London Tips

So I'm by no means an expert on international travel, but there are somethings that I feel like make it easier. Here are my tips for London.

Before you go:

- Book as many of your tickets in advance as possible. There are some definite advantages to this. Online tickets are usually discounted. Not only that but you will get priority entry. There are somethings that you might get a deeper discount on if you want the day of, like theater tickets but you chance it. I'm glad we bought our tickets online as the show we wanted to see was sold out.

- In addition book as many tables online as possible. We did this twice. The first was brunch for a restaurant that wasn't very busy when we started, but was packed by the time we left. The second was for a restaurant in the West End that had a line nearly out the door.

- If you have a smartphone, download a Tube Map app. This was the one we used and it was very handy to find the fastest trains.

- If you can afford it, stay near the South Kensington tube station. You'll be on three train lines, including the Piccadilly Line that goes to Heathrow. The longest we were on a train was about 1/2 hour to the Tower of London. Most trips were 15 minutes or less.

- Check dates. Things like the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace don't happen every day. Google is your friend.

- If possible, get arrange a mini cab from Heathrow. It cost us £70 to get from Heathrow to South Kensington, and that's on the west side of London. We couldn't arrange a mini cab because we didn't have a UK number and we didn't know the number in the flat. It was £35 going Heathrow because mini cabs are so much cheaper.

- Buy train tickets online. It'll be 1/3 of the price and then you won't be a pissed at 6:45 in the morning when you're shelling out tons of money you know you could have saved.

Some people have asked where we stayed. This is the listing where we stayed. It was pretty awesome. The floor boards were so worn there were 1/4" gaps and some of them would sink about 2" down when Justin walked by. The shower was so small, I think I smacked myself in the face a couple of times. But was warm, reasonably quiet, and close to everything.

What to do when you get there:

- Get an Oyster card. There's a ticket machine in every tube station. There's a £5 deposit that you don't get, but any unused money at the end of the trip can be refunded by going to the ticket booth. They will refund the money to the card used to purchase the card. There is a problem will topping up cards though. You can't use the same card to top up more than one card at the same station. We solved this problem because Justin had brought his own credit cards, but it seems like an unnecessary inconvenience.

What to know:

- England is famous for their terrible customer service. We saw this in shopkeepers ignoring us and food taking forever to get to us.

- Order drinks as soon as you sit down otherwise you'll have to wait until the next time you see the waiter, which maybe never. I got in the habit of ordering a lemonade or apple juice, both of which were almost always on the menu. Apple juice in the UK is awesome by the way. It's 100% juice, unsweetened and unfiltered.

- Tipping is 10%

- You will usually have to ask for the bill. The waitstaff is not normally bring it even if they think you are done with the meal.

-Wifi exists in very few places.

People have asked me how I plan for my trips. The answer is that I google and over-plan like crazy. After airplane tickets are bought and hotel is booked, I write down all the places that I want to visit, whether it's feasible or not, in a list. I then start planning out the itinerary based on dates open and locations that are closest to each other, weeding out activities that won't work. Then about a month to couple of weeks before I'll buy a composition notebook. The first page I write the address of the place that I'll be staying. Then I write down the closest restaurants and their hours. On the following pages, I'll write down the itinerary, the mode of transportation to get there (subway lines and stations, bus numbers and station addresses, or address necessary to give to a taxi driver), opening hours, and any other important info. I'll then paper clip any tickets, hotel reservations, or maps I need for that day to that page. That way, all our info is in one place, but it does result in a very important item you can't lose. This works for me and it's handy, but some people don't like this strict of a schedule and Justin thinks that I could take over a small country with the amount of obsessing planning I put into this.