Hi there! Today’s post is the second of my London guides! The first is about all things food! You can check that out here in case you missed it!
Last week, my sister, our friend Ryan and I went to London for the Chelsea flower show! This trip was my first to Europe, so I had absolutely no idea what to expect, and I was pleasantly surprised when I got there! Even though I had no expectations, London definitely exceeded them tremendously!
First, you need to know that I’m not a city person. I’m a girl who lives 30 minutes outside Manhattan, and I cannot spend more than a few hours there without feeling anxious and panicked lol. It’s just too active and overpopulated for me (I’m sorry to my city lovers). With that in mind, going on VACATION to a city is extremely ironic and out of character scenario for me.
After just 6 days, I have found my favorite city, and I never thought I would have one lol. London is beautiful! The areas we went to were clean and quiet, and safe and absolutely lovely!
Where we stayed| We stayed at Bailey’s Hotel in South Kensington, and we could not have picked a better place. They were extremely accommodating and friendly, and made our travels and stay a breeze! It is in walking distance of great restaurants, a Starbucks (we American girls really needed our BTLs), the United States Embassy, and there is a tube station right across the street!
Where we went| We tried to see as much as we could in a short visit! We managed to see the highlights of South Kensington, Notting Hill, Westminster, Holland Park, Knightsbridge, & Soho!
How we got around| Now for the tube. Now that you know in a nervous non-Manhattan going girl, I’m sure you can already guess that I’m not the biggest fan of public transportation. Once again, London is the exception to this! The tube is their version of the subway, and it made hopping around Chelsea so easy! For six days, we put 35 pounds on our “Oyster cards” (equivalent to a metro card), and it got us everywhere we wanted to go! We changed locations about 2 or 3 times a day to make sure we got to see everything in our short visit, and that would have been impossible without the tube! Taking the tube over expensive cabs definitely cut our daily travel costs in less than half. It was super clean and easy to navegate for us foreigners lol.
Must see tourist locations| We hit all of the main attractions like Buckingham Palace, the Parliament building, the Westminster Bridge, Big Ben (even though he is under construction and we couldn’t see much), the London Eye, and Harrods! We also went to a few of the more “Instagram” spots we’ll call them, like Peggy Porschen Cakes, the El&n Cafe, Jo loves, the infamous floral building, Annabel’s, and the Dior exhibit at the Victoria and Albert Museaum!
We had the absolute best time & I would not change a single thing about our trip! London was a great first place to go for a first time country leaver like myself, obviously because of the language lol, but it was overall an amazing experience that I was not expecting!
