We’re off and running on our tour across Europe, having completed a cruise of the Baltic Sea and landing back in Dover, England. After sampling proper fish and chips, we hopped on the train to one of the busiest cities in the world: London. Read on for my Travel Hack Recap: Europe, Part 3 – London below!
Full disclosure: I’m not sure how many parts this trip will be split into. Ninety days of continuous travel was a huge undertaking on our part and documenting the details has been daunting enough for me to have procrastinated nearly 6 months to start doing so. But I’ll do my best to share the highlights and travel hacks along the way!
Travel Hack Recaps of Europe so far:
Where We Went
The first thing to note related to our activities through most of this European extravaganza is that we pre-booked a lot of tickets weeks, if not months ahead of time. Given the precarious nature of COVID-19 throughout the world at the time, most attractions were open but requiring advance booking for a specific time slot.
This had its pros and cons: a designated time slot meant guaranteed admission and minimal time waiting in lines, as well as reduced crowds; however, our flexibility was greatly reduced by being locked in to nonrefundable tickets with a particular entrance time. All in all, I’d say the pros outweighed the cons, but note that your experience may be different than ours depending on the restrictions in place.
Day 1 (Day 15 of the trip) – Dover, England to London, England
After touring Dover Castle and getting lunch, we picked up our luggage and walked to Dover Priory train station, catching the ~2 hour train to London for about $12.50 each. From London Victoria Station, we navigated London’s famous Tube (subway) system. I was immediately hooked – the efficiency and relative affordability of London’s public transit system is still one of my favorite things about the city.
Transportation around London
Many online articles will tout the Oyster Card, the reloadable card you can use to tap in and out of the turnstiles at Tube stations and on buses, but it’s not necessary. We used our tap to pay enabled credit cards and they served the same purpose. (Note: each person needs their own separate payment card. There are daily limits to what you will be charged depending on your routes, so using the same card each trip allows them to calculate that total).
Not only that, but we discovered after a few days that it was even safer and more efficient to add our credit cards to the Apple wallet on our phones and tap to pay that way – no handling credit cards in the midst of rush hour Tube traffic. This was a game changer that we would use throughout the rest of our trip when possible (just make sure your designated credit card is exempt from foreign transaction fees).
Anyway…we arrived at the Aldgate East Tube station where we would walk to our accommodations for the next 4 nights: the Hyatt Place London City East. I would generously call the area “up and coming” and maybe not somewhere you want to venture out alone at night. But the hotel itself was excellent for the price at just 45,000 Hyatt points for 4 nights and included free breakfast with Mrs. FIby35’s World of Hyatt Globalist status. We ate dinner at a terrific Turkish place on the corner and called it a night. The next day would be jam packed with sightseeing.
Day 2 (Day 16) – London, England
While planning our activities for London, we came across the London Pass, a package offering discounts on attractions around the city. After careful consideration, we opted for the 1-day pass for $77/person and activated it here, on our first full day in London. On the docket: St. Paul’s Cathedral, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, View from the Shard, and a Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour of the city. A grand undertaking for just one day, but we got our money’s worth out of the London Pass. Paying for each of those attractions individually would have totaled about $145/person!
St. Paul’s Cathedral
We carb-loaded on breakfast at the hotel before taking the Tube to St. Paul’s Cathedral, arriving just before opening at 8:30am. The line was pretty minimal and we were let in almost immediately to explore the massive Anglican cathedral in relative peace. The free audio guides pointed out some interesting facts and features of the cathedral and also kept the noise down, as almost everybody was listening to them through headphones instead of talking. We opted against climbing the stairs to the upper levels and continued on foot to the Tower of London.
Tower of London
The Tower of London ended up being one of my favorite attractions of our entire trip – an incredible amount of history packed within those old fortress walls. If you go, don’t miss the Yeoman Warder (aka Beefeater) tours running every half hour. They’re immensely knowledgeable and entertaining and provide a great foundation before exploring the rest of the Tower yourself. We meandered through the main White Tower, gawked at the crown jewels, and peeked into a few more buildings before departing for the Tower Bridge.
Tower Bridge
First London myth to debunk: the Tower Bridge is NOT the London Bridge. Many tourists confuse the two, thinking that the famous Tower Bridge seen in photos is actually the London Bridge. While the London Bridge is just fine, the Tower Bridge is really what you’re looking for when visiting London.
Each tower holds small exhibits and placards posted on the wall to read while ascending to the top, at which point you can cross the bridge itself over see-through glass:
Borough Market
After descending the Tower Bridge, we continued across to the south bank of the River Thames. In our original plans, we didn’t know if we would have time to visit the famous Borough Market on this day since we were already squeezing so much into it. Luckily, we managed. Borough Market is a massive open-air market of stalls selling all kinds of produce, meats, cheeses, spices, and small restaurants. We shared a plate of pad thai from a Thai restaurant stall (it was average) and continued on, doing an entire loop on the Hop On Hop Off bus tour.
Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour
The Hop On Hop Off bus tour (we chose the Big Bus red route) circled the main tourist areas of London with a narrated feed you could listen to through headphones. The pre-recorded tidbits weren’t that interesting, but it was still nice to sit on the top deck and be chauffeured around the city.
London myth #2: the clock tower known around the world as Big Ben is actually NOT named Big Ben. The iconic north tower of the British Parliament building is actually named Elizabeth Tower; Big Ben is the name of the massive bell within the tower.
The Shard
Once we had circled the city, we hopped off the bus back on the south bank where we would ascend to the viewing deck of the Shard, the tallest building in the United Kingdom. While the 360 views of London around sunset were pretty spectacular, the overall experience probably isn’t worth the full price of admission (28 GBP or about $34 each at the time of writing). Luckily we received a slight discount through the London Pass.
Having walked almost 9 miles on this day, we took the Tube back to Aldgate East and grabbed some pizza from a place near the hotel.
Whew. What a day.
Day 3 (Day 17) – London, England
I don’t know about you, but after watching shows like The Crown on Netflix, I can’t help but crave a traditional British tea time experience. I don’t even like tea! But that’s exactly what we did on Day 3 in London.
Kensington Palace & Gardens
After Tube-ing out to Kensington, we strolled the gardens and toured Kensington Palace, an official home of the royals dating back to King William III and Queen Mary II in the late 17th century. Queen Victoria was born there in 1819, Prince (now King) Charles and Princess Diana lived there, and many minor royals still take up residence on the grounds. The palace itself was interesting enough (~$25 each), but we came for the Afternoon Tea at the Kensington Palace Pavilion. I didn’t know I liked scones, but I sure do now.
Not cheap at $99 total, though we could have split a set of the sandwiches, scones, and cakes instead of each having our own. Still worth the experience of fancy Afternoon Tea at a royal palace!
British Museum
From Kensington Palace, we took the Tube back towards central London and visited the British Museum. Free to the public, the museum houses an astonishing number of ancient artifacts the British “found” during their worldly explorations of the past. We followed the Rick Steves audio guide for the museum (also free) and saw a good number of the highlights. We could have spent hours there and will probably return to the museum the next time we’re in London.
After a stop at a pub and another Tube ride back to Aldgate East, we sought out a newer Mediterranean restaurant called Amber for dinner. Highly recommend! It wasn’t the cheapest, as our meal cost $77 including a glass of wine and a beer, but we were under budget and splurged a bit before retiring to the hotel.
Day 4 (Day 18) – London, England
Sandemans Free Walking Tour
Our final full day in London included a lot more sightseeing of the royal variety. We participated in the first of many Sandemans free walking tours of the city, passing by Trafalgar Square, St. James Place, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, and ending at the British Parliament building. The tour itself was pretty average – the guide was foreign, so I think we missed out on the traditional British wit we were hoping for – but I suppose you get what you pay for and you tip accordingly.
Westminster Abbey
Ending so close to Westminster Abbey, I decided to squeeze that in before our next attraction (the lack of flexibility with prebooked time slots showed up here). Though not as grand as St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Abbey was interesting for its own historical reasons and significance to the royals. Like St. Paul’s, audio guides were helpful to be able to direct traffic and point out the highlights inside the abbey ($29/person). After that, we were off to see the Queen!
Buckingham Palace
…or at least her official home, as she was at her summer home in Scotland at the time (more on that later). We toured Buckingham Palace ($38/person, audio guide included) and saw many of the gorgeously appointed rooms that the Queen herself frequented during her time there. It’s not cheap and you certainly don’t see all of the palace, but for anyone interested in the monarchy I think it’s worth the price of admission.
With an early start on tap for the following day, we had dinner in Chinatown and headed back to the hotel.
Day 5 (Day 19) – London, England to Edinburgh, Scotland
Just a morning Tube ride to Kings Cross-St Pancras Station before taking the train to Edinburgh!
How Much We Spent (and Saved)
Let’s take a look at the Travel Hack Recap spending breakdown for our 4 nights in London. I should note that during our entire 3 months in Europe, the US dollar was extremely strong. The exchange rate with the Pound Sterling was near 1.4:1 when planning and had improved to only 1.2:1 while we were there. The Euro was at or near 1:1 for much of our trip, so everything was at a bit of a discount compared to historical exchange rates.
| Category | Budget | Actual | Notes |
| Flights | $0.00 | $0.00 | |
| Accommodations | $0.00 | $0.00 | 45,000 Hyatt points for 4 nights at the Hyatt Place London City East |
| Food/Drink | $375.00 | $300.27 | Breakfast included at hotel; almost $100 for tea at Kensington Palace |
| Entertainment & Misc | $370.00 | $349.44 | $154 for the London Pass; pricey admission for everything else |
| Transportation | $65.00 | $89.88 | London-Dover train; Tube around London |
| TOTAL | $810.00 | $739.59 |
Despite our fancy afternoon tea, we still managed to come in $70 under budget for London. Big shoutout to breakfast being included with our hotel in the morning, a perk we would continue as much as possible throughout our trip. We usually loaded up on breakfast to fuel us for a full day of sightseeing, stopped for a snack and/or drinks in the afternoon, and then shared a reasonably priced dinner at night.
Total savings from travel hacking:
- 4 nights at the Hyatt Place London City East would have been a shade under $1,000 and included free breakfast. Not to mention how much cheaper it was compared to most other hotels throughout the city.
Even excluding the savings of taking public transit instead of Uber/Taxi/Rental car (ah, the Tube!), we saved about $1,000 by travel hacking this leg of our trip to Europe in London.
Conclusion
Like the Germans during World War II, we blitzed London pretty hard during our 4+ days in town. Ticking off the tourist must-sees one by one, we covered some serious physical and historical ground. Other than the free museums, the attractions are pretty expensive and made up the largest chunk of our spending. Of course, food and drink can be as expensive as you make it – we were fortunate to have free breakfast and splurged for Afternoon Tea, but for the most part kept our spending reasonable in that area.
In a trend that would repeat itself later on in our travels, I fell hard for London’s public transit. It may not be the cleanest or most efficient in the world, but it gets you anywhere in the city for a fraction of the cost of any other mode of transportation. I think I could spend a whole day just riding the Tube around town…
Though I didn’t know it at the time, London would remain one of my favorite cities in the world (I can say that almost 7 months and many international cities later). I’m looking forward to going back someday and hitting some of the less-touristy spots and the English countryside. We actually returned to London for a brief stay later in our trip, but that’s for a future post.
Up next: Edinburgh, Scotland and Dublin, Ireland!
What are your thoughts on London? Comment below!
Can’t wait to see it myself one day 🙂