Enjoying a Weekend Trip To London

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Enjoying a Weekend Trip To London

Visiting Europe without spending at least a weekend in London is like getting an ice cream sundae without adding a cherry on top, it just doesn’t make sense. While we had tight travel plans traveling from Ireland to Italy, we were not about to miss a weekend in London. While London might always sound like an expensive trip there are some great ways, include hotel breaks and city passes and cheap eats to help you enjoy an amazing weekend without breaking the bank.

If you are flying into London, all the major airports offer a wide variety of transportation options into the city. So whether you jump on a train, tram, taxi or bus, London is only a short ride away. The cost of transportation can set you back quite a bit during a trip to the UK, but with excellent options like single or multi day Underground passes and the London City Pass, you’ll surely save some big bucks. We opted for the two day tube pass which let us travel absolutely everywhere we wanted without thinking about it. A day pass might be 9 pounds, but it sure is better than dishing out 4 pounds for each ride.

“A bad day in London is still better than a good day anywhere else…” -Unknown

As for hotels in the UK, there are of course endless options. While it is nice to stay right in the middle of London, with the tube and especially the day or city pass, no matter what neighborhood you decide to get a hotel in, you’ll be a short ride to the center of town. We opted to stay in East London an thriving, vibrant part of the city with amazing nightlife a bit away from the tourist areas. Brick Lane offers some of the best Indian food you will ever try outside of India as well as some fun and quirky bars and clubs. We enjoyed amazing kebabs at a Libyan restaurant and then sang and danced the night away on Brick Lane. If you are in the mood to dance, check out the Big Chill for some bumping tunes and if you are in the mood to embarrass yourself, check out The Archers. While you might not want to sing yourself, watching college students make idiots of themselves is good fun, plus there are a couple of old timers who are just as drunk and into it as well.

No trip to London is complete without visiting all the main tourist attractions like Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the British Museum. Lucky for you, the majority of the main tourist attractions are all within easy walking distance from each other. Even though it was a classic rainy, wet and windy UK weekend when we were in town, we still managed to walk to all the main sites without getting too soaked. If you find yourself by Westminster Abbey make sure to walk over the bridge and check out the London Eye, quite an amazing ferris wheel and if you chose to take a trip and it is a clear day, you will get amazing views of the city from the top.

The most important thing to enjoying a weekend trip to London is taking advantage of all the amazing things the city has to offer. Plan you trip, find the best hotel breaks, book in advance, take public transportation and get off the beaten path to find the best hole in the wall restaurants. London is one of the most vibrant, historic a fascinating cities in all of Europe so no matter how close of far you are, a weekend trip to London will always be worth it – we’ll even cross our fingers for you that its sunny!