Where to stay, how to get around, and where to explore in London with only 24 hours this Fall/Winter
London is a city like no other. I have been to 10 different countries in the past 15 months, and England is definitely on my list for one of the coolest. There is SO much to do in London, and you don’t even have to break the bank to do a lot and have a lot of fun. Don’t worry if you only have a short amount of time, I’ve got the perfect itinerary for you.
For context on the timeline of my London trip, I left Newark, NJ on a Thursday night. This meant I arrived in London Friday morning and spent pretty much all day Friday and half of Saturday exploring the city before flying home Saturday night.
Transportation
Transportation in London is by far the easiest out of anywhere I have been. I think part of this is because there is no language barrier, but whatever the reason may be, it was very convenient to do and see so much in just 24 hours. The Tube is London’s main form of transportation and I found the easiest way to do this was to just pay with Apple Pay at each entrance and exit of the train, and it did not empty my wallet, it was rather cheap actually. This same Apple Pay method works when using the double decker buses to get around, and you have to go on at least one double deck during your time in London. All of my fellow One Directioners understand the extra excitement of the double deckers haha 😉
Where to Stay
I stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton in the West End and it was very enjoyable. The hotel is stunning and the location is so convenient. It is just about a 10 minute walk to The British Museum (more on this below), and less than that to get to The Tube to go pretty much everywhere. There is also a bus stop for the double deckers right outside of the hotel which is SUPER convenient.
What to do
There is SO much to do in London, but here’s what I was able to fit in during my quick trip!
British Museum
There are SO many free museums to explore in London, but for this trip I chose The British Museum. It was super close to the hotel where I was staying which was very convenient. I arrived to the hotel before my room was ready, but this gave me the opportunity to explore the museum until my room was ready before hitting more tourist locations!
This museum has so much rich history and is separated into various rooms by countries and some by time periods. I cannot believe entrance was free to such an incredible museum. I am not even a huge museum person and I could have spent all day here!
Seven Dials
Food markets are a huge thing in London, which I did not know. Seven Dials is the one that I ended up going to and I LOVED it. There are food options for everyone and the environment is so social and fun. I got pizza, which looks gross, but it was incredible I promise, but my favorite thing I got was a Longboy donut. It basically looks like a hot dog except it is actually a donut…yummm.
Big Ben and The London Eye
The London Eye is a staple of the city. I did not ride the ferris wheel itself this time around because the tickets are kind of pricey, but I enjoyed just seeing The London Eye and the area around it just as much as I would have enjoyed the ride. You can also see Big Ben from The London Eye, and vice versa, so it’s easy to check off two major bucket list items quickly when in London!
Westminster Abbey
This was the only thing I would consider a “splurge” from my time in London. I did not buy a ticket to go inside Westminster Abbey in advance, and I am not sure if that is cheaper, but the last minute ticket to go inside was a little on the higher end of pricing, but was well worth every penny. The ticket includes the entirety of the inside and everything this stunning church has to offer, as well as a guided video system that you can listen to on your own time as you walk around. This made it easy to get the history at your own pace as opposed to a stubborn tour group. My favorite part here was seeing the Royal Family Coronation Chair!
Leicester Square Christmas Market
With it being early winter during my time in London the sun set pretty early, but this made for a more magical experience at the Christmas Market in Leicester Square. London sets up its Christmas markets immediately after Halloween because they do not celebrate Thanksgiving. I am a BIG Christmas lover and I was so excited to see so much decorated so early. Leicester Square had beautiful markets set up and if you get the chance to, get the mini pancakes at “Mr. Pancake’s” hut, I am still dreaming about those little pancakes that I got covered in Nutella…YUM!
China Town
China Town is a fun place to explore and is super close to Leicester Square. It doesn’t take up much time on a tight itinerary, but I definitely recommend at least walking through!
Harrods
If you know me you know I LOVE to shop so Harrods was a MUST for me. I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful the entire place is inside and out. Every single display was outstanding and the entire department store was astonishing. Every designer you could ever think of has a special place in Harrods. I also love, love, loved seeing the Christmas displays in the store.
Everything that I mentioned above is what I was able to fit in during the Friday of my trip, it was busy, but SO worth it. Luckily my flight on Saturday wasn’t super early in the morning so I was able to hit a few more things Saturday morning that I am going to talk about now!
Green Park and Buckingham Palace
I am going to lump Green Park and Buckingham Palace together because I went to Green Park as my way of walking to the palace. My biggest piece of advice for seeing Buckingham Palace is to go EARLY. I was there by 8am and was able to get pictures with no one in them in front of the palace! The changing of the guards was not happening when I was there, but I would love to go back to see this someday! The palace is beautiful and it was so neat to see in person, and the walk through Green Park to get there was very relaxing and filled with gorgeous scenery all around.
Tower Bridge
The last stop of my quick London trip was Tower Bridge. Tower Bridge was stunning. I also got super yummy “fish and chips” near there, but I am allergic to seafood so mine was chicken…oops! There are lots of great photo ops near Tower Bridge and the environment in the area is so neat.
London, you were good to me and I will be back <3
If you want to see more about fitting all of this into about 24 hours check out my vlog of the trip here!!
Xoxo,
Anna