I was desperately looking for a different destination for 2018 Christmas and new year. I wanted to try some other place than Las Vegas that was our every year destination routine! Since I always prefer cold weather over hot and I was missing a real winter, decided to go to europe. One of my colleagues at work mentioned Paris and London are really amazing during christmas and new year and that was the moment that realized I have to try europe in winter. Since I heard a lot about new year’s countdown in Paris, decided to first go to London for a week and then use the eurostar train and go to Paris for new year.
Before starting this blog, you can always go to my Instagram account and watch some videos and more details of London in my London story highlights.
I decided to stay at Intercontinental Hotel which was a little further away from the city but there was a subway station right next to it which I used a lot to get to downtown. My trip to downtown with the subway wasn’t that long so it worth getting a really nice hotel that is larger than those small downtown hotels. Like I said before, in europe usually you shouldn’t expect large hotel rooms.
The cool thing about this hotel was that they had a small lounge area with variety of snacks, small bites and drinks which was really nice and open all the time.
The breakfast buffet was also really nice and I loved the variety of the food.
The view of the water was also interesting from our room, restaurants and the lounge. Besides the service was really nice, if you were trying to book a certain tour or show and you couldn’t the hotel Lobby would do it for you even though the tour is sold out. Actually that was how I could get my Harry Potter tour since it was sold out when I tried to book it.
Apparently right next to this hotel there was a multi-purpose indoor arena called O2 that was really huge and we didn’t get to visit but probably if you are staying at this hotel it worth checking it out.
One thing about Uber in London is that, it was a lot more expensive than subway and would took you longer to get to a certain place so I really recommend using the subway. London’s subway was pretty old but it was clean or at least was better than New York’s subway!
First thing from my bucket list and a major must go is the London Eye .
London Eye
close by the London Eye there are a lot of little food trucks that you can buy good food from. There was a Whiskey Bar that was really cute and cool that I highly recommend. I don’t think that they normally sell whiskey. I think it might have been because of christmas that they were selling Whiskey but either way I loved it!
One of the must go places in London that you might have not heard about it is Sketch restaurant. Probably the guests at Sketch spend majority of their time at its restrooms!! Well that’s just because the restrooms are the cutest thing ever, they are in the shape of colorful eggs.
Well just to be fair it’s not just the restrooms that are cool, the whole restaurant is like a wonderland where everything is plush pink.
I always fantasized about these little cute tea houses in London and when I found that Sketch has an afternoon tea with these sweet trays I was beyond happy.
Aside from all of that the food was really good and of course fancy. Make sure you try one of the cocktails there too since I really loved them.
I really love walking around the town especially if it is fall or winter (I know it’s weird, it supposed to be the opposite!) and walking around downtown London was just an extra bonus on top of it. Looking at those old telephone kiosks and double-decker buses made me feel like I’m in movies! Every bus that I saw in London was a double-decker which made the city look uniform and classic.
Let’s get into one of my favorite must go locations in London. Hyde Park is a huge royal park that is really beautiful and really fun for walking or riding a bicycle. Set right in the heart of London, Hyde Park offers both world-class events and concerts together with plenty of quiet places to relax and unwind.
Another must go on my list was the christmas market. The christmas market is not specific to just London a lot of cities have christmas market but I heard a lot about christmas markets in europe so I really wanted to go to one. Apparently there are several christmas markets in London each year but based on reviews Hyde park’s christmas market is the best one. I bought so many cool things from that market including this mask!
My favorite part was the grilled sausages that they were selling. They grill sausage on these huge trays which makes anyone hungry!
Well If I’m going to talk about must go places I have to mention the big bang but unfortunately when I was visiting London it was under construction. Instead I found these Igloos that I was always looking for. They are located at a restaurant called Coppa Club right next to the tower bridge. Make sure that you book the Igloo earlier and I highly recommend going there at night especially if there is no cloud present.
inside the igloos are really cozy and warm and makes you want to stay for hours. The restaurant itself has good food and cool cocktails so you really can stay there for hours and just enjoy.
If you want to see a beautiful view of London you must go to the Shard . The line was not too bad, it only took us 20 min to get in but it could be different in other seasons. By the way, if you had a chance read the history of the Shard it’s really interesting.
The next item on my bucket list could potentially be a must go for you if you’re a big fan of Harry Potter series. Warner Brothers Studio have converted Harry Potter’s filming location into a huge tour that is like a dream come through if you are a real Harry Potter fan! You get to buy all kinds of Harry Potter stuff there although you can do the same at Universal Studios in LA but there are a ton of extra activities that you can do there. you can ride a broomstick and get a video of yourself flying over the ocean. you get to walk into the forbidden forest and meet all of those odd shape creatures. you get to sit in the Hogwarts Express and go through the 9 3/4 station. You also get to see the real Pensieve used in the movie. You won’t believe your eyes when you see Hogwarts castle by the way!
Well last but not least is one the major must go locations in London, the Regent Street where you can see all of the Christmas lighting. The lighting is so classic and magical.
One of my favorite things to do in Regent street was shopping! one fact about shopping especially major Brands, if you buy them from where they’re originated from you can get them way cheaper than anywhere else. For instance a Burberry purse in US usually is not less that $1500 to $2000 unless it is really small BUT in London you can get the same purse for under $1000. I have to also mention that Burberry store in Regent Street is a huge 3 or 4 story building that makes your head spin!
There is another must go location that is really cool to visit. The Prime Meridian is an imaginary line that, similar to the equator, divides the earth into eastern and western hemispheres and you can visit that if you are in London. Although it’s not exactly in London it is in Greenwich but it’s close and it was really close to our hotel.
If you are a soccer fan you have to go Wembley Stadium in London. I never had a chance to go to a soccer stadium before and going to Wembley for the first time was beyond my expectation. The stadium is huge. I can not believe that I got to watch Harry Kane’s game close from the stadium!
After all I really loved London and it was way better than what I was expecting. I highly recommend going there around Christmas for all the details that I mentioned above. The good thing was that it didn’t rain at all although it was cloudy for the main part but it wasn’t rainy which I think I just happened to be lucky normally it supposed to rain at that time of the year.
At the end I have to mention that you can always go to my Instagram account and watch some videos and more details of London in my London story highlights.