Even Basingstoke would give you a better shopping experience than Oxford Street, and I'm not suggesting anyone goes there unless they happen to live nearby.
My tips 1) I always suggest downloading Citymapper. The tube/buses can be initially overwhelming for tourists, and citymapper takes a lot of the difficulty out of that. I also say on the taxi vs tube thing, people are somewhat avoiding learning how the tube works and dont want to get lost from airport to hotel - but you need to get used to tfl modes of transport as early as possible. Realising how simple the systems are, as early as possible, will make your trip less stressful. 2) Dont think Londoners are rude if they dont talk or look at you out in public. Londoners are assertive but they arent rude. But if you are here for longer than say a month, there is so much constant stimulation that you have to tune it out for the sake of your own mental health. If londoners behaved like tourists (noticing things, dawdling, looking at people or talking to them) the city would grind to a halt, so Londoners are in a constant state of 'keep it pushing'. In my experience though, Londoners are more likely to help you if you are struggling than in other places that people claim the people are 'nicer'. For example, I have dragged big suitcases up and down stairs all over this country. In London, someone always helps me up the stairs with it, but never anywhere else. 3) Be aware that certain tube stations are also attached to extremely busy national rail stations. People pile from train to tube constantly in these stations. Unfortunately the underground concourse isnt always the biggest space and people are often in a hurry here. Euston and Waterloo come to mind in particular. In these places, have your contactless card/oyster/phone in your hand as early as possible - maybe even before you get on the escalator down to the tube. Pausing at these ticket barriers is going to piss people off. Other places have more barriers/more space so it isnt as bad, but at the big national rail stations with crammed undergrounds underneath, have your card ready to tap as early as possible. 4) Have a meandering crazy night out that ends with getting a bagel at 4am on Brick Lane.
Totally agree with you on the friendly bit, I've been here for 3 years now and people are so kind and friendly. They just don't tend to make random conversations with people, they will however leap to help someone in need.
For any family with children that are 11-15 years old reading this, I'd reccomend you not let them use their contactless card (if they have any), but get an Oyster Card for each one of them and ask the staff to apply a "Young Visitor" discount. It will only be valid for the time whilst you're visiting (max 14 days) and give you a 50% discount on your TfL travels. Children under 11 can travel for free! Also thanks Evan, it's a great video, should've watched it (especially the pub things) before I visited London last summer.
@@Rhianalanthula Yup, this is also a way! We didn't get Tourist Oyster Cards because of what I had read from the website, you can't check it's balance in the TfL app. Still ended up not working because the staff set a kind of pin code on the cards. The Youngest ( < 11) didn't really look older so she just went through the gates with one of us
@@artful1967 For visitors who don't have a contactless card in Sterling Oyster may well be the best option. There is the deposit which is likely to be lost, the faff of topping it up and the potential for credit lost at the end of the trip (though this can be recovered, it's just a pain) but if your bank is charging you a flat per-transaction fee for using your card in the UK, contactless will quickly become very expensive and Oyster fares are not more expensive.
It's also terribly annoying when groups of tourists (especially with wheel along cases) uncertain of where to go decide to have a family conference about it right at the top (or bottom) of the escalators making it difficult for us 'late for a meeting' types to get by.
@@theonlysjc I think this is something everyone with a bit of common sense agrees with. I have it all the time at work, people will get to the top of an escalator then look around, I have had to yell on more than a few occasions for them to move because others are coming up and these morons will cause an accident otherwise.
@@cyqry Exactly. If I'm in an unfamiliar place and I need to take a second to get my bearings, pull up an app, look at a map, whatever, I will first and foremost GET OUT OF THE WAY! You're exactly right, its a common sense thing. I'd go as far as saying it just simply a common courtesy!
Something to add for the tube etiquette is moving away from the centre of the doors and let people off first. The amount of times I've been walked into or have had to try and squeeze past people trying to get on is infuriating!
Speaking from the perspective of someone that commutes via train in the US, this advice applies universally, not just to the tube (experienced this exact problem only hours ago with people trying to push into the train before letting everyone off)
That should be true of lifts as well. One side: the entire world, other than a little box. The other side: a little box. Room for ~10. Which side should let the others go first?
This is pretty universal everywhere where people commute on trains / trams etc. So I think it applies only to car-only Americans and maybe visitors from small towns and villages.
Happens all the time in the subway here in New York. The other day I was getting off a train at my station with grocery bags in each hand. Saw a huge crowd of tourists on the platform waiting to get on as the train slid to a stop. As soon as the doors opened, this one young woman in the crowd pushed to get onboard before I could even step off. So I shouldered her aside HARD! Should have heard the gasps from everyone as her body went literally sailing backwards onto the platform. I said nothing, simply kept walking straight ahead with eyes forward. It was very satisfying, although I do feel bad that it was a woman I did that to. But it serves her right... and I must admit, a part of me felt like yelling: "Welcome to NEW YAWK!!" as a parting remark.
If you're getting the train to London from somewhere else in the UK, adding a paper travel card to your ticket is usually so much cheaper than using contactless. A lot of stations outside London also don't have eTicket barriers, so getting the train ticket with travel card as an eTicket is also impractical. Paper tickets aren't obsolete yet!
Agree, from outside London i alway get the National Rail one day combo zone 1-6 travelcard, good value, couldn't quite understand Evan's comment about his beloved travelling from Marlow to East London, unless their stay maybe more than one day? if you travel through zone 6 to arrive in London the fare has to cover it. I still like the orange and cream NR paper ticket.
If you are traveling in to the city, and are not planning on traveling around once there then it is cheaper ... If you also want to travel around whilst there for a few days then an oyster can be much cheaper
I don't know if it is still on effect, but there also used to be vouchers to get 2for1 tickets for many landmarks if you bought a 1-day pass for the underground from train stations.
Thank you for actually posting helpful advice and not just putting cliche mistakes like not looking right or forgetting to bring a raincoat which a lot of people already know about, this is one of the best tourist advice videos I have seen.
Well...yes.... except for the poor young high school exchange student from New Caledonia who was living in Rotorua (NZ)....being from an LHD region she automatically looked left before crossing Fenton St..the main street,,, and made the fatal mistake of stepping out into the path of the car on her right.
@@evan How insane that the cabs cost that much there. I do avoid cabs here in the states, but it isn't always possible. For instance, I once flew cross country but the person I was visiting happened to be at work when my flight got in so I had to take a cab from the airport to the apartment. Just a bit over $20 for that, and that from the city center out to the burbs. Wouldn't want to do that unless absolutely necessary, but $75 is beyond lunacy. My little home town has a taxi that is $1.50 within town limits and $5 to neighboring towns, flat rate stuff.
@@evan That's one thing that puzzles me about UKers. They so often look down us Americans, but I've seldom seen scenes with so much disgusting behavior here in the USA as I do with thoroughly drunken people doing all kinds of things on the city streets normally done in private like upchucking, relieving oneself, etc. you can imagine.
There is actually a really good book called “Secret London”. It is full of hidden gems to visit that generally even Londoners don’t know about. And yes agree Oxford Street is just a direct route to trauma....
Just a quick note on the automatic doors on the Tube (Chube) - during the winter and if it's raining very hard when the train stops at a surface station, the driver will not necessarily open all the doors - to help the people inside the train avoid getting wet/cold. That is when you will need to press the button.
Retired Met Line driver here- this is not quite right- on the sub-surface lines, drivers can’t choose which doors to open. When arriving at a platform, driver will press the doors open buttons and all available doors will open. If the train remains in the platform for more than 45 seconds the doors will close but can be opened by passenger pressing the button. Any doors reopened by passengers pressing the button will again close after 45 seconds, or when the driver presses the door close button, which will close and lock all doors. (There is a facility for the driver to unlock but not open the doors until a passenger pushes the button, but this was too confusing because people were so used to having the doors open automatically that they would just stand there, wondering why the doors weren’t opening…. So we were told not to use this.)
@@naquewack I jumped on the Elizabeth Line for the first time today to travel one stop. The train was fairly full and when we reached my destination, the doors didn't open and I couldn't see a button anywhere. Fortunately a more experienced Elizabeth Line passenger came along and reached behind the skirt of a woman standing by the side of the door where, quite low down, the button was located. So it looks like this new line doesn't have a policy of opening all the doors at every station.
Another tip If you are going to one of the famous museums/galleries (especially in the summer and the Natural history museum): Go first thing in the morning and do the famous exhibits as soon as you get in then go to the less popular exhibits when it gets busy. This way you can actually get up close with things like the Rosetta stone or Da Vinci paintings without feeling like you're at the back of a music concert. The less popular exhibits stay pretty quiet all day so they can be left until later.
When my American friend came over she really wanted to see "London bridge" so I took her there "This is London bridge, over there is tower bridge which is probably what you meant" 😂
@@TalesOfWar That's apocryphal, he didn't buy the wrong bridge and indeed the wrong bridge wouldn't have come up. My understanding is that Old New London Bridge (the one in Arizona) was deemed too narrow/ weak or something, so they decided to replace it with the current New New London Bridge and at that point the idea of selling it came up. The man in Arizona got exactly what he intended to get and did rather well out of it, we wouldn't be talking about his housing estate if he hadn't salvaged a condemned bridge.
When we visited London last October, my wife made the mistake of opening one of the phone booths. She won't make that mistake again. It was one of the most disgusting, yet, memorable parts of our trip and I was lucky enough to catch it on video 😅
😂I went to London for only four days, twelve years ago. I didn't have a 📱 smartphone. I got a picture taken with the phone box😅😂! I was broke in London so I walked and walked all day long and most of the night. I wanted to see everything with almost to no money. I was hungry but happy! An unforgettable experience!
Great vid! I'm a Londoner too and I haven't read through all 865 comments so far, but just thought I'd add a couple of things in case anyone hadn't mentioned them yet. 😅 1) Indian restaurants in general are some of the best-value eats in central London. Dishoom isn't hugely expensive, but even it is pricier than many others that are also very good. If you're anywhere near Tottenham Court Road, I heartily recommend Palms of Goa on Charlotte Street. Particularly if you're a biryani fan - they do the most beautifully gently spiced biryanis with a really subtle depth of flavour with gorgeous floral notes. The owner Eugene is also very friendly. Tell him the redheaded Scottish lady who comes in for biryanis sent you (I don't think he knows my name, but he'll probably recognise me from that description). 2) Something that only occurred to me could be a problem after someone who hadn't negotiated London transport on their own pointed it out to me: if you're using a contactless card or an Oyster card, you must both tap in and tap out at each end of the journey to make sure you don't get overcharged (the system needs to know how far you've travelled, or it will charge you the maximum price for the day). BUT that's only for trains. You only tap in on buses; there's no need to - or indeed any way of - tapping out on buses. So don't stress about tapping out on buses. Once you've tapped in, you can put your card away and forget about it.
Except it hasn't been wobbly since 2001. I'm a Londoner and never refer to it as the 'wobbly bridge'. The last time I called it that was in about 2005!
Half a bitter shandy is my tip. c.£2.50, delicious, refreshing and gets you access to a historic pub, or just a sit-down in convivial surroundings when tired.
Still about 2 for a pint of Guinness down my local and less than 3 in Durham. He's right about the food in spoons but they do usually do good beers cheap.
First London guide video I have ever seen that is actually true , actually realistic and points people to some great areas. I often visit NYC after spending much of my life wanting to visit but aside from accidentally ending up in Times Square once (UGH) I have never been to most of the tourist spots. To me visiting places is getting to see what it's like to live there or just visit and experience as a local - just as local Evan does here :)
The automatic door buttons were installed on tube lines that mostly travel overground; they are usually only set for commuters to use in the depths of winter at the extreme ends of the lines. So tourists are unlikely to need to use them!
Just got back from 17 days in London. Gorgeous weather, not one single day with rain. Did have a problem with the train strikes, had to not do one of our day trips out of London, but there's always something to do. The food was amazing - Indian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Italian, French, Thai, and even some pub food! I love this video, and agree with you 100%!
You chose a "good" time for weather for sure lol We've been having slot of heatwaves recently Sadly these aren't very good for the country as last year these resulted in a drought across slot of our countryside
Pro tip: remember to tap out at all stations and undergrounds on your journey. Or you might not be able to pass through the next barrier or it charges you more money.
Lots of National Rail/ Underground interchange stations have yellow readers on the platforms so that someone arriving at the platform by Oyster or contactless can touch out and continue their journey on a National Rail ticket without leaving and re-entering the station. It's really important that if you are staying entirely within the contactless fare area and you see such a reader, that you DO NOT touch out on it when you intend to continue your Oyster or contactless journey
@@JackMitchell404 > It's really important that if you are staying entirely within the contactless fare area and you see such a reader, that you DO NOT touch out on it when you intend to continue your Oyster or contactless journey It doesn't matter if you do, the system is designed with the awareness that this is something users might do, and will simply treat these as intermediate unnecessary touches along a single journey.
@@JivanPal No it does matter if you tap out it screws with the journey because you arent allowed to tap out on some cheaper journeys and they wont let you back in without paying more.
@@captvimes TH-cam doesn't seem to want to let my reply go through for some reason, probably due to length, but I gave an example of how it works, e.g. London Bridge > Woolwich Arsenal > West Ham, if you do/don't make a redundant touch at Woolwich Arsenal.
@@JivanPal The point i am making is if i get a ticket from brighton to newcastle if i tap out on the tube part even if i just want to go get some food it wont let me back on the same ticket i either have to find a friendly attendant or pay to tap back in.
Another thing from a recent visitor: if you are visiting London and any of its museums during the busy periods, get an e-ticket if that specific museum has the option to. It's free, it's quick and you won't wait like an idiot behind thousands of other people in line that didn't have one. Saved me hours!
The museums (musea?) are free but sometimes say there is no capacity left, but will happily sell you a ticket to whatever exhibition is going on, which gets you entry. Not so free but it gets you in, and also not that expensive. I went to the natural history museum and couldn't get a ticket on a school half term week, even in advance, so had to buy a ticket to the fantastic beasts exhibition (some Harry Potter thing I think, never seen it, didn't go to the exhibition). And yea either way just do it online and show the QR code on your phone as you go on, don't bother queueing.
that's a good tip generally wherever you go. I did this for the Colosseum and Vatican when visiting Rome ... people stood queuing in the baking sun for like 90 mins, we just booked our tickets the night before from the comfort of our hotel bed. Similarly, I got my tickets for both the Sagrada Familia (Madrid) and Real Alcazar (Seville) whilst joining the back of the queue ... once booked - a 5 minute task - I just skipped into the booked ticket queue which had like 4 people in them.
Living in Cumbria we have a few K6 telephone boxes and (because it's Cumbria) we don't have feral tourists nor feral locals unlike in london. Our telephone boxes are absolutely lovely and NOT piss filled. Come to Cumbria. It's brilliant
As a British native myself I do strongly recommend everyone who is visiting the UK to keep an open mind about the traditional food as it is a lot nicer than people and the sterio type like to make it out to be. Recomended meals to try include Fish and Chips (seen by most as the national dish and which tastes similar to Japanese fried Tempura), the Sunday Roast, The English breakfast and Sheppards pie, though the first 2 alone will already be good enough. For the fish and chips I recommend using either salt or vinegar on the chips or at least one of each for extra taste. They kind of look like takeaway places from the inside as the whole point is to get them from a proper fish and chip shop instead of a pub or restaurant. With The Golden Chippy fish and chip shop being the biggest lore in London for tourists, though poppies is also a popular fish and chip shop in London. That being said I still advise trying Fish and Chips on the coast instead as they generally just tend to taste so much nicer but if you won't be on the coast, you'll know where to go. For international food, I recomend either Italian, Indian or Japanese. Seriously though, I would honestly find it a lot more open minded and respectful to give the food a fair chance as that's part of the whole cultural experience, hence emerging yourself in the culture. If you don't like it then fair enough but an open minded try will never hurt and British food is a lot nicer than people make it out to be.
@@davidgilbert8614 These are worth while points to take into consideration and to be fair I did also mention my recomended international foods to try as well as the most popular British dishes. At the very least as long as people try some fish and chips or an english roast then they are still trying the food but it's still right to give the local food a fair chance as that's part of the point of visiting the country to begin with, hence cultural emersion.
@AlexTheUmbreon5 As you say, Fish and Chips can be much nicer, which means that some can be less nice, i.e.; nastier. I love good Fish and Chips, I also love Tempura, but even good F & C tends to be heavier than Tempura, because of more batter overall and more fat/oil in the batter and that is not to mention soggy and undercooked batter, esp. when the fat from the undercooked fish drains onto the chips underneath. The problem for a tourist is that they won't know what counts as good and may wonder why British people rave about a soggy, greasy, heavy lump of fish. Oh, by the way it is "Shepherd's pie" - but only if it is lamb, otherwise it is Cottage Pie for beef - possibly because English doesn't really use the term "Cattleherd" to refer to a person.
Here's a tip for ya! Don't trust the advertised train travel time from Victoria Station to Gatwick if you have a plane to catch. Got me stranded over night in Crawley as the bloody train took more than twice as long as promised. The airline staff sighed and booked me for the next flight the day after, and I could tell it wasn't uncommon...
The only thing I would add is (because some of my family live in other countries, so I know from experience tourist from big countries like the US & Australia try to do this) don't think that you can go from London to Scotland & see all you want to see in Scotland during a day trip. Travelling to & from Scotland will take a whole day in itself. Scotland is a whole country & you might see a fraction of it if you go for a weekend. Edinburgh might be a nice weekend trip but you can't get there, see Edinburgh & do anything there, then get back to London in a day. It's literally not possible, don't even try. Same applies to any of the Northern cities in England & also to Ireland. A day will just about cover your travel, you'll need at least one more day to see anything, but I'd recommend three days to actually enjoy it.
Unless you use the sleeper train, arrive early am and leave in the evening. If you plan it instead of two nights in a hotel it's probably not too expensive either.
,, I once saw two American visitors setting off from the southcoast of England after lunchtime w golf clubs by train to visit Scartland for a quick look round bc,, I'd already heard her introduce themselves as Mr and Mrs Wallace to the ticket office as they got their CHECK BOOK, out !! 😂 and later call after him saying Bill, Bill there's no porters to carry the luggage across the platform bridge and I'd asked , 😂is that really William Wallace?? and she said oh yes! We're just going to see his heritage for the day 😂😂😂🎉 I was half tempted to become their instant luggage handler just for the enormous tip that would have ensured 😂🎉 but I thought I'm trying to live my own life and besides it was far funnier to see them announcing to the world every calamity of shifting enough bags for a small African nation 😅😅😅 and I'm sure she added that it'll b no problem for her husband really as he used to be a quarter back 🎉😂 as if I really cared 😂😅🎉
Available by mail order from the London Transport Museum is the fabulous book "Beyond the End of the Line", a bunch of walking tours starting from the terminal stations of most of the Underground lines. Maybe that sounds weird but walking is fun.
I'd add to you list the following. If you're not in a particular hurry try and avoid using The Tube which can be very hot and very noisy on some lines. You don't get to see anything of London travelling through dark tunnels. Take the bus if possible to view London. It'll be slower than The Tube (but might be closer to your destination) and a lot more interesting.
What shouldn’t bus passengers do in Ireland? When I used buses a lot more, smokers sat upstairs, a sign said spitting prohibited, the conductor preferred small change coins and tickets had to be retained for inspection and an honesty box existed for uncollected fares.
@@john_smith1471 Last time I was in Dublin, I bought a Leap Card and used that on the buses and trains. It seemed to work much the same as buses anywhere else.
If there's a person with a or pram/shopping trolly its nice to give them the seat next to the wheelchair area so they dont have to block the isle. Also, generally its good to step to the curb and give your bus a wave down because there are generally a few different routes on one stop. Other than that, just standard bus stuff; have your card ready, hold onto railings, blah blah blah.
"Don't eat at the touristy places." is just a good travel trip in general. Even when you're staying within your own country for a trip. A quick google search on best food in the area will usually get you somewhere good. Going into random, sometimes sketchy places may net you a delicious meal too, but that's on your comfort level. I got some bomb empanadas in Seattle that were being sold behind the counter of a specialty grocery store and a great banh mi in the sketchiest tiny storefront in Boston.
My tip, try to go to restaurants, grocery stores, use the tube, etc at times that are not the busy time for locals. Go to breakfast later, don't be on the tube at rush hour....you'll be less annoying as you try to figure things out, you'll be less stressed and you may actually find someone not in a hurry to help/talk to you. Remember you are on vacation and the people trying to get to work are not! Definitely get outside of London, just like New York and Paris it has a bit of generic busy big city vibe.
I love your comment ❤ I live in New England and the leaf peeping tourists have finally gone home...they clog our little town and roads, and ...I'm finally seeing London soon. I don't want to be a bad tourist and this is how I like to travel, just like you said 😊 I'm super excited
If you are going to be using the tube for the rest of the day the Elizabeth line counts towards the cap, the the price will be the same if you reach the cap after using the piccadilly line.
Honestly, this was helpful for me. I already knew all of this, having lived in the UK all my life and being pretty familiar with London... But I'm planning a trip to London with an American friend, so it's good to get a reminder of things that might not be second-nature to him as they are to me.
Tip here, the Tube is priced by zones, but the busses don't have zones, it is one price, and if you change busses within a hour, you don't pay again. A single bus fare is £1.75, and is capped when using a contactless payment system (credit card, Apple pay, Oyster card, etc.) at £5.25 a day. However, if you really want to save money, you can put a weekly bus only pass on an oyster card (or buy a paper pass) for £24.70. I would urge you as a tourist to use the busses, and see London, yes it takes more time, but what is your rush? An Oyster card cost £3 (you can buy one at many Tube stations, like Heathrow) but you can redeem the £3 plus any credit left on the card at stations that sell them.
Just a note with Mistake #8, You can order a Visitor Oyster Card before your trip like my mum and I did. We flew into Gatwick and used it to take the train into London and for transit throughout London. So handy!
@@clarissathompson It's still a good point. Losing a bankcard is inconvenient at the best of times, but it'd be a nightmare in another country. The only downside is having money left on the Oyster card when you're done, though it can be reclaimed. The cards can be bought in lots of shops as well as in the choob.
@@ethelmini one of the main reasons I ordered them was so we could get on a train into the city from Gatwick without the hassle of getting tickets. I don’t know if you have ever travelled with someone over the age of 75, but I was managing an entire 7 week train and tour bus trip across the island with her and I had to find every simple option she wouldn’t fight me over. She also needed hearing aids but refused to acknowledge it, so the “look right” thing was essential for me, lol!
@@ethelminiThe visitor Oyster is actually cheaper than a standard Oyster and has a funky design with London symbols on for people who want to take them home as a souvenir (plus it's one less thing to worry about when you arrive). I definitely agree that using your expensive phone or bank card on public transport, especially in an unfamiliar city when you're tired from travelling, probably isn't a great idea.
Some other tube related tips - there are some stations you should avoid if possible. Like Covent Garden at the weekend (because you'll be waiting 15 minutes for a lift), or Bank. And there's some connections on the tube map that involve a decent walk, like from the piccadilly line to the jubilee line at green park. Also, remember the tube map isn't geographical. So sometimes there could be two stations that look a decent distance apart but are virtually next to each other, like Queensway and Bayswater. Even time you have to change lines it adds at least 15 minutes to your journey so it can be significantly quicker to get off at a different station and walk a few minutes than going to the station with the exact name of the place you want.
As a Londoner of too many years to mention, I thought this was a pretty good guide. One thing I’d take issue with is, that although Dishoom is good and all that you’ll find plenty of other decent and cheaper curry places (and you won’t have to queue). Also, if you’re a family especially, a treasure trail is a good way to see part of the city and learn some history as you go. Only about £10 a pop.
Best tips I've seen. Tip no 11: On the under ground most platforms have an entrance and an exit. Never stop by the entrance, Move down and wait about a carriage length from the exit You'll get on the tain far more easily, as everyone gets off near the exit, leaving space for you to get on.
Yes, the tube is quick, but buses are often better. In most places they have reserved lanes, so they don't get snarled in traffic, and they have windows from which you can SEE where you are and what's going on.
It can *sometimes* be cheaper to use a paper ticket including zones 1-6, if travelling from outside London. You'll also have a paper ticket if just travelling through London. Plus, you need to be *really* careful with ticket splitting - your train must stop at all the split stations on your tickets for them to be valid, otherwise you may end up having to buy another ticket or pay a hefty fine (not exactly worth the £2 saving). Also, if you use a ticket splitting service that gives you paper tickets, you'll have to carry all of them and make sure you're using the right one in the barriers. If you don't want to get your phone or card out on the tube, you can get a visitor's Oyster card delivered to an international address. Also, some National Rail trains *do* open their doors automatically on certain sections (there'll be an announcement if so). But even if they don't, you still need to wait until the button's illuminated if you don't want to be that muppet. Finally, if you want decent pub food, you need to find a nice rural village pub, preferably serving local produce. The best parts of the UK are also outside of London: the National Parks, the seaside towns (although a little dilapidated nowadays), the historical sites, less crowded cities with plenty of their own places to visit (usually less touristy than London too). I'd recommend spending a week or two in the Lake or Peak Districts, Scotland, the West Country or Wales (particularly North Wales) if you want a proper UK holiday. York is supposed to be quite nice too, then you could head out to the Yorkshire Dales. By all means visit London and its tourist attractions, but don't spend all your time there.
😅😅😅 I love how many comments say this kinda thing ,, sure Britain is diverse and very different to London and especially as some London parts are very metropolitan and cosmopolitan ,, but I wouldn't send visiting American backpackers that definitely don't walk a mile in their own country to the mountainous trekking zones of off-road Britain 😂 at most I'd point out somewhere superb and quaint and 45minutes by train that has plenty of fish n chips and ice-cream, a gorgeous beach and welcoming inns with real gourmet home cooked meals like Rye in Sussex or even Arundel slightly further along with its fantastic castle ,, wildfowl waterpark w geese ducks and swans and delightful butterfly garden And then there's Windsor! ,, Home to an amazing riverside town with England's largest royal castle open to visitors,, it also boasts Legoland 🎉 Simply get to Windsor by tube to Heathrow airport and then take an overland train a coupla stops If u can drive and like rollercoaster parks,, Thorpe Park is just outside London to the west between Staines and Chertsey it doesn't involve any mountain climbing and there's plenty of cotton candy chicken nuggets huge plushies to win and ice cold beer in safety plastic bottles 🎉😂🎢 cheers 🍺🌭🍟
For the Marlow example given, the off-peak contactless cap is the same as the paper off-peak Marlow to Z1-6 Travelcard: £25.20. Though contactless may split your travels into a Marlow-Hayes & Harlington return, plus a Z1-5 cap, to save a whopping 30p, as that is the cheapest fare option for any return journey from Marlow to London that penetrates the capital deeper than Paddington. But 30p is peanuts and not worth quibbling about, plus you can get railcard discount (33%) on the paper ticket that you can't on the contactless (which may perhaps give you less than 2% discount vs a full price paper travelcard).
I became a Londoner after less than 24 hours in the city. I was muttering "These damn tourists!", even though I was a tourist myself. I take pride in not having made one single mistake in this video. Cheers, bruv!
A note on getting to and from Heathrow: Heathrow Express: £25.00 Elizabeth Line: £12.80 Piccadilly Line: £5:60 I was on the Piccadillly Line a few days ago to catch a plane home. My advice, at 36 minutes, the Elizabeth line takes 5 mins longer than the Heathrow express getting to Paddington. Piccadilly takes about 12 mins longer than the Elizabeth Line, it just feels a lot longer. Conclusion: Heathrow express is a rip off. Elizabeth line is a better journey and Piccadilly the cheapest (and feels like it).
The first mistake you made was calling London, the City of London. The City of London is the old fortified citadel which is now home to one of the two biggest financial districts. Thats why the airport in London is called London City Airport not The City of London Airport. Keep up the hard work, love your videos.
Yes - in fact, at the start of the video, you were in the London Borough of Lambeth, looking across the river to the City of Westminster. The City of London is a mile or so to the east of there, also on the north side of the river.
I was crossing Westminster bridge and after the 79th time of hearing a whiny American kid scream ‘I wanna see Big Ben’ and mom saying ‘yeh I think it’s near the ferris wheel’ I had to basically tap him on the shoulder and say look up. I couldn’t be arsed to tell him it’s the bell…
We were in London in late 1990s. We ate in a pub where a couple of older men were wearing old army uniforms. We found out they received free drinks. I am sure that was a genuine English pub. I also loved the food and beer in England.
The reason there's a button to open the door that doesn't open the door, is phychological. It was found many generations of trains past, that adding a fake rubber button calmed passengers down and dramatically reduced their sence of being stuck, reducing the claustraphobic affects of being on the train surrounded on all sides by a solid metal tube with no way out.
The paper cards still make sense. Especially if you are just travelling through London. Unfortunately, "all trains go to London" in the UK, so chances are, you'll need to change there, often changing the station as well. In that case, the tube ticket is included with your train ticket. Also, when you add it to you ticket to London, it is much cheaper.
I agree about using the cheapo Piccadilly line fares from Heathrow airport, however for myself if I’m jet lagged, shattered and not slept for 24 hrs after a long haul flight and my accommodation is near Liverpool Street or Canary Wharf, I’d pay a bit more and use the less frequent but faster Elizabeth line ( still called cross rail on TrainPal) full size walk through cars, a/c, some traditional transverse seating, ambient lighting & much quieter than 1972 built tube stock.
@@TalesOfWar Heathrow Express still exists but is expensive and only takes you to Paddington, some Advance tickets might be cheaper, Elizabeth line continues across London and has connections to some of the underground and national rail stations .
As a New Yorker, I feel like almost all of these points apply to NYC as well. We’re well-versed in these dos and don’ts. So, I guess I’d feel right at home in London! 😂
When you're in a tube station, PLEASE don't stand with your family and all your luggage at the bottom of the stairs/escalators deciding which platform to use, especially during rush hour -.-
The Piccadilly line from Heathrow might be cheaper but it takes a while, its about 15 stops to central London. Better off using the Elizabeth line. And as my American friend found out the hard way, always better to book train tickets to another town or city several days in advance (or even longer) and avoid travelling during peak hours. Can be pricey and they sometime have deals.
I've had my first Indian food in London probably around 25 years ago. It was a small restaurant somewhere in nowhere London, with worn green carpet and the nicest people ever running it. The food was amazing. Creamy, delicious, we had a whole variety of foods recommended to us. We even got some on the house (guess they usually don't have barely English speaking tourists there 😁). Very fond memory. 😊
TIPS FOR TOURISTS::: NEVER use Covent Garden tube station. Yuo will simply queue up for forty minutes to get out. Instead get off at Leicester Sq and walk for three minutes. Don't miss out on Hampton Court Palace. It's the best preserved Mediaeval palace in the World and a 30 minute train ride from Waterloo.
The pain of standing behind a tourist wearing a baseball cap, manoeuvring a massive suitcase while attempting to scan a paper ticket on the oyster reader is immeasurable.
When you've got 2 trains to catch for work and if you miss one, you miss the other, and will be late. No no dear. Take Your Time.................... Please.
As an American that's been to London, and coming back again soon, I never understood the complete hate for ball caps or those wearing them. Just a cultural difference that I find strange. I will be wearing something to blend in or not wearing one at all this trip.
If the tube station you’re trying to enter has a massive queue outside it, PLEASE pull up Google Maps and look at which station is next closest. They’re usually less than a 10 minute walk away and Google Maps will tell you how busy every station is. As a goth I go to Camden a lot and there can be huge crushes of tourists trying to get into Camden Town station to leave at peak times. What they don’t know is that Mornington Crescent station is an 8 minute walk away and it will be empty
I'm from Belgium, saw The Smyths in Half Moon Putney, grabbed a game at Fulham FC, got dinner at Dishoom's in Shoreditch, got drunk in Clapham, got breakfast in Shepherd's Bush at visited Amy Winehouse's tomb in Edgewarebury Cemetary. Didn't had the time to visit Big Ben or Buckingham Palace....
Rent a bike to get around London, you get to see sights as you ride around. Check your bike in before 30 mins and take one out again and it resets the time so you don’t have to pay more. I hired one in 2018 for 24 hours cost £2. I went along the river, Westminster Abbey Houses of Parliament, Covent Garden, Knightsbridge and King’s Cross. A bit strange for someone who used to live in London doing tourist stuff, but I was so busy partying I mean working back then I didn’t see the sights
It may also be quicker to walk than take the tube in some instances. You can spend as much time or more travelling down to the platform, and back up at the other end.
The tube once (in the 1990s) tested having passengers push a button to open the door. Ultimately they decided not to but didn't bother to remove the buttons on the Central and Jubilee lines. The trains on the Metropolitan, District and Circle lines have buttons because when the train sits in a station for a long time, the doors close on a timer to save energy.
Quite often the buttons work in the 'open' suburbs but not in the centre. Stops rain/heat coming in outside of the centre, speeds things up in the centre.
A lot of good points. I would just say avoid the tube, its much nicer to walk or take a bus. With readily available free bus maps, swipe card payment and the fare cap there is no need to be nervous of buses. And don't forget the river bus, its dead cheap. If you are here for a short time and need a break from the city, just go to one of the semi rural areas within London: Hampstead, Highgate, Greenwich, Richmond, Thames walk west from Putney etc. etc. London is a very safe city. These places are stunning and very easy to reach. For pubs get a CAMRA Good Beer Guide, or use the Nicholson chain. The Globe Theatre on the South Bank (built by an American!) is dead cheap and no need to book if you stand in the cockpit.
I prefer out of bounds paper travel cards since they are cheaper than contactless and oyster since they combine the rail fare and tube fare into one. For eaxmple Twyford to Zones 1-6 travel card is less than the contactless return from Twyford to Zone 6.
You're right about Zone 1 - we lived in Ealing for 3 years and now we pretty much stay there whenever we need to visit. Ealing Broadway is a terminus for Central and District lines plus the new Elizabeth line and trains go through there. Paddington is like 10 minutes.
LOVE Waxy O'Connor's. They have a fireplace. I've done a bit of a tour of pubs and tearooms with fireplaces in London. It's a wonderful way to spend a winter visit. Highly recommend you do a travel video cataloguing the same. :)
Oh, and one more thing, I've spent far more time at ticket barriers waiting for the person in front of me to tap through using Apple Pay than I have behind paper ticket holders. They tap the app to bring up their payment card too early, then when they get to the barrier it's timed out and they have to stand there fiddling with their phone to get the virtual payment card back up. Even then there's a weird delay of the best part of a second before the barrier registers it. Paper travelcards are quicker.
pLEASE make a part two. I'm from a small-ish European city but moved to Tokyo this year and while there are worlds between Tokyo and London, I ended up recognising a lot of what you mentioned from tourism in Tokyo. The tube tickets and public transport situation, tube etiquette (I feel you on that, I wanna revise my kanji in peace during my morning commute) and most of all, the touristy spots (especially the shopping street - Takeshita Street here in Tokyo, which used to be a cool street lined with trendy shops but has devolved into tourist trap hell)
To be fair since companies stopped selling IC cards in physical form and I didn’t realise you didn’t need a physical one to have an apple wallet one for the longest time, to my great embarrassment, I was relying on tickets to get around tokyo. Luckily I eventually realised I was able to get a pasmo on my phone and started using that instead.
@@Gleifel ah that's true, with the suspension of service, it's a different situation now and the phone apps aren't as accessible as the physical cards. I think the service wasn't suspended yet altogether when I wrote my original comment. Have they suspended the welcome suica cards too? I thought those are still handed out. My friend who came to visit in September got one.
@@endlessteatime4733 so suica to my knowledge is also suspended but tourists specifically can still buy temporary IC cards (including for pasmo). French friends were visiting recently and they had this thing called Pasmo passport. The reason for either suspension is the same so the result for either card was the same I think (global microchip shortage).
@@Gleifel Welcome Suica is also a temporary card, like the one your friends used. And thanks to you, I now know what a Passport Pasmo is too. I see an ad for it every morning but hadn't realised it's not a normal Pasmo until you explained it. I was so confused why they would let that ad stay during a suspension of service. 😂
i took my friend (canadian) for a day out in london. i made sure to impress upon him that we do not speak to people on the tube. first tube we get on, two people strike up a conversation with him about his guide dog (he’s blind). he wouldn’t let me live it down while i was amazed that a guide dog causes people to transcend the no talking rule.
I travelled there in 2021! Stayed in zone 6, had a oyster card got a week pass for zones 1-5 and paid each time to use the tubes and buses in zone 6. Found some free admission places, walked around all day every day in zone 1 used the tubes often. I’m planning to go again next year for my 30th birthday, tips and advice are welcome and appreciated!!
A good way to see stuff. Walk. Just... choose a direction and walk. If you're worried about getting lost, try and stick near Underground stations so you can at least work you where the hell you are and how to get back to where you're staying. Just walking along the river will take you to lots of historic places and all the interesting lesser known places in between. There are lots of little interesting alley ways quiet spots just moments away from crazily busy open spaces. Also, the Elizabeth Line is another option to the Piccadilly Line if you're coming in from Heathrow. Nicer, shinier, new trains with air con lol. The carriages are also regular loading gauge so less cramped.
00:01 you’re not in the city of London, you’re in Greater London. Specifically Lambeth given you’re south of the river and opposite the Houses of Parliament. The city of London is half a mile up the way! Saying you’re in the city of London when you’re in Lambeth is like saying you’re in New York City when you’re stood in Albany…yes they’re both part of New York but there’s only one New York City same as there is only one city of London, everything else is Greater London each being a specific borough and most being part of different counties.
The Westminster end Oxford Street, where Bond Street station is, is where Selfridge, John Lewis and Marks and Spencers are....three British department stores for one...plus John Lewis and Marks and Spencers are chains, so you can find other branches in the UK, if you like the stuff you've seen. As a Londoner I've always thought that the Camden end of Oxford Street, has been going downhill in the quality of the shops for years. So if you are going there, get a bus or the Tube to that end of Oxford Street. Don't bother with the Camden end. If I'm confusing you, the tacky end of Oxford Street is in the borough of Camden and the better end is in the borough of Westminster. So go to the Oxford Circus to Marble Arch end of Oxford Street. Tottenham Court Road is actually more interesting than the Camden end of Oxford Street as is Charing Cross Road, so if you are at that end of Oxford Street, try those other roads instead. Use your contactless card on the Tube, the buses, black taxis, the river boats, the mainline trains, the Docklands Light Railway and the Croydon trams, or buy a contactless travel card. They available from some small shops, just look for a sign on the shop window that says Oystercards sold here, it's easier than buying them online or from any other source. For trips out of London, the terminus stations on major lines sell a large variety of tickets, which can be confusing, so as a local I recommend you buy an anytime return ticket.
I’ve come through London many times and really can’t fault any of your tips, although the one tourist thing I always recommend is a tour of the Tower with a Yeoman Warder. Complete tourist thing but I’ve always enjoyed it. I also ate at the Lamb and Flag, but quite by inebriated accident. BTW, my wife and daughter tell me they met you at Playlist some time back….
Good to see an American calling out the food stereotypes! There is a lot of good food here both home grown or assimilated and each part of the UK has some unique dishes solely found in each region.
A hidden gem is the Abbey Wood Campingsite. Lovely camp site and only a 10 min walk to the Abbey Wood station where the Elizabeth Line takes you to central London. And staying there is really affordable.
I've lived in London for 18 years and I use paper day travelcards. This is because: - I live in zone 6 in south east London. I work at home three days a week and in zone 1 two days a week. - I use contactless for my weekday trips to the office - they're capped at £14.90 per day to travel at peak times but I don't tend to get anywhere near the weekly cap, so any travel at the weekend will be extra. - At the weekend I might well travel to Maidenhead to see the love of MY life (Maidenhead United FC) and here's where contactless becomes poor value. The single fare zone 6 to Maidenhead via zone 1 is £10.40. It's more if you break your journey but that doesn't matter because the daily cap is £20.40, so you hit the cap if you make a return trip same day (sadly I'm not in a staying over-type relationship with the football club). A paper zone 1-6 travelcard with a Network Railcard is £10. A day return from Boundary Zone 6 to Maidenhead is £4.60, so £14.60 in total for unlimited travel in zones 1-6 plus one return trip to Maidenhead. - Even if you're just out and about in zone 1 and not going anywhere weird like Maidenhead, you can buy the £10 discounted paper Z1-6 day travelcard which is a third cheaper than the zone 1-6 contactless daily cap. It is also cheaper than the daily caps for zones 1-5 and zones 1-4. so unless you live in the inner zones you should probably be buying paper travelcards for weekend travel. On weekdays the benefit of the discounted off-peak daily travelcard is less because of Network Railcard restrictions which mean you can only travel after 10am and there's a £13 minimum fare, so it costs £13 instead of £10. If I have a day off and want to go into zone 1 I still buy one if travelling after 10am because the single off-peak contactless fare from my local station to zone 1 is £6.40, making a return journey £12.80 and the off-peak daily cap is £14.90 (the same as the peak cap), so £13 for unlimited travel after 10am is the better option. There are a lot of Londoners who don't seem to realise a Network Railcard can get them a third off travel on the tube, DLR, trams and buses, not just train journeys. Anybody can get one. But you have to use paper travelcards. People are pissing money up the wall for the convenience of using a contactless bank card.
I think you can only apply the national rail cards to your oyster card. Also I would rather lose my oyster card/paper ticket in transit than my bankcard as I'm faffing about with it in a station.
@@SunnyMorningPancakes Yeah, I believe TfL's excuse is it would be too hard to program in the 10am rule and the £13 minimum fare. And it is only an excuse - they don't appear to believe that making it easy for Londoners to get the discounts they're entitled to on weekend leisure travel will boost passenger numbers enough to make up for the lost income, so they keep it low key, make it difficult and hope people will pay up to 50% more than they need to. I'm sure many simply look at the fares and think "we might as well drive", though. Oh, and they're trying to scrap day travelcards, which literally amounts to a 50% fare hike for every Network Railcard holder at weekends.
Sevenoaks is 35 odd minutes from Charing Cross (25 ish min from London Bridge). Beautiful hitoric town, one of the bet places to live in the UK. Henry VIII lived here, Princess Diana was schooled here. Lots of very old buildimgs, some 1400s. The town is a 10min walk from the station.
Another one is don't always assume that you have to use the underground. Buses can be good too, if a little unpredictable due to traffic. However, using a bus might avoid some awkward changes, and you can see a lot from the top deck. Amazon maps makes it really easy to use. Case in point, is I had to travel from Marylebone Station to Hampstead, and a short walk to Baker Street and then a bus through some delightful parts of St. John's Wood and another short walk. Refreshing, nice views, more understanding of the layout and history of London than a sweaty tube journey. Faster too. Nb. Wetherspoons is fine for a cheap breakfast, and anything grilled is not microwaved. You get what you pay for of course, but if you are on a budget it's a useful option. Also, the beer is generally cheaper and we'll kept. However, they are often very busy and noisy. So not a destination as such, but they serve a purpose.
On the Underground, I've spoken to a few people that were trying to figure out if they were on the right platform. The underground can be confusing, no shame in asking others to confirm it goes to the station you're expecting. Also another one, do not block the doorway when trying to board any train or underground train, people always disembark before others embark, so if you're standing AT the door, you'll slow everything down and some people will bulldoze through you if you're in the way. Instead stand to the side of the door and if there is nobody leaving the train, then you can get on.
The "push to open" buttons on the tube are for at termini. When the train is standing for ~5 minutes at the end of the line, the doors close after a bit to keep the heat in. You can press the button to open them and get on
As a Brightoner who visits London occasionally (so I guess kind of a tourist but not really?), video's pretty good but a bit more on mistake 8 as someone who knows a bit too much about rail and tube fares: paper tickets on the Tube do cost more... *except for when they don't.* 10:15 If you're buying Travelcards in London to start with, they are more expensive than using a Contactless or Oyster card (although Oyster cards cost £7 nowadays so stick to contactless if you can) and hitting the cap. As per the video, never actually get a single/return paper Tube ticket (and with some exceptions National Rail paper tickets in London zones) because that's literally never worth the price tag. If you're out of London to start with though, it can, by quirk of the incredibly complicated fares system National Rail have, be cheaper to buy an inclusive ticket from a starting National Rail station outside the zones. (These start outside the zone boundary and are called outboundary Travelcards!) This isn't always the case and it depends how much more a Travelcard is priced compared to your usual ticket to a central London terminal. For example, off-peak for Marlow, a Travelcard is £5.60 (the price of two Zone 1-2 Tube singles on Contactless/Oyster) more than a ticket to Paddington (although nowadays contactless works on the Thames Valley branch lines too so you should just use a contactless card instead!) so it can make sense there depending on what journey you're doing. Sometimes they're really cheap addons like weekend super off-peak fares for any operator (so not just Thameslink) from Brighton where the Travelcard is only £4.10 more - less than two Zone 1 singles on the Tube by Contactless/Oyster! Do make sure to check before getting an outboundary Travelcard in case your plans don't involve hitting the Zones 1-2 cap and, again, don't bother if you're already in the London zones to start with. TL;DR: Rail fares are complicated, and therefore Tube fares are too!
One example, in the evening peak contactless from Paddington to Marlow costs £16.20, a paper ticket costs £9.80. That paper ticket is only valid on slow trains out of Paddington, but you will need to change at Maidenhead and only slow trains stop there.
@@evan I wish! If you buy them on an app, by default you have to pick up a Travelcard from a ticket machine which gives you a paper ticket anyway. You can get a smartcard from your local train operator and you *might* have the ability to load it on there, but train operators tend to not make that process easy for Day Travelcards or it might just outright not be possible. Of course, this won’t be a problem much longer since TfL have thought of the best solution: getting rid of the cheaper Day Travelcard tickets so the new cheapest option becomes getting a ticket into London (already on your phone!) and then using contactless in London anyway…
An older gentleman struck up a conversation with me on the Tube once. He asked me if I was going to the Remembrance Sunday observance that day. When I gave him a bit of a blank look, he explained that it was an annual wreath laying ceremony at the Cenotaph memorial led by the Queen. I later learned the man I had met was a senior Member of Parliament and thanks to him, I got to attend an event with the Queen. So, sometimes talking on the Tube isn’t so bad.
@@evan if you're from New Jersey, your experience of Pennsylvanians would mostly be Philly people, maybe some of the Amish in the outskirts. As a Pittsburgher, your classification of all of Pennsylvania is a bit questionable (having said that, I don't drive so couldn't really tell you how our drivers are, just that they're not really the same as Philly drivers, or being stuck behind an Amish buggy)
It's a minor point, but pick the right time to visit places! For example, the area around Parliament/Big Ben/Whitehall is a working area - if you want a nice clear photo, then it's probably going to be best to avoid the commuting peak, as one of the many people who work there is going to walk right through your shot if it means we get home 5 seconds earlier!
10:18 Paper tickets make sense if you're using a national rail overground connection which goes outside the oyster zone Or even sometimes if your using a national rail connection inside the oyster zone if your using a railcard (as the railcard discount when applied to an oyster(which is something you can do) only applies to off-peak), especially if your going to the "special fare zones".
Yeah, just getting an Oyster card for Underground. My phone doesn't belong outside of my waist pack at any point except an emergency. I have purchased zones 1-6 in the past because I was traveling all zones for those two days. So yep, it really does all depend on where you're planning on traveling to while in the city.
As someone who moved to London nearly 8 years ago from Canada and constantly has to teach visiting friends and relatives... I agree with just about everything Evan said -- really all but the Spoons comment... I love Spoons! haha
I don't go to London but when in any town I always look for a Spoons if I want a drink , usually using their app. They are much cheaper than anywhere, always clean with friendly staff. The main thing is you don't feel as if you are being watched by the locals because you are a stranger to them, as you do in some pubs in a strange town. Just thought I would look at the prices in Spoons in Central London and using the Wetherspoons app picked a pub near Tower bridge. The price of their guest real ales was £4.75 a pint. The local Spoons that I go to where I live charges £2.34. That's less than half the London price. I dread to think what othe pubs charge in London..
I would advise caution if using non-UK bank cards to tap in and out of the Underground, buses etc. You might be hit with forex and transaction charges.
Before the Elizabeth line Line arrived on the scene, a paper ticket from Marlow to Zones 1-6 Travelcard was actually the cheapest option unless you were just going to Paddington. Now you have the Elizabeth line Line to Maidenhead which is run by TfL, and the TfL contactless area does extend to stations on the Marlow branch line. Who goes to these American Candy shops? From what I can gather, American tourists prefer to go to Tesco Express to buy Cadburys chocolate. It seems to be the British equivalent of mattress shops in the USA. Also, if you really want good curry, go to Birmingham or Leicester (the actual Leicester, not Leicester Square).
Supposedly, a lot of the American candy shops are used for money laundering purposes, rather than as a legitimate business. I'm sure some people do buy things from there, but it's not really why they exist.
I was trying to understand Evan's comment about the fare from Marlow to London, i think he's in Docklands zone 3, I alway get the NR one day zone 1-6 travelcard, good price and convenient.
@@hannahk1306 Indeed, and supposedly most of the mattress shops in the USA are money laundering fronts as well. They are everywhere, and while people do sometimes buy mattresses, they don't buy them that frequently.
Fun fact, I live outside London but usually work in London. There are days where it's cheaper for me to get a 1-6 Travelcard from outside the zones than to get a return to London Terminals and switch to Oyster/Contactless. Edit - your girlfriend would sometimes have been better off doing what she was doing. You mocked her unfairly. I used to work in a National Rail ticket office and knew the prices off by heart. It all depended on what you were doing, two tube journeys in zones 1-2 would be cheaper getting the terminals return and using oyster but 3 tube journeys the Travelcard was cheaper. Although that option is being taken away soon
You're spot on with tube etiquette. If I am travelling alone and have my earphones in, do not talk to me! I'm not able to give directions to xzy, and I really don't care what tourist destinations you have visited. Leave me to my music!
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I've been saying for decades the only point to Oxford Street is somewhere to keep the tourists away from the good bits. Glad you're with me on that.
Even Basingstoke would give you a better shopping experience than Oxford Street, and I'm not suggesting anyone goes there unless they happen to live nearby.
Agree!
I've been to London loads of times - Oxford Street twice, and one was cos I had an interview round the corner.
This is how people from New York City feel about Times Square.
Quite....
My tips
1) I always suggest downloading Citymapper. The tube/buses can be initially overwhelming for tourists, and citymapper takes a lot of the difficulty out of that. I also say on the taxi vs tube thing, people are somewhat avoiding learning how the tube works and dont want to get lost from airport to hotel - but you need to get used to tfl modes of transport as early as possible. Realising how simple the systems are, as early as possible, will make your trip less stressful.
2) Dont think Londoners are rude if they dont talk or look at you out in public. Londoners are assertive but they arent rude. But if you are here for longer than say a month, there is so much constant stimulation that you have to tune it out for the sake of your own mental health. If londoners behaved like tourists (noticing things, dawdling, looking at people or talking to them) the city would grind to a halt, so Londoners are in a constant state of 'keep it pushing'. In my experience though, Londoners are more likely to help you if you are struggling than in other places that people claim the people are 'nicer'. For example, I have dragged big suitcases up and down stairs all over this country. In London, someone always helps me up the stairs with it, but never anywhere else.
3) Be aware that certain tube stations are also attached to extremely busy national rail stations. People pile from train to tube constantly in these stations. Unfortunately the underground concourse isnt always the biggest space and people are often in a hurry here. Euston and Waterloo come to mind in particular. In these places, have your contactless card/oyster/phone in your hand as early as possible - maybe even before you get on the escalator down to the tube. Pausing at these ticket barriers is going to piss people off. Other places have more barriers/more space so it isnt as bad, but at the big national rail stations with crammed undergrounds underneath, have your card ready to tap as early as possible.
4) Have a meandering crazy night out that ends with getting a bagel at 4am on Brick Lane.
Citymapper is great and getting the bus can be a really cheap way to see a load of tourist attractions
Totally agree with you on the friendly bit, I've been here for 3 years now and people are so kind and friendly. They just don't tend to make random conversations with people, they will however leap to help someone in need.
So.....Londoners are merely the British versions of New Yorkers, huh?? 😂😅
thenks for the info
or better still use google maps
For any family with children that are 11-15 years old reading this, I'd reccomend you not let them use their contactless card (if they have any), but get an Oyster Card for each one of them and ask the staff to apply a "Young Visitor" discount. It will only be valid for the time whilst you're visiting (max 14 days) and give you a 50% discount on your TfL travels. Children under 11 can travel for free!
Also thanks Evan, it's a great video, should've watched it (especially the pub things) before I visited London last summer.
@@Rhianalanthula Yup, this is also a way! We didn't get Tourist Oyster Cards because of what I had read from the website, you can't check it's balance in the TfL app. Still ended up not working because the staff set a kind of pin code on the cards. The Youngest ( < 11) didn't really look older so she just went through the gates with one of us
@@artful1967 mate I know. But tourists with children under 16 can't get a discount on contactless, I even got this confirmed by tfl staff
@@artful1967 For visitors who don't have a contactless card in Sterling Oyster may well be the best option. There is the deposit which is likely to be lost, the faff of topping it up and the potential for credit lost at the end of the trip (though this can be recovered, it's just a pain) but if your bank is charging you a flat per-transaction fee for using your card in the UK, contactless will quickly become very expensive and Oyster fares are not more expensive.
@@aims-pls Same applies to any railcard discount. Oyster cards are updated so they apply the discount, cannot be done with a contactless card.
Yep I have one!
It's also terribly annoying when groups of tourists (especially with wheel along cases) uncertain of where to go decide to have a family conference about it right at the top (or bottom) of the escalators making it difficult for us 'late for a meeting' types to get by.
Even as a tourist just as confused as they are, I find it infuriating. Get to the side and out of the way for crying out loud!
Or in front or behind the ticket barrier.
@@theonlysjc I think this is something everyone with a bit of common sense agrees with. I have it all the time at work, people will get to the top of an escalator then look around, I have had to yell on more than a few occasions for them to move because others are coming up and these morons will cause an accident otherwise.
@@cyqry Exactly. If I'm in an unfamiliar place and I need to take a second to get my bearings, pull up an app, look at a map, whatever, I will first and foremost GET OUT OF THE WAY! You're exactly right, its a common sense thing. I'd go as far as saying it just simply a common courtesy!
@@theonlysjc The problem with common sense is that it's not so common.
Something to add for the tube etiquette is moving away from the centre of the doors and let people off first. The amount of times I've been walked into or have had to try and squeeze past people trying to get on is infuriating!
Speaking from the perspective of someone that commutes via train in the US, this advice applies universally, not just to the tube (experienced this exact problem only hours ago with people trying to push into the train before letting everyone off)
There’s! More! Room! Inside! The! Train! If! You! Let! People! Off! First!
That should be true of lifts as well.
One side: the entire world, other than a little box.
The other side: a little box. Room for ~10.
Which side should let the others go first?
This is pretty universal everywhere where people commute on trains / trams etc. So I think it applies only to car-only Americans and maybe visitors from small towns and villages.
Happens all the time in the subway here in New York. The other day I was getting off a train at my station with grocery bags in each hand. Saw a huge crowd of tourists on the platform waiting to get on as the train slid to a stop. As soon as the doors opened, this one young woman in the crowd pushed to get onboard before I could even step off. So I shouldered her aside HARD! Should have heard the gasps from everyone as her body went literally sailing backwards onto the platform. I said nothing, simply kept walking straight ahead with eyes forward. It was very satisfying, although I do feel bad that it was a woman I did that to. But it serves her right... and I must admit, a part of me felt like yelling: "Welcome to NEW YAWK!!" as a parting remark.
If you're getting the train to London from somewhere else in the UK, adding a paper travel card to your ticket is usually so much cheaper than using contactless. A lot of stations outside London also don't have eTicket barriers, so getting the train ticket with travel card as an eTicket is also impractical. Paper tickets aren't obsolete yet!
Yes. I use that everytime i go to London from Outside of London.
Agree, from outside London i alway get the National Rail one day combo zone 1-6 travelcard, good value, couldn't quite understand Evan's comment about his beloved travelling from Marlow to East London, unless their stay maybe more than one day? if you travel through zone 6 to arrive in London the fare has to cover it.
I still like the orange and cream NR paper ticket.
Particularly if your employer is paying for your travel.
If you are traveling in to the city, and are not planning on traveling around once there then it is cheaper ...
If you also want to travel around whilst there for a few days then an oyster can be much cheaper
I don't know if it is still on effect, but there also used to be vouchers to get 2for1 tickets for many landmarks if you bought a 1-day pass for the underground from train stations.
Thank you for actually posting helpful advice and not just putting cliche mistakes like not looking right or forgetting to bring a raincoat which a lot of people already know about, this is one of the best tourist advice videos I have seen.
Glad it was helpful!
Well...yes.... except for the poor young high school exchange student from New Caledonia who was living in Rotorua (NZ)....being from an LHD region she automatically looked left before crossing Fenton St..the main street,,, and made the fatal mistake of stepping out into the path of the car on her right.
I agree. It’s time to stop shaming people.
@@evan How insane that the cabs cost that much there. I do avoid cabs here in the states, but it isn't always possible. For instance, I once flew cross country but the person I was visiting happened to be at work when my flight got in so I had to take a cab from the airport to the apartment. Just a bit over $20 for that, and that from the city center out to the burbs. Wouldn't want to do that unless absolutely necessary, but $75 is beyond lunacy. My little home town has a taxi that is $1.50 within town limits and $5 to neighboring towns, flat rate stuff.
@@evan That's one thing that puzzles me about UKers. They so often look down us Americans, but I've seldom seen scenes with so much disgusting behavior here in the USA as I do with thoroughly drunken people doing all kinds of things on the city streets normally done in private like upchucking, relieving oneself, etc. you can imagine.
There is actually a really good book called “Secret London”. It is full of hidden gems to visit that generally even Londoners don’t know about. And yes agree Oxford Street is just a direct route to trauma....
An American comedian jokes about that. He took his whole family to London, all this historical stuff to see, and the kids want to go to the M&M store.
Just a quick note on the automatic doors on the Tube (Chube) - during the winter and if it's raining very hard when the train stops at a surface station, the driver will not necessarily open all the doors - to help the people inside the train avoid getting wet/cold. That is when you will need to press the button.
Retired Met Line driver here- this is not quite right- on the sub-surface lines, drivers can’t choose which doors to open. When arriving at a platform, driver will press the doors open buttons and all available doors will open. If the train remains in the platform for more than 45 seconds the doors will close but can be opened by passenger pressing the button. Any doors reopened by passengers pressing the button will again close after 45 seconds, or when the driver presses the door close button, which will close and lock all doors. (There is a facility for the driver to unlock but not open the doors until a passenger pushes the button, but this was too confusing because people were so used to having the doors open automatically that they would just stand there, wondering why the doors weren’t opening…. So we were told not to use this.)
It’s tube
@@nataliec6041 If you are catching a train from a terminus station, the doors are likely to be closed so that you need to press the button to get on.
@@peterc.1618 Yes, exactly
@@naquewack I jumped on the Elizabeth Line for the first time today to travel one stop. The train was fairly full and when we reached my destination, the doors didn't open and I couldn't see a button anywhere. Fortunately a more experienced Elizabeth Line passenger came along and reached behind the skirt of a woman standing by the side of the door where, quite low down, the button was located. So it looks like this new line doesn't have a policy of opening all the doors at every station.
Another tip If you are going to one of the famous museums/galleries (especially in the summer and the Natural history museum): Go first thing in the morning and do the famous exhibits as soon as you get in then go to the less popular exhibits when it gets busy. This way you can actually get up close with things like the Rosetta stone or Da Vinci paintings without feeling like you're at the back of a music concert. The less popular exhibits stay pretty quiet all day so they can be left until later.
When my American friend came over she really wanted to see "London bridge" so I took her there
"This is London bridge, over there is tower bridge which is probably what you meant" 😂
Hahaha 😂😂😂
I thought London Bridge was in Arizona.
@@johnpoole3871 yeah "we" sold one of the old editions of London bridge but it was replaced with a different one
@@asaturner4097 The buyer also apparently meant Tower Bridge but bought it without properly checking lol.
@@TalesOfWar That's apocryphal, he didn't buy the wrong bridge and indeed the wrong bridge wouldn't have come up. My understanding is that Old New London Bridge (the one in Arizona) was deemed too narrow/ weak or something, so they decided to replace it with the current New New London Bridge and at that point the idea of selling it came up. The man in Arizona got exactly what he intended to get and did rather well out of it, we wouldn't be talking about his housing estate if he hadn't salvaged a condemned bridge.
When we visited London last October, my wife made the mistake of opening one of the phone booths. She won't make that mistake again. It was one of the most disgusting, yet, memorable parts of our trip and I was lucky enough to catch it on video 😅
😂I went to London for only four days, twelve years ago. I didn't have a 📱 smartphone. I got a picture taken with the phone box😅😂! I was broke in London so I walked and walked all day long and most of the night. I wanted to see everything with almost to no money. I was hungry but happy! An unforgettable experience!
Best way to do it! Some of my happiest times in London were when I was broke. And so many things like museums are free.
@@clairenoon4070 😄💪Yes!
Great comment. Really struck a chord, thank you 👍
Free museums! This should be mentioned in the video😁
Great vid! I'm a Londoner too and I haven't read through all 865 comments so far, but just thought I'd add a couple of things in case anyone hadn't mentioned them yet. 😅
1) Indian restaurants in general are some of the best-value eats in central London. Dishoom isn't hugely expensive, but even it is pricier than many others that are also very good. If you're anywhere near Tottenham Court Road, I heartily recommend Palms of Goa on Charlotte Street. Particularly if you're a biryani fan - they do the most beautifully gently spiced biryanis with a really subtle depth of flavour with gorgeous floral notes. The owner Eugene is also very friendly. Tell him the redheaded Scottish lady who comes in for biryanis sent you (I don't think he knows my name, but he'll probably recognise me from that description).
2) Something that only occurred to me could be a problem after someone who hadn't negotiated London transport on their own pointed it out to me: if you're using a contactless card or an Oyster card, you must both tap in and tap out at each end of the journey to make sure you don't get overcharged (the system needs to know how far you've travelled, or it will charge you the maximum price for the day). BUT that's only for trains. You only tap in on buses; there's no need to - or indeed any way of - tapping out on buses. So don't stress about tapping out on buses. Once you've tapped in, you can put your card away and forget about it.
Super helpful ❤ thank you !!!
So you say not to mis-name the bridges but then refer to the Millennium Bridge? Every Londoner knows it’s REALLY called the *Wobbly* Bridge!
Except it hasn't been wobbly since 2001. I'm a Londoner and never refer to it as the 'wobbly bridge'. The last time I called it that was in about 2005!
Hasn't been Wobbly Bridge since 2001
still call it that, even though I was about 2 when it stopped moving.
It's the MINELLium bridge! You have to pronounce millennium wrong to get it right!
@@jacklovejoy5290 Yeah, but it will always be the only bridge that did wobble
British people do NOT love queuing. We do it because we dislike the unfairness of not waiting your turn even more than we dislike standing in a queue.
So... You like queuing...? 😅
As a northerner... yeah £7.50 a pint is really steep. Even in Manchester which is kind of expensive for the North it's still usually less than £5.00.
Half a bitter shandy is my tip. c.£2.50, delicious, refreshing and gets you access to a historic pub, or just a sit-down in convivial surroundings when tired.
You pay well over £5 a pint in a lot of places in Manchester these days.
Paid £8.55 for a pint yesterday, but that doesn't include the 85p SERVICE CHARGE
I was only paying about £5 at the pubs in Soho during the world cup.
Still about 2 for a pint of Guinness down my local and less than 3 in Durham. He's right about the food in spoons but they do usually do good beers cheap.
First London guide video I have ever seen that is actually true , actually realistic and points people to some great areas. I often visit NYC after spending much of my life wanting to visit but aside from accidentally ending up in Times Square once (UGH) I have never been to most of the tourist spots. To me visiting places is getting to see what it's like to live there or just visit and experience as a local - just as local Evan does here :)
The automatic door buttons were installed on tube lines that mostly travel overground; they are usually only set for commuters to use in the depths of winter at the extreme ends of the lines. So tourists are unlikely to need to use them!
They're also quite helpful if you want to get on a train which has been at the station a while and the doors have shut again 😆
Just got back from 17 days in London. Gorgeous weather, not one single day with rain. Did have a problem with the train strikes, had to not do one of our day trips out of London, but there's always something to do. The food was amazing - Indian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Italian, French, Thai, and even some pub food! I love this video, and agree with you 100%!
You chose a "good" time for weather for sure lol
We've been having slot of heatwaves recently
Sadly these aren't very good for the country as last year these resulted in a drought across slot of our countryside
,, some really nice pubs in central London can be found in the meandering mews across the road and just south from the Berkeley hotel 😊🍺🎉
Sorry for the malfunctioning of the weather. Normal service's will resume shortly 😅🤣🤣
lol @@deanosaur808
Pro tip: remember to tap out at all stations and undergrounds on your journey. Or you might not be able to pass through the next barrier or it charges you more money.
Lots of National Rail/ Underground interchange stations have yellow readers on the platforms so that someone arriving at the platform by Oyster or contactless can touch out and continue their journey on a National Rail ticket without leaving and re-entering the station. It's really important that if you are staying entirely within the contactless fare area and you see such a reader, that you DO NOT touch out on it when you intend to continue your Oyster or contactless journey
@@JackMitchell404
> It's really important that if you are staying entirely within the contactless fare area and you see such a reader, that you DO NOT touch out on it when you intend to continue your Oyster or contactless journey
It doesn't matter if you do, the system is designed with the awareness that this is something users might do, and will simply treat these as intermediate unnecessary touches along a single journey.
@@JivanPal No it does matter if you tap out it screws with the journey because you arent allowed to tap out on some cheaper journeys and they wont let you back in without paying more.
@@captvimes TH-cam doesn't seem to want to let my reply go through for some reason, probably due to length, but I gave an example of how it works, e.g. London Bridge > Woolwich Arsenal > West Ham, if you do/don't make a redundant touch at Woolwich Arsenal.
@@JivanPal The point i am making is if i get a ticket from brighton to newcastle if i tap out on the tube part even if i just want to go get some food it wont let me back on the same ticket i either have to find a friendly attendant or pay to tap back in.
Another thing from a recent visitor: if you are visiting London and any of its museums during the busy periods, get an e-ticket if that specific museum has the option to. It's free, it's quick and you won't wait like an idiot behind thousands of other people in line that didn't have one. Saved me hours!
The museums (musea?) are free but sometimes say there is no capacity left, but will happily sell you a ticket to whatever exhibition is going on, which gets you entry.
Not so free but it gets you in, and also not that expensive.
I went to the natural history museum and couldn't get a ticket on a school half term week, even in advance, so had to buy a ticket to the fantastic beasts exhibition (some Harry Potter thing I think, never seen it, didn't go to the exhibition).
And yea either way just do it online and show the QR code on your phone as you go on, don't bother queueing.
that's a good tip generally wherever you go.
I did this for the Colosseum and Vatican when visiting Rome ... people stood queuing in the baking sun for like 90 mins, we just booked our tickets the night before from the comfort of our hotel bed. Similarly, I got my tickets for both the Sagrada Familia (Madrid) and Real Alcazar (Seville) whilst joining the back of the queue ... once booked - a 5 minute task - I just skipped into the booked ticket queue which had like 4 people in them.
@@Dekedence Exactly, such s simple thing that saves countless hours but almost no one does it...
I hate those radioactive phone boxes
Yeah... why do they always smell of piss nothing else does in London usually...
Who actually pisses in them? I blame the tourists !
@@davidcook7887 The tourists get blamed for everything it seems. I wonder if some Lysol would 😣 help?
Living in Cumbria we have a few K6 telephone boxes and (because it's Cumbria) we don't have feral tourists nor feral locals unlike in london. Our telephone boxes are absolutely lovely and NOT piss filled. Come to Cumbria. It's brilliant
@@Shipnerd194 CUM BRIA
As a British native myself I do strongly recommend everyone who is visiting the UK to keep an open mind about the traditional food as it is a lot nicer than people and the sterio type like to make it out to be. Recomended meals to try include Fish and Chips (seen by most as the national dish and which tastes similar to Japanese fried Tempura), the Sunday Roast, The English breakfast and Sheppards pie, though the first 2 alone will already be good enough.
For the fish and chips I recommend using either salt or vinegar on the chips or at least one of each for extra taste. They kind of look like takeaway places from the inside as the whole point is to get them from a proper fish and chip shop instead of a pub or restaurant. With The Golden Chippy fish and chip shop being the biggest lore in London for tourists, though poppies is also a popular fish and chip shop in London.
That being said I still advise trying Fish and Chips on the coast instead as they generally just tend to taste so much nicer but if you won't be on the coast, you'll know where to go. For international food, I recomend either Italian, Indian or Japanese. Seriously though, I would honestly find it a lot more open minded and respectful to give the food a fair chance as that's part of the whole cultural experience, hence emerging yourself in the culture. If you don't like it then fair enough but an open minded try will never hurt and British food is a lot nicer than people make it out to be.
@@davidgilbert8614 These are worth while points to take into consideration and to be fair I did also mention my recomended international foods to try as well as the most popular British dishes. At the very least as long as people try some fish and chips or an english roast then they are still trying the food but it's still right to give the local food a fair chance as that's part of the point of visiting the country to begin with, hence cultural emersion.
I agree !! British food is underrated. I tried Pie and Mash at F Cookes and loved it
@@AniMewAlex Did you mean "worthwhile" points, rather than "well while"?
@AlexTheUmbreon5 As you say, Fish and Chips can be much nicer, which means that some can be less nice, i.e.; nastier. I love good Fish and Chips, I also love Tempura, but even good F & C tends to be heavier than Tempura, because of more batter overall and more fat/oil in the batter and that is not to mention soggy and undercooked batter, esp. when the fat from the undercooked fish drains onto the chips underneath. The problem for a tourist is that they won't know what counts as good and may wonder why British people rave about a soggy, greasy, heavy lump of fish. Oh, by the way it is "Shepherd's pie" - but only if it is lamb, otherwise it is Cottage Pie for beef - possibly because English doesn't really use the term "Cattleherd" to refer to a person.
@@charleshayes2528 Oh yeah lol thanks for pointng it out, it's been corrected now.
Here's a tip for ya! Don't trust the advertised train travel time from Victoria Station to Gatwick if you have a plane to catch. Got me stranded over night in Crawley as the bloody train took more than twice as long as promised. The airline staff sighed and booked me for the next flight the day after, and I could tell it wasn't uncommon...
Or in other words "make sure you get on the right train"
@@AndreiTupolev I was on the right train. It just took more than twice as long as it was supposed to. About 75 minutes. Advertised as 33 minutes.
@@rocykel sounds like you took the slow train
@@DeterminedFC I got on the train I had a ticket for, bought from the guy in the booth who said it would take 33 minutes. This was in 1998, BTW.
@@rocykel That's 25 years ago. Things change.
The only thing I would add is (because some of my family live in other countries, so I know from experience tourist from big countries like the US & Australia try to do this) don't think that you can go from London to Scotland & see all you want to see in Scotland during a day trip. Travelling to & from Scotland will take a whole day in itself. Scotland is a whole country & you might see a fraction of it if you go for a weekend. Edinburgh might be a nice weekend trip but you can't get there, see Edinburgh & do anything there, then get back to London in a day. It's literally not possible, don't even try. Same applies to any of the Northern cities in England & also to Ireland. A day will just about cover your travel, you'll need at least one more day to see anything, but I'd recommend three days to actually enjoy it.
Unless you use the sleeper train, arrive early am and leave in the evening. If you plan it instead of two nights in a hotel it's probably not too expensive either.
,, I once saw two American visitors setting off from the southcoast of England after lunchtime w golf clubs by train to visit Scartland for a quick look round bc,, I'd already heard her introduce themselves as Mr and Mrs Wallace to the ticket office as they got their CHECK BOOK, out !! 😂 and later call after him saying Bill, Bill there's no porters to carry the luggage across the platform bridge and I'd asked , 😂is that really William Wallace?? and she said oh yes! We're just going to see his heritage for the day 😂😂😂🎉
I was half tempted to become their instant luggage handler just for the enormous tip that would have ensured 😂🎉 but I thought I'm trying to live my own life and besides it was far funnier to see them announcing to the world every calamity of shifting enough bags for a small African nation 😅😅😅 and I'm sure she added that it'll b no problem for her husband really as he used to be a quarter back 🎉😂 as if I really cared 😂😅🎉
And Wales.
Available by mail order from the London Transport Museum is the fabulous book "Beyond the End of the Line", a bunch of walking tours starting from the terminal stations of most of the Underground lines. Maybe that sounds weird but walking is fun.
I'd add to you list the following. If you're not in a particular hurry try and avoid using The Tube which can be very hot and very noisy on some lines. You don't get to see anything of London travelling through dark tunnels. Take the bus if possible to view London. It'll be slower than The Tube (but might be closer to your destination) and a lot more interesting.
Would actually love a video on do's and don'ts of London busses. In Ireland there are strict rules that tourists simply don't / couldn't know.
What shouldn’t bus passengers do in Ireland? When I used buses a lot more, smokers sat upstairs, a sign said spitting prohibited, the conductor preferred small change coins and tickets had to be retained for inspection and an honesty box existed for uncollected fares.
To be faitr, they are posted in Gaelic Irish.... (joke)
@@john_smith1471 Last time I was in Dublin, I bought a Leap Card and used that on the buses and trains. It seemed to work much the same as buses anywhere else.
Like make sure you order a pizza for the hostages and dont forget vegetarians
If there's a person with a or pram/shopping trolly its nice to give them the seat next to the wheelchair area so they dont have to block the isle. Also, generally its good to step to the curb and give your bus a wave down because there are generally a few different routes on one stop. Other than that, just standard bus stuff; have your card ready, hold onto railings, blah blah blah.
Also don't just go on the underground everywhere. It's actually surprising that a lot of London you can cover on foot faster than the underground.
Or the double decker buses.
"Don't eat at the touristy places." is just a good travel trip in general. Even when you're staying within your own country for a trip. A quick google search on best food in the area will usually get you somewhere good. Going into random, sometimes sketchy places may net you a delicious meal too, but that's on your comfort level. I got some bomb empanadas in Seattle that were being sold behind the counter of a specialty grocery store and a great banh mi in the sketchiest tiny storefront in Boston.
My tip, try to go to restaurants, grocery stores, use the tube, etc at times that are not the busy time for locals. Go to breakfast later, don't be on the tube at rush hour....you'll be less annoying as you try to figure things out, you'll be less stressed and you may actually find someone not in a hurry to help/talk to you. Remember you are on vacation and the people trying to get to work are not! Definitely get outside of London, just like New York and Paris it has a bit of generic busy big city vibe.
I love your comment ❤ I live in New England and the leaf peeping tourists have finally gone home...they clog our little town and roads, and ...I'm finally seeing London soon. I don't want to be a bad tourist and this is how I like to travel, just like you said 😊 I'm super excited
You can also use the new Elizabeth Line to get to and from Heathrow, it's quicker than the tube and costs the same.
It doesn't actually, it's got a surcharge on it because the airport owns the train tunnel.
It’s less frequent than the Piccadilly line, but after a long flight I’ll pay the extra.
@asmazinabelheddad3916 Is this to mach the express that ran to Paddington and took about the same time?
@asmazinabelheddad3916usiness people totally do take public transport in London.
If you are going to be using the tube for the rest of the day the Elizabeth line counts towards the cap, the the price will be the same if you reach the cap after using the piccadilly line.
You don't make mistakes as a tourist, you have adventures.
Honestly, this was helpful for me. I already knew all of this, having lived in the UK all my life and being pretty familiar with London... But I'm planning a trip to London with an American friend, so it's good to get a reminder of things that might not be second-nature to him as they are to me.
Tip here, the Tube is priced by zones, but the busses don't have zones, it is one price, and if you change busses within a hour, you don't pay again. A single bus fare is £1.75, and is capped when using a contactless payment system (credit card, Apple pay, Oyster card, etc.) at £5.25 a day. However, if you really want to save money, you can put a weekly bus only pass on an oyster card (or buy a paper pass) for £24.70. I would urge you as a tourist to use the busses, and see London, yes it takes more time, but what is your rush? An Oyster card cost £3 (you can buy one at many Tube stations, like Heathrow) but you can redeem the £3 plus any credit left on the card at stations that sell them.
Just a note with Mistake #8, You can order a Visitor Oyster Card before your trip like my mum and I did. We flew into Gatwick and used it to take the train into London and for transit throughout London. So handy!
The Visitor Oysters are OK but you can just use your contactless card to pay for the Tube
@@Jack-cq9pv I was travelling with a senior that has a meltdown every time her phone auto updates, lol
@@clarissathompson It's still a good point. Losing a bankcard is inconvenient at the best of times, but it'd be a nightmare in another country. The only downside is having money left on the Oyster card when you're done, though it can be reclaimed.
The cards can be bought in lots of shops as well as in the choob.
@@ethelmini one of the main reasons I ordered them was so we could get on a train into the city from Gatwick without the hassle of getting tickets. I don’t know if you have ever travelled with someone over the age of 75, but I was managing an entire 7 week train and tour bus trip across the island with her and I had to find every simple option she wouldn’t fight me over. She also needed hearing aids but refused to acknowledge it, so the “look right” thing was essential for me, lol!
@@ethelminiThe visitor Oyster is actually cheaper than a standard Oyster and has a funky design with London symbols on for people who want to take them home as a souvenir (plus it's one less thing to worry about when you arrive). I definitely agree that using your expensive phone or bank card on public transport, especially in an unfamiliar city when you're tired from travelling, probably isn't a great idea.
Some other tube related tips - there are some stations you should avoid if possible. Like Covent Garden at the weekend (because you'll be waiting 15 minutes for a lift), or Bank. And there's some connections on the tube map that involve a decent walk, like from the piccadilly line to the jubilee line at green park.
Also, remember the tube map isn't geographical. So sometimes there could be two stations that look a decent distance apart but are virtually next to each other, like Queensway and Bayswater. Even time you have to change lines it adds at least 15 minutes to your journey so it can be significantly quicker to get off at a different station and walk a few minutes than going to the station with the exact name of the place you want.
As a Londoner of too many years to mention, I thought this was a pretty good guide. One thing I’d take issue with is, that although Dishoom is good and all that you’ll find plenty of other decent and cheaper curry places (and you won’t have to queue). Also, if you’re a family especially, a treasure trail is a good way to see part of the city and learn some history as you go. Only about £10 a pop.
Best tips I've seen. Tip no 11: On the under ground most platforms have an entrance and an exit. Never stop by the entrance, Move down and wait about a carriage length from the exit You'll get on the tain far more easily, as everyone gets off near the exit, leaving space for you to get on.
Yes, the tube is quick, but buses are often better. In most places they have reserved lanes, so they don't get snarled in traffic, and they have windows from which you can SEE where you are and what's going on.
It can *sometimes* be cheaper to use a paper ticket including zones 1-6, if travelling from outside London. You'll also have a paper ticket if just travelling through London.
Plus, you need to be *really* careful with ticket splitting - your train must stop at all the split stations on your tickets for them to be valid, otherwise you may end up having to buy another ticket or pay a hefty fine (not exactly worth the £2 saving). Also, if you use a ticket splitting service that gives you paper tickets, you'll have to carry all of them and make sure you're using the right one in the barriers.
If you don't want to get your phone or card out on the tube, you can get a visitor's Oyster card delivered to an international address.
Also, some National Rail trains *do* open their doors automatically on certain sections (there'll be an announcement if so). But even if they don't, you still need to wait until the button's illuminated if you don't want to be that muppet.
Finally, if you want decent pub food, you need to find a nice rural village pub, preferably serving local produce. The best parts of the UK are also outside of London: the National Parks, the seaside towns (although a little dilapidated nowadays), the historical sites, less crowded cities with plenty of their own places to visit (usually less touristy than London too). I'd recommend spending a week or two in the Lake or Peak Districts, Scotland, the West Country or Wales (particularly North Wales) if you want a proper UK holiday. York is supposed to be quite nice too, then you could head out to the Yorkshire Dales. By all means visit London and its tourist attractions, but don't spend all your time there.
😅😅😅 I love how many comments say this kinda thing ,, sure Britain is diverse and very different to London and especially as some London parts are very metropolitan and cosmopolitan ,, but I wouldn't send visiting American backpackers that definitely don't walk a mile in their own country to the mountainous trekking zones of off-road Britain 😂 at most I'd point out somewhere superb and quaint and 45minutes by train that has plenty of fish n chips and ice-cream, a gorgeous beach and welcoming inns with real gourmet home cooked meals like Rye in Sussex
or even Arundel slightly further along with its fantastic castle ,, wildfowl waterpark w geese ducks and swans and delightful butterfly garden
And then there's Windsor! ,, Home to an amazing riverside town with England's largest royal castle open to visitors,, it also boasts Legoland 🎉
Simply get to Windsor by tube to Heathrow airport and then take an overland train a coupla stops
If u can drive and like rollercoaster parks,, Thorpe Park is just outside London to the west between Staines and Chertsey it doesn't involve any mountain climbing and there's plenty of cotton candy chicken nuggets huge plushies to win and ice cold beer in safety plastic bottles 🎉😂🎢 cheers 🍺🌭🍟
For the Marlow example given, the off-peak contactless cap is the same as the paper off-peak Marlow to Z1-6 Travelcard: £25.20. Though contactless may split your travels into a Marlow-Hayes & Harlington return, plus a Z1-5 cap, to save a whopping 30p, as that is the cheapest fare option for any return journey from Marlow to London that penetrates the capital deeper than Paddington. But 30p is peanuts and not worth quibbling about, plus you can get railcard discount (33%) on the paper ticket that you can't on the contactless (which may perhaps give you less than 2% discount vs a full price paper travelcard).
I became a Londoner after less than 24 hours in the city. I was muttering "These damn tourists!", even though I was a tourist myself. I take pride in not having made one single mistake in this video. Cheers, bruv!
A note on getting to and from Heathrow:
Heathrow Express: £25.00
Elizabeth Line: £12.80
Piccadilly Line: £5:60
I was on the Piccadillly Line a few days ago to catch a plane home. My advice, at 36 minutes, the Elizabeth line takes 5 mins longer than the Heathrow express getting to Paddington. Piccadilly takes about 12 mins longer than the Elizabeth Line, it just feels a lot longer. Conclusion: Heathrow express is a rip off. Elizabeth line is a better journey and Piccadilly the cheapest (and feels like it).
The first mistake you made was calling London, the City of London. The City of London is the old fortified citadel which is now home to one of the two biggest financial districts. Thats why the airport in London is called London City Airport not The City of London Airport. Keep up the hard work, love your videos.
Yes - in fact, at the start of the video, you were in the London Borough of Lambeth, looking across the river to the City of Westminster. The City of London is a mile or so to the east of there, also on the north side of the river.
I was crossing Westminster bridge and after the 79th time of hearing a whiny American kid scream ‘I wanna see Big Ben’ and mom saying ‘yeh I think it’s near the ferris wheel’ I had to basically tap him on the shoulder and say look up. I couldn’t be arsed to tell him it’s the bell…
We were in London in late 1990s. We ate in a pub where a couple of older men were wearing old army uniforms. We found out they received free drinks. I am sure that was a genuine English pub. I also loved the food and beer in England.
The reason there's a button to open the door that doesn't open the door, is phychological. It was found many generations of trains past, that adding a fake rubber button calmed passengers down and dramatically reduced their sence of being stuck, reducing the claustraphobic affects of being on the train surrounded on all sides by a solid metal tube with no way out.
I moved to London this year and my parents are currently visiting and I'm happy to know I've already taught them the majority of these 😂
The paper cards still make sense. Especially if you are just travelling through London. Unfortunately, "all trains go to London" in the UK, so chances are, you'll need to change there, often changing the station as well. In that case, the tube ticket is included with your train ticket.
Also, when you add it to you ticket to London, it is much cheaper.
I agree about using the cheapo Piccadilly line fares from Heathrow airport, however for myself if I’m jet lagged, shattered and not slept for 24 hrs after a long haul flight and my accommodation is near Liverpool Street or Canary Wharf, I’d pay a bit more and use the less frequent but faster Elizabeth line ( still called cross rail on TrainPal) full size walk through cars, a/c, some traditional transverse seating, ambient lighting & much quieter than 1972 built tube stock.
Do they still do the express to Paddington? Given the Elizabeth line takes about as long as is much cheaper.
@@TalesOfWar Heathrow Express still exists but is expensive and only takes you to Paddington, some Advance tickets might be cheaper, Elizabeth line continues across London and has connections to some of the underground and national rail stations .
@@john_smith1471Heathrow Express to Paddington always works for me, because I pick a cheap hotel about a 5-minute walk from Paddington station
As a New Yorker, I feel like almost all of these points apply to NYC as well. We’re well-versed in these dos and don’ts. So, I guess I’d feel right at home in London! 😂
This just what I was going to write. I guess that's why Londoners blend so well in NYC. Except for the whole accent thing😅
I was just going to say this.
Just came back from London and visit NYC often. London and NYC are very alike. A busy business city that mixes modern with history very well.
When you're in a tube station, PLEASE don't stand with your family and all your luggage at the bottom of the stairs/escalators deciding which platform to use, especially during rush hour -.-
The Piccadilly line from Heathrow might be cheaper but it takes a while, its about 15 stops to central London. Better off using the Elizabeth line. And as my American friend found out the hard way, always better to book train tickets to another town or city several days in advance (or even longer) and avoid travelling during peak hours. Can be pricey and they sometime have deals.
I've had my first Indian food in London probably around 25 years ago. It was a small restaurant somewhere in nowhere London, with worn green carpet and the nicest people ever running it. The food was amazing. Creamy, delicious, we had a whole variety of foods recommended to us. We even got some on the house (guess they usually don't have barely English speaking tourists there 😁).
Very fond memory. 😊
TIPS FOR TOURISTS::: NEVER use Covent Garden tube station. Yuo will simply queue up for forty minutes to get out. Instead get off at Leicester Sq and walk for three minutes. Don't miss out on Hampton Court Palace. It's the best preserved Mediaeval palace in the World and a 30 minute train ride from Waterloo.
The pain of standing behind a tourist wearing a baseball cap, manoeuvring a massive suitcase while attempting to scan a paper ticket on the oyster reader is immeasurable.
When you've got 2 trains to catch for work and if you miss one, you miss the other, and will be late. No no dear. Take Your Time.................... Please.
You could ask if they need any help?
@@janetpendlebury6808 Not as much passive aggressive fun?
@@janetpendlebury6808 I take it you missed the bit about never talking to anyone on the underground? 😀
As an American that's been to London, and coming back again soon, I never understood the complete hate for ball caps or those wearing them. Just a cultural difference that I find strange. I will be wearing something to blend in or not wearing one at all this trip.
If the tube station you’re trying to enter has a massive queue outside it, PLEASE pull up Google Maps and look at which station is next closest. They’re usually less than a 10 minute walk away and Google Maps will tell you how busy every station is. As a goth I go to Camden a lot and there can be huge crushes of tourists trying to get into Camden Town station to leave at peak times. What they don’t know is that Mornington Crescent station is an 8 minute walk away and it will be empty
I'm from Belgium, saw The Smyths in Half Moon Putney, grabbed a game at Fulham FC, got dinner at Dishoom's in Shoreditch, got drunk in Clapham, got breakfast in Shepherd's Bush at visited Amy Winehouse's tomb in Edgewarebury Cemetary. Didn't had the time to visit Big Ben or Buckingham Palace....
Rent a bike to get around London, you get to see sights as you ride around. Check your bike in before 30 mins and take one out again and it resets the time so you don’t have to pay more. I hired one in 2018 for 24 hours cost £2. I went along the river, Westminster Abbey Houses of Parliament, Covent Garden, Knightsbridge and King’s Cross. A bit strange for someone who used to live in London doing tourist stuff, but I was so busy partying I mean working back then I didn’t see the sights
It may also be quicker to walk than take the tube in some instances. You can spend as much time or more travelling down to the platform, and back up at the other end.
Using public transport to get to the city from the airport is a money saving tip whatever country you go to
The tube once (in the 1990s) tested having passengers push a button to open the door. Ultimately they decided not to but didn't bother to remove the buttons on the Central and Jubilee lines. The trains on the Metropolitan, District and Circle lines have buttons because when the train sits in a station for a long time, the doors close on a timer to save energy.
Quite often the buttons work in the 'open' suburbs but not in the centre. Stops rain/heat coming in outside of the centre, speeds things up in the centre.
A lot of good points. I would just say avoid the tube, its much nicer to walk or take a bus. With readily available free bus maps, swipe card payment and the fare cap there is no need to be nervous of buses. And don't forget the river bus, its dead cheap. If you are here for a short time and need a break from the city, just go to one of the semi rural areas within London: Hampstead, Highgate, Greenwich, Richmond, Thames walk west from Putney etc. etc. London is a very safe city. These places are stunning and very easy to reach. For pubs get a CAMRA Good Beer Guide, or use the Nicholson chain. The Globe Theatre on the South Bank (built by an American!) is dead cheap and no need to book if you stand in the cockpit.
I prefer out of bounds paper travel cards since they are cheaper than contactless and oyster since they combine the rail fare and tube fare into one. For eaxmple Twyford to Zones 1-6 travel card is less than the contactless return from Twyford to Zone 6.
You're right about Zone 1 - we lived in Ealing for 3 years and now we pretty much stay there whenever we need to visit. Ealing Broadway is a terminus for Central and District lines plus the new Elizabeth line and trains go through there. Paddington is like 10 minutes.
LOVE Waxy O'Connor's. They have a fireplace. I've done a bit of a tour of pubs and tearooms with fireplaces in London. It's a wonderful way to spend a winter visit. Highly recommend you do a travel video cataloguing the same. :)
Oh, and one more thing, I've spent far more time at ticket barriers waiting for the person in front of me to tap through using Apple Pay than I have behind paper ticket holders. They tap the app to bring up their payment card too early, then when they get to the barrier it's timed out and they have to stand there fiddling with their phone to get the virtual payment card back up. Even then there's a weird delay of the best part of a second before the barrier registers it. Paper travelcards are quicker.
pLEASE make a part two.
I'm from a small-ish European city but moved to Tokyo this year and while there are worlds between Tokyo and London, I ended up recognising a lot of what you mentioned from tourism in Tokyo. The tube tickets and public transport situation, tube etiquette (I feel you on that, I wanna revise my kanji in peace during my morning commute) and most of all, the touristy spots (especially the shopping street - Takeshita Street here in Tokyo, which used to be a cool street lined with trendy shops but has devolved into tourist trap hell)
I wish I'd known about Suica cards before I went to Tokyo! It would've made travel so much easier, especially as I don't speak Japanese!
To be fair since companies stopped selling IC cards in physical form and I didn’t realise you didn’t need a physical one to have an apple wallet one for the longest time, to my great embarrassment, I was relying on tickets to get around tokyo. Luckily I eventually realised I was able to get a pasmo on my phone and started using that instead.
@@Gleifel ah that's true, with the suspension of service, it's a different situation now and the phone apps aren't as accessible as the physical cards. I think the service wasn't suspended yet altogether when I wrote my original comment. Have they suspended the welcome suica cards too? I thought those are still handed out. My friend who came to visit in September got one.
@@endlessteatime4733 so suica to my knowledge is also suspended but tourists specifically can still buy temporary IC cards (including for pasmo). French friends were visiting recently and they had this thing called Pasmo passport. The reason for either suspension is the same so the result for either card was the same I think (global microchip shortage).
@@Gleifel Welcome Suica is also a temporary card, like the one your friends used. And thanks to you, I now know what a Passport Pasmo is too. I see an ad for it every morning but hadn't realised it's not a normal Pasmo until you explained it. I was so confused why they would let that ad stay during a suspension of service. 😂
i took my friend (canadian) for a day out in london. i made sure to impress upon him that we do not speak to people on the tube. first tube we get on, two people strike up a conversation with him about his guide dog (he’s blind). he wouldn’t let me live it down while i was amazed that a guide dog causes people to transcend the no talking rule.
I travelled there in 2021! Stayed in zone 6, had a oyster card got a week pass for zones 1-5 and paid each time to use the tubes and buses in zone 6. Found some free admission places, walked around all day every day in zone 1 used the tubes often. I’m planning to go again next year for my 30th birthday, tips and advice are welcome and appreciated!!
You can’t fool me, the real London bridge is in Lake Havasu, Arizona
A good way to see stuff. Walk. Just... choose a direction and walk. If you're worried about getting lost, try and stick near Underground stations so you can at least work you where the hell you are and how to get back to where you're staying. Just walking along the river will take you to lots of historic places and all the interesting lesser known places in between. There are lots of little interesting alley ways quiet spots just moments away from crazily busy open spaces.
Also, the Elizabeth Line is another option to the Piccadilly Line if you're coming in from Heathrow. Nicer, shinier, new trains with air con lol. The carriages are also regular loading gauge so less cramped.
00:01 you’re not in the city of London, you’re in Greater London. Specifically Lambeth given you’re south of the river and opposite the Houses of Parliament. The city of London is half a mile up the way! Saying you’re in the city of London when you’re in Lambeth is like saying you’re in New York City when you’re stood in Albany…yes they’re both part of New York but there’s only one New York City same as there is only one city of London, everything else is Greater London each being a specific borough and most being part of different counties.
Yh
He was probs simplifying it for people though.
Who gives a fuck 🤦♂️
Shut up
No itd be like saying welcome to new York city and you're on the new Jersey side of the Hudson
The Westminster end Oxford Street, where Bond Street station is, is where Selfridge, John Lewis and Marks and Spencers are....three British department stores for one...plus John Lewis and Marks and Spencers are chains, so you can find other branches in the UK, if you like the stuff you've seen. As a Londoner I've always thought that the Camden end of Oxford Street, has been going downhill in the quality of the shops for years. So if you are going there, get a bus or the Tube to that end of Oxford Street. Don't bother with the Camden end.
If I'm confusing you, the tacky end of Oxford Street is in the borough of Camden and the better end is in the borough of Westminster. So go to the Oxford Circus to Marble Arch end of Oxford Street.
Tottenham Court Road is actually more interesting than the Camden end of Oxford Street as is Charing Cross Road, so if you are at that end of Oxford Street, try those other roads instead.
Use your contactless card on the Tube, the buses, black taxis, the river boats, the mainline trains, the Docklands Light Railway and the Croydon trams, or buy a contactless travel card. They available from some small shops, just look for a sign on the shop window that says Oystercards sold here, it's easier than buying them online or from any other source.
For trips out of London, the terminus stations on major lines sell a large variety of tickets, which can be confusing, so as a local I recommend you buy an anytime return ticket.
I’ve come through London many times and really can’t fault any of your tips, although the one tourist thing I always recommend is a tour of the Tower with a Yeoman Warder. Complete tourist thing but I’ve always enjoyed it. I also ate at the Lamb and Flag, but quite by inebriated accident. BTW, my wife and daughter tell me they met you at Playlist some time back….
There's so much to do in London! Even as a brit living outside the city the amount in there is insane!
Good to see an American calling out the food stereotypes!
There is a lot of good food here both home grown or assimilated and each part of the UK has some unique dishes solely found in each region.
i really appreciate the effort that has gone into this
A hidden gem is the Abbey Wood Campingsite. Lovely camp site and only a 10 min walk to the Abbey Wood station where the Elizabeth Line takes you to central London. And staying there is really affordable.
I've lived in London for 18 years and I use paper day travelcards. This is because:
- I live in zone 6 in south east London. I work at home three days a week and in zone 1 two days a week.
- I use contactless for my weekday trips to the office - they're capped at £14.90 per day to travel at peak times but I don't tend to get anywhere near the weekly cap, so any travel at the weekend will be extra.
- At the weekend I might well travel to Maidenhead to see the love of MY life (Maidenhead United FC) and here's where contactless becomes poor value. The single fare zone 6 to Maidenhead via zone 1 is £10.40. It's more if you break your journey but that doesn't matter because the daily cap is £20.40, so you hit the cap if you make a return trip same day (sadly I'm not in a staying over-type relationship with the football club). A paper zone 1-6 travelcard with a Network Railcard is £10. A day return from Boundary Zone 6 to Maidenhead is £4.60, so £14.60 in total for unlimited travel in zones 1-6 plus one return trip to Maidenhead.
- Even if you're just out and about in zone 1 and not going anywhere weird like Maidenhead, you can buy the £10 discounted paper Z1-6 day travelcard which is a third cheaper than the zone 1-6 contactless daily cap. It is also cheaper than the daily caps for zones 1-5 and zones 1-4. so unless you live in the inner zones you should probably be buying paper travelcards for weekend travel.
On weekdays the benefit of the discounted off-peak daily travelcard is less because of Network Railcard restrictions which mean you can only travel after 10am and there's a £13 minimum fare, so it costs £13 instead of £10. If I have a day off and want to go into zone 1 I still buy one if travelling after 10am because the single off-peak contactless fare from my local station to zone 1 is £6.40, making a return journey £12.80 and the off-peak daily cap is £14.90 (the same as the peak cap), so £13 for unlimited travel after 10am is the better option.
There are a lot of Londoners who don't seem to realise a Network Railcard can get them a third off travel on the tube, DLR, trams and buses, not just train journeys. Anybody can get one. But you have to use paper travelcards. People are pissing money up the wall for the convenience of using a contactless bank card.
Train travel in this country really shouldn’t be this complicated lol
You can apply your railcard to an oyster. You don’t need a paper ticket :)
@@CharlotteMulcahy No I can't. It's a Network Railcard.
I think you can only apply the national rail cards to your oyster card.
Also I would rather lose my oyster card/paper ticket in transit than my bankcard as I'm faffing about with it in a station.
@@SunnyMorningPancakes Yeah, I believe TfL's excuse is it would be too hard to program in the 10am rule and the £13 minimum fare.
And it is only an excuse - they don't appear to believe that making it easy for Londoners to get the discounts they're entitled to on weekend leisure travel will boost passenger numbers enough to make up for the lost income, so they keep it low key, make it difficult and hope people will pay up to 50% more than they need to. I'm sure many simply look at the fares and think "we might as well drive", though.
Oh, and they're trying to scrap day travelcards, which literally amounts to a 50% fare hike for every Network Railcard holder at weekends.
Sevenoaks is 35 odd minutes from Charing Cross (25 ish min from London Bridge). Beautiful hitoric town, one of the bet places to live in the UK. Henry VIII lived here, Princess Diana was schooled here. Lots of very old buildimgs, some 1400s. The town is a 10min walk from the station.
Another one is don't always assume that you have to use the underground. Buses can be good too, if a little unpredictable due to traffic. However, using a bus might avoid some awkward changes, and you can see a lot from the top deck. Amazon maps makes it really easy to use. Case in point, is I had to travel from Marylebone Station to Hampstead, and a short walk to Baker Street and then a bus through some delightful parts of St. John's Wood and another short walk. Refreshing, nice views, more understanding of the layout and history of London than a sweaty tube journey. Faster too.
Nb. Wetherspoons is fine for a cheap breakfast, and anything grilled is not microwaved. You get what you pay for of course, but if you are on a budget it's a useful option. Also, the beer is generally cheaper and we'll kept. However, they are often very busy and noisy. So not a destination as such, but they serve a purpose.
A light hearted guide to the city. Thanks for the heads up. I had not heard of Trainpal
I stayed in Greenwich and it was amazing. Very interesting and easy to get to the popular tourist spots
On the Underground, I've spoken to a few people that were trying to figure out if they were on the right platform. The underground can be confusing, no shame in asking others to confirm it goes to the station you're expecting. Also another one, do not block the doorway when trying to board any train or underground train, people always disembark before others embark, so if you're standing AT the door, you'll slow everything down and some people will bulldoze through you if you're in the way. Instead stand to the side of the door and if there is nobody leaving the train, then you can get on.
My dad made the red phone booth mistake 😂 it was hilarious seeing his reaction!
Just think, back in the day when I first started going over there I had to use the phone booths. There were no cell phones.
The "push to open" buttons on the tube are for at termini. When the train is standing for ~5 minutes at the end of the line, the doors close after a bit to keep the heat in. You can press the button to open them and get on
As a Brightoner who visits London occasionally (so I guess kind of a tourist but not really?), video's pretty good but a bit more on mistake 8 as someone who knows a bit too much about rail and tube fares: paper tickets on the Tube do cost more... *except for when they don't.* 10:15
If you're buying Travelcards in London to start with, they are more expensive than using a Contactless or Oyster card (although Oyster cards cost £7 nowadays so stick to contactless if you can) and hitting the cap. As per the video, never actually get a single/return paper Tube ticket (and with some exceptions National Rail paper tickets in London zones) because that's literally never worth the price tag.
If you're out of London to start with though, it can, by quirk of the incredibly complicated fares system National Rail have, be cheaper to buy an inclusive ticket from a starting National Rail station outside the zones. (These start outside the zone boundary and are called outboundary Travelcards!) This isn't always the case and it depends how much more a Travelcard is priced compared to your usual ticket to a central London terminal.
For example, off-peak for Marlow, a Travelcard is £5.60 (the price of two Zone 1-2 Tube singles on Contactless/Oyster) more than a ticket to Paddington (although nowadays contactless works on the Thames Valley branch lines too so you should just use a contactless card instead!) so it can make sense there depending on what journey you're doing.
Sometimes they're really cheap addons like weekend super off-peak fares for any operator (so not just Thameslink) from Brighton where the Travelcard is only £4.10 more - less than two Zone 1 singles on the Tube by Contactless/Oyster!
Do make sure to check before getting an outboundary Travelcard in case your plans don't involve hitting the Zones 1-2 cap and, again, don't bother if you're already in the London zones to start with.
TL;DR: Rail fares are complicated, and therefore Tube fares are too!
One example, in the evening peak contactless from Paddington to Marlow costs £16.20, a paper ticket costs £9.80. That paper ticket is only valid on slow trains out of Paddington, but you will need to change at Maidenhead and only slow trains stop there.
But you can still buy those with an assortment of apps so you don’t have to be using a paper ticket in 2023
@@evan I wish! If you buy them on an app, by default you have to pick up a Travelcard from a ticket machine which gives you a paper ticket anyway.
You can get a smartcard from your local train operator and you *might* have the ability to load it on there, but train operators tend to not make that process easy for Day Travelcards or it might just outright not be possible.
Of course, this won’t be a problem much longer since TfL have thought of the best solution: getting rid of the cheaper Day Travelcard tickets so the new cheapest option becomes getting a ticket into London (already on your phone!) and then using contactless in London anyway…
An older gentleman struck up a conversation with me on the Tube once. He asked me if I was going to the Remembrance Sunday observance that day. When I gave him a bit of a blank look, he explained that it was an annual wreath laying ceremony at the Cenotaph memorial led by the Queen. I later learned the man I had met was a senior Member of Parliament and thanks to him, I got to attend an event with the Queen. So, sometimes talking on the Tube isn’t so bad.
Evan, I feel silly. I thought you were from New Jersey but now I've realised you're from Punnsylvania! Great video by the way.
I AM SORRY WHAT I AM NOT FROM PENNSYLVANIA I ACTUALLY CAN DRIVE
@@evan I said Punnsylvania, not Pennsylvania!!!! My attempt at humour failed.
@@cpmahon I thought it brilliant.
Don't worry Justin I thought the joke was funny 😂😂
@@evan if you're from New Jersey, your experience of Pennsylvanians would mostly be Philly people, maybe some of the Amish in the outskirts. As a Pittsburgher, your classification of all of Pennsylvania is a bit questionable (having said that, I don't drive so couldn't really tell you how our drivers are, just that they're not really the same as Philly drivers, or being stuck behind an Amish buggy)
It's a minor point, but pick the right time to visit places! For example, the area around Parliament/Big Ben/Whitehall is a working area - if you want a nice clear photo, then it's probably going to be best to avoid the commuting peak, as one of the many people who work there is going to walk right through your shot if it means we get home 5 seconds earlier!
10:18 Paper tickets make sense if you're using a national rail overground connection which goes outside the oyster zone
Or even sometimes if your using a national rail connection inside the oyster zone if your using a railcard (as the railcard discount when applied to an oyster(which is something you can do) only applies to off-peak), especially if your going to the "special fare zones".
which tourists don't use railcards lol
Yeah, just getting an Oyster card for Underground. My phone doesn't belong outside of my waist pack at any point except an emergency. I have purchased zones 1-6 in the past because I was traveling all zones for those two days. So yep, it really does all depend on where you're planning on traveling to while in the city.
As someone who moved to London nearly 8 years ago from Canada and constantly has to teach visiting friends and relatives... I agree with just about everything Evan said -- really all but the Spoons comment... I love Spoons! haha
I find you get what you pay for in spoons. It's nothing special but it's also quite cheap. Good value if you're trying to save a bit of money
I don't go to London but when in any town I always look for a Spoons if I want a drink , usually using their app. They are much cheaper than anywhere, always clean with friendly staff. The main thing is you don't feel as if you are being watched by the locals because you are a stranger to them, as you do in some pubs in a strange town. Just thought I would look at the prices in Spoons in Central London and using the Wetherspoons app picked a pub near Tower bridge. The price of their guest real ales was £4.75 a pint. The local Spoons that I go to where I live charges £2.34. That's less than half the London price. I dread to think what othe pubs charge in London..
I would advise caution if using non-UK bank cards to tap in and out of the Underground, buses etc. You might be hit with forex and transaction charges.
Before the Elizabeth line Line arrived on the scene, a paper ticket from Marlow to Zones 1-6 Travelcard was actually the cheapest option unless you were just going to Paddington. Now you have the Elizabeth line Line to Maidenhead which is run by TfL, and the TfL contactless area does extend to stations on the Marlow branch line.
Who goes to these American Candy shops? From what I can gather, American tourists prefer to go to Tesco Express to buy Cadburys chocolate. It seems to be the British equivalent of mattress shops in the USA.
Also, if you really want good curry, go to Birmingham or Leicester (the actual Leicester, not Leicester Square).
Supposedly, a lot of the American candy shops are used for money laundering purposes, rather than as a legitimate business. I'm sure some people do buy things from there, but it's not really why they exist.
I was trying to understand Evan's comment about the fare from Marlow to London, i think he's in Docklands zone 3, I alway get the NR one day zone 1-6 travelcard, good price and convenient.
@@hannahk1306 Indeed, and supposedly most of the mattress shops in the USA are money laundering fronts as well. They are everywhere, and while people do sometimes buy mattresses, they don't buy them that frequently.
Fun fact, I live outside London but usually work in London. There are days where it's cheaper for me to get a 1-6 Travelcard from outside the zones than to get a return to London Terminals and switch to Oyster/Contactless.
Edit - your girlfriend would sometimes have been better off doing what she was doing. You mocked her unfairly. I used to work in a National Rail ticket office and knew the prices off by heart. It all depended on what you were doing, two tube journeys in zones 1-2 would be cheaper getting the terminals return and using oyster but 3 tube journeys the Travelcard was cheaper.
Although that option is being taken away soon
"I want to build a pub, but I also want to build a treehouse." Perfect descrip - I love Waxys.
You're spot on with tube etiquette. If I am travelling alone and have my earphones in, do not talk to me! I'm not able to give directions to xzy, and I really don't care what tourist destinations you have visited. Leave me to my music!
great video. When you quoted Theresa May saying “the country I love”. I was dead laughing 😂. Thanks Evan