I went to London for the first time with my sister in 2023 (blog post here), and I did not expect to be back so soon! London is such a massive city, and there are still plenty more markets and museums I need to visit in the future!
HOW LONG TO STAY IN LONDON?
London is massive, and there’s truly so much to do. While you can cover a lot in 3-4 days, you could probably spend a full 2 weeks exploring the different areas of the city. We didn’t even see Big Ben or go to the Kensington neighborhood on this trip, but I did the first time I visited London two years ago.
WHERE TO STAY IN LONDON
The city is so large, so I’d just recommend staying closest to the attractions you want to do. Of course, the tube will take you wherever you want to go, so it just depends on what you’re looking for. The past two times I’ve been to London, I’ve found that the Airbnbs south of the river near Borough Market are cheaper. I think that the next time I visit London, I’d like to stay in Soho and Covent Garden to be a little more central. Below is a map of everywhere we went this trip.
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION IN LONDON
My first time in London, we only took the underground tube. This time, we ended up taking both the tube and the iconic double-decker buses. Both take Apple Pay, which is super convenient. Since it was so hot in the stations and the tube itself (not all of the lines have AC), and it can take some time to get all the way down to the tube and wait for the train, sometimes the bus ended up being the same amount of time, so we took them both pretty equally.
LONDON IN THE SUMMER
The last time I went to London was in May 2023, and it was the perfect weather, not too hot and not too cold. In July, we went during a little heat wave where it was 80 degrees. Similar to many places in Europe, there wasn’t air conditioning in the main tourist attractions, which was rough, especially in the crowded museums. I’d definitely book all the museums right at opening when it’s the coldest part of the day and bring plenty of water and allot extra time to get through the museum since you’ll be dodging a ton of other tourists.
London is obviously a major tourist destination, especially during the summer vacation months. Places are crowded, and you likely won’t be able to get into all of the big ticketed attractions last minute. If you have a set itinerary, I highly recommend looking to book tickets at least 2 weeks in advance.
DAY 1: MONDAY, 7/14
London was the last stop on my summer 2025 Europe trip, after Dublin, Belfast, and Edinburgh. My friend Kyra and I took the 9:24am train from Edinburgh and got into London Kings Cross around 1:45 pm. We took a double decker bus to our Airbnb in Southwark to drop our luggage, then, we headed to Buckingham Palace. Our tickets were for 4:30 pm, so we were a little bit early, and grabbed ice cream from the stand in Green Park outside of the Canada Gate side of the palace.
Out of all the attractions we went to during this Euro summer trip, Buckingham Palace was the only place that was pretty strict about timed ticket entry, which makes sense for security reasons. You stay in a waiting area until your ticket time before going through security. Then, you pick up an audio guide, and you weren’t allowed to take photos inside. There wasn’t great air conditioning and you were only able to see ~8-10 rooms of the palace, but they were ornate and beautiful, and worth the ticket price in my opinion.
After, we went to Covent Garden and found food at Seven Dials Market. There was no air conditioning in this market, and it was only 75 degrees outside, but everything indoors was uncomfortable. Kyra got some pasta which wasn’t great and I ordered this Thai chicken salad that was too spicy, and so we ended up going to Pret for more food before heading back to the Airbnb.
DAY 2: TUESDAY, 7/15
Our first stop of the day was at Buns from Home back in the Covent Garden area. These are croissant cinnamon buns, so they’re flaky and perfect! Then, we headed toward the British Museum. There was a long line even before the museum opened. We had reserved timed tickets for free online, but we didn’t feel like just standing there, so we got our second pastry of the morning at Fortitude Bakehouse before getting in line. This bakery has over 200K followers on Instagram, but I had never heard of it before, and it exceeded the hype. Somehow, there wasn’t too long of a line at all and I got a blueberry custard pastry. However, I was randomly stung by a wasp while crossing the street, and so I was a bit frazzled and couldn’t focus on my pastry 🙁
You may sense a trend here, but the British Museum was extremely warm and sensory overload. I can’t believe the biggest tourist attractions here don’t have air conditioning. I know London is usually on the colder end, but it was pretty brutal inside. There were a ton of tour groups including the kind with 80 pre-teen students, and it was just extremely overwhelming. We didn’t really have anything we really wanted to see, but we saw the Rosetta Stone and did the 3-hour self-guided tour in about an hour. I loved the library under the dome!
This was not logistically efficient, but since we had time to kill, we took the tube to Paddington Station to find the Paddington bear statue. This is one of the bigger tube stations and it’s also a train station, so rather than wander around aimlessly, definitely ask an employee to point you in the right direction. There’s also a Paddington bear shop with a bunch of merchandise. Paddington 3 had recently been released, so there were some cute photo opps.
For lunch, we tubed back to Soho to check out Supernova, a cute small smashburger spot that I heard about from an influencer I follow @brettsbites. There were stools around the kitchen, so you could sit and watch your food being prepared. Kyra and I each got a burger and shared fries and a sundae, and it hit. Brett doesn’t disappoint!
We had timed tickets for St. Paul’s Cathedral, but they were flexible with entry and let us in early. The last time I was in London, I got a good photo of the church in the reflection in the pond at the Reflection Garden across the street, but we didn’t go inside the cathedral. Several movies have been filmed here including Harry Potter and Paddington 2. It is stunning and I do recommend visiting, but for me, nothing compares to Westminster Abbey.
At St. Paul’s Cathedral, I highly recommend climbing to the top of the dome of the church if you have time. There’s no elevator, so be prepared to walk up a lot of stairs. The first stop is at the Whispering Gallery (257 steps), where you can’t take any photos for some reason. There was a very active older female worker whose main job was to chase people around this dome and tell them to stop taking photos. Kyra walked back down, while I continued on to the Stone Gallery, another 376 steps that led to an outdoor balcony, which had views of Big Ben in the distance. Finally, I made it up to the Golden Gallery (528 steps), which involved going up several tight metal spiral staircases, the kind where you bond with the other people in line about. Once you reach the top, it’s a 360 balcony, and you can see all the way to Tower Bridge and the London Eye.
We headed back to the Airbnb for a bit before walking to dinner at a nearby Australian restaurant called Lantana Café. It had a bunch of healthy-ish options and had a nice chill vibe. I got this delicious tofu rice plate and Kyra got a salad. Of course we had to get a sweet treat to end the day, so Kyra got a brownie and I got carrot cake.
DAY 3: WEDNESDAY, 7/16
We had a slow morning and read in bed before going to Borough Market right when it opened at 10 am. We didn’t have to wait in line anywhere, and I highly recommend doing it this way.
First, we took a lap to get a sense of where everything was. One side of the market has more produce and actual groceries, while the other side was more ready-to-eat food stalls. On the produce side, we stopped at Artisan Foods for focaccia bread and a pretzel for snacks for later.
We had done some research on social media and had an idea of what we wanted to eat. There were only two of us, so we had to be strategic about stomach space. The mushroom risotto and the paella weren’t sounding super appetizing at 10 am, but if you can handle that, more power to ya. They were giving samples of the mushroom risotto, and honestly that one bite was the perfect amount for us, since we didn’t love mushrooms.
We started with the chocolate-covered strawberries, which were absolutely delicious. Some people were even buying cups of plain strawberries because they were that good. Then, we were first in line at Humble Crumble and got whipped marshmallow-topped strawberry rhubarb crumble, which was so good! I wish we had a place like this in Los Angeles.
Our third course was the TikTok-famous “The Best One” sandwich from The Black Pig. It’s a shredded pork sandwich with honey truffle parmesan mayo, fennel apple slaw, pepperoncini, salsa verde, and topped with a generous layer of shaved parmesan. It’s a large sandwich and is served cut into two halves, so it’s perfect for sharing!
Then, we walked across London Bridge to the Natural History Museum, which has the iconic whale skeleton hanging in the entry hall. We booked free timed tickets in advance, and the line wasn’t too crazy. The museum felt smaller than the British Museum. It was still crowded, yet definitely felt less overwhelming. I really liked the Minerals gallery and seeing all the stones. Similar to the British Museum, there was no air conditioning and a ton of people. We spent a solid 45 minutes sweating inside and then headed over to Notting Hill.
The Portobello Road Market was in full swing. Kyra got some quilted pouches and I got a quilted jacket. We also went to the Notting Hill Book Shop. Then, we walked up the road and got a late lunch at Farm Girl, which is a small restaurant with an outdoor patio. The menu seemed pretty similar to most cafés in Los Angeles.
We walked up Pembridge Road and I got a chai boba from Bubbleology, and we saw Cheeky Scone, so we had to grab some cheeky scones! They had both savory and sweet scones and I think I might be a savory scone gal.
From there, we went back to the Airbnb and hung out until it was time to go to Romeo and Juliet at the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. They don’t have shows all the time, so you can also just take a tour of the theatre if you want to see it.
This is a 360 degree open-air wooden theatre with no roof, and therefore there is no air conditioning in the summer and no heat in the winter. There are 2 balconies, with bleacher style bench seating. If you want really cheap tickets, you can book Yard tickets for 5 or 10 pounds, which is like being in the pit for a concert, so it’s standing room only. If it’s raining that day, you will get wet. There are also cheaper tickets with obstructed views (like a post is in front of you). The most expensive tickets will be 80 pounds (around $108), which is what we ended up paying. Yes, it was a bit pricey but I figure it’s a one-time thing.
This version of Romeo & Juliet was Western-themed so that was reflected in their wardrobe, which was fun. My favorite character was Mercutio, and it was cool to see that they had a diverse cast. I haven’t read Romeo & Juliet for probably 10 years, but Kyra is a high school English teacher and teaches the play every year, so she explained what was happening. I thought this was super fun and a great way to end our London trip!
PRO TIPS FOR THE GLOBE THEATRE: People say that the best seats are on the second floor balcony in the front. However, I had done some research on Reddit and learned that it was bench seating and there were no seat backs, so I chose to sit on the first floor in the lower gallery, in the middle section at the very back row of the theater so we could lean up against the back wall. I also booked us $4 seat cushions, otherwise we’d just be sitting on flat wooden benches. You can also rent these the day of at the theatre before going inside. This was clutch. Although it was pretty warm back there, I’m very pleased with our seating situation and didn’t have any trouble hearing the performers even though they don’t use any microphones.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Fortitude Bakery
- Walk to the top of St. Paul’s Cathedral
- Buckingham Palace
- Going to Borough Market at opening (10am)
- See a show at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre
WHAT I’D CHANGE
- Stay in the Covent Garden area
- Start the Europe trip in London since it’s the biggest city where you’d do the most walking and then go to Ireland/Scotland
RECOMMENDED READING
My First Trip to London
3 Days in Edinburgh
Paris, My Old Friend
