8 hours in London - what to see?

Did you ever have to stop in London to catch another plane? 1 day layover and you want to get out of the airport and see something of this beautiful city? Here are a couple of ideas on what to see in London within a day!

First piece of advice is to buy a daily ticket for the underground, you’ll really want to use it if you want to see as much of this city as possible. Seeing all of the most important places will be impossible if you’d want to visit them by feet. Even taking the underground for the whole day left my legs dying after those km I’ve done! 1 day travelcard will cost you 10 £, so it’s comfortable to buy one. Apart from using the tube you may also buy a ticket for the hop on- hop off London bus, but in the end it was much more expensive.

So where to start your trip around London? So much to see but not a lot of time? The anwser is - it depends from your list of MUST see’s in London. Because I’m a big fan on „the Crown” and you know, „God Save the Queen” etc. I started from:

Buckingham Palace - luckily I stepped exactly on the moment of changing of the guards, so I had some additional entertainment. For those who are interested in how it looks like, tap here. Of course if you have more time you can pre-book a trip inside the palace, for e.g. to the Queens Gallery or to the representative rooms (tickets are around 25 £ depending from the date and the type of ticket). From the palace you can walk straight through St. James park and end up under…

Big Ben and Houses of Parliment - of course Big Ben was under construction (when is it not in the end? :D) so I don’t have any photos ;) For those who don’t know Big Ben is a massive Bell built in the XIX century whereas Houses of Parliment are the headquarters of House of Commons and House of Lords. Even though it was under construction it still leaves quite an impression.

From Big Ben you can wander to the Londons’ Eye, which is a large Ferris wheel built just on the edge of river Thames. (I’m not sure if saying that it’s built on the edge is a perfect expression but I hope you all understand what I mean). London’s Eye is a perfect place to do one of those „instagrammable" photos - for a perfect shoot I recommend standing on the Hungerford Bridge or Westminister Bridge. I had mine done from the first one. Going inside the London Eye must be a great attraction - for those who pre-booked a ticket and payed for it 40 £! That’s madness! Without pre-booking, be aware that you might have to stand in the queue for around 2 hours or so!

After being in the „center” of main attractions, me and my boyfriend took the tube straight to Oxford St. which is quite an attraction for all shopaholics. Over 300 shops of every kind and sort. Gotta check it out! From Oxford street we went to SoHo district which again turned out to be my favourite district of all (the classy vibe, adorable colours and street decorations are totally my city style!). SoHo in my eyes is definitely a district you want to see for yousefl. From there you can end up going to Picadilly Circus which is London’s small Times Square (if you want to know more about Times Square, I recommend checking out my post by clicking here). Though I have to say that in my eyes, Picadilly Circus ,is a place you can bypass. I really hope taht I’m not saying anything hurtful for Brits ;)

From Picadilly Circus to Trafalgar Square - which is a memorial place for the British Navy. Besides a big column of admiral Nelson there is a beautiful fountain and of course the National Gallery. You can go inside to admire beautiful paintings and pieces of art in general, the cost of an entry ticket is around 15-20 £.

Apart from checking out those places I managed to see China Town (now I really can’t fully understand it, but I love China Towns!) so of course it’s not a must, but for me it’s interesting that you can find a different country in one city. My boyfriend also made me see Camden Town as for him it’s one of the most interesting districts in London. It’s quite of a hipster place with shops full of weird 3D decorations but being fairly honest with you, it’s not soemthing that I found super entertaining.

We ended the day by chilling in Hyde Park, the biggest Park in London. I really love chilling in Parks that are situated in the middle of town. Again something like New Yorks smaller Central Park but with the exact same vibe - people just being truly themselves, dancing, having fun without caring about judgment.

From Hyde Park, we ended up walking to one more place, before taking the train back to my boyfriends hometown - Peggy Porschen Cakes. I really wanted to try them but ended up only taking one of my best looking photos from the trip to London, since this adorable shop was closed.

This is my small list of recommendations on what to do in London within couple of hours. Unfortunatelly I missed some places that are aparently on the list of „Top 10 things to see in London” for e.g. Notting Hill, Tower Bridge or the Harry Potter studio! :O

The reason why I fell in love with London is mainly because the city managed to captivate me with streets decorated in millions of flowers, adorable red double-decker buses and mostly with it’s atmosphere. Definitely one of those places that you want to see again, and again, and again. I can’t wait to go back and explore more of London.