Top 10 London Experiences for 2024: Insider Tips for an Unforgettable Adventure

In episode 105 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy and Doug share their top 10 favourite experiences in London for 2024. 

From special ceremonies at the Tower of London to black cab tours, food tours, museum visits, and exploring beautiful Greenwich, they provide insider tips and recommendations for making the most out of a visit to the iconic city.

Whether experiencing British food, having a photo shoot in London, or taking a ride down the Thames, Tracy and Doug's personal favourites offer a well-rounded exploration of London's charm, history, and culture.

Join them as they discuss these top experiences and provide valuable insights to help you plan your ideal London vacation.

📝  Show Notes - Episode 105

Listen to these episodes next:

• Episode 86: Interview with Ollie from Discover Real London 
• Episode 91: Interview with Charlie from Devour Food Tours in London 
• Episode 94: Interview with Domi about the best places for photo shoots in London

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins. In this podcast, tracey shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 2: 0:40

Hi and welcome to episode 105 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. So this week, doug and I are here to chat about our top 10 experiences in London for 2024 that we personally love and recommend. So there's just so many things to do in London and whenever we plan a visit we kind of sit down and think what are the things that we really love to do? And often some of these things we've done quite a few times, haven't we? We certainly have. So we thought we would just have a conversation and we'd chat with you today and just say you know, these are things that we love to do and we recommend, if you've got a chance, to have a look at adding some of these into your itinerary.

Speaker 2: 1:25

So the first one is probably going to be a surprise to you if you've been listening to the podcast for a while now is that I absolutely love the tower of london. I highly recommend that all of you visit the tower of london. It really is the top attraction in london to go and visit. It's such a historic castle. It is a castle and a wonderful, wonderful day out. Give yourself at least four hours to visit the tower. But for an extra special way to visit the tower of london. You way.

Speaker 2: 1:45

To visit the Tower of London, you have two options, and one is the opening ceremony and the other is the closing ceremony so the opening ceremony as, as it says, name on the tin. Basically it is the opening ceremony of the Tower of London, so you have the option to go and actually observe the ceremony as they open the tower for the day for everybody to come in. So the advantage of doing this chair in particular, is that you're the first one into the Tower of London, aren't you?

Speaker 3: 2:14

That's right. As they open the doors, you walk through in the place. Well, you need it the first time you open the doors and you walk through and there's nobody else there.

Speaker 2: 2:20

You're the first members of the general public in there and actually, obviously they open the gate and then everybody else can come in, but you and your small group are the only ones that are in there to witness this ceremony, so it's fantastic. And the other advantage of this is that you are there before everybody else arrives, so you can get to see the crown jewels. So we did this and we just hot-footed it over to see the crown jewels, didn't we? We did, we were actually first in the queue. We were, we were first in. We actually went around the travel aid two or three times so I had a really good look at these amazing jewels that owned by the royal family in in the uk. And you'll see after about an hour or so, the queue can be absolutely crazy, can't it?

Speaker 2: 2:56

oh it is yes, so that's an advantage of going to see the opening ceremony, but also it's a privilege to see the opening ceremony and you can take photos of of that. Now my personal favourite is the Ceremony of the Keys, which is the closing ceremony of the Tower of London. Now, I have been very lucky to have done that twice so far and, doug, you did that at Christmas, didn't you?

Speaker 3: 3:15

I did it at Christmas and I have to say it was incredibly atmospheric. As you know, night was approaching.

Speaker 2: 3:22

It was and there was just our small group. I think there's 12 of us in the group. It was a walk small group uh tour. It was fantastic. It was literally 12 of us with the yeoman warder who took us around. I also did uh again. Similarly, the keys in the summer. Uh again thoroughly enjoyed it obviously lighter nights then compared to the winter.

Speaker 2: 3:40

But honestly, just the ability to have that one-to-one time with a yeoman warder and you can really ask about questions like what is it like to live in the Tower of London, I mean it's fantastic. So you can. If you visit during the day and you have a regular ticket, you can take a free beefy tour. There is one kind of on the hour but you'll find that there'll be loads and loads of people so you can't have that kind of personal kind of question time. You can can try and ask a question, but there's probably about another. You know a few hundred people also try and ask a question at the same time. So it's really, really busy. And I know when we did one of the trips, one of the tours with the Yoman Order, he said it's amazing that they get the chance to really answer questions about what it's like and share some information about the channel of london that you probably wouldn't get any other way.

Speaker 3: 4:24

So we love that, don't we? Oh, it was so magical, I have to say, and be part of that history yeah, you can't take any photos.

Speaker 2: 4:31

You can't take any videos are very, very strict about this, and this ceremony has been going on for hundreds and hundreds of years and just the ability to take part in something which is so historic is fantastic and a real privilege. I have to say so you can. I know it's pricey and we often get feedback yes, it is pricey, but honestly I think it's worth every penny. I would love to do actually I want to meet all of the Yeoman Waters like that. I've been lucky twice to have done it and had two different Yeoman Waters, so you kind of learn different things when you do that.

Speaker 3: 5:00

That's right, and they'll tell you about their different experiences and personal experiences being a Yerman warder.

Speaker 2: 5:04

Yeah, absolutely so. That's our first thing to do in London, and it's something that I always try to add into my itineraries, so this is our second on our list, and I know this is one thing that you really enjoy doing as well, doug.

Speaker 3: 5:16

It is and I'll let you explain first and I'll tell you.

Speaker 2: 5:20

Okay, so we met Oli last year from Discover Real London Black Cab Tours of the City and we went out with Oli before Christmas and just it just blew my mind. I just loved it being in a black cab. They have so many privileges in terms of driving around London they can go down bus lanes, they can park in so many places that other cars can't get to or buses can't get to, or hop on, hop off buses and also just the knowledge that all of the drivers have and it is incredible it is, and I'll also add on to that all his passion for what he does is just comes through his energy and his passion for the city and what he does is.

Speaker 2: 6:01

It's just incredible yeah, and they offer lots of different tours so they can even pick you up from the airport and then you can have a tour on your way into london and around london before you get dropped off at your hotel. They have tours the introductory tours of the city, so you can go and see the main highlights. They have hidden gems tours that they'll show you some of the places that not everybody knows about, and we loved it didn't, because we saw things that we had no idea about.

Speaker 3: 6:23

That's absolutely true yes, and if you push your time to have a tour, you know your vacation starting as soon as you arrive is is incredible yeah, absolutely, and I know, uh know just, ollie and his team are fantastic.

Speaker 2: 6:36

They are all black cab drivers, so you'll be sitting in a black cab driving around London and they're also tour guides as well. So not only do you get driven around in a black cab, and you get to park up. We parked up about five meters from the entrance of Buckingham Palace, didn't we? We did. If you want to listen to Ollie, if you listen to episode 86, we chat with Ollie of Discover Real London, so you can find out all about Ollie and the company and the tours that they offer.

Speaker 2: 7:02

Yeah, and I've got a fantastic picture of myself and Ollie standing in front of Westminster Abbey, which is just, it's amazing, honestly. Besides, he parked in front of Westminster Abbey, there's a red bus in the background, there's a red phone box and there's myself and ollie standing in front of the black cab. I mean, you know, as I said, how many icons can you get in the photo, as well as, obviously, myself and that's right, and it's a great way to make memories from your holiday yeah, and that kind of takes me on, I guess, to our third experience, and I will say that these are no particular order, and that is having a photo shoot.

Speaker 2: 7:35

So we've had a photo shoot. We've had about four or five now, I think, with Domi from Scale N Studio. Okay, so I was really nervous the first time I had a photo shoot with Domi, but every time since I've just felt more and more relaxed. What about you?

Speaker 3: 7:48

I was nervous every time, but Domi does put you at ease. She's such a lovely, energetic person.

Speaker 2: 7:54

She is and she takes wonderful photos. So we have. If you actually look on the homepage of the UKtravelplanningcom and Londontravelplanningcom websites, you'll see a couple of photos of myself and Doug that were taken by Domi during our London photo shoots. Now having the photo shoot is just a fantastic way to remember your trip.

Speaker 3: 8:15

That's right, and I'm not particularly photogenic, but Domi really goes out of the way to make me feel special and it was wonderful.

Speaker 2: 8:23

And we have some lovely, lovely photos. So we had some photos last year taken in Common Garden at Christmas.

Speaker 3: 8:28

Oh, that was lovely. That was very special, very Christmassy it was.

Speaker 2: 8:33

It was, it was so nice. And then last spring I had some pictures taken in notting hill at the cherry blossom and the wisteria and I those are my favorite photos I've ever had taken of me absolutely it was just. It's such a beautiful photogenic area anyway, uh, but it was just lovely and I love, I absolutely love those photos. And then we've had photos taken in front of big ben, westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the Tower of London.

Speaker 3: 9:01

And multiple telephone boxes.

Speaker 2: 9:02

Now, that's true, yeah, telephone boxes. And if you want to have a photo taken in front of one of those iconic red phone boxes, I do have an article about the best places to find them, and I recently did a podcast, episode 94 94, with Domi, where we talked all about the best places for photo shoots in London. So our number four on our list is not to just stay in London.

Speaker 3: 9:26

Most definitely the UK, weather being what it is. If the weather forecast in London is not great that day, you can always consider a train trip out of London where the weather may be much better.

Speaker 2: 9:36

But also it's worth going to some of the fantastic places that you can easily get to from London by train or on a tour. We recently released two episodes all about the best day trips from London by train, so episodes 96 and 97. If you take a listen to those, we talk about our 10 favourite destinations from London, or easy destinations from London by train. That's the best way to explain it. We will actually be adding more to that list because we are conscious that there are other places that we missed out, but honestly, there are so many to go to.

Speaker 3: 10:06

It is In those podcasts we look to places around two hours from London.

Speaker 2: 10:10

That's right and yeah. So if you're in London long enough I mean if you're there for two days, obviously I wouldn't say take a day trip out of London, but if you're there three, four or five days also, it will get you outside of the city and go and explore other parts of the UK, even if it's only a couple of hours from London. You will experience something completely different.

Speaker 3: 10:29

That's right. Yes, London is just an epicenter and it's further away. Things change that. London is just an epicentre and it's further away. Things change.

Speaker 2: 10:35

Absolutely so. Our fifth experience is to take a food tour. Right, so we're going to talk about British food, because British food has a bad reputation. And I know because I've been on food tours and people have been asked like what do you think of British food? And people kind of go beige or tasteless. But actually we've done a few food tours recently and will defend british food because I enjoy quite a lot of british food and we've taken some brilliant food tours. Recently we did one before christmas of borough market which was absolutely incredible.

Speaker 3: 11:07

Not just the food that the guy doing the tour as well. He's passionate for the area he was born and lived in, but the food was just magnificent.

Speaker 2: 11:15

Yeah, we tried all sorts of different foods, didn't we? We had fish and chips, we had humble crumble, which was my favourite.

Speaker 3: 11:22

And oysters.

Speaker 2: 11:23

Oh, you tried oysters, which I didn't particularly want to try. I didn't try, no.

Speaker 3: 11:26

I had yours. Thank you very much.

Speaker 2: 11:28

We had. What did you have? Sausage rolls we had. Can you remember that? Oh, we had a bacon and egg sandwich. Oh, that was delicious.

Speaker 3: 11:36

That was delicious.

Speaker 2: 11:37

So a food tour is a great way for you to try some British foods. Another food tour that I did, that I absolutely love and Doug hasn't had the opportunity to do yet no, I haven't.

Speaker 2: 11:46

No, it was a pub tour that I did a small group tour with Walks last year and I absolutely loved it because you found out about the history of some of these City of London pubs which are, you know, hundreds of years old, and also we got to try out some fantastic pub food. So I had the best scotch egg I have ever had in my life. Honestly, it was delicious. So Doug hasn't done that to it yet, so it was delicious. So another way to experience the food and a very popular experience I'm going to kind of add this in still at number five is to experience an afternoon tea most definitely, and there's so many to choose from there are so many.

Speaker 2: 12:25

Honestly, you can do a traditional afternoon tea or you could go for a themed afternoon tea. It really really is up to you what sort of thing that you want to experience, and they're pretty pricey. You can go from kind of slightly more affordable to the very expensive, depending on what you want. I personally really like the themed afternoon teas. We had a fantastic one at the shard, didn't we?

Speaker 2: 12:48

we did and peter pan it was a peter pan afternoon tea and that was lovely, and also we got the fantastic experience of the afternoon tea with the views from the Shard, so that was lovely. So yeah, considering afternoon tea, I have got an entire article all about different afternoon teas available in London. I will put a link to that in the show notes. One thing to mention about an afternoon tea is that they are really filling.

Speaker 3: 13:11

That's right. The assumption is it's a nice light afternoon tea, but there's lots of it. There's lots of sandwiches, lots of sweet savories and you walk away from there actually quite full absolutely true.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Yes, you've got all your sandwiches, you've got the sweets, you've got a scone, you've got cream, you've got jam, you've got tea.

Speaker 2: 13:25

It really is a full-on feast is the best way to describe it so there's an article on the website all about the different afternoon teas in London, and if you want to find more out about the different food tours, I'd recommend listening to episode 91, where I talk to Charlie from Devour Food Tours in London.

Speaker 2: 13:44

So number six is my personal choice when we're deciding who kind of chose a couple each, and that is the Jubilee Galleries at Westminster Abbey, because I think it's often overlooked by people. I know we're asked about Westminster Abbey all the time. So the Jubilee Galleries are part of Westminster Abbey. You actually have to take a lift up to get to them or you take the stairs, so it gives you actually a fantastic view over Westminster Abbey inside, but it houses some of Westminster Abbey treasures, so it's worth going to have a look. I'm not going to disclose what they are because I really want to encourage people to go and have a look. You can't take photos when you're up there and you have to pay an extra five pound per adult to access the galleries, but I'd highly recommend that you do include it into any trip that you have to Westminster Abbey and you haven't been up there yet.

Speaker 3: 14:29

I haven't, no, but you've told me a lot about it and I certainly want to include it next time.

Speaker 2: 14:34

Yeah, definitely, so I'd recommend that. So that's a little bit of a kind of one that I don't think we hear often mentioned, so I wanted to include it. So number seven is to include at least one museum really, if you can into your itinerary. London has some of the world's best museums. For me, my personal favourite is the V&A. I always encourage everybody to go to the V&A Museum. The cast courts there are absolutely fabulous. Again, I'm not going to say too much about them, but the cast courts are fabulous.

Speaker 3: 15:05

I know you do talk about it ever such a lot.

Speaker 2: 15:08

I know because I just love them. And also, there you've got there's an exhibition of fashion through the ages, and always, if you've got the V&A, go to the cafe. It's an absolutely beautiful art deco cafe. It was the first museum cafe in the world and it is beautiful. What about you, doug, when it comes to museums?

Speaker 3: 15:24

Within London. I absolutely love the Churchill War Rooms, which used to be known as the Cabinet War Rooms. But the Churchill War Rooms, it is the Second World War bunker. They house the UK government, including Churchill, and it is incredible. I have spent hours and hours there, haven't?

Speaker 2: 15:41

I, you have, you have definitely.

Speaker 3: 15:43

And the multiple times I've visited there and you find something different to read or take something different from it on every visit. Now, that's within London. Outside London, I also love Bletchley Park, home of the Code Breakers. That's at Bletchley, which is about 30 minutes outside London. We should take the train from London to Houston, and Bletchley Park is right next to the stations so it's easy to visit.

Speaker 2: 16:07

And we're going to do a whole podcast episode all about World War II attractions, museums to see in the London area. So that will be coming up soon. So those are museums. Obviously there are so many to choose from. I do have a list of the different top museums in london. There's obviously the british museum, there's a natural history museum, there's a science museum. There are lots of smaller museums too that's it.

Speaker 2: 16:27

There's basically something for everybody in the family yeah, and a lot of the museums in in london are free as well, but do just check, because some of the smaller museums may charge, but museums like the Natural History Museum, v&a Science Museum and the Emporium War Museum they don't charge. So number eight is to take a ride down the Thames. Now, whether you decide to book a boat tour or whether you take an Uber boat, taking a ride down the Thames is just a very special experience because it gives you a different perspective on london. You're away from the bustling traffic and the people and you can see the bridges and a lot of the attractions from the water it is, and it also gives you a nice little rest as well from walking that's absolutely true.

Speaker 2: 17:09

So you could combine number eight taking a ride down the thames in an uber boat with our number nine choice, which is a visit to greenwich, and greenwich is one of my favorite places to visit in london, and it may not be the first place that springs to mind if it's your first trip to the city, but we'll do encourage you. If you're in london long enough, we have got three, four days to consider visiting greenwich that's right.

Speaker 3: 17:31

For half a day or four days, there's enough to do there.

Speaker 2: 17:34

Oh, there's lots to see in Greenwich. Easy, you can spend a day there.

Speaker 3: 17:37

Yeah, and we took a picnic. I think last time we were there as well, because it was a lovely summer's day.

Speaker 2: 17:42

That's right, and there's so many things to see in Greenwich. You've got the Prime Meridian, you've got the Royal Observatory, you've got the Tulip Staircase in the Queen's House, you've got the beautiful Painted Hall, which I would really recommend that you add into your itinerary.

Speaker 3: 17:57

And not forgetting the Cutty Sark.

Speaker 2: 17:59

Yeah, cutty Sark is there, so there's just a lot to see and do in Greenwich. It also, again, is taking you out of the main kind of hustle bustle of London itself, just a little ride down. It takes about an hour on the Uber boat to get to Greenwich. There's also lots of places to eat in Greenwich as well, so there's a market that you can go to, there's some fantastic pubs, and it's easy to get back into central London from Greenwich. So you can either do that by Uber boat or you can take the.

Speaker 3: 18:25

Docklands.

Speaker 2: 18:25

Light Railway, so it'll get you back into central London. So, again, highly recommend it if you're there during cherry blossom season as well, as Greenwich Park is really famous for its beautiful cherry blossoms, and number 10 is basically to experience some form of London transport.

Speaker 3: 18:44

So we're talking about the iconic black cabs.

Speaker 2: 18:46

A bus, so a red London bus or.

Speaker 3: 18:49

An underground train, so the tube.

Speaker 2: 18:51

So try to experience at least one of those. I mean, you're not going to be able to walk all over London anyway because it's too big. You will probably experience the Tube anyway if you're going to be travelling around London, because it is the easiest way to get around. But why not hop on a bus and take a black cab? You know, the black cab drivers study for years, like Ollie, to pass the knowledge, which means that their knowledge of the streets of London is unsurpassed. They have to do a very strict test. It's always fun to ask a London black cab driver if they've had anybody famous in their cab, because I'm sure you'll get a story or two.

Speaker 3: 19:27

That's right. Yeah, they've always got a story to tell and they're very confident people.

Speaker 2: 19:30

Absolutely so. That gives you our top 10 experiences in london that we personally love that's right.

Speaker 2: 19:36

I mean there's, there's so many more we could add on to that but these are when we'd sat down and we said obviously there's so much to do in london, but what? What is it that we personally love to do when we're sitting and thinking about our itinerary? So obviously we want to see those iconic sites. So we can do that on a walk-in tour. We can do that, ollie, and Discover Real London. We can jump on the back of a black cab and do that. We could do a hop on, hop off bus tour.

Speaker 2: 19:57

There's lots of ways to incorporate some of those main sites. But if you're going to do that, if you're going to go to the Tower of London, consider doing something special like the opening or closing ceremony. If you're going to go to Westminster Abbey, look at going to the Jubilee Galleries. Explore the different museums in London. Take a food tour. Experience some British food. Have an afternoon tea. Take a day trip. Go and explore some more of the UK. Get out of London. Have a photo shoot with Domi and have those memories put on canvas for the rest of your life. There's just so much to do. London really is a fantastic city.

Speaker 3: 20:31

It really is a lot to offer it is a fantastic city.

Speaker 2: 20:35

It really is A lot to offer. So that is it really for episode 105 of the UK Travel Planner podcast. You can find links to all of the different places and the different tours that we recommended in this episode in the show notes at uktravelplanningcom forward slash 105. But I guess that just leaves us to say until next week, Doug Happy. Uk travel planning.