like 8:30 pm and we just didn’t want to stand around a wait until then, so we left around 7:45pm and went to Fish! in Borough Market for some fish and chips.

DAY 5: TUESDAY 5/30: Taking the Eurostar from London to Paris

We booked tickets for the Eurostar train that goes between London and Paris and goes through the Chunnel, the undersea tunnel between England and France. Ultimately, I think the time and cost of taking the train or flying between London and Paris end up being very similar since it’s a 3-hour train ride, but it would take an hour to get from central London to London Heathrow, another hour for security and boarding, and then a two-hour flight.

Our train was supposed to leave at 6am, so we left our Airbnb around 4:20am to take the tube to the train station. However, when we got to the tube station, the gates were closed and it said the station was closed until like 6am, even though Google Maps said the tube would be running at 4am.  Our cellular data plan was not working, but thankfully I was able to connect to the station’s wifi and ordered an Uber.  We arrived at the train station with 20 minutes to spare.  You have to be in the queue 30 minutes before the train departs, so there’s enough time to go through all security and passport checks, and they are firm on this timing and will cut off the queue.

There is a lot of waiting and checks that happen before you get to your gate. First, you scan your train ticket, then you get in line for airport-type baggage scanning security. Next, you continue in line to passport check #1 where an official runs your passport.  If you’re a non-EU citizen, you continue into a line where you scan your passport, get a facial screen/get photo taken, then finally you get to another person who stamps your passport. After all this, you can finally get to the gate and can board your train. The whole process took almost exactly 30mins.

Overall, I liked London.  Most of the tube stations had escalators (can’t say the same about Paris), so it was relatively easy to get around even though my knees were killing me. It felt a lot like New York, or I suppose New York was probably based on London.  However, it was a lot cleaner than New York and there aren’t as many skyscrapers, so the streets were brighter. I’m not sure what it was, but London also felt safer than New York.  I love how international the city was, and we had really wonderful weather, which always contributes to the experience. Next time, I want to go back to Dishoom, go to Regent’s Park, see the Harry Potter 9 and 3/4 platform, take photos at Neal’s Yard, explore Camden Market, go to the British Library, eat in Kingly Court, and go to a museum.

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Afternoon tea at Candella Tea Room
• Tower Bridge early in the morning without anyone there
• Walking around Chinatown
• Westminster Abbey
• Lunch at Dishoom

WHAT I WOULD’VE CHANGED

• don’t walk over 10 miles per day and/or bring my knee braces from home
• go to Sketch for drinks and get bathroom pics. Do not spend money on an actual meal there.
• go to Richmond early in the morning to get photos without so many people in them
• make a reservation at Darcie & May Green for drinks before Cheese Barge
• go somewhere else for dumplings in Chinatown since Dumplings’ Legend wasn’t very good
• walk along the river to get a side view of Tower Bridge
• reserve tickets for the Shard only 30mins before sunset to see it during the day and night
• book the Eurostar further in advance so it’s cheaper and book a later train (8am/9am) train so we can take the tube to the train station
• earlier lunches and dinners

OTHER EUROPE 2023 BLOG POSTS:
4th Timer’s Guide to Paris
2 Days in Lyon
2 Days in Marseille
24 Hours in Nice

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