London Tips

General Tips

The Tube

The Tube is awesome, use it. It will take you practically anywhere in London. It can be confusing with the number of lines and where lines cross at stations, so download an app onto your phone that will help with connections. the TfL website also helps.

It does have a few downsides.  It can also be crowded and very hot in the summer as most of it is not air-conditioned. Phone reception and 3/4G data don’t work underground.

Get an Oyster card, it will be cheaper than using day tickets if you have more than one day in London. You can use a credit card with a chip in it, but unless your card is a zero fee on currency exchange this could be an expensive way to use the tube. On more than one occasion the “contactless pay” wasn’t working and they were telling people to use Oyster Cards instead.

With our oyster card, I just kept loading them up with loose change to keep them recharged. You can even order an Oyster card before you go.

Most important rule with the Tube : on Escalators, stand to the right.

Tube Map with Zones

The Londonist.

A fantastic website and youtube channel dedicated to London. I could spend hours on this alone.

Accomodation.

London is massive. Don’t stay on the outskirts or deep in the suburbs to get cheaper accommodation. You will spend more on transport and waste time travelling into the city. Stay within the “Zone 1” area, at a pinch go out to “Zone 2”

For great apartments, check out “City Apartments“. They are not the cheapest accommodation about, but the quality, service and location is excellent. They cater to the business market rather than general tourist. You won’t find them on booking.com. The apartments I’ve had were air-conditioned. This is extremely rare for London yet was handy when I was there for a week where they experienced a heatwave of 35+ temps

Food

London has an amazing food scene. For curry don’t go past Brick Lane. Great food stalls at Borough Market, Camden Market, Old Spitalfields Market and Leadenhall Market to name but a few. Fantastic restaurants and pubs everywhere.

Driving in London.

In a single word. DON’T.  Car hire may look cheap, however with the congestion charges in central london, parking issues, one way streets and cameras that catch your every wrong move and fine you, it can become an expensive exercise unless you know what you are doing. Take the tube.

Phones and Sim Cards

See this blog post of mine from 2016 for tips on which SIM card to get. I double check this every now and again, and I still think “3” has the best deal for short term visits to Europe. You can get one in Australia from sim corner.

Theatre Tickets

If you want to visit the theatre, here is the link to get cheap last minute tickets. For advanced bookings, go here

Things to see

Here is a small list of things to do London, broken down into two lists. One list contains things that cost money to do or enter, the other is free. They are not listed in any particular order. I’ve included my top 10 favourite things in a third list at the bottom. I’ve only scratched the surface of what is in London. The old saying, “When you are tired of London, you are tired of life” is very true. There is so much to see and do.

Things That Cost Money
Things that are free

My Top Picks