ATHLLC4863781505

00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)

00:00:02.280 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks,

00:00:04.600 | a show about upgrading your life, money, and travel.

00:00:07.040 | If you're new here, I'm your host, Chris Hutchins,

00:00:09.160 | and one of the areas I love optimizing the most is travel.

00:00:12.440 | I've been to 60 plus countries,

00:00:13.800 | and on every trip, I love meeting locals,

00:00:15.920 | trying to understand their culture,

00:00:17.360 | having authentic experiences,

00:00:19.240 | and most of all, I love finding a way to eat

00:00:20.840 | all the best foods a place has to offer.

00:00:23.060 | So I thought it'd be fun to introduce a new type of episode

00:00:26.200 | where I bring in a local expert in another country

00:00:28.960 | to share all the hacks for visiting their city.

00:00:31.640 | I was originally gonna start with Japan

00:00:33.160 | because it just opened, I have the perfect person in mind,

00:00:35.780 | and it's probably my favorite travel destination in the world

00:00:38.480 | but that episode will be next

00:00:40.800 | because after my episode with Bill Perkins,

00:00:42.840 | which is amazing if you haven't checked it out,

00:00:44.760 | I started talking with Amy

00:00:46.000 | about how we could start optimizing

00:00:47.520 | for more net fulfillment in our lives.

00:00:49.560 | And so we actually decided to book

00:00:51.040 | a last minute trip to London on less than two weeks notice

00:00:54.120 | and ended up getting a ridiculous deal with points,

00:00:56.500 | which I will talk about at the end of this episode.

00:00:58.600 | So with a trip to London on the horizon,

00:01:00.920 | I reached out to Jessica Dante,

00:01:02.360 | who not only has been living there for almost a decade,

00:01:05.200 | but runs the Love in London YouTube channel,

00:01:07.280 | which has over 20 million views

00:01:08.960 | and she knows so much about London.

00:01:11.240 | We're gonna get into why you should visit,

00:01:12.880 | what you should do, what mistakes to avoid,

00:01:15.280 | and get all of Jess's secret spots to visit

00:01:17.820 | to have an incredible trip.

00:01:19.600 | And then after talking to Jess,

00:01:21.320 | I'm gonna break down exactly how I booked my trip

00:01:24.360 | and give you an overview of the best way

00:01:26.440 | you can be using your points and your miles

00:01:28.360 | and even scoring some deals on a trip to London.

00:01:31.480 | So let's get into it right after this.

00:01:33.980 | Jess, thank you for joining

00:01:37.320 | the first travel destination episode of All The Hacks.

00:01:39.920 | - Amazing, thanks for having me.

00:01:41.800 | Really happy that London is the first, I'm not gonna lie.

00:01:44.480 | I think I'm a little biased,

00:01:45.760 | but I think it's maybe the best in my opinion.

00:01:48.680 | Depends on who you ask.

00:01:49.520 | - It's not just you.

00:01:50.340 | So someone shared me this list from afar,

00:01:52.660 | the website and magazine afar.

00:01:54.480 | There was the 10 best cities and London was number one.

00:01:57.800 | And there was another study on the best cities

00:02:00.640 | and London was number one.

00:02:01.720 | It just came out also for 2023.

00:02:03.800 | And then I looked at travel and leisures,

00:02:05.200 | best destinations for 2023 and London's on that list.

00:02:07.960 | So I was like, wow, so London's the number one city.

00:02:10.740 | It wasn't even just to live or to travel.

00:02:13.540 | It was just the number one city on two lists.

00:02:16.020 | So I think I wanna ask you, why do you love London?

00:02:19.600 | What is it about London that makes it such an amazing city?

00:02:22.080 | - Oh my gosh, well, there's so many things,

00:02:23.880 | but I think a couple of the top things are,

00:02:27.160 | I love how diverse that the city is.

00:02:30.160 | So that goes from the people that live here

00:02:33.440 | to the architecture, to the types of cuisines

00:02:36.700 | that you can try here.

00:02:38.520 | You just meet so many different people

00:02:41.040 | with so many different backgrounds.

00:02:42.680 | You can eat so much amazing food

00:02:45.640 | and you can experience so many different things,

00:02:48.280 | no matter what your interest is or what your budget is.

00:02:52.520 | There's just basically something for everyone,

00:02:55.440 | whether you live here or you just come to visit.

00:02:58.800 | So I love that.

00:02:59.720 | And as someone who works telling people

00:03:03.200 | what to do in London,

00:03:05.320 | I don't wanna ever get bored and I never will

00:03:07.440 | because there's so much to experience.

00:03:10.440 | It's always changing too.

00:03:11.680 | So I'm gonna be here for like 30 years

00:03:13.280 | and there's still gonna be more for me to check out.

00:03:15.520 | And I'll be like, I haven't been there yet.

00:03:16.760 | Gotta go check that out and see if it's good or not.

00:03:19.300 | - Is there something that sets it apart

00:03:20.660 | from other major metros that of course have diversity,

00:03:24.680 | have lots of restaurants, have lots of things to do?

00:03:27.200 | - Yeah.

00:03:28.040 | So I think London is a really interesting in between,

00:03:31.400 | in my opinion, of like New York and the rest of Europe.

00:03:35.880 | So I'm originally from New York.

00:03:37.760 | I'm from Long Island, but I've spent time in New York.

00:03:40.380 | Obviously I have friends who live there.

00:03:41.680 | And New York City is go, go, go, right?

00:03:43.760 | Which I love.

00:03:44.860 | I love that energy and it's really intense.

00:03:49.080 | And then very generally speaking,

00:03:51.060 | a lot of parts of mainland Europe are a lot more relaxed

00:03:55.000 | when it comes to working culture.

00:03:57.240 | Basically all of the culture,

00:03:59.000 | it's seen as like a lot more relaxed and liberal,

00:04:01.780 | whereas London's kind of like in the middle.

00:04:03.640 | So it's a really good balance for me.

00:04:05.600 | And I think like a couple of good examples of that

00:04:07.620 | is our work-life balance is better here.

00:04:10.560 | So people are a bit better than say New York

00:04:13.880 | about like actually leaving work at six o'clock,

00:04:16.720 | mainly 'cause people wanna get to the pub,

00:04:18.400 | which I'm totally down for.

00:04:19.640 | I think that's a great motivation

00:04:21.140 | if that's your motivation.

00:04:22.380 | Something that's also really unique about London

00:04:24.260 | that as someone who lives here,

00:04:26.560 | I really feel is like super important

00:04:28.840 | is that we have so much green space here.

00:04:31.620 | So compared to my time in New York and other major cities,

00:04:36.120 | London's really spread out

00:04:37.460 | and you're really actually never that far

00:04:39.060 | from a beautiful public free green space that you can enjoy.

00:04:43.380 | And I think that works actually for tourists as well.

00:04:45.540 | And it's one of the beautiful things you can experience

00:04:47.940 | when you come to visit London too.

00:04:49.460 | So we have green spaces, we have going to a pub.

00:04:51.320 | Are there a few other like top London experiences for you?

00:04:54.220 | Not for anyone else, just for you.

00:04:55.420 | Yeah, so I love Sunday roast.

00:04:57.700 | Do you know what Sunday roast is?

00:04:59.540 | No. Okay.

00:05:00.380 | So it's a British tradition

00:05:02.660 | of obviously it happens on Sundays

00:05:04.460 | where you go to the pub and on the menu,

00:05:07.660 | only on Sundays they have this special roast menu.

00:05:10.620 | And you choose from different types of meat.

00:05:13.460 | So it's usually chicken, pork, beef,

00:05:16.380 | and sometimes a couple other ones

00:05:17.780 | or loads of places do vegetarian,

00:05:19.580 | which is where I usually go for and also vegan.

00:05:22.380 | And then basically from the Americans,

00:05:25.140 | I always kind of equate it to,

00:05:26.620 | they bring this plate out

00:05:27.660 | and it's not dissimilar to Thanksgiving food.

00:05:30.560 | It's kind of like you can have Thanksgiving

00:05:32.220 | like every Sunday.

00:05:33.340 | It's a plate that has roast vegetables on it.

00:05:35.980 | There's really good potatoes.

00:05:37.740 | They do gravy.

00:05:39.080 | There's this kind of like a pastry

00:05:41.060 | that's called Yorkshire pudding,

00:05:42.980 | which is like so yummy.

00:05:44.100 | And you use that to soak up the gravy.

00:05:46.100 | And sometimes there's cauliflower cheese.

00:05:48.420 | And it's just like a really nice tradition

00:05:50.900 | where you gather up your family

00:05:52.460 | or you gather up your friends

00:05:53.700 | and you're like, let's go for a Sunday roast.

00:05:55.180 | And you just go to the local pub

00:05:56.860 | and sit and you eat Sunday roast.

00:05:59.580 | And if you want to have a pint of beer,

00:06:01.260 | you can do that too.

00:06:02.300 | So that's one of my favorite things.

00:06:03.780 | I always tell people to make sure you get to a pub

00:06:05.820 | on a Sunday and experience that.

00:06:08.140 | - What sounds like one thing that is uniquely London

00:06:10.700 | is that the pub is something

00:06:12.020 | that you could do with your family.

00:06:13.260 | I'm thinking as someone flying overseas

00:06:15.260 | with a two-year-old and a six-month-old,

00:06:17.660 | I'm like, oh, you know,

00:06:18.660 | we're not really gonna have the same trip we used to.

00:06:20.260 | It sounds like in London,

00:06:21.100 | I could just go to the pub with my kids

00:06:22.500 | and we could have a beer.

00:06:23.340 | - You can, yeah.

00:06:24.180 | So pubs are very family-friendly,

00:06:26.060 | especially on the weekends.

00:06:27.340 | They're not as friendly in very central London,

00:06:29.860 | so around like the really main touristy areas.

00:06:32.440 | But for example, one of my favorite areas

00:06:34.460 | that I tell people to go to for pub experience

00:06:36.980 | is Notting Hill.

00:06:38.100 | And you'll always on a weekend

00:06:39.740 | go to the pubs in Notting Hill and see families there.

00:06:43.380 | And they've got little kids, they've got teenagers,

00:06:45.740 | and it's like a family thing.

00:06:47.460 | Sometimes it's big groups of families that will go,

00:06:50.300 | and it's very normal.

00:06:52.100 | They cater to kids,

00:06:53.460 | so it's like nothing out of the ordinary.

00:06:56.220 | And it's a really nice daytime weekend experience

00:06:59.180 | for families.

00:07:00.140 | - Awesome.

00:07:00.980 | So while I'm actually planning a trip to London,

00:07:03.420 | we've already booked flights and where we're staying,

00:07:05.300 | I'm gonna assume most people aren't.

00:07:06.820 | So I wanna start this

00:07:07.940 | and just talk about all the awesome things there are to do,

00:07:10.540 | get people excited,

00:07:11.820 | and then at the end, we can wrap up

00:07:13.420 | and talk about things like hotels, flights,

00:07:15.500 | transportation, that kind of stuff.

00:07:16.980 | What's the vibe of people in London?

00:07:19.100 | Is it easy to meet people?

00:07:20.180 | Are they friendly?

00:07:21.020 | What should we know about Londoners?

00:07:22.540 | - So Londoners are very nice,

00:07:25.700 | but we're a little bit more closed off

00:07:27.760 | when it comes to meeting quote unquote outsiders.

00:07:31.500 | I think it comes from that everyone's just really busy.

00:07:34.580 | And the British are just a tiny bit more closed off

00:07:37.540 | compared to the Americans,

00:07:38.740 | which everyone's a little bit more closed off

00:07:40.900 | that I think compared to us Americans, right?

00:07:42.820 | So that's not a hard feat.

00:07:44.260 | That being said,

00:07:45.420 | if you do end up talking to somebody who lives in London,

00:07:49.500 | generally they will be very nice.

00:07:51.340 | And if you, for example, need like help on the street

00:07:54.460 | and you can't figure out where the tube station is,

00:07:56.100 | you can stop somebody and they'll be like,

00:07:57.700 | "Yeah, yeah, no worries.

00:07:58.540 | "It's just like down that way."

00:07:59.940 | Or they might even walk you.

00:08:01.580 | But it is a little bit harder to meet people.

00:08:04.300 | That does change though when alcohol is involved.

00:08:06.820 | It's much easier to make friends

00:08:08.740 | when everyone's had a couple of pints.

00:08:11.460 | - Is there a type of person you think

00:08:14.940 | a trip to London is best for?

00:08:16.260 | Is it young, old, single, kids?

00:08:19.380 | - Ooh, I don't think so.

00:08:20.980 | Because there is so much that you can do here,

00:08:23.620 | I think that everyone's basically covered.

00:08:27.780 | I think people that come with kids,

00:08:29.500 | maybe it's a little bit harder

00:08:30.740 | because if you're trying to use public transportation,

00:08:33.460 | it is trickier if you've got like a lot of stuff

00:08:35.500 | that you're carrying or if you've got strollers.

00:08:37.860 | That is tricky because a lot of the tube stations

00:08:40.460 | don't have escalators or elevators.

00:08:43.660 | So that's tricky.

00:08:44.820 | That being said though,

00:08:45.820 | if you're staying pretty central and you've got kids,

00:08:47.980 | a lot of people end up just walking everywhere.

00:08:50.060 | So maybe they'll do like an hour walk

00:08:51.900 | to get to the first area that they wanna go explore.

00:08:55.100 | So it is doable.

00:08:56.020 | And then you save money doing that too.

00:08:57.420 | There is kind of something for everyone.

00:08:59.340 | And then you just kind of have to adjust

00:09:01.460 | based on your needs and your budget.

00:09:03.900 | - That one, we just bought a super compact light stroller

00:09:07.340 | that's like one click pop on your shoulder,

00:09:09.940 | carry kid down the stairs.

00:09:11.220 | - Perfect.

00:09:12.060 | - So we are prepared for running around the city.

00:09:14.260 | We don't have one of these giant American bus strollers

00:09:16.700 | with us for this trip.

00:09:17.900 | Is there a best time?

00:09:19.460 | And by all means, if I tell you I'm staying somewhere

00:09:21.940 | and you're like, that's the worst place to stay

00:09:23.260 | or that's the worst time of year to go,

00:09:24.820 | don't feel bad about offending me.

00:09:26.900 | Like this is for everyone else.

00:09:28.340 | But when would you say someone should plan their trip?

00:09:31.300 | - A lot of it will depend on what your budget is.

00:09:33.660 | And again, not to be like,

00:09:35.260 | that every time of year is great to go.

00:09:37.100 | But actually the beauty of London is that

00:09:39.220 | there's always gonna be a pro of a time

00:09:41.460 | that you're gonna visit and there's gonna be a con.

00:09:43.460 | So for example, you guys are coming very soon.

00:09:46.700 | So that will be middle to end of December.

00:09:49.060 | The pro is it's so festive here.

00:09:51.700 | It is incredibly beautiful.

00:09:53.540 | There's so many fun Christmasy things to do

00:09:55.660 | if that's what you're into.

00:09:56.700 | There's also like loads of ice skating rinks

00:09:59.300 | and there's great shopping.

00:10:01.500 | The downside of that is that it is cold, of course,

00:10:04.380 | and also it is very crowded.

00:10:06.460 | So like what you guys probably are gonna wanna do

00:10:08.700 | is if you wanna do some of the major things

00:10:11.100 | like the free museums, like the Natural History Museum,

00:10:14.860 | for sure you'll wanna avoid weekends

00:10:16.620 | because it is right now just like absolutely rammed

00:10:19.940 | with people who come from outside of London,

00:10:21.860 | take the train in and take the kids to go do everything.

00:10:25.220 | So every time of year has a pro and con.

00:10:27.540 | If you come in January, it's really, really cold,

00:10:29.980 | but it's also the quietest time and also the cheapest time.

00:10:32.780 | If you come in the summer,

00:10:34.140 | you're hopefully, fingers crossed,

00:10:36.140 | gonna get the best weather.

00:10:37.660 | You're also gonna get the most sunlight

00:10:39.260 | 'cause it stays light till almost 10 o'clock,

00:10:41.060 | which is really cool.

00:10:41.900 | But also the prices are highest

00:10:43.340 | because it's peak travel season.

00:10:44.740 | And again, you're gonna see those crowds.

00:10:46.620 | And if you get a heat wave,

00:10:47.860 | we don't deal with heat waves very well here.

00:10:50.140 | A lot of places do not have air cons.

00:10:51.940 | So if that's something that you're considering

00:10:53.980 | that would be really tricky for you,

00:10:55.580 | then that's probably not gonna be a good time

00:10:57.020 | for you to come.

00:10:57.860 | And then shoulder seasons are always great

00:10:59.180 | 'cause they've got the mix of the peak and the downtime.

00:11:02.380 | - So if you want a deal, avoid the summer.

00:11:04.900 | I would say avoid Christmas, New Year's holidays,

00:11:08.620 | but we're going like the two weeks before that.

00:11:11.100 | And we got amazing deals

00:11:12.860 | because I think everyone's traveling in the States

00:11:15.220 | for Thanksgiving.

00:11:16.060 | Everyone's traveling around Christmas, New Year's.

00:11:17.980 | No one's really traveling the first few weeks of December.

00:11:20.220 | So I think it's a great deal time.

00:11:22.300 | We'll see how we fare on the weekends.

00:11:23.820 | Maybe those are our park days

00:11:25.020 | to just kind of let the kids run wild.

00:11:26.460 | - Yeah, definitely.

00:11:27.300 | - I have a friend who always was like,

00:11:28.260 | "You know what, you can go to any city

00:11:29.420 | "for any amount of time."

00:11:30.580 | Is it crazy if you live in New York

00:11:32.300 | and it's seven hours to go for the weekend?

00:11:34.500 | Is it crazy to go for a week, two weeks?

00:11:36.540 | At what point in time do you say,

00:11:38.220 | maybe if you're going that long,

00:11:39.980 | check out some other place for a few days?

00:11:42.020 | - Yeah, so you can do a weekend.

00:11:44.020 | So when I first moved over here

00:11:45.780 | and I was working at a travel company,

00:11:47.660 | this travel company was selling to the British crowd

00:11:51.500 | these three-day trips to New York.

00:11:54.380 | And I was like, "That is absurd.

00:11:56.020 | "Who would fly all the way to New York for three days?"

00:11:58.220 | But it is doable.

00:11:59.180 | It's actually not that far if you really think about it,

00:12:01.100 | but it is quite a journey.

00:12:02.020 | So I usually say at least a week

00:12:04.780 | is a really good amount of time

00:12:06.340 | because you can really dig into some of the areas,

00:12:11.340 | not just like the main tourist attractions,

00:12:14.060 | but you can also give yourself time

00:12:15.860 | and you don't have to feel like you're rushing around

00:12:18.660 | because you have three days to see

00:12:20.500 | whether it's all the main tourist attractions

00:12:22.900 | or you wanna see Shoreditch and you wanna do Notting Hill,

00:12:25.980 | but those are really far apart,

00:12:27.140 | so you're probably not gonna do those in the same day.

00:12:29.500 | It just gives you some time to take your time

00:12:32.820 | and also be a little bit more spontaneous.

00:12:36.180 | For Love in London, we sell a three-day itinerary.

00:12:38.820 | That's our most popular thing.

00:12:40.020 | And we also have a six-day one,

00:12:41.540 | which has actually been really popular as well

00:12:43.660 | because most of my audience

00:12:45.260 | are people who are coming from the US,

00:12:46.820 | so they are coming for usually more than three days.

00:12:49.180 | But a week is a great amount of time.

00:12:50.820 | And I usually say if you wanna do day trips,

00:12:54.460 | I usually recommend not doing them

00:12:55.900 | if you have less than a week

00:12:57.660 | because there's just so much you can do in London.

00:13:00.660 | And again, if you're still feeling a bit jet-lagged

00:13:03.380 | and you've come to London,

00:13:04.860 | you've been running, running, running

00:13:06.100 | for the first few days,

00:13:07.020 | and then you have to hop on a train one day

00:13:08.740 | and head out to Bath or Oxford or wherever you wanna go,

00:13:12.780 | that's great, but also,

00:13:14.300 | you might wanna just slow it down a little bit,

00:13:16.300 | in my opinion.

00:13:17.140 | I'm always trying to get people to just be like,

00:13:18.580 | okay, there's a lot to do and you can't do it all,

00:13:20.660 | so let's try to slow it down and leave some room

00:13:23.460 | for if you see a shop that you wanna go into

00:13:25.620 | and spend an hour in, or you run past a cafe

00:13:28.580 | and you're like, let's just sit for an hour

00:13:30.180 | and have a nice coffee and just relax,

00:13:32.340 | then you can do that.

00:13:33.180 | - So we're going for, I think, six days.

00:13:35.900 | We're not going anywhere else.

00:13:37.140 | Our style of travel, though, to be clear,

00:13:39.260 | we haven't actually done this with kids,

00:13:41.180 | is much more like I wanna get the experience

00:13:43.900 | of being in London, living in London.

00:13:46.020 | So if we miss some of the tourist destinations,

00:13:47.820 | that's fine.

00:13:49.100 | London is so central to so many European trips

00:13:51.740 | that I'm sure we'll be back in the future.

00:13:53.700 | So I think we're trying to go on the kind of trip

00:13:55.740 | you describe, and I went through one of those itineraries

00:13:59.140 | you made and I was like, this is exactly what I want.

00:14:01.260 | I would say maybe, I was like, we have two kids,

00:14:02.900 | it's probably a little overkill for a two-kid trip,

00:14:05.220 | but some of those things we'll just skip.

00:14:07.140 | What about food?

00:14:08.180 | You said there's lots of cuisines throughout the world,

00:14:09.980 | but would you say London's like a foodie town for drinks?

00:14:13.100 | There's pubs, so is it more of a beer crowd?

00:14:15.660 | California seems like it's more wine

00:14:17.300 | and now cocktails in the city.

00:14:18.900 | - Yeah, so everything, all of the above.

00:14:21.100 | So London's amazing.

00:14:22.580 | You can try any cuisine here from all over the world.

00:14:25.260 | Something I do see that's a little bit of a mistake

00:14:27.420 | from tourists sometimes is that you come to London

00:14:30.980 | and you only just wanna have British food,

00:14:33.580 | which I'm not saying don't have British food.

00:14:35.500 | Try fish and chips, bangers and mash, the pie,

00:14:38.700 | like totally do that if that's what you wanna do.

00:14:41.380 | But there's also so many different cuisines,

00:14:45.660 | especially if you don't think you're ever gonna get

00:14:47.420 | to Malaysia, why don't you try like Malaysian food

00:14:49.900 | or Sri Lankan food and you can really expand your palate

00:14:53.700 | and try cuisines that you might not ever get to try again

00:14:57.740 | if you're never gonna go to like a major metropolitan city.

00:15:00.500 | We have a huge foodie scene here, same with drinks.

00:15:03.580 | So pubs are huge, but also cocktail bars,

00:15:06.620 | we've got great wine bars,

00:15:08.500 | there's drinking for the lower end of the budget

00:15:12.020 | and just like rowdy, like more fun, younger crowds.

00:15:15.460 | Then there's also really fancy speakeasies

00:15:18.820 | and really like exclusive cocktail bars.

00:15:22.260 | Anything you can want, we've got it here.

00:15:24.460 | This is what's so cool about London is that anything

00:15:27.140 | that you want, you're gonna be able to find it.

00:15:29.820 | You just kinda have to like do a little sifting.

00:15:32.940 | - So we're gonna get into a lot of these things

00:15:34.620 | and I want some real recommendations,

00:15:36.140 | but you said a mistake is eating just British food.

00:15:38.700 | I feel like British food has a pretty terrible reputation.

00:15:41.020 | So I'm like, man, if that's what you're coming to London

00:15:43.620 | for, you're probably doing it wrong.

00:15:45.220 | What other mistakes are people making

00:15:46.980 | when they're coming to London?

00:15:47.820 | - Well, I am gonna caveat that, what you just said actually.

00:15:49.980 | So British food has gotten much better.

00:15:52.700 | So you can do really well.

00:15:54.340 | And if you do wanna have British food,

00:15:55.740 | I always say the best place is at pubs

00:15:57.500 | because most pubs will have restaurant sections

00:16:00.700 | and they'll have like classic pub menus

00:16:03.060 | or they'll be more of like a gastropub

00:16:04.540 | and do a modern take on similar British dishes.

00:16:07.500 | So it is good, but yeah,

00:16:09.380 | I just wanted to throw that in there,

00:16:10.860 | but it's definitely the type of food

00:16:12.620 | that you'll get sick of after like eating it

00:16:14.620 | three times in a row, for sure, yeah.

00:16:16.420 | - I watched a few of your videos

00:16:17.980 | and one of them was like,

00:16:18.820 | if it says it's like truly authentic pub,

00:16:22.260 | just like run away.

00:16:23.100 | - Yeah, exactly, it's one of those things

00:16:25.140 | like if you have to say it, you probably aren't.

00:16:27.860 | So something that I have been seeing with tourists recently

00:16:31.260 | is there's a lot of content around

00:16:34.500 | when you use public transportation here

00:16:36.660 | that you have to get an Oyster card.

00:16:38.380 | An Oyster card is basically something that you can buy

00:16:40.780 | once you get here, where you add your money to it

00:16:43.820 | and you use it to tap in and out for the underground system

00:16:47.180 | or to use the buses.

00:16:48.380 | But then you have to keep tapping it up.

00:16:49.860 | You also have to pay seven pounds for each of the cards

00:16:52.380 | and it's non-refundable.

00:16:53.860 | So instead, I'm just trying to tell people,

00:16:55.940 | you can actually use Apple Pay or Google Pay

00:16:58.820 | and you don't have to worry about doing the top up.

00:17:00.620 | And also if you have any credit or debit cards

00:17:02.700 | that are contactless, you can use those too.

00:17:04.620 | And it's much easier and quicker

00:17:05.580 | and you don't have to wait in the queue

00:17:07.340 | to top it up at the station

00:17:08.940 | every time you run out of credit.

00:17:10.180 | So that's something I see quite a lot.

00:17:12.860 | I also see a lot of people who think

00:17:16.180 | that you have to spend a ton of money on their hotel

00:17:20.940 | to make sure that they're in a safe area

00:17:23.540 | or they're just at a safe property

00:17:25.940 | and they end up sticking to

00:17:27.220 | some of the big US corporate brands, which is fine.

00:17:30.700 | That's fine.

00:17:31.540 | And I know everyone's got points and stuff.

00:17:32.460 | So a lot of people are trying to stick to the Marriotts

00:17:34.820 | and this and that, blah, blah, blah.

00:17:35.820 | That's completely fine.

00:17:36.780 | But we have so many amazing, safe, boutique hotel properties

00:17:42.020 | that are like so beautiful and interesting

00:17:44.740 | and they're small and they're in gray areas too,

00:17:46.820 | even if they're not in very central London.

00:17:49.060 | So I would say don't ever discount something

00:17:52.340 | that looks like it's a good deal.

00:17:54.100 | If it just doesn't seem like it's a name

00:17:56.420 | that's recognizable to you,

00:17:57.620 | or it's in an area that you don't necessarily recognize

00:18:00.460 | as like Covent Garden or Soho right in the center of London.

00:18:03.740 | You could end up in a really amazing hotel

00:18:05.500 | and also in a cool area.

00:18:07.620 | - Is there like a good rating site in the UK

00:18:10.780 | that's like, oh, I'm looking at this hotel, is it good?

00:18:13.260 | Like I don't personally put a lot of faith in TripAdvisor.

00:18:16.900 | So I'm curious whether it's restaurants or hotels,

00:18:19.540 | is there a thing?

00:18:20.580 | - So for hotels, I personally use booking.com.

00:18:23.420 | I find that the ratings generally are on point.

00:18:26.340 | And then obviously you can just book right to booking.com.

00:18:28.500 | So it's really easy.

00:18:29.380 | I don't really use TripAdvisor for anything actually anymore.

00:18:31.980 | And then in terms of food,

00:18:34.180 | so we don't have like a Yelp here

00:18:36.020 | and TripAdvisor is generally tourists.

00:18:40.020 | So I would say if you're looking

00:18:42.460 | for like what locals think about food

00:18:45.860 | or a bar or something like that,

00:18:48.060 | probably like Google reviews, which are always,

00:18:50.140 | you never really know,

00:18:51.060 | but I think that's where like most Londoners would go

00:18:53.940 | if they're looking for reviews in a style

00:18:56.580 | that's a site like that with like actual reviews from people.

00:18:59.740 | Otherwise we have websites like The Infatuation

00:19:02.460 | is really big here, Time Out, Love and London.

00:19:05.860 | I don't know if you heard of it,

00:19:06.820 | but we talk about food and drink

00:19:08.980 | and all the things of course.

00:19:11.140 | - You briefly said something about safety.

00:19:13.340 | Is there dangerous parts of London?

00:19:15.020 | Should people be concerned at all?

00:19:16.500 | I had this one realization

00:19:18.220 | where I was reading this Lonely Planet book

00:19:20.620 | for New York for fun.

00:19:21.740 | I think someone we knew was traveling around the States

00:19:23.700 | and it was like, New York, make sure you get a money belt

00:19:26.260 | and you put all of your money in your money belt

00:19:27.900 | and tuck it in your pants.

00:19:28.740 | And I was like, I've been to New York dozens of times.

00:19:31.740 | It's never crossed my mind.

00:19:32.700 | I've lived there, never been a thing.

00:19:34.300 | Is everyone just always kind of scaring people?

00:19:36.420 | So what's the low down there?

00:19:37.420 | Are there places to avoid?

00:19:38.740 | Are there times a day to avoid?

00:19:40.420 | Is the tube rampant with pickpockets?

00:19:42.660 | - So there are areas in London

00:19:44.380 | that are relatively speaking not safe,

00:19:47.140 | but they're never where tourists are gonna end up.

00:19:50.220 | So I always say like, don't worry about the area.

00:19:53.140 | It's never a place that you would ever go.

00:19:55.300 | So areas are completely fine.

00:19:57.020 | In terms of pickpockets and things like that,

00:20:00.060 | just like you would in any other city,

00:20:01.900 | just keep yourself close to you.

00:20:03.540 | Don't have your phone waving around.

00:20:05.180 | We do have a little bit of a problem

00:20:06.620 | at the moment of mopeds going by

00:20:08.740 | and grabbing phones out of hands.

00:20:10.580 | So that's really the main thing.

00:20:12.820 | But otherwise, just the same rules

00:20:14.140 | you would apply to any major city.

00:20:16.020 | Don't have your pockets open.

00:20:17.580 | Don't have anything in the back pocket

00:20:19.660 | where people can easily take it from you.

00:20:21.500 | Keep everything zipped up, everything close to you.

00:20:23.900 | Don't have any valuables out in plain sight.

00:20:26.220 | But millions of people run around the city every day

00:20:28.860 | and have absolutely no problems.

00:20:30.460 | So it's really nothing to be concerned about.

00:20:32.820 | And I think in terms of safety at night,

00:20:35.460 | generally the only thing I would say is that women on their own--

00:20:40.500 | so I usually, past 11 o'clock, will get an Uber to get home.

00:20:44.340 | But if I was with somebody else, then we're

00:20:46.700 | fine to be on public transport and to walk on our own.

00:20:49.500 | People can interpret how they want to.

00:20:51.860 | So I want to get a lay of the land.

00:20:53.700 | And we could spend so long talking about here's

00:20:56.260 | this neighbor, that neighbor.

00:20:57.500 | But is there generally a way you break up the city

00:20:59.980 | and kind of group it into a few major areas?

00:21:02.660 | Yeah, so basically the most popular area

00:21:06.060 | that tourists a lot of times only stay in

00:21:09.060 | is what's called central London.

00:21:11.020 | So this is like the really famous areas

00:21:13.780 | like Soho, Covent Garden, Marlebone, the South Bank,

00:21:18.740 | Westminster, which is where Buckingham Palace, Houses

00:21:22.140 | of Parliament, all those places are.

00:21:23.980 | And it includes a few other areas.

00:21:26.300 | That's where the majority of the tourist attractions are.

00:21:29.500 | And it is the dead center of London.

00:21:32.180 | So that's where even Londoners will go there

00:21:35.460 | if we're meeting a friend for dinner.

00:21:37.100 | And we both live on other parts of the city.

00:21:39.940 | So that's where a lot of tourists

00:21:41.500 | end up doing a lot of stuff.

00:21:42.700 | There's lots of good restaurants around there, and bars,

00:21:45.460 | and things like that.

00:21:46.020 | You just have to know where you're going.

00:21:47.140 | So there's also some really not so good stuff there.

00:21:49.540 | It's like very tourist trappy and kind of gross.

00:21:51.660 | It's those like authentic pub kind of places

00:21:54.380 | that you'll find there.

00:21:55.500 | Basically, the city's broken up into four major areas.

00:21:59.580 | Simply North London, South London, East London,

00:22:02.380 | and West London.

00:22:03.500 | And in each of those areas, there's a few main areas

00:22:07.660 | that I would say that tourists are more likely to go to,

00:22:10.980 | because there's things to do.

00:22:12.500 | And it's not only just neighborhood-y.

00:22:14.220 | There's good bars, good restaurants, parks, activities,

00:22:17.420 | things like that.

00:22:18.540 | Personally, for me, I live in East London.

00:22:20.620 | That's my favorite part of the city.

00:22:22.300 | There's just lots of stuff to do around here.

00:22:25.060 | And it's fun and beautiful.

00:22:27.180 | But then West London has Notting Hill

00:22:29.660 | and lots of great museums and really interesting things

00:22:32.300 | to do there.

00:22:33.500 | And North and South also have their great things, too.

00:22:36.300 | As Londoners, we have this really big divide

00:22:39.020 | of we self-identify if we're East or West London.

00:22:42.460 | And we think the other side is terrible.

00:22:44.740 | We don't know why people live there.

00:22:46.240 | And then the same with North of the river, which

00:22:48.460 | is the River Thames, or South of the river.

00:22:50.240 | And there's this constant battle of,

00:22:52.940 | why would you live on the other side?

00:22:54.660 | It's so boring there.

00:22:55.700 | And it's just always been like that.

00:22:58.140 | Let's highlight a couple neighborhoods

00:23:00.340 | where you're like, these are just really cool spots.

00:23:02.020 | Whether you stay there, you spend an afternoon or a morning

00:23:04.480 | there, what would you put on your list

00:23:06.140 | of three or four awesome neighborhoods in London?

00:23:08.740 | OK, so--

00:23:09.860 | Not all in East London.

00:23:10.940 | I know you think it's the coolest place ever.

00:23:12.820 | OK, fine, fine.

00:23:13.620 | So I've said Notting Hill a lot.

00:23:15.200 | I think that's a really famous one.

00:23:16.940 | So I might not spend too much time on that.

00:23:18.820 | But Notting Hill is a really beautiful area.

00:23:21.340 | And it's one of the few areas of London

00:23:23.540 | where, even though it's quite popular with tourists,

00:23:26.260 | it still has a really interesting local vibe where

00:23:30.380 | neighbors actually say hello to each other,

00:23:32.460 | people pass by each other on the streets.

00:23:34.340 | It's a really lovely community area.

00:23:36.380 | And that's why the pub scene around there is so great.

00:23:39.140 | And that's why I always recommend people to go

00:23:41.420 | do pub hopping around there for a nice relaxed afternoon.

00:23:44.820 | It's not like a crazy, let's get drunk pub kind of area.

00:23:47.980 | But if we skip on past Notting Hill, in North London,

00:23:50.900 | there's an area called Hampstead.

00:23:52.660 | The main thing there is this park called Hampstead Heath.

00:23:55.940 | And it's this beautiful big park that has viewpoints.

00:23:59.740 | There's swimming ponds that people go to in the summer.

00:24:02.600 | There's Kenwood House.

00:24:03.780 | Have you ever seen the movie Notting Hill, actually, Chris?

00:24:06.580 | I'm not sure if I have.

00:24:07.780 | OK, OK.

00:24:08.620 | When you say it, I'm like, of course it's a movie.

00:24:11.180 | I remember it.

00:24:11.900 | But now I'm like, have I?

00:24:13.140 | I don't know.

00:24:14.420 | That's OK.

00:24:15.260 | Well, if you do watch it-- and I'm

00:24:16.620 | sure there will be people listening that have seen it--

00:24:18.960 | Kenwood House is featured in the movie towards the end

00:24:22.100 | when she's filming this like Victorian film.

00:24:25.380 | And Hugh Grant's listening to her speak.

00:24:27.900 | And it's a whole thing.

00:24:29.140 | You'll have to watch it at some point.

00:24:30.740 | So the house that's featured in that is in Hampstead Heath.

00:24:33.700 | So people go to Hampstead Heath to see

00:24:35.620 | this beautiful Victorian house, which actually is also

00:24:38.580 | a little museum that has art and other things

00:24:41.180 | that you can see in there.

00:24:42.980 | So that's a really good jumping off point.

00:24:45.180 | Really great to take kids there, because they can run around,

00:24:47.700 | see the wildlife.

00:24:48.740 | They can see people swimming.

00:24:50.220 | They can go swimming.

00:24:51.140 | Not right now, but a little too cold.

00:24:52.700 | Probably not on this trip.

00:24:53.460 | Yeah, not this trip.

00:24:54.220 | Not this trip.

00:24:54.800 | And then you can go into Hampstead Village, which

00:24:57.580 | has really great cafes, bars, restaurants.

00:25:00.540 | And it's super family friendly.

00:25:02.100 | It's also this really just beautiful area

00:25:04.180 | with like multi-million pound houses.

00:25:06.360 | A lot of celebrities live around here.

00:25:08.860 | And there's a lot of historical value.

00:25:10.780 | So that's Hampstead.

00:25:11.940 | Yeah, and then, I mean, it's hard to pick,

00:25:14.060 | because there's so many.

00:25:15.460 | And I love to kind of talk a little bit more about the areas

00:25:19.340 | that people don't go to as much.

00:25:20.980 | Like, if we go to South London, there's

00:25:23.360 | an area that's called Brixton.

00:25:25.140 | Brixton is super diverse, has really great markets

00:25:28.860 | that have been around for ages.

00:25:30.660 | And they have vendors selling all different types of wares,

00:25:34.980 | as well as there's little wine bars.

00:25:36.980 | There's little shops there.

00:25:38.340 | So Brixton is just a really cool, interesting area

00:25:41.700 | with lots of things to do down there.

00:25:43.540 | If you're going to stay central, though,

00:25:45.280 | there's an area that I really like going to

00:25:48.060 | that's called Seven Dials.

00:25:49.460 | So it's really close to Covent Garden,

00:25:52.180 | which is one of the most famous areas in Central to go.

00:25:55.700 | But Seven Dials is basically seven streets

00:25:58.260 | that converge onto each other.

00:25:59.580 | And there's a sundial in the middle of it.

00:26:01.340 | That's obviously where the name comes from.

00:26:03.980 | And down these streets, there's some not independent places,

00:26:08.460 | but there's also lots of great independent cafes

00:26:11.340 | and restaurants.

00:26:12.260 | There's a couple of pubs in the area.

00:26:14.700 | And there's a really great indoor food market

00:26:17.400 | called Seven Dials Food Market, which I highly recommend.

00:26:20.940 | And then there's also this hidden little courtyard

00:26:24.300 | that's called Neil's Yard, which you can go into.

00:26:27.380 | It's the home of Neil's Yard Remedies, which

00:26:29.620 | is quite a famous skin care brand.

00:26:32.260 | And in there, you'll find this fantastic wine bar

00:26:36.060 | called CVS, and also one of my favorite restaurants

00:26:39.220 | in London called The Barbary.

00:26:40.860 | And now they have a new place next door called

00:26:42.740 | The Barbary Next Door.

00:26:43.980 | And they do food that's inspired by the Barbary Coast.

00:26:48.760 | And it's so good, really, really good.

00:26:51.360 | It's one of those ways I'm like, I don't really

00:26:53.360 | love telling people about this, but I don't want to gatekeep.

00:26:55.920 | So yeah, really yummy food there.

00:26:59.320 | But it's a really cute, colorful little courtyard.

00:27:01.880 | And so it looks really nice in photos as well.

00:27:03.960 | And you can sit there, have a glass of wine, have some food,

00:27:07.200 | have a coffee.

00:27:07.980 | It's great.

00:27:08.560 | And then I am going to circle over to East London.

00:27:11.200 | It is my favorite.

00:27:12.080 | There's an area called Shortage.

00:27:13.560 | This is probably the most popular area of East London.

00:27:16.960 | And it is very eclectic.

00:27:19.840 | It is the area that's the most popular for street art.

00:27:22.920 | So if you are really interested in seeing street art,

00:27:25.220 | this is where you're going to do it.

00:27:26.400 | You can either walk around on your own and easily find it,

00:27:28.960 | or there's loads of really affordable or free street art

00:27:32.680 | tours that you can do.

00:27:34.040 | This is also where a lot of creative agencies are based,

00:27:39.100 | a lot of artistic agencies.

00:27:40.800 | So a lot of the people that are in this area,

00:27:43.000 | even during the week, are very creative.

00:27:45.600 | So you always kind of feel that vibe while you're there.

00:27:49.120 | And of course, you're going to have good cafes,

00:27:51.240 | good coffee, fantastic restaurants.

00:27:53.480 | I come to this area a lot to eat.

00:27:55.680 | One of the restaurants that I love is called Bao.

00:27:58.600 | And they do Taiwanese bao buns.

00:28:01.400 | And in Shortage, they have a noodle shop,

00:28:03.760 | which is really good.

00:28:05.440 | So highly recommend going there.

00:28:07.680 | And for cafes, Attendant Cafe is really good.

00:28:11.280 | They do really nice coffee.

00:28:12.820 | And probably the most popular cafe around this area

00:28:16.960 | at the moment is a place called Jolene.

00:28:19.600 | And there is basically always a line outside the door,

00:28:24.120 | especially on the weekends.

00:28:25.400 | But the coffee here is just fantastic.

00:28:27.440 | And they do great pastries as well.

00:28:29.320 | So if you want coffee, that's a good spot to go.

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00:31:03.240 | before year end in one place,

00:31:05.480 | go to allthehacks.com/dafy.

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00:31:11.800 | you can get a free $25 to give

00:31:14.000 | to the charity of your choice.

00:31:15.680 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/DAFFY.

00:31:20.680 | I kinda got a little bit of lay of the land.

00:31:22.960 | Obviously, I'm gonna have to walk around.

00:31:24.940 | You talked earlier about how you have

00:31:26.520 | these awesome itineraries.

00:31:27.760 | So I've been going through the three-day

00:31:29.200 | because I was like, well, I don't wanna plan too much.

00:31:30.640 | So let's take the three-day, spread it out over six-day.

00:31:33.200 | What do you think things people should be

00:31:35.320 | really trying to do on their trip?

00:31:37.560 | I'm sure someone could find a list,

00:31:39.120 | best attractions in London.

00:31:40.600 | We don't need to go through everything,

00:31:42.380 | but what are the highlights of an itinerary?

00:31:45.000 | - Of course, everybody wants to go see

00:31:46.880 | the House of Parliament and Big Ben and Westminster Bridge.

00:31:50.400 | So I think do whatever the sites

00:31:53.180 | that you're really interested in,

00:31:54.800 | make sure you do them because I get it.

00:31:57.240 | You're in London and you've seen these things

00:31:59.280 | on TV and in movies for years.

00:32:01.660 | So make sure you do that.

00:32:03.240 | For me, I'm always trying to think of an interesting way

00:32:05.880 | to see something.

00:32:06.720 | So I think a good example is,

00:32:08.520 | everyone knows the Tower of London.

00:32:10.080 | So the Tower of London, it's been around

00:32:12.200 | for like a thousand years and it's still in this place.

00:32:15.640 | And you can go and have tours there.

00:32:19.140 | They're very family-friendly,

00:32:20.800 | but you can also do something that's quite interesting,

00:32:23.120 | which is called the Ceremony of the Keys.

00:32:26.120 | And what this is, it's a tradition

00:32:29.400 | that's been happening for 700 years.

00:32:32.000 | And they've done it every single day for 700 years,

00:32:34.420 | except I think there's one day during one of the wars

00:32:36.880 | that they had to stop doing it.

00:32:38.480 | You got tickets for it and you basically watch

00:32:41.400 | this tradition of where they exchange the keys

00:32:43.880 | when they're kind of like closing up the tower at night.

00:32:47.320 | And it's never been recorded.

00:32:49.440 | You're not allowed to film it.

00:32:50.640 | You're not allowed to take pictures.

00:32:52.080 | And I think it's a really interesting, different way

00:32:54.640 | to experience this like really popular tourist attractions.

00:32:57.920 | And it's very hard to get tickets,

00:32:59.560 | but it's definitely doable.

00:33:01.000 | And the tickets are only five pounds,

00:33:02.560 | whereas it's usually I think about 25 pounds

00:33:05.280 | for adults to get in at normal times of the day.

00:33:08.480 | So I think that's really cool.

00:33:10.140 | In terms of viewpoint, so a lot of people

00:33:12.320 | like to do the London Eye, which that's cool.

00:33:14.840 | The first time I ever came to London,

00:33:16.400 | I did the London Eye as well.

00:33:17.480 | I thought it was great.

00:33:19.020 | It is a bit of a steep price for the tickets.

00:33:22.360 | So if you still wanna do some kind of viewpoint,

00:33:25.320 | but maybe you don't need to do the London Eye,

00:33:27.720 | you could go to this place called the Sky Garden,

00:33:30.120 | which is completely free to visit.

00:33:31.720 | And it's actually higher up than the London Eye.

00:33:35.400 | It's basically this garden in the sky.

00:33:37.560 | You take a lift all the way up to the top of the building.

00:33:40.480 | That's called the walkie talkie building

00:33:42.380 | 'cause it looks like a walkie talkie.

00:33:44.000 | And there's all this plant life that you walk around,

00:33:46.880 | but there's also these amazing views

00:33:48.920 | over the London skyline.

00:33:50.840 | It's pretty cool and a lot cheaper, obviously.

00:33:54.440 | - I know you're like the spokesperson

00:33:56.680 | for London on YouTube in my mind,

00:33:58.280 | but don't be afraid to be like, dude, it's just not worth it.

00:34:00.440 | Don't waste your time there.

00:34:01.520 | I know you've said that about Leicester Square, but.

00:34:05.040 | - Yeah, Leicester Square is for sure the number one thing

00:34:07.760 | that I'm like, avoid it at all costs.

00:34:10.360 | Like I even will walk around it

00:34:12.080 | if I'm just navigating to get somewhere else in the city.

00:34:15.000 | Basically, Leicester Square is this part of central London

00:34:18.800 | where it's just lined with like McDonald's, Burger King.

00:34:23.560 | There's a couple of casinos.

00:34:25.360 | There's a couple of movie theaters.

00:34:26.920 | There's the M&M store,

00:34:27.860 | which I have so much disdain for the M&M store.

00:34:30.400 | I just don't understand.

00:34:31.400 | And there's always such a line to get into it.

00:34:33.200 | The Lego store.

00:34:34.240 | For some reason, there's so much stuff out there

00:34:37.360 | saying to go see Leicester Square.

00:34:38.720 | I'm like, there's nothing here.

00:34:40.000 | It's not upkept very well.

00:34:41.260 | And so I always say to avoid that.

00:34:42.880 | Instead, you could actually go just one block over

00:34:45.560 | and you're in Chinatown, which is amazing.

00:34:47.640 | We have a small Chinatown in London, but really good food.

00:34:51.920 | There's some hidden bars there

00:34:53.640 | and just a really interesting place to walk around.

00:34:55.960 | So I'm always like, skip Leicester Square.

00:34:59.060 | Instead, go to Chinatown.

00:35:00.240 | It's literally one block over.

00:35:01.960 | - Do you have a favorite hidden bar?

00:35:03.280 | - So in Chinatown, there's one that's called Opium

00:35:06.480 | and it's a green door that is unmarked

00:35:10.120 | and you go up the stairs and there's three different rooms

00:35:12.920 | and the cocktails are really good.

00:35:14.560 | They're like super unique and different

00:35:16.680 | and they're all like Oriental themed.

00:35:18.720 | So super interesting and they serve food there as well.

00:35:21.480 | But the cocktails, go for the cocktails.

00:35:23.440 | Hard to pick a favorite hidden bar,

00:35:25.580 | but I actually went to a really good one last night

00:35:27.800 | called Nightjar.

00:35:28.960 | There's two different locations and it's Prohibition themed.

00:35:32.720 | So you go like down the stairs,

00:35:34.840 | the menu is like themed with different parts

00:35:37.200 | of the Prohibition and the war

00:35:39.640 | and the servers are dressed up like they're old timey

00:35:43.280 | and the service is amazing and the cocktails are really cool.

00:35:46.600 | - And are these the kind of places

00:35:47.660 | where you need to make a reservation?

00:35:49.600 | How does that typically work?

00:35:50.480 | - Yes, especially recently London,

00:35:53.240 | you have to make reservations to get into places,

00:35:55.400 | especially the ones that are quite popular,

00:35:57.680 | even if they are kind of under the radar,

00:36:00.400 | people still find out about them

00:36:01.680 | 'cause Londoners love under the radar stuff.

00:36:03.840 | Anytime you can make a reservation,

00:36:06.000 | I highly, highly recommend it

00:36:07.960 | 'cause also a lot of places in London are just very small.

00:36:10.640 | So they have very little covers.

00:36:12.520 | So if 10 people show up,

00:36:14.520 | that might cover the whole restaurant.

00:36:16.080 | So anytime you can make a reservation for sure

00:36:18.200 | or go very early or very late and you might be okay.

00:36:22.320 | - It's funny, I'm like such an optimizer

00:36:24.140 | and normally I'm like,

00:36:24.980 | okay, I'm gonna research all this stuff.

00:36:26.760 | And then I was like looking through your three day itinerary

00:36:28.320 | I was like, well, this is pretty good.

00:36:29.600 | You just put it together.

00:36:30.440 | So for me, I was like,

00:36:31.520 | normally I would wanna go through all this

00:36:33.040 | and I was like, why don't we just use this?

00:36:34.440 | Like, why don't we just, this is our new playbook

00:36:35.980 | and save us a lot of time.

00:36:37.200 | So I appreciate that.

00:36:38.680 | Any other must see things that people need to do

00:36:41.520 | when they're here for a short trip?

00:36:43.360 | I wanna see the city as it is normally seen

00:36:46.960 | by people who live here.

00:36:47.960 | And I imagine you don't spend every weekend at the Tate.

00:36:51.640 | - No, exactly.

00:36:53.040 | And the thing is too, like personally my mindset

00:36:55.960 | for what I do is that there's not really any must sees

00:37:00.320 | because it completely depends on what you're interested in.

00:37:03.000 | So like some people might say,

00:37:04.560 | you have to go to the National Portrait Gallery,

00:37:07.240 | but if you're not into portrait art,

00:37:10.520 | even though it's free to go into,

00:37:12.520 | don't waste your time there.

00:37:13.920 | Find art that you like or skip art altogether.

00:37:16.680 | The Tate Modern's not gonna be interesting to you

00:37:18.360 | if you're not interested in modern art.

00:37:19.800 | So I'm trying to give people like the permission.

00:37:22.240 | Don't feel like you have to do something

00:37:24.040 | because someone has said like, you have to do the London Eye.

00:37:27.000 | You don't have to.

00:37:27.840 | There's so many things you can do.

00:37:28.840 | Just do whatever's gonna work for you and also your budget

00:37:31.080 | because some of this stuff's really pricey.

00:37:33.520 | So if you're gonna take the four of you on the London Eye,

00:37:36.360 | that's gonna cost you like a hundred pounds,

00:37:39.240 | then is that really gonna feel worth it

00:37:41.240 | if you weren't really that interested?

00:37:42.440 | - Are there deals for some of these things

00:37:44.080 | like that I should know about going in,

00:37:45.760 | like book it in advance or buy it from this guy

00:37:47.720 | who works down this alley in the street?

00:37:49.640 | - Oh yeah, definitely.

00:37:50.680 | If you wanna do like the main attractions,

00:37:53.080 | I always tell people to look into the London Pass,

00:37:55.320 | which is, it's got like 150 of the biggest attractions

00:37:59.440 | on this pass and you get a two-day pass, a three-day pass,

00:38:04.080 | a six-day pass, whatever you choose.

00:38:06.120 | And the tickets are included in the price that you pay.

00:38:09.600 | And if it works with what you wanna see,

00:38:12.480 | you can save a lot of money with that.

00:38:15.360 | You just have to plan and do some math

00:38:18.200 | to make sure that it all adds up.

00:38:20.360 | Because if you're mostly wanting to see stuff

00:38:22.040 | that has low ticket prices,

00:38:23.320 | then it's probably not gonna be worth it.

00:38:24.680 | But if you're going to the big things

00:38:26.000 | with big ticket prices, it does end up saving,

00:38:28.680 | especially if you've got four of you, five of you,

00:38:31.360 | 'cause they have kids passes as well.

00:38:33.160 | It actually can end up saving you like hundreds of dollars.

00:38:36.000 | It's actually kind of crazy.

00:38:37.240 | So the London Pass, we do have something on our website

00:38:39.880 | where it helps people understand

00:38:41.840 | if it's gonna work for them or not before they buy it.

00:38:44.080 | So if you just Google London Pass on our site,

00:38:46.640 | that's helpful.

00:38:47.480 | - I'll link to that page on the show notes.

00:38:48.920 | - Perfect.

00:38:49.760 | In the line of the Sunday roast that we were talking about,

00:38:52.120 | another British tradition here is called afternoon tea.

00:38:56.240 | And I personally love afternoon tea.

00:38:58.680 | It's mostly hotels that will put on afternoon tea.

00:39:00.760 | Some restaurants do it as well.

00:39:02.600 | Around like one o'clock, two o'clock,

00:39:04.080 | you'll go to this hotel that you've booked

00:39:06.080 | and they bring out your selection of tea.

00:39:09.400 | You get to choose if you want tea or coffee.

00:39:11.560 | If you go really high end,

00:39:12.880 | they'll have like extra specialty

00:39:15.040 | that's been flown in from Sri Lanka or India or wherever.

00:39:19.120 | It's like really a beautiful experience.

00:39:21.200 | And then you get a bunch of different types of treats.

00:39:25.760 | So we'll start with little finger sandwiches

00:39:28.440 | of various variety of different kinds.

00:39:30.880 | Then you'll also get scones, which, oh, I love scones.

00:39:34.360 | Scones kind of resemble crumpets,

00:39:37.380 | but they're a lot nicer than crumpets in my opinion.

00:39:39.240 | And you eat those with jam and cream.

00:39:41.960 | And then the final tier is the sweet treats.

00:39:46.960 | So the really nice places, this is where like they shine.

00:39:51.200 | They do these little pieces of artwork

00:39:53.560 | that you eat for your lunch/breakfast,

00:39:57.520 | whatever time you ended up going.

00:39:58.960 | And it's a really lovely experience.

00:40:00.440 | A lot of people in London will do it

00:40:02.640 | as like a special occasion for someone's birthday

00:40:05.660 | or for bridal showers and things like that.

00:40:07.720 | It's very British and it's lovely.

00:40:09.880 | It's really lovely.

00:40:10.840 | One of the places that I always recommend

00:40:12.760 | if you want like a very classic,

00:40:14.200 | traditional afternoon tea experience is Fortnum & Mason,

00:40:18.280 | which is a department store.

00:40:20.240 | And they've got a beautiful tea room,

00:40:22.280 | which I think the queen actually opened it up

00:40:24.280 | if I remember correctly.

00:40:26.120 | Yeah, it's very classic.

00:40:27.860 | They've got like the classical music playing.

00:40:29.880 | Somebody's playing piano.

00:40:31.320 | You can get champagne if you want champagne.

00:40:33.640 | So I recommend either there

00:40:35.920 | or if you want something really special with amazing views,

00:40:38.920 | there is the Shard,

00:40:40.860 | which is the tallest building in Western Europe.

00:40:43.400 | And there's the Shangri-La Hotel, which is in the Shard.

00:40:46.840 | And their restaurant Ting does a sky-high afternoon tea,

00:40:50.480 | which they like pull out all the stops.

00:40:52.560 | It's an amazing experience.

00:40:54.680 | - This is also something that as we did some research,

00:40:56.600 | it's like not everywhere,

00:40:58.180 | but many places are pretty kid-friendly

00:41:00.080 | and even sometimes like kid-themed.

00:41:02.160 | So it looked pretty cool

00:41:03.720 | as something we could do with the kids.

00:41:06.360 | - Also, if you want another recommendation

00:41:08.360 | for a kid-friendly tea at the One Aldwych Hotel,

00:41:11.560 | they do a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed tea,

00:41:14.480 | which is really great for the adults as well,

00:41:17.280 | but the kids love it too.

00:41:18.720 | So it's like really cute.

00:41:20.960 | - So I have a random question,

00:41:22.400 | but very specific to tea.

00:41:23.680 | So we looked at this one.

00:41:24.680 | It seems like make reservations for most of these places,

00:41:27.080 | but I was looking at the menu

00:41:28.360 | and I guess either it's an entire meal.

00:41:30.680 | It looks like it's enough food

00:41:31.800 | that like you're skipping lunch that day.

00:41:33.920 | Or I was like, well, our daughter usually naps at like one.

00:41:37.240 | What if we went at three o'clock?

00:41:38.380 | I don't want to ruin dinner.

00:41:40.200 | Would it be poor form to go

00:41:41.960 | and just get like one or two for four people?

00:41:44.280 | Or do you need to order one for every person?

00:41:45.960 | - It's a bit different with kids.

00:41:47.480 | If you've got like really little ones,

00:41:48.960 | then you don't have to order ones for them, obviously,

00:41:50.920 | if they're not going to eat it,

00:41:51.800 | but you usually do order one for each person.

00:41:54.880 | - Okay. - Yeah, yeah.

00:41:55.840 | - I was looking for like a little deal.

00:41:57.160 | I was like, if we just want a little snack here and there.

00:41:59.200 | - I know.

00:42:00.040 | Well, the kids' ones are cheaper.

00:42:01.020 | So they're like significantly cheaper.

00:42:02.560 | So that's good.

00:42:03.400 | But actually a lot of people ask me that.

00:42:05.000 | So that's a good question.

00:42:06.440 | - Whenever my wife and I do like a tasting menu,

00:42:08.320 | we're like, can we just do wine for one of us?

00:42:10.440 | Because we don't need six glasses of wine.

00:42:12.280 | So we'll just do the tasty menu with wine

00:42:14.400 | and one person doesn't do the wine,

00:42:15.640 | but then we just share it.

00:42:16.480 | So little things like that.

00:42:17.960 | Afternoon tea, any other cool experiences?

00:42:19.960 | Even if they're small, like I'll say in New York City,

00:42:23.320 | one of my favorite things to tell people to do

00:42:24.960 | is if you're downtown,

00:42:26.880 | take the six train at the end of the line

00:42:29.760 | and just ride it South till it turns around

00:42:32.300 | and comes back North.

00:42:33.220 | And you loop through City Hall Station,

00:42:35.020 | which is a closed station.

00:42:36.520 | It's like many, many years old.

00:42:38.420 | It's really cool.

00:42:39.260 | It was like the shining star of the subway system,

00:42:41.880 | but it's not open.

00:42:42.720 | And you can like once or twice a year get a tour there.

00:42:45.140 | But if you just ride the six train,

00:42:46.860 | it actually says, I think it's Brooklyn Bridge.

00:42:48.460 | It's like, you're on a downtown six train next stop,

00:42:51.420 | Brooklyn Bridge uptown.

00:42:52.740 | And you could like ride this cool loop.

00:42:54.180 | There's always these like kind of cool, random, weird things

00:42:56.780 | that would never make an average tourist list.

00:43:00.060 | In San Francisco, there was this thing,

00:43:01.520 | for anyone who did it, you'll know exactly what I mean.

00:43:03.920 | Unfortunately, it's closed, called the Jejune Institute.

00:43:06.360 | And you like went to this office building

00:43:08.680 | and you just went up to the 30th floor.

00:43:10.240 | You knocked on a door, the door opened,

00:43:11.920 | you went into a room and you like watched a weird video

00:43:14.400 | and there was an envelope.

00:43:15.480 | And then you would go on like a scavenger hunt.

00:43:17.040 | And I'm like, I have no idea how this works.

00:43:19.120 | Like you put a $20 in a slot, but there were no people.

00:43:21.600 | It was the weirdest thing.

00:43:22.440 | It wasn't an escape room 'cause there was no escaping,

00:43:24.480 | but it kind of had that vibe.

00:43:26.120 | And it was the coolest thing ever,

00:43:27.760 | but not on any tourist guide.

00:43:29.280 | So any of those kind of like cool experiences

00:43:32.220 | that you might do on the weekends with friends

00:43:34.240 | that would, maybe it would make one of your guides,

00:43:35.840 | but it's definitely not in the average guide.

00:43:37.720 | - Okay, so I'll give you two

00:43:39.040 | 'cause I'll give you a little one,

00:43:41.240 | but then let me give you a bit of a bigger one

00:43:43.460 | that you can spend an afternoon.

00:43:44.880 | So there is this area in London called Bermondsey

00:43:48.320 | and running through Bermondsey,

00:43:50.240 | because it's very close to London Bridge Station,

00:43:52.160 | which is one of the biggest stations in London.

00:43:54.040 | There are elevated railway tracks

00:43:57.080 | and then underneath the railway tracks

00:43:59.080 | are businesses that are in the arches.

00:44:02.220 | Because they're small spaces,

00:44:03.400 | they're all very small businesses that are very independent.

00:44:06.840 | And in one specific area of Bermondsey under these arches,

00:44:11.280 | it all happens to be breweries and gin distilleries.

00:44:15.800 | And so this thing has come about

00:44:17.900 | where it's like the unofficial name for it

00:44:19.680 | is called the Bermondsey Beer Mile.

00:44:21.880 | And on Saturdays, these breweries open up

00:44:25.880 | and they let people come in and do tastings

00:44:29.200 | or just get a pint or try the gin.

00:44:32.040 | What people do is they make a Saturday of it

00:44:34.160 | and they hop around to all the different distilleries

00:44:36.480 | and breweries and try all the different drinks.

00:44:39.340 | And it can get a little bit messy, obviously,

00:44:41.600 | depending on how quickly you do it.

00:44:43.040 | You can also pair that with a visit to Maltby Street Market,

00:44:46.880 | which is literally right there.

00:44:49.440 | And you can get food

00:44:50.660 | and they have really good independent food.

00:44:53.560 | They have probably the most diverse food vendors

00:44:56.900 | of all the markets in London.

00:44:58.600 | I love doing that Bermondsey Beer Mile.

00:45:01.080 | It's really fun.

00:45:01.920 | And I feel like it gets skipped over so much

00:45:04.040 | because there's no official website for it.

00:45:06.440 | There's someone who's made an unofficial one,

00:45:08.140 | but it's pretty easy to find.

00:45:09.360 | You just navigate to Maltby Street Market

00:45:12.200 | and then you'll see all of the breweries and distilleries.

00:45:15.320 | I love recommending that.

00:45:16.780 | But I don't think that many people take me up on it, sadly.

00:45:18.920 | But it's almost good though, so it's fine.

00:45:21.400 | - I don't know if we'll do the full drinking mile,

00:45:23.360 | but I'm like a sucker for street food, food market,

00:45:26.520 | anything like that.

00:45:27.360 | Favorite stall?

00:45:28.480 | - I mean, I had an amazing banh mi sandwich, so Vietnamese.

00:45:32.360 | I don't remember the name of the stall.

00:45:33.760 | They do kind of change them out sometimes too,

00:45:35.960 | which is nice 'cause then everyone can try different things.

00:45:38.340 | But I think probably that banh mi

00:45:40.040 | is a favorite I've had so far.

00:45:42.520 | - Okay. - It's good.

00:45:43.340 | - I will look for it.

00:45:44.180 | - And then just for a little fun, a smaller one too.

00:45:46.160 | We were talking about Shortage before

00:45:47.560 | and I mentioned that it's like the most famous area

00:45:49.920 | in London for street art.

00:45:51.200 | So if you wanna go street art spotting, you can do that.

00:45:53.160 | A fun little thing you can do while you're doing that

00:45:55.320 | is there's a bunch of tiny 3D broccolis

00:46:00.320 | scattered around the Brick Lane area.

00:46:03.680 | So you can go and spot all of the little broccolis.

00:46:07.480 | And the broccolis were put there,

00:46:09.460 | I think it was about 15 years ago,

00:46:11.240 | by this artist, Adrian Boswell.

00:46:13.920 | And he actually has a gallery there

00:46:15.320 | and like broccolis are his thing.

00:46:17.040 | So you can end up spotting all the broccolis

00:46:19.360 | and then go to his gallery

00:46:20.600 | and see what the deal is in there too.

00:46:22.280 | So that's kind of a fun thing.

00:46:23.560 | But it's one of those things where I had never noticed that.

00:46:26.960 | And then a couple of years ago,

00:46:28.120 | somebody pointed it out to me and I was like,

00:46:29.720 | "Oh my God, that's so cool."

00:46:30.920 | In all of my research,

00:46:32.200 | I've never heard anyone talk about that before.

00:46:34.280 | - I feel like my daughter would love

00:46:35.840 | a walk around looking for broccolis.

00:46:37.640 | So that's a great one.

00:46:38.520 | - Perfect.

00:46:39.360 | And they're like colorful.

00:46:40.280 | And so yeah, they're great for kids too.

00:46:42.040 | - We're talking about food a lot

00:46:43.200 | and it just happens to be noon in San Francisco.

00:46:45.480 | So I'm already getting hungry.

00:46:46.520 | But I think the reason that we travel is often for food.

00:46:51.000 | So one of the challenges is it's so easy

00:46:53.640 | if you're going to Malaysia,

00:46:54.480 | I know the kind of food I wanna go get.

00:46:56.400 | But when I think of London,

00:46:57.240 | it's like, gosh,

00:46:58.080 | I've been told the best Indian food in the world

00:46:59.960 | outside of India is in London.

00:47:01.440 | So we're like, okay, we got a little list there.

00:47:03.040 | I don't even know how to ask this question.

00:47:04.880 | Like, where should we be eating?

00:47:06.240 | Like, there's just so many options.

00:47:08.160 | Are there a couple cuisines or a couple restaurants?

00:47:10.960 | I'm sure you could have a list of a thousand.

00:47:12.840 | I'm sure the itinerary I was looking at

00:47:14.660 | probably has the list of a thousand.

00:47:16.460 | But what are just a few restaurants that are must go to?

00:47:19.080 | They don't have to be the most popular.

00:47:20.280 | They don't have to be the most expensive.

00:47:21.960 | Ideally, they're not the ones that you have to plan

00:47:24.040 | two months in advance to get a table.

00:47:26.280 | - This is a hard one

00:47:27.120 | because there's just so many good places.

00:47:29.860 | Also, I think what's interesting about London,

00:47:31.720 | in my personal opinion,

00:47:33.000 | is that you don't have to spend a lot of money

00:47:36.200 | to have a really, really good food experience.

00:47:39.400 | I actually find that the mid-range restaurants

00:47:42.620 | are my favorites.

00:47:43.680 | We did talk about a couple of them that I love already.

00:47:45.700 | So we did the Barbary, we talked about Bao.

00:47:48.000 | There's an Italian that's called Campania and Jones,

00:47:51.600 | and it's in a tiny little place off of Columbia Road,

00:47:55.680 | which, this is East London,

00:47:57.240 | and Columbia Road is quite famous

00:47:59.280 | for being this very beautiful, picturesque street

00:48:02.160 | that has all independent shops on it.

00:48:04.480 | And on Sundays, it has a world-famous flower market,

00:48:07.280 | which people love to go visit.

00:48:08.680 | You can pick up flowers,

00:48:09.600 | or you can just walk around and see the chaos

00:48:12.000 | that kind of ensues with it.

00:48:13.760 | It's very fun.

00:48:14.640 | So just off of that is Campania and Jones,

00:48:17.120 | and they do regional Italian dishes

00:48:20.080 | from Campania, obviously.

00:48:22.180 | And the food here is amazing.

00:48:23.400 | It can be tricky to get reservations,

00:48:25.420 | but if you can do a weekday

00:48:28.120 | and do it like five o'clock when they open,

00:48:30.400 | then, or do a later one, like 9.30, then it is doable.

00:48:34.560 | If anyone does end up going there,

00:48:36.040 | there's a starter that's called Nudie,

00:48:38.840 | and it comes with sage butter.

00:48:40.080 | It was like one of the best things I've ever had.

00:48:42.180 | It's so nice.

00:48:43.100 | It's really good.

00:48:43.940 | I was with friends and we were eating it,

00:48:45.220 | and we all just stopped talking,

00:48:46.300 | which is a lot for me and my friends,

00:48:48.400 | 'cause we were all just like, "Oh my God, this is amazing."

00:48:50.320 | It's kind of like Italian dumplings.

00:48:52.160 | So good.

00:48:53.000 | So I love Indian.

00:48:54.560 | I also love Sri Lankan.

00:48:56.080 | I have been to Sri Lanka before,

00:48:57.680 | and my interest just has been piqued.

00:48:59.400 | And we have some really good Sri Lankan restaurants here.

00:49:02.360 | One of my favorites is called Paradise,

00:49:04.040 | and it's right in Soho, so it's very central London.

00:49:06.800 | It's a modern take on Sri Lankan food.

00:49:09.160 | So they do really great small dishes.

00:49:12.440 | You just order a bunch of them and everybody shares.

00:49:15.300 | They do this chickpea curry, which is so good.

00:49:18.700 | And they do amazing cocktails as well.

00:49:21.040 | All the good places you do have to reserve.

00:49:23.220 | That's just kind of how it is.

00:49:24.220 | But I did, the other day, go there

00:49:26.100 | and managed to, only a couple days ahead,

00:49:28.040 | get a 5.30 booking for four people.

00:49:30.460 | So it is doable.

00:49:31.860 | Go on a Monday or a Tuesday if you can,

00:49:33.780 | and go early, and that works well.

00:49:36.420 | And then finally, I'm gonna give one more Italian.

00:49:38.340 | - Give one more Indian, 'cause I just want--

00:49:39.980 | - One more Indian.

00:49:40.820 | So Dishoom is the most popular Indian place in London.

00:49:45.060 | It's a little bit more of a modern take on Indian.

00:49:47.980 | They've got four or five locations now.

00:49:50.460 | Obviously, I can't speak to how incredibly authentic it is,

00:49:53.580 | 'cause I am not from India.

00:49:54.980 | But it's really popular because they do

00:49:57.780 | really, really good food at affordable prices.

00:50:01.100 | The staff are amazing, and the decor,

00:50:04.220 | it's supposed to be kind of like a small restaurant

00:50:08.260 | that you might see in Bombay.

00:50:09.800 | So the decor is really interesting.

00:50:11.500 | And kid-friendly, works for everyone.

00:50:13.940 | It's one of my favorite places to go for breakfast.

00:50:16.700 | - Ooh.

00:50:17.540 | - Yeah, they do really good breakfast.

00:50:18.380 | - I don't think I've had it.

00:50:19.200 | I mean, I've been to India, so I've had Indian breakfast,

00:50:21.020 | but I don't know if I've had like a westernized version

00:50:24.300 | of an Indian breakfast.

00:50:25.220 | - It's a British version.

00:50:26.500 | They kind of like combine Indian food

00:50:28.940 | with what would be considered like a British breakfast,

00:50:31.920 | but it's really good.

00:50:33.020 | And that's also if you struggle to get in,

00:50:35.820 | because they don't really take reservations

00:50:37.820 | at most of the locations, especially for dinner.

00:50:40.520 | So either try to reserve for lunch,

00:50:42.400 | or go for breakfast if you can't get for lunch either.

00:50:45.520 | But some of the locations have really long lines,

00:50:49.240 | and people wait like an hour and a half.

00:50:51.320 | I don't really think you should do that for anything,

00:50:53.120 | in my opinion.

00:50:54.000 | There's ways we can get around that.

00:50:55.480 | So try to reserve at lunchtime,

00:50:57.280 | go during the week at lunchtime, or go for breakfast.

00:51:00.640 | - Are walk-ins a thing?

00:51:01.960 | In a lot of Japan, it's like,

00:51:03.480 | no, we fully book our tables,

00:51:04.560 | you can't necessarily walk in.

00:51:06.360 | What about for us, who have two young kids,

00:51:08.700 | and like eating dinner at five o'clock is the norm?

00:51:11.460 | - That's doable.

00:51:12.300 | So we have a really big range.

00:51:14.020 | So some places will be reservations,

00:51:16.820 | and if they're booked up, they're booked up.

00:51:18.540 | Some places will have a mix of,

00:51:20.380 | they'll reserve half of it for walk-ins,

00:51:22.980 | and half of it for reservations.

00:51:24.540 | And then some places are walk-ins only.

00:51:26.780 | And for every budget, that varies.

00:51:29.060 | So it's not like if it's a budget restaurant,

00:51:31.180 | it's always walk-in.

00:51:32.260 | They sometimes will do reservations as well.

00:51:35.060 | If you're trying to find something

00:51:36.920 | that's like an easy walk-in,

00:51:38.360 | and you're kind of like, we've had a long day,

00:51:40.720 | I don't want to do too much research,

00:51:42.380 | pizza is really good here.

00:51:43.660 | There's a lot of places that do good Italian pizza

00:51:46.120 | for very affordable, and they do kids menus as well.

00:51:49.000 | Like there's Pizza Pilgrims and Franco Manca.

00:51:52.120 | Those are two different places.

00:51:53.720 | They're fantastic, really easy.

00:51:55.320 | You'll be able to get in, no problem.

00:51:57.200 | - And you had one more Italian.

00:51:58.360 | - Oh yes, I went here last night.

00:51:59.600 | So it's fresh on the mind right now.

00:52:01.320 | And it's in the guides as well,

00:52:03.560 | so you'll see it in there.

00:52:04.400 | So it's called Padella,

00:52:05.860 | and they do basically simple pasta dishes.

00:52:09.160 | And the word Padella comes from the Italian word

00:52:12.120 | that is, I forget exactly what the Italian word is,

00:52:14.860 | but it's how they actually make the pasta here,

00:52:17.440 | which is they finish it off in a pan.

00:52:19.320 | Very simple, but really, really good, and also affordable.

00:52:22.880 | This is a walk-in place, which if you go at 5.30,

00:52:26.320 | you're golden, you will be able to get in, no problem.

00:52:28.960 | Otherwise, people queue up,

00:52:30.360 | or they have like a queuing system

00:52:32.520 | where they can text you when your table's ready.

00:52:34.600 | If you go to Padella, my recommendations are

00:52:38.240 | to start with the burrata and order bread on the side,

00:52:40.680 | 'cause the burrata there is so beautiful.

00:52:44.000 | And then I always order the cacio e pepe.

00:52:46.600 | It's the best cacio e pepe I've had in London.

00:52:50.440 | It's not too cheesy, it's just really nice.

00:52:53.160 | So those are always my recommendations,

00:52:55.080 | and I love going there.

00:52:56.360 | - This is awesome.

00:52:57.240 | What about just general dining etiquette?

00:52:58.960 | Are meals slow, are meals fast?

00:53:00.640 | Is there something you need to know

00:53:01.880 | to get the attention of the wait staff,

00:53:04.120 | tipping, all this stuff?

00:53:05.520 | - So things are generally a bit slower

00:53:08.000 | than say if we're comparing to the US.

00:53:10.440 | Also, every place is very understaffed right now.

00:53:12.680 | So just kind of pack your patience pants when you come,

00:53:17.280 | because I mean, Chris, you're coming very soon,

00:53:19.720 | and it's a very, very busy time of year.

00:53:21.520 | So things are just generally slower,

00:53:23.480 | but it's probably gonna continue like that

00:53:24.920 | for the next year or so.

00:53:26.320 | Patience, definitely.

00:53:27.560 | - So you probably will have to ask for the server,

00:53:31.200 | unless you're in a more high-end place,

00:53:32.720 | but you might have to a few times raise your hand

00:53:34.680 | and be like, "Can we get some more water?

00:53:35.880 | "Can we get this?"

00:53:36.720 | Blah, blah, blah.

00:53:37.560 | And you definitely will have to ask for the bill.

00:53:39.440 | And then do you want me to go through tipping

00:53:41.720 | for restaurants?

00:53:42.560 | - Yeah, wherever it applies, beyond restaurants.

00:53:45.200 | - Okay, perfect.

00:53:46.040 | So for restaurants in London,

00:53:48.400 | generally what happens is you will get the bill,

00:53:51.000 | and on the bill it will say optional service charge,

00:53:53.800 | and that's generally 12 1/2%

00:53:55.880 | that's been added onto your bill.

00:53:57.640 | If you've had really bad service,

00:53:59.320 | you can ask for that to be removed.

00:54:01.440 | Generally, people just end up paying it,

00:54:03.920 | even if they weren't super happy.

00:54:05.480 | But once you've paid that service charge,

00:54:08.480 | you don't have to tip anything additional on top of that,

00:54:10.840 | and that service charge usually gets distributed

00:54:13.720 | between front of house and back of house.

00:54:15.240 | So it doesn't only go to your server,

00:54:17.280 | it just gets put into the pool,

00:54:18.880 | and it goes to people in the kitchen as well.

00:54:20.800 | In terms of tipping for other things,

00:54:23.200 | we're not a huge tipping culture here.

00:54:25.240 | If you're at the hotel

00:54:26.760 | and your bags have been carried for you,

00:54:29.000 | you could tip, but you won't make anyone upset if you don't.

00:54:32.440 | But of course, no one's gonna be upset

00:54:34.360 | about some extra money.

00:54:35.800 | For taxis and things like that,

00:54:37.680 | you can round up to the next pound,

00:54:40.000 | or if you had someone who was really great

00:54:41.360 | and you had a long journey from the airport or something,

00:54:43.400 | you can give an extra couple of pounds.

00:54:45.120 | But it's not extremely expected.

00:54:47.720 | I'm in my very British mode now.

00:54:49.480 | What else do people usually tip on?

00:54:51.400 | (laughs)

00:54:52.720 | - I don't know, you'd get a drink at a bar,

00:54:54.120 | and you leave a couple of bucks.

00:54:55.160 | - So if you go up to the bar and you're ordering yourself,

00:54:59.880 | so someone's not come to your table,

00:55:01.920 | then you do not have to tip.

00:55:03.680 | You can, so sometimes people will leave a pound coin,

00:55:07.160 | sometimes a bar will have a jar where you can leave tips.

00:55:10.880 | There's also this thing where you can say,

00:55:12.680 | "Oh, can I buy you one as well?" to the bartender,

00:55:15.920 | and then they will basically charge you for another drink,

00:55:19.560 | and then that money will go into a pot

00:55:22.480 | for everyone at the end of the night.

00:55:24.280 | Sometimes it's a little bit dodgy

00:55:25.400 | if they actually get that, so if you do wanna tip,

00:55:27.280 | I would just say, "Leave a pound coin or two,"

00:55:29.520 | and that's gonna be the best option,

00:55:31.920 | but you don't have to.

00:55:33.040 | I never tip at the bar.

00:55:34.720 | Occasionally, if I've had someone really good,

00:55:36.600 | I'll pop something into if they have a tip jar,

00:55:38.760 | but it's definitely for sure not expected at all,

00:55:41.480 | and there will be no service charge added onto your bill

00:55:44.880 | if you order at the bar.

00:55:46.120 | If you got table service,

00:55:47.560 | then service charge will probably be added,

00:55:49.840 | and if it's not, then you can leave

00:55:51.920 | around 10% if you'd like.

00:55:54.040 | - So while we're on the topic of drinking at a bar,

00:55:56.440 | it might not be as relevant to our trip,

00:55:58.120 | but I wanna talk a little bit about nightlife

00:56:00.640 | because I feel like London is well-known for it.

00:56:03.360 | Let's talk about what people should be doing at night

00:56:05.600 | who aren't in the situation we are

00:56:07.060 | with two kids, two and under.

00:56:08.600 | What's nightlife like?

00:56:09.560 | Where should people go?

00:56:10.400 | What should people be doing?

00:56:12.040 | - So the biggest areas for nightlife in London

00:56:15.280 | are generally Soho and Shoreditch.

00:56:18.080 | So Soho's the very center of London.

00:56:21.280 | It's very eclectic.

00:56:22.580 | It's also where the majority of the LGBTQ+ clubs

00:56:26.440 | and bars are, so anyone who's looking for that,

00:56:29.120 | Soho is your place for that.

00:56:31.400 | And then Shoreditch is a little bit more artsy-ish,

00:56:34.720 | but also very popular for all different types of people

00:56:37.240 | who wanna go out.

00:56:38.360 | Both areas have both cheap and cheerful drinking.

00:56:41.740 | That's very rowdy and crowded.

00:56:43.800 | They've got the cocktail bars, wine bars,

00:56:47.040 | and then both also have clubs.

00:56:49.580 | Not gonna lie, clubs are not really my thing anymore,

00:56:51.920 | but I can give a couple of recommendations

00:56:54.080 | off the top of my head.

00:56:55.100 | So in Soho, there's a club called Freedom,

00:56:58.320 | which is quite popular.

00:56:59.640 | They've got a pretty standard upstairs,

00:57:01.840 | and then down in the basement,

00:57:02.880 | they've got DJs and a dance floor.

00:57:05.520 | And then for Shoreditch,

00:57:06.520 | we had a really famous place there that just got shut,

00:57:09.960 | but actually, you can just walk around

00:57:12.520 | and follow the crowds and hear the music,

00:57:15.480 | and then you can find places that way.

00:57:17.080 | So it's pretty easy.

00:57:18.520 | - Awesome.

00:57:19.480 | And then what time do things close?

00:57:21.320 | Does transportation still run?

00:57:23.080 | - Transportation generally stops at midnight

00:57:26.600 | when we talk about the tube.

00:57:27.840 | If you are out past midnight, there are a couple of options.

00:57:31.520 | There are night buses.

00:57:32.920 | They have an N in front of the number,

00:57:34.640 | and so if you're using CityMapper or Google Maps

00:57:37.520 | and you're trying to get back to your hotel,

00:57:39.560 | you might see N87, and that will be a night bus,

00:57:42.560 | and those run all night.

00:57:43.880 | There are also some night tubes,

00:57:46.200 | which run all night as well on Friday and Saturday nights,

00:57:49.520 | so Google Maps might be like, "Oh, go on this line,"

00:57:52.080 | and that's because it's running all night.

00:57:53.680 | Both of those are generally pretty safe options,

00:57:56.040 | but also, of course, you can get taxis.

00:57:58.320 | So you can either use Uber or FreeNow

00:58:00.480 | if you wanna call a taxi,

00:58:02.000 | or if you see a black cab,

00:58:04.000 | which we're quite famous for our black cabs here,

00:58:06.160 | and it's got a light on,

00:58:07.840 | that means that it's free and available,

00:58:10.000 | so you can put your hand out and call it,

00:58:11.440 | and they'll pull over and take you.

00:58:13.080 | - Do one of those apps also call,

00:58:15.120 | like if you're like,

00:58:15.960 | "I wanna take the London black cab experience,"

00:58:17.520 | which I've heard actually for kids is easy

00:58:19.460 | 'cause you could roll a stroller in and set it down,

00:58:21.560 | and it's not so crazy.

00:58:22.760 | - Yes, both Uber and FreeNow call black cabs.

00:58:26.840 | I know Uber does, I'm pretty sure FreeNow does,

00:58:29.200 | and yes, I 100% agree.

00:58:30.920 | Also, anybody who might be traveling

00:58:32.720 | with someone with a wheelchair,

00:58:34.480 | the black cabs are the best option

00:58:36.320 | because the seats fold up,

00:58:37.560 | so they can accommodate wheelchairs.

00:58:38.920 | So wheelchairs, buggies,

00:58:40.320 | which is the British term strollers, things like that,

00:58:42.880 | also, if you just have a lot of bags too,

00:58:44.760 | they're best for that.

00:58:46.040 | And then in terms of when the actual nightlife closes,

00:58:49.600 | so generally, pubs will only stay open

00:58:52.160 | 'til about 11, 11.30.

00:58:54.280 | Bars will stay open 'til about 2, 2.30,

00:58:56.880 | and then the clubs, a lot of them shut at four,

00:58:59.360 | but also a lot of them go a lot later than four,

00:59:02.040 | so depending on which one you decide to go to.

00:59:04.740 | - I can assure you that I am more likely

00:59:07.580 | to be waking up at four than still awake at four.

00:59:10.440 | So that makes sense.

00:59:12.520 | I feel like we're planning on doing a lot more

00:59:14.600 | public transit than taxis.

00:59:16.160 | What about the airport getting in?

00:59:17.960 | Any tips there?

00:59:19.040 | - We do have six different airports here in London.

00:59:21.540 | Most people who are flying from the U.S.

00:59:24.040 | or just doing the big, long-haul flights

00:59:26.400 | will fly probably into Heathrow Airport.

00:59:28.800 | That's our main airport and our biggest one.

00:59:31.300 | That is technically still kind of London,

00:59:34.640 | but it's actually not really,

00:59:35.720 | so it is quite far west of the city,

00:59:38.160 | but it's very easy to get into Central.

00:59:40.240 | Of course, you can take a taxi or an Uber

00:59:42.120 | if you want to,

00:59:42.940 | but we have lots of really good public transport options,

00:59:45.320 | with the main couple being the Elizabeth Line,

00:59:48.720 | which only just launched a few months ago back in May,

00:59:52.320 | and that is basically like a tube line,

00:59:55.040 | and it can actually get you into Paddington Station.

00:59:59.120 | It can get you into Central London.

01:00:00.920 | It also can get you to East London

01:00:02.920 | to Liverpool Street Station,

01:00:04.700 | and it only costs £12.70 at the moment, which is great.

01:00:09.400 | There's also the Heathrow Express,

01:00:10.900 | which gets into Paddington,

01:00:12.500 | and it's faster than the Elizabeth Line.

01:00:14.560 | It only takes about 16 minutes, I think it is,

01:00:17.520 | but it's also £25 per adult,

01:00:21.040 | although kids under 16 go free with an adult.

01:00:24.160 | It also doesn't really make sense

01:00:25.280 | to take the Heathrow Express,

01:00:27.420 | 'cause you might not be staying anywhere near Paddington,

01:00:29.920 | so your best bet really is to use City Mapper or Google Maps

01:00:34.160 | and navigate from Heathrow to your hotel

01:00:36.520 | and see which options are saying for you,

01:00:38.820 | but also make sure you adjust for your arrival time,

01:00:41.920 | because if it's really early or really late,

01:00:44.920 | then the availability drastically reduces.

01:00:49.280 | So then you might actually get stuck just taking a taxi

01:00:51.680 | or a very, very long night bus.

01:00:54.120 | - We were talking about nightlife.

01:00:55.080 | I know the London theater scene is pretty big.

01:00:57.000 | In New York, my wife and I hit up a lot of Broadway shows.

01:00:59.640 | We did the Rush stuff to get discounts on tickets.

01:01:02.240 | We did all the kind of cool, crazy theater,

01:01:04.340 | immersive stuff like Sleep No More.

01:01:06.280 | Anything stand out in those areas?

01:01:08.760 | - Yes, so the people who have done Sleep No More,

01:01:11.680 | so Punch Drunk, they recently have opened

01:01:15.440 | a similar to Sleep No More show

01:01:17.560 | called The Burnt City here in London,

01:01:19.760 | and I just went last week and it was awesome.

01:01:22.760 | Highly, highly recommend it.

01:01:24.480 | For people who don't know what that is,

01:01:25.880 | it's like immersive theater.

01:01:27.200 | First of all, if you're a viewer, you have to wear a mask.

01:01:30.440 | You always have to keep this mask on,

01:01:33.000 | and you go into what's like this huge set.

01:01:36.000 | - And we don't mean like a COVID mask.

01:01:37.440 | We're talking like face mask.

01:01:38.920 | - Exactly.

01:01:39.760 | It kind of looks like the scream mask a little bit.

01:01:41.560 | Not as quite as scary, I think.

01:01:43.080 | And then what you do is you go into what is like

01:01:45.520 | basically a massive movie set

01:01:47.600 | that has multiple different rooms

01:01:49.440 | and all these different props,

01:01:50.880 | and you see live actors

01:01:53.920 | that are acting out different scenarios.

01:01:56.200 | And sometimes they interact, sometimes they split ways,

01:01:59.000 | and you follow all of these people around

01:02:01.280 | and follow their stories.

01:02:02.760 | And the details are amazing.

01:02:04.480 | Like even the smells of the room are different.

01:02:06.840 | Chris, I know I'm preaching to the choir here.

01:02:08.280 | You've done all this already,

01:02:09.240 | but it was a really amazing theatrical experience.

01:02:13.280 | They're running until April, I think, at the moment.

01:02:15.600 | So if you're in London before April, 2023,

01:02:18.440 | definitely check that out.

01:02:19.680 | But if you wanna do something a little bit more traditional

01:02:22.040 | in the London theater scene,

01:02:23.520 | there is the longest running theater show of all time

01:02:27.080 | here in London,

01:02:28.000 | which is called Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap."

01:02:30.840 | And it's been on for 70 years.

01:02:32.680 | So this is the 70-year anniversary.

01:02:34.560 | So it's actually quite special

01:02:36.000 | if you end up getting like,

01:02:37.920 | I guess it's only a few people will be able to get there.

01:02:40.120 | Before, it's a 71st year, but still.

01:02:42.600 | It is like a linchpin of London theater,

01:02:46.760 | and it's very kind of old school.

01:02:48.920 | And it very much represents British whodunit theater,

01:02:53.440 | which is a little bit like over the top,

01:02:55.920 | but it's really fun and it's really cool.

01:02:58.680 | It's just definitely like a very London experience.

01:03:01.440 | So I would highly recommend people get tickets to that.

01:03:03.880 | And you can actually get like 15 pound tickets for that,

01:03:06.400 | even if you book in advance,

01:03:07.760 | if you just go for the really high up seats,

01:03:10.080 | but they also do some last minute deals as well,

01:03:12.360 | which you can get through TKTS,

01:03:14.640 | or it's also called Official London Theater.

01:03:17.760 | - Wow, okay.

01:03:18.720 | I feel like this is a masterclass in London,

01:03:21.320 | which was the goal.

01:03:22.160 | We talked, I think, about most of the things

01:03:23.560 | people need to plan out in advance.

01:03:25.520 | So I just wanna recap,

01:03:26.600 | like make your reservations at restaurants

01:03:28.440 | if you wanna go to hotspots

01:03:29.920 | and you wanna eat in prime time.

01:03:31.800 | Any tickets for things,

01:03:33.680 | especially during peak season tourist attractions,

01:03:35.840 | any other things that people really need to make sure

01:03:37.640 | they figure out before they get there?

01:03:39.440 | - If you're doing peak season,

01:03:41.320 | anything that you can book in advance is a good idea.

01:03:44.080 | 'Cause also ever since COVID,

01:03:45.640 | a lot of the major attractions are now having timed entry.

01:03:49.040 | Not all of them stick to it,

01:03:50.520 | but they will sell out for a certain time.

01:03:53.080 | So if you've got a pretty strict schedule

01:03:54.880 | that you wanna stick to,

01:03:56.240 | then at least give yourself a couple of days ahead of time

01:03:59.880 | to book the tickets so you don't have to worry about like,

01:04:03.480 | oh, well now we didn't get the time that we wanted,

01:04:05.160 | so we're gonna have to run back

01:04:06.320 | and do this and do that, blah, blah, blah.

01:04:07.800 | I would say in 2023,

01:04:09.280 | anyone who's visiting tourism

01:04:11.080 | has really come back with a vengeance.

01:04:13.640 | And we're already seeing availability of hotels really low

01:04:17.960 | for even like the end of next year.

01:04:20.040 | So I would definitely recommend anyone coming next year

01:04:24.080 | to book hotel as quickly as possible.

01:04:26.920 | You can always do something that you can cancel,

01:04:29.280 | but it would just be good to have something

01:04:31.680 | just in case you don't find anything else

01:04:33.480 | at the price that you're looking for.

01:04:34.920 | So just get it done, do it in advance.

01:04:37.360 | - Any favorites amongst the hotels

01:04:39.400 | that fall in that category of like,

01:04:41.260 | you might not find them on the major sites,

01:04:42.960 | you might overlook it 'cause it seems like it

01:04:45.320 | is this random property?

01:04:46.720 | - Yeah, so there's one place I really like,

01:04:49.000 | again, in East London, it's called Mama Shelter.

01:04:51.320 | I think it's a Parisian brand

01:04:52.600 | 'cause they've got a few places in France.

01:04:55.760 | - And LA.

01:04:57.160 | - Oh, that's right, they've got the one in LA, yeah.

01:04:59.800 | - I helped our au pair book a room there like six months ago

01:05:02.760 | so and she said it was really cool.

01:05:04.280 | - Yeah, they've got a really nice rooftop at that one,

01:05:06.240 | it's really nice.

01:05:07.080 | The one here, I think gets overlooked sometimes

01:05:10.200 | because it's a little bit out of the way

01:05:12.760 | if you wanna do only the main attractions,

01:05:15.520 | but it's actually really well located

01:05:17.920 | if you wanna do some of the more local stuff

01:05:20.200 | in East London.

01:05:21.040 | For example, it's not far from Broadway Market,

01:05:23.400 | which is this Saturday market that's quite famous now,

01:05:26.520 | lots of great stalls selling food and jewelry

01:05:28.760 | and artisan pieces and things like that.

01:05:30.960 | Also walkable in about 20 minutes to Shoreditch

01:05:33.440 | or there's a bus that will get you there even quicker.

01:05:36.160 | And I would say it's on the higher range of budget hotels,

01:05:39.880 | but the staff are amazing, it's really colorful.

01:05:43.400 | They do karaoke nights, they've got a gym there.

01:05:45.880 | And if you book in advance,

01:05:46.760 | you can get a pretty good deal there.

01:05:48.080 | So that's probably one of my favorite recommendations

01:05:50.440 | for hotels.

01:05:51.560 | - Anything on the next tier up, like the mid range?

01:05:54.480 | - The mid range, so I really liked the Henrietta Hotel.

01:05:57.560 | It's more luxury.

01:05:58.640 | The Henrietta Hotel is right in Covent Garden.

01:06:00.440 | It is a small boutique hotel that is French inspired

01:06:05.280 | and really beautiful decor.

01:06:07.280 | You can't get any better on the location.

01:06:09.120 | You just walk out the front door,

01:06:10.440 | you're in Covent Garden, it's amazing.

01:06:12.520 | And the rooms are beautiful and they're big

01:06:14.360 | and the bathrooms are amazing.

01:06:16.040 | And then I have a really special luxury

01:06:18.920 | high-end recommendation.

01:06:20.480 | We talked about the Shangri-La earlier.

01:06:22.440 | That hotel is the highest hotel in London, obviously,

01:06:26.200 | 'cause it's in the tallest building in Western Europe.

01:06:29.040 | And it is super special too,

01:06:31.800 | because they have an indoor pool,

01:06:34.480 | which is the highest hotel pool in Western Europe,

01:06:37.760 | but probably a lot of other parts of Europe as well.

01:06:41.240 | So it's got floor to ceiling windows

01:06:43.720 | and you're just swimming around,

01:06:45.040 | looking down onto London and across the skyline.

01:06:48.120 | It's a pretty special experience.

01:06:49.620 | I recommend that one.

01:06:50.460 | We filmed a video in one of their suites there.

01:06:53.440 | It was like the coolest experience.

01:06:55.320 | It was awesome.

01:06:56.920 | - There are gonna be a lot of links

01:06:57.760 | in the show notes to anything you mentioned.

01:06:59.080 | Send me all those links also.

01:07:00.920 | For anyone who's new and hasn't heard,

01:07:02.760 | we have a hotel booking service at All The Hacks

01:07:05.000 | for like those five-star hotels.

01:07:07.120 | Can hook you up with usually an upgrade,

01:07:09.200 | a property credit, late check-in, early check-out,

01:07:11.640 | free breakfast, all that stuff.

01:07:13.240 | So you just go to allthehacks.com/upgrades

01:07:15.840 | and you can see that.

01:07:17.440 | A couple other hotel things.

01:07:19.160 | So one, this is new for me, normally we stay at hotels.

01:07:22.920 | And we're never really the Airbnb type.

01:07:25.320 | And then we started traveling with a family

01:07:27.240 | and we were like, okay, we got two adults,

01:07:28.960 | two kids and an au pair.

01:07:30.560 | We were looking at hotels.

01:07:31.680 | One of the challenges in Europe

01:07:33.240 | is that a lot of hotels have capacity limits on rooms.

01:07:36.600 | I do know that if you are booking a chain,

01:07:38.840 | whether it's Hyatt or Accor or Marriott or Hilton,

01:07:42.200 | I think almost all of them have a program in Europe,

01:07:45.000 | including some of the hotels in London

01:07:46.720 | where you get 50% off the second room.

01:07:49.040 | So definitely inquire.

01:07:51.000 | It's not just if you book two rooms,

01:07:52.240 | but if you book two rooms and your kids are coming,

01:07:54.000 | they give you a deal for that second room.

01:07:55.760 | That's true in a lot of other places.

01:07:57.680 | And then we booked an Airbnb and I didn't know this,

01:08:01.620 | but you can negotiate Airbnbs.

01:08:03.800 | And so we saw a place, we're planning it pretty last minute.

01:08:07.960 | And we were like, hey, you have six days free.

01:08:10.120 | We're gonna be there for those exact six days you have free.

01:08:12.920 | We're coming in a week.

01:08:14.520 | Your place is a little nicer

01:08:15.720 | than some of the places we're looking at

01:08:16.920 | and it's a little more expensive.

01:08:17.880 | If you could bring it down 25%, we'd book it.

01:08:20.280 | And we did that for London.

01:08:21.900 | We're also going to Paris

01:08:23.140 | and both places brought the price down about 20%

01:08:26.200 | and we booked it right away.

01:08:27.160 | And so we were able to save 20%.

01:08:28.560 | Normally, I think the idea of staying at a hotel

01:08:30.720 | where you got free breakfast

01:08:31.680 | and there's a lot more things figured out was easier.

01:08:34.100 | But it turns out if you're two adults,

01:08:36.400 | two kids and an au pair,

01:08:37.920 | we just couldn't find a hotel setup that worked,

01:08:40.080 | especially over the holidays,

01:08:41.400 | where we would be able to have a place

01:08:42.840 | that we could hang out

01:08:43.920 | while the kids are sleeping in the rooms.

01:08:45.440 | For the next little bit, it's gonna be hard for us.

01:08:47.800 | - Can I give a recommendation

01:08:49.240 | for anyone who is looking for something like that

01:08:52.200 | and wants to do almost like a service department?

01:08:55.520 | - I don't even know what that means,

01:08:56.480 | but of course you can.

01:08:57.480 | - It's like an apart hotel, I would say.

01:08:59.320 | So there's this brand here in London

01:09:01.920 | called the Cheval Residences.

01:09:03.880 | You can get pretty good deals there

01:09:05.240 | if you book in advance.

01:09:06.080 | So you just have to kind of like play it out.

01:09:07.840 | But they've got one property that overlooks Tower Bridge

01:09:12.840 | and they have apartments.

01:09:14.920 | You can get like two bedroom.

01:09:16.080 | I think they have three bedroom as well.

01:09:17.920 | And they're great with kids

01:09:19.520 | because they can provide anything you might need,

01:09:22.760 | like cribs, high chairs.

01:09:24.760 | You can accommodate stuff if you wanna bring your pets.

01:09:27.880 | Anything you basically need, they can give it to you.

01:09:30.120 | And then this place is extra special

01:09:32.160 | because if you get one of the Riverside places,

01:09:34.840 | you wake up and you go on your little balcony

01:09:36.600 | and overlook Tower Bridge.

01:09:38.520 | It's amazing.

01:09:39.360 | Personally for us, we try to dissuade people from Airbnb

01:09:42.800 | just because of the ethical side of it in London.

01:09:45.160 | We're having a really bad housing crisis here.

01:09:47.160 | So I usually try to push people to apart hotels

01:09:50.180 | and with families who need like the multiple rooms

01:09:53.360 | off of the living area,

01:09:54.960 | Cheval usually is like a really good option for that.

01:09:58.440 | And it's really nice.

01:10:00.400 | - Well, I apologize for contributing to your London problems.

01:10:04.840 | - It's okay.

01:10:05.680 | It's a tricky one.

01:10:06.600 | You're not the only people who have struggled with that.

01:10:08.860 | And that's part of where Airbnb has flourished

01:10:11.520 | is for stuff like that.

01:10:12.360 | So it's not to shame you or anything,

01:10:13.660 | but I try to give alternatives.

01:10:15.360 | - And on the topic of kids,

01:10:16.440 | what's the vibe of bringing your kids around?

01:10:18.660 | People are annoyed by it.

01:10:20.280 | Are they cool?

01:10:21.400 | What should we be thinking?

01:10:22.240 | Can you give my wife breastfeed in public?

01:10:24.320 | I know London's a little conservative.

01:10:25.720 | - She can definitely breastfeed in public.

01:10:27.320 | That's totally fine.

01:10:28.320 | You know, I don't have kids,

01:10:29.200 | so I can't like fully speak for families

01:10:31.760 | who are going out in the world all the time

01:10:33.760 | in London with children.

01:10:34.920 | Most of the time though,

01:10:36.240 | as long as the kids are fairly well-behaved

01:10:39.100 | and they're feeling okay, it's pretty doable,

01:10:43.000 | especially during the day.

01:10:44.120 | Like you can take the kids anywhere during the day.

01:10:46.300 | All restaurants will take them.

01:10:47.800 | They'll accommodate them.

01:10:48.840 | All of the sites and everything, obviously.

01:10:50.560 | And like we talked about pubs,

01:10:52.080 | you can take the kids to the pubs during the day as well.

01:10:54.840 | So generally the reception is good.

01:10:58.040 | And I have been told by parent friends

01:10:59.840 | that the reception is better in London

01:11:02.160 | than like New York and some of the other major cities

01:11:04.760 | that they've been in.

01:11:06.120 | - Well, I am incredibly excited for this trip.

01:11:09.120 | I have one last thing before we wrap.

01:11:11.760 | We're not gonna put this in the show notes.

01:11:13.800 | You've already given a lot of great recommendations,

01:11:15.800 | but is there one like best kept secret

01:11:18.480 | that you were like, I don't really want anyone to know

01:11:20.140 | that this restaurant is here, it's my favorite,

01:11:21.960 | it's not crowded yet or bar or something

01:11:24.440 | that we can leave right at the end of the episode

01:11:26.320 | only for the people that are still here?

01:11:28.380 | - Yeah, okay.

01:11:29.520 | There's a cocktail bar that's called Lounge Bohemia

01:11:33.920 | and it is in Shoreditch.

01:11:37.480 | I had passed it a million times.

01:11:40.080 | It's just like a very random door.

01:11:42.560 | I would say it's speakeasy vibes.

01:11:44.120 | I'd pass it a million times over my nine, 10 years here

01:11:47.200 | and someone eventually was like,

01:11:48.800 | "Oh, you've never been there.

01:11:49.640 | "You should go try it."

01:11:50.480 | And I was like, "Okay."

01:11:51.320 | And I randomly went in there one day

01:11:53.200 | and it's this tiny, tiny little basement bar

01:11:57.120 | that has like 10 seats

01:12:00.080 | and they do very experimental cocktails.

01:12:04.360 | Basically the guy who runs it who ironically does not drink.

01:12:08.760 | So his wife tests all the cocktails for him

01:12:11.400 | but he runs this bar as like a tester

01:12:14.880 | for the work that he does for like corporate events

01:12:18.280 | and things like that.

01:12:19.640 | And he gets hard to do these like crazy, crazy,

01:12:22.400 | huge special events, really high end.

01:12:25.000 | But you can go to Lounge Bohemia

01:12:27.600 | and you can do a tasting menu

01:12:31.560 | and it's I believe five different cocktails

01:12:33.800 | that are like off the wall.

01:12:35.720 | Like one of the cocktails I had,

01:12:38.040 | it was called a Canadian breakfast

01:12:39.800 | and they brought out this little tray

01:12:42.320 | that had a little pan of blueberry pancakes

01:12:47.240 | and then they lit a fire and like cooked the pancakes

01:12:50.880 | and then you mixed up the jam

01:12:53.880 | and that was like part of the drink

01:12:55.480 | and then you put the pancakes in the drink.

01:12:57.720 | It's just crazy stuff like that.

01:12:59.240 | One of the cocktails was called Winnie the Pooh

01:13:01.400 | and it has an actual bee on the side of it.

01:13:05.600 | I'm vegetarian so I made sure that no bees were hurt

01:13:08.160 | in the making of this cocktail.

01:13:09.400 | They're residual bees from, I forget what he was,

01:13:11.560 | he said it was exactly,

01:13:12.600 | that would have just gone to waste anyway actually.

01:13:14.600 | But it's an actual bee that sits on the side of the drink

01:13:18.000 | and you can eat it.

01:13:19.760 | So it's like off the wall, crazy, crazy stuff.

01:13:23.640 | Because it's so small, you do need to book ahead

01:13:27.640 | but if you're like a cocktail connoisseur

01:13:30.000 | who really likes off the wall, crazy stuff,

01:13:32.240 | that's like the best place to go.

01:13:34.040 | - I feel like you just described me.

01:13:35.240 | I'm like, I love crazy, weird cocktail.

01:13:37.320 | The only twist that would make it like hit every mark for me

01:13:40.200 | is if it was also a spicy cocktail.

01:13:41.960 | But I'm sure there is one there that meets that criteria.

01:13:45.040 | So. - Yes, definitely.

01:13:46.640 | - Okay, so I've been fortunate to peruse

01:13:48.720 | a ton of your content but where can everyone here go

01:13:51.800 | to plan their next trip

01:13:53.400 | and get all the stuff you're putting out?

01:13:55.760 | - So everything is under the name Love & London.

01:13:59.200 | We have over 300 YouTube videos at this point

01:14:02.320 | talking about how to take the tube, where to eat,

01:14:05.720 | things like that, mistakes not to make.

01:14:07.960 | We also have a website.

01:14:09.080 | We've got Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and email lists.

01:14:13.160 | So there's tons of free content

01:14:15.800 | and then we've got a few of our paid guides

01:14:18.000 | like the itineraries that we talked about

01:14:19.560 | which are all linked on the website.

01:14:21.440 | - And there's a one-on-one guide that's also free

01:14:23.400 | that I'll link to in the show notes, which was great.

01:14:25.360 | Like just kind of high level overview.

01:14:26.880 | One thing that I think is the like crown jewel

01:14:29.480 | of the content that you sell

01:14:31.240 | is so much of my trip planning

01:14:33.640 | is usually done in Google Maps.

01:14:35.740 | And we're just really far behind on this trip

01:14:38.400 | because we planned it a week ago.

01:14:40.160 | And in the guide, it was like, click here, boom,

01:14:43.040 | here is your Google Map.

01:14:44.440 | And I was like, what?

01:14:45.480 | So I now have this like better than I normally would lay out

01:14:49.520 | like with icons of this is a restaurant,

01:14:51.400 | this is a bar, that kind of stuff.

01:14:53.240 | And I think that that is undersold on your website

01:14:58.860 | because I think you could just sell

01:15:01.000 | for maybe even the same price, the Google Map of it.

01:15:03.520 | So that was my favorite feature

01:15:05.600 | is that now I have Google Maps loaded on my phone

01:15:07.840 | where I'm like, when we're out and about,

01:15:09.640 | we know what we're doing and we could find cool spots.

01:15:11.720 | So thank you for putting those in there.

01:15:13.600 | - Yeah, of course.

01:15:14.440 | - Make sure everyone else knows about them.

01:15:15.940 | - Cool, I added that 'cause I was like,

01:15:18.000 | I feel like when I get stuff like this,

01:15:19.800 | I'm always just adding it to Google Maps anyway.

01:15:21.840 | So I'm like, why don't I just do it for them?

01:15:25.020 | So it made sense.

01:15:25.960 | Also, we do have something for your listeners.

01:15:29.200 | We do have a special discount that can be used

01:15:32.060 | in the Love in London shop,

01:15:33.660 | which is where you can buy all of our digital travel guides.

01:15:36.540 | So we will put a little discount code

01:15:40.020 | for 10% off the entire shop in the show notes

01:15:44.220 | or we'll put it somewhere.

01:15:45.860 | - Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes.

01:15:46.860 | Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes

01:15:48.100 | so you can find that and everybody can check that out.

01:15:50.580 | Thank you for doing that.

01:15:51.660 | And even more, thank you for being here.

01:15:53.500 | I'm so excited about this trip

01:15:55.020 | and we have a lot of stuff to figure out.

01:15:57.040 | - Good, no, it's great.

01:15:58.040 | Thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.

01:16:01.120 | - I wish I could say

01:16:02.020 | that I'm eating a fully balanced diet every day,

01:16:04.680 | but the reality is that I am definitely not.

01:16:07.280 | So I love having an easy way

01:16:09.160 | to get my daily nutritional insurance,

01:16:11.380 | which is why I kickstart my day with Athletic Greens

01:16:14.240 | and I am excited to be partnering with them

01:16:16.120 | for this episode.

01:16:17.360 | I started taking it because I wanted to see

01:16:19.360 | what all the hype was about

01:16:20.680 | and I've kept it in my daily routine for months.

01:16:23.800 | Every morning, I mix it up with some cold water,

01:16:26.160 | add a few ice cubes, it tastes so good when it's cold,

01:16:29.320 | and I head to my office feeling focused

01:16:31.520 | and energized for the day,

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01:18:40.940 | Okay, we just got back from our trip last night

01:18:45.080 | and I wanna do a quick recap

01:18:46.720 | of some of the awesome highlights,

01:18:48.200 | things we did, share some stories,

01:18:50.400 | as well as talk to you about how to get the best deals

01:18:53.120 | on your trip to London,

01:18:54.600 | especially when it comes to using your points on flights.

01:18:57.840 | So, first off, I just have to say the trip was awesome,

01:19:01.500 | but wow, doing a trip like that with kids

01:19:04.280 | is so much different.

01:19:06.280 | This isn't the first time we've traveled with kids,

01:19:08.800 | but our other trips have been to stay with family

01:19:10.940 | or go to the beach and not to explore a city.

01:19:13.960 | So, I've been saying that there's this whole parenting

01:19:16.520 | episode on the horizon that I wanna do with Amy,

01:19:19.000 | and now that this trip is over,

01:19:20.420 | we're gonna try to get that done soon

01:19:22.240 | and we'll talk all about what it's like to travel with kids

01:19:25.360 | because it is very different.

01:19:27.120 | So, stay tuned for that,

01:19:28.920 | and until then, let me talk about London.

01:19:31.840 | First off, it was so amazing to be there in the winter.

01:19:35.360 | I don't think any season does the holidays like London.

01:19:39.100 | There are holiday decorations everywhere

01:19:41.160 | and strung lights above every other street downtown.

01:19:44.560 | It really felt like a magical place,

01:19:47.000 | and I'm pretty sure another holiday trip

01:19:48.920 | will be there in our future.

01:19:50.380 | I'll run through a bunch of the things we did,

01:19:52.280 | and I'll try not to repeat anything

01:19:53.920 | Jess and I already discussed.

01:19:55.640 | First off, we ended up staying at an Airbnb

01:19:57.720 | because with two kids that go to bed early

01:19:59.960 | and an au pair with us,

01:20:01.360 | it was gonna be two to three times the price to do a hotel,

01:20:05.160 | and while we definitely missed

01:20:06.400 | some of the amenities of a hotel,

01:20:08.400 | the ability to do laundry, have a place to hang out

01:20:11.200 | while the kids were asleep,

01:20:12.360 | and just generally having more space

01:20:14.440 | outweighed what a hotel had to offer for this trip.

01:20:17.240 | That said, we certainly had quite the Airbnb experience.

01:20:20.920 | First off, I learned all about Airbnb negotiating,

01:20:24.220 | which I didn't realize was a thing

01:20:26.000 | until I just tried it myself.

01:20:28.160 | Since we were booking last minute,

01:20:29.620 | I figured why not reach out to the more expensive,

01:20:31.920 | nicer place and see if they would offer a discount

01:20:34.600 | of 20 to 25%.

01:20:36.600 | Sure enough, it worked,

01:20:38.120 | and I actually since have talked to a few hosts

01:20:41.040 | who've told me that anywhere from 20 to 50%

01:20:44.760 | of the people staying with them try to negotiate,

01:20:47.200 | and they often make special offers.

01:20:49.800 | So if you're booking an Airbnb,

01:20:51.880 | definitely ask if you can get a deal

01:20:53.520 | and you might get rewarded.

01:20:55.120 | We actually spent a week in Paris before London.

01:20:58.440 | I won't cover that in this episode,

01:21:00.120 | but we ended up getting a deal at both places.

01:21:02.540 | The person in London actually first said

01:21:04.520 | they'd only give us a deal if we booked off Airbnb

01:21:07.560 | and wired the money, but I didn't wanna take that risk.

01:21:10.480 | I didn't wanna lose the Airbnb protections,

01:21:12.920 | which became very important.

01:21:15.200 | So we ended up settling on a discount a little bit less,

01:21:18.520 | closer to 15%, but it ended up being the best move.

01:21:21.560 | So when we got to London,

01:21:23.000 | we checked into what we thought

01:21:24.240 | was gonna be an incredible place.

01:21:26.200 | It was in an amazing location near Paddington Station

01:21:29.100 | and Hyde Park.

01:21:30.040 | It had great reviews,

01:21:32.180 | but it was pretty downhill from there.

01:21:35.200 | We checked in and it was almost 100 degrees upstairs

01:21:38.400 | in all the bedrooms, and the radiators were all so hot

01:21:42.280 | that you would burn yourself if you touch them,

01:21:44.640 | which is hard to explain to a toddler

01:21:46.720 | who loves to run around and touch everything.

01:21:49.040 | So we tried to open the windows to cool it down,

01:21:51.400 | and in one bedroom, the windows were actually screwed shut,

01:21:54.720 | and the other bedroom had zero windows and zero ventilation.

01:21:58.680 | The carpets upstairs were also stained a bit.

01:22:00.960 | The dishes weren't that clean.

01:22:02.540 | Some of the glasses in the cabinets had lipstick on them,

01:22:05.180 | and then there was just this smell

01:22:07.180 | that was really hard to put your finger on

01:22:09.260 | because they had those little fragrance diffusers

01:22:11.420 | in every single room of the house trying to cover it up.

01:22:14.020 | The funny thing was that any one of those issues

01:22:16.180 | probably wasn't a big enough issue

01:22:18.280 | to send a message to the host about,

01:22:20.300 | but the next day we realized that the downstairs area,

01:22:23.300 | which was the living room and the kitchen,

01:22:25.180 | could not be heated.

01:22:26.980 | It was one of the coldest times ever.

01:22:29.060 | In fact, when we showed up, there was snow

01:22:31.220 | all over the place.

01:22:32.840 | So when we go to the thermostat and it says it's 86,

01:22:36.340 | but it actually feels like it's closer to 60,

01:22:38.920 | and there wasn't a single way to get the heat kicked in,

01:22:41.760 | it wasn't the most comfortable time.

01:22:43.880 | So I didn't actually know what to do

01:22:45.580 | in a situation like this.

01:22:46.860 | If it were a hotel, I'd just ask for a new room,

01:22:49.420 | ask for a partial refund, or get some bonus points,

01:22:52.420 | but for an Airbnb, it wasn't that clear.

01:22:55.260 | I didn't necessarily want them to send a cleaner

01:22:57.180 | to wash a handful of dishes.

01:22:58.940 | I didn't really think they were gonna be able

01:23:00.380 | to clean the carpets, and obviously,

01:23:02.700 | if they could fix the heat, that would be great,

01:23:04.740 | but I messaged them and they didn't seem

01:23:06.820 | the most responsive to that single issue.

01:23:09.420 | So I called Airbnb and asked them what I should do,

01:23:12.480 | and they were very underwhelming.

01:23:13.820 | They basically said, "Oh, well, we can call the host

01:23:15.820 | "and tell them about all the issues,"

01:23:17.220 | and I said, "Well, hold off.

01:23:18.660 | "Let me send a message to the host."

01:23:20.300 | So I wrote a long message to the host

01:23:22.060 | that detailed out all the issues,

01:23:23.900 | and I said, "Hey, let me know what you think

01:23:26.220 | "we should do about this."

01:23:28.180 | After that, I responded to Airbnb and said,

01:23:30.200 | "Hey, I'd reached out to the host,

01:23:31.620 | "so if you wanna connect with them as well,

01:23:33.160 | "you're welcome to, because I thought it would be good

01:23:35.220 | "to reach out to the host first."

01:23:37.380 | Well, it didn't go that well,

01:23:38.940 | because despite that I had emailed the host first,

01:23:41.460 | as soon as they heard from Airbnb,

01:23:43.480 | they sent me a message that they were very uncomfortable

01:23:45.780 | with the fact that I contacted Airbnb support

01:23:48.240 | before letting him resolve all the issues,

01:23:50.780 | and that he was no longer comfortable

01:23:52.260 | with us staying in the home,

01:23:53.660 | and he would prefer that I checked out

01:23:55.140 | and found a new place to stay.

01:23:56.580 | So, the silver lining in this,

01:23:58.220 | which was a very frustrating and stressful experience,

01:24:01.100 | was that I got to put Airbnb's air cover protection

01:24:04.100 | to the test.

01:24:05.180 | Specifically, their get what you booked guarantee,

01:24:08.340 | which actually says, "If at any time during your stay,

01:24:11.220 | "your listing isn't as advertised,

01:24:12.980 | "for example, the refrigerator stops working

01:24:15.100 | "and your host can't easily fix it,

01:24:17.060 | "or it has fewer bedrooms than listed,

01:24:19.440 | "you'll have three days to report it,

01:24:21.100 | "and we'll find you a similar or better home,

01:24:23.540 | "or we'll refund you."

01:24:24.760 | So my biggest concern reading that,

01:24:26.300 | and all the subsequent terms around it,

01:24:28.620 | is that it wasn't very clear

01:24:30.200 | whether they would find you the bigger or similar home,

01:24:32.660 | or refund you, and in our case,

01:24:34.940 | a refund wouldn't have been very helpful,

01:24:37.000 | because there weren't a lot of places that we could book.

01:24:39.420 | Actually, there were pretty much none

01:24:41.500 | that were a similar size, quality,

01:24:43.180 | and location at that price.

01:24:44.980 | So, I was a bit worried when the Airbnb support rep

01:24:47.860 | started sending me suggestions of places

01:24:49.700 | they could help us rebook,

01:24:51.100 | because we had booked a nice three-bedroom place,

01:24:54.180 | and all of their suggestions were studios,

01:24:56.780 | or one bedrooms with nowhere near enough room.

01:25:00.100 | However, when I sent them the three-bedroom place

01:25:02.940 | that I found that had all the same amenities,

01:25:05.600 | was centrally located, had a crib, had laundry in the unit,

01:25:09.140 | they actually created a coupon for me

01:25:11.720 | that brought the price down by 50%,

01:25:14.620 | so we didn't have to pay any extra.

01:25:16.700 | So, two days into our six-night stay,

01:25:18.980 | we moved into an amazing place,

01:25:20.660 | and wow, was it an upgrade

01:25:22.260 | from the previous place we stayed at.

01:25:24.060 | It was in an incredible location in Covent Garden,

01:25:26.700 | and it was such a nice place.

01:25:29.100 | Funny enough, we had a similar issue

01:25:30.660 | with the heat going out,

01:25:32.000 | but this host had a very different attitude,

01:25:34.420 | and had six heaters delivered before the kids' next nap time,

01:25:38.220 | and scheduled an emergency plumber

01:25:39.780 | to get things fixed within 24 hours.

01:25:42.160 | But the real highlight was the Harry Potter-themed kids' room.

01:25:45.480 | I really can't describe how cool it was,

01:25:47.380 | so if you're curious, check out the link in the show notes.

01:25:50.220 | It had a train-themed bunk bed,

01:25:52.260 | a custom bookshelf that looked like a bunch of suitcases,

01:25:55.700 | a hollow tree with a reading area inside it,

01:25:58.500 | and a mini castle on one wall.

01:26:00.780 | I definitely have some inspiration for a future kids' room,

01:26:03.880 | but if you're ever in London,

01:26:05.100 | and this place is in your budget, I highly recommend it.

01:26:08.260 | It was discounted 35% because it was last minute,

01:26:10.980 | and then Airbnb covered half of the rest,

01:26:13.600 | so you probably won't get it for almost 70% off,

01:26:16.660 | but I will say that it was amazing,

01:26:18.100 | and we would love to stay there again.

01:26:20.500 | And even if that place isn't the right fit,

01:26:22.380 | I definitely recommend staying in the Covent Garden area.

01:26:25.580 | It was so central to so many things,

01:26:28.060 | and especially when you have kids,

01:26:30.180 | it means you don't lose all those short,

01:26:32.260 | precious hours between naps on the train.

01:26:34.780 | Okay, so that was maybe more than you asked for,

01:26:37.260 | but I thought it was worth sharing

01:26:38.660 | because one of my biggest fears with Airbnb

01:26:40.940 | is that you'll get stuck in a place

01:26:42.260 | that doesn't quite match the photos or the reviews,

01:26:44.820 | and you won't have a good alternative.

01:26:46.740 | Well, I now feel a lot better

01:26:48.500 | having put the air cover policy to the test.

01:26:51.780 | That said, going forward,

01:26:53.060 | I will put an even higher emphasis on reading those reviews,

01:26:56.980 | and once the kids are a bit older,

01:26:58.840 | I think hotels will definitely be back on the table,

01:27:01.500 | at least for trips in cities.

01:27:03.480 | As for the rest of our time in London,

01:27:05.220 | let me share some highlights.

01:27:07.000 | When it comes with transportation,

01:27:08.700 | being able to use Apple Pay or a tap-to-pay credit card

01:27:11.460 | to ride the Tube or a bus was so great.

01:27:14.700 | Coming off the heels of Paris,

01:27:16.020 | where we were carrying around 10 packs

01:27:17.740 | of paper Metro tickets that got demagnetized

01:27:20.620 | by being too close to our cell phones,

01:27:22.700 | it was so convenient and easy.

01:27:24.980 | I did take a few Ubers for meetings,

01:27:27.020 | but if you wanna order a London cab,

01:27:28.840 | the app Free Now was what everyone said to use

01:27:31.940 | and was so easy.

01:27:33.540 | In fact, with an early morning flight

01:27:35.260 | and a new Airbnb that wasn't that close

01:27:37.340 | to the Heathrow trains,

01:27:38.840 | we opted for a cab to get to the airport.

01:27:40.900 | Leaving at 6 a.m., it only took 40 minutes,

01:27:43.380 | and it was 73 pounds versus 40 pounds

01:27:46.780 | on the Elizabeth Line or 75 pounds on the Heathrow Express.

01:27:50.660 | Also, speaking of paying for things,

01:27:52.440 | there might be somewhere you need cash in London,

01:27:54.820 | but I never found it.

01:27:56.060 | Every restaurant, food stall, Christmas market vendor,

01:27:59.060 | and convenience store had a tap-to-pay credit card terminal

01:28:02.180 | that made the cash I took from the ATM completely useless,

01:28:06.300 | though given the current exchange rate,

01:28:08.500 | those 200 pounds might be worth a lot more

01:28:10.700 | next time we visit.

01:28:11.820 | As for activities, I'll review a few things.

01:28:14.020 | First, the London Transport Museum.

01:28:16.380 | Our daughter absolutely loved it,

01:28:18.180 | so if you have kids, I'd recommend it,

01:28:20.420 | but as someone who's pretty fascinated by transportation,

01:28:23.340 | I was a little underwhelmed.

01:28:25.260 | Hamleys, which is a gigantic toy store,

01:28:27.580 | was similarly loved by my daughter

01:28:29.380 | and even fun for the adults,

01:28:31.220 | but if you're going during the holidays

01:28:32.620 | and you wanna see Santa, you do need a reservation.

01:28:35.780 | We also checked out the Natural History Museum,

01:28:37.860 | which was really awesome.

01:28:39.660 | I don't think we had the time to do it justice,

01:28:41.780 | but it's a free museum and it was really impressive.

01:28:45.260 | We also went around the corner

01:28:46.540 | to do a science-themed afternoon tea

01:28:48.860 | at the Ampersand Hotel, which was so much fun,

01:28:51.900 | and while they're pretty expensive,

01:28:53.740 | I think that if we had planned things a little more,

01:28:56.360 | we might've even done a second afternoon tea,

01:28:58.900 | and despite the kids' theme,

01:29:00.780 | Amy, Marta, our au pair, and I all really enjoyed it as well.

01:29:04.900 | As for food, I have a few recommendations.

01:29:07.660 | It is hard to put anything higher on the list than Dishoom,

01:29:10.920 | which has a few amazing Indian restaurants in London

01:29:14.020 | with fantastic bars, delicious chai,

01:29:16.900 | and ridiculously good food.

01:29:19.260 | Specifically, I would definitely check out

01:29:21.680 | the House Black Doll, the Chicken Ruby, and the Sali Bhoti.

01:29:25.520 | They were so delicious.

01:29:27.740 | In fact, Dishoom was so good for dinner

01:29:30.460 | that we literally came back the next morning for breakfast,

01:29:33.660 | where you should not skip out on the double bacon naan roll,

01:29:36.940 | and then we came back again for breakfast a few days later.

01:29:40.460 | It is just so good, so definitely check it out.

01:29:43.980 | We didn't have a reservation

01:29:45.060 | any of the three times we went,

01:29:46.500 | but if you wanna go without waiting at dinnertime,

01:29:49.020 | I definitely suggest making one.

01:29:50.780 | We also went to Borough Market one day

01:29:52.500 | and ate all kinds of delicious food from the food vendors.

01:29:55.800 | If you find yourself on the northwest side of Hyde Park,

01:29:58.820 | Norma's Malaysian restaurant was amazing,

01:30:01.820 | and the Mitre Lancaster Gate Pub

01:30:03.860 | was a perfect spot for a pub dinner.

01:30:06.180 | Amy and I did have one dinner out

01:30:07.700 | without the kids at Ave Mario,

01:30:09.780 | which was such a fun place for a dinner with great food,

01:30:13.100 | but the Silk Handkerchiefs pasta dish

01:30:15.540 | I had down the street at Bancon the night before

01:30:19.220 | might've been one of the best pasta dishes I have ever had.

01:30:22.860 | Amy wasn't feeling great that night,

01:30:24.620 | so I had a solo dinner at the bar,

01:30:26.380 | and it was so good that I wish we had one more night

01:30:29.100 | so I could take her back.

01:30:30.960 | Finally, that same night, I snuck out on my own

01:30:33.420 | to check out Opium, the cocktail bar that Jess recommended,

01:30:36.660 | and it was awesome, definitely suggest heading there.

01:30:40.180 | I also tried to go to the Barbary,

01:30:42.100 | but they had zero room for walk-ins, so that didn't happen,

01:30:45.440 | but the Seven Dials Market around the corner

01:30:47.860 | is a fantastic alternative.

01:30:49.920 | It's like an indoor street market

01:30:51.840 | with a couple dozen food vendors

01:30:53.700 | with cuisines from every corner of the globe.

01:30:56.620 | My favorites were the bao from Yum Bun

01:30:58.820 | and the chai from Chai Guys,

01:31:00.420 | but I didn't get to try as many things as I wanted.

01:31:03.520 | So I think that covers my London recap,

01:31:05.820 | and if you're not excited about a trip to London

01:31:08.020 | at this point, I'm really not sure

01:31:09.540 | why you're still listening,

01:31:10.980 | but I think you should be excited

01:31:12.440 | because it was so much fun,

01:31:13.900 | and I'm already looking forward to going back,

01:31:15.940 | and we literally just got home yesterday.

01:31:18.180 | So as for getting there, let's talk about flights.

01:31:21.460 | You can get to London from 33 different cities in the US,

01:31:24.860 | and almost all of those flights are to Heathrow,

01:31:27.340 | though a few of them are to Gatwick,

01:31:29.180 | so if you're searching on Google Flights,

01:31:30.860 | make sure to put both airports as your destination,

01:31:33.940 | and those flights are across seven different carriers,

01:31:36.380 | but if you're willing to change planes in Canada or Europe,

01:31:39.460 | then you could probably add another two dozen airlines

01:31:42.180 | to that list.

01:31:43.420 | So what are the tactics?

01:31:45.500 | Because our dates were pretty specific,

01:31:47.300 | I started doing my search on point.me,

01:31:49.940 | which, as I've said in the past,

01:31:51.500 | is $1 for your first month on the standard plan

01:31:54.060 | if you use the code ALLTHEHACKS,

01:31:55.980 | but they actually sent me an email for the holidays

01:31:58.140 | saying that the next 25 people that wanna give it a try

01:32:01.720 | can use ALLTHEHACKS for a free 24-hour pass.

01:32:05.060 | Now, if your dates aren't as flexible,

01:32:07.740 | I do tend to like searching on the airline websites more

01:32:10.740 | or using a tool called Seatspy,

01:32:13.600 | which lets you look at a calendar

01:32:14.900 | to look at more dates at once to try to find the best deals,

01:32:17.780 | but here's the summary for London,

01:32:19.960 | and this applies to Europe a little bit as well.

01:32:22.900 | First, while British Airways and Virgin Atlantic

01:32:25.060 | are great airlines,

01:32:26.500 | the taxes on their award flights can be so expensive.

01:32:29.740 | For business class, we're talking over $1,000 round trip

01:32:33.160 | per person just in taxes.

01:32:35.360 | It is a lot less in economy

01:32:36.880 | where you can actually find really great deals.

01:32:39.600 | For example, on Virgin, you can get to London from the US

01:32:42.740 | for 12,500 to 15,000 points per person each way,

01:32:47.080 | so if you're doing economy,

01:32:48.400 | it could be worth checking out Virgin or British Airways.

01:32:51.640 | All that said, if you wanna fly business

01:32:53.420 | and Virgin or British Airways are the only options,

01:32:55.760 | even with taxes at $1,500 a person,

01:32:58.640 | it's probably gonna be a better deal

01:33:00.220 | than paying for business class with cash.

01:33:02.860 | It's just not gonna be as good a deal

01:33:04.300 | as what you might find with the following options,

01:33:06.460 | which is what we did.

01:33:07.540 | I'll start with American, which is a great option,

01:33:09.980 | and it's a built transfer partner,

01:33:12.020 | with round trip awards costing

01:33:13.540 | as little as 25 to 30,000 points each way in economy

01:33:17.180 | and 57,500 in business,

01:33:19.780 | and as long as you're booking on American planes

01:33:22.580 | and not British Airways, which is one of their partners,

01:33:24.900 | the taxes on their flights is pretty reasonable.

01:33:27.300 | For Star Alliance, you'll probably be flying on United

01:33:29.840 | unless you're changing planes in Europe,

01:33:31.700 | but you can book on any of the Star Alliance carriers.

01:33:35.320 | If you book on United,

01:33:36.480 | it can be as low as 30,000 miles each way in economy,

01:33:39.600 | 45,000 in premium economy, and 60,000 in business,

01:33:43.380 | but that same 60,000 point flight in business on United

01:33:46.760 | can actually be booked with Turkish Air,

01:33:49.440 | which is a built or Capital One transfer partner

01:33:51.720 | for 45,000 points.

01:33:53.720 | In fact, that is exactly what we did.

01:33:55.880 | I found four seats available in business

01:33:58.400 | for 60,000 points each way on United,

01:34:01.320 | and then set up a Turkish Air account

01:34:03.080 | and called them to book it.

01:34:04.640 | The other great thing about Turkish

01:34:05.840 | is you can actually book the award

01:34:07.280 | before you transfer the points,

01:34:08.680 | so you can be confident you're getting exactly what you want.

01:34:11.600 | It's a bit frustrating because you have to book on the phone,

01:34:14.560 | which is a bit of a pain,

01:34:16.000 | but I ended up saving about 60,000 points

01:34:18.320 | on those four tickets,

01:34:19.360 | so it was definitely worth the phone call.

01:34:21.640 | Also, no matter where you book that United flight,

01:34:24.300 | the taxes and fees are pretty reasonable

01:34:26.280 | at a few hundred dollars a person in business

01:34:28.440 | and even less in economy.

01:34:29.800 | The last option, and one of my favorites,

01:34:31.380 | is booking with Air France or KLM's Flying Blue,

01:34:34.240 | which happens to be a transfer partner

01:34:35.760 | of Chase, Amex, Cap One, Citi, and Built,

01:34:38.880 | so chances are you probably have a way

01:34:40.360 | to get your points to their program.

01:34:42.360 | On top of that, they have great availability to Europe,

01:34:45.000 | and both the miles needed and the taxes and fees

01:34:47.780 | are pretty reasonable,

01:34:49.080 | not to mention they frequently have transfer bonuses

01:34:51.720 | when you move miles over.

01:34:53.320 | For flights to Europe,

01:34:54.300 | it's gonna be as little as 25,000 points each way in economy

01:34:57.520 | and 55,000 in business.

01:34:59.900 | For our trip, the exact flights we wanted,

01:35:01.920 | which were nonstop from SFO to Paris in business,

01:35:04.420 | were actually 75,000 points plus $195 in taxes.

01:35:09.100 | However, since there was a 25% transfer bonus to Amex,

01:35:12.460 | we only needed 60,000 Amex points per person to do it,

01:35:16.280 | so we booked SFO to Paris nonstop on Air France

01:35:20.500 | for 60,000 Amex points that we transferred to Air France

01:35:23.700 | and paid $195 per person in taxes and fees,

01:35:27.180 | and then to get home,

01:35:28.460 | we booked London to SF nonstop on United in business

01:35:32.060 | for 45,000 Capital One points

01:35:34.080 | that we transferred to Turkish Air

01:35:35.860 | plus $302 per person in taxes and fees.

01:35:39.400 | So we booked four tickets, but per passenger,

01:35:41.860 | it was 105,000 points plus $500 in taxes

01:35:46.400 | to fly nonstop business class round trip to Europe.

01:35:50.280 | And when I looked at booking those flights nonstop

01:35:53.660 | in business with cash, it was about $7,000 per person,

01:35:58.380 | which means a value of a little over 6 cents per point,

01:36:02.000 | which is pretty damn good.

01:36:03.660 | One other thing to share is about bringing a lap infant.

01:36:07.220 | While on domestic flights, they're free,

01:36:09.140 | it is a totally different situation internationally.

01:36:12.260 | Depending on the airline, the cost can vary widely.

01:36:15.740 | For some airlines, it's a fixed number of miles,

01:36:18.340 | and for others, you have to pay 10 to 25%

01:36:21.220 | of the full fare cost of that business class ticket.

01:36:24.100 | So that's the $7,000 ticket that we never would have bought.

01:36:27.860 | On Air France, it was the latter

01:36:29.260 | at 10% of a full fare business ticket.

01:36:32.340 | So we actually had to pay $643, which seems crazy,

01:36:37.340 | but it almost seemed crazier to spend the miles

01:36:40.620 | and the dollars to get a six-month-old,

01:36:42.400 | her own seat in business class.

01:36:44.340 | For booking the United flight,

01:36:45.860 | the cost of her seat was actually very different

01:36:48.240 | depending on how we booked it.

01:36:50.100 | If we'd done it on United, it would've been 10% of the fare,

01:36:53.140 | but it was capped at $250.

01:36:55.440 | Had we booked it on Air Canada,

01:36:57.020 | it would've just been 2,500 miles,

01:36:59.380 | but on Turkish, it was 10% of the adult miles,

01:37:02.100 | so 4,500 miles in our case, plus taxes and fees,

01:37:06.380 | which for us was $88.

01:37:08.220 | Also note that most of these sites

01:37:10.100 | don't make it easy to book a lap infant online,

01:37:12.760 | so we had to call Air France and Turkish to do it manually.

01:37:16.540 | And fun hack, as soon as I found the availability

01:37:19.740 | I wanted on Air France, I wanted to book it quickly,

01:37:22.820 | but it was too late for the US reservations office

01:37:25.180 | to be open, and it was too early for the one in France.

01:37:28.580 | So I used Google Voice,

01:37:30.220 | and I called the Tokyo Air France office

01:37:32.660 | because it was open,

01:37:33.940 | and we were able to get things booked right then.

01:37:36.900 | But this hack isn't just for when offices are closed

01:37:39.700 | and you need to make a booking.

01:37:41.060 | It is also great for when lines are busy in the US.

01:37:45.220 | So when there's major weather issues or delays in the US

01:37:48.260 | and calling United, American, or Delta

01:37:50.460 | has you stuck on long wait times,

01:37:52.780 | try calling the office in London, Tokyo,

01:37:55.260 | or any other country around the world,

01:37:57.260 | and you can usually get through right away.

01:37:59.700 | Just make sure to use a service like Google Voice

01:38:01.660 | so the call isn't that expensive.

01:38:03.380 | Okay, so that's flights,

01:38:04.420 | but I do wanna briefly talk about booking hotels

01:38:06.740 | with points, even though we stayed at an Airbnb.

01:38:09.800 | The short version is that there are so many options

01:38:11.960 | at every price point that I feel good

01:38:14.080 | you can find something with your points,

01:38:15.900 | but because there are so many hotels in London

01:38:18.740 | and prices are competitive,

01:38:20.380 | you might actually be better off saving your points

01:38:22.500 | for flights and just paying cash.

01:38:24.620 | However, if you do wanna use points,

01:38:26.140 | I'll share a few things.

01:38:27.480 | First, if you already have your points in a hotel program,

01:38:30.620 | then you'll probably just be using those

01:38:32.180 | and searching from their site,

01:38:33.500 | and you probably are pretty familiar.

01:38:35.360 | If not, I think the only real way

01:38:37.580 | to get a good deal in London,

01:38:39.020 | at least on the luxury side of the spectrum,

01:38:41.540 | is to transfer Chase or BuiltPoints and bill with Hyatt.

01:38:44.660 | So I would start just searching straight on the Hyatt site.

01:38:48.340 | However, if you want a great map

01:38:50.740 | of all the points hotels options in London,

01:38:53.560 | I'll put it in the show notes.

01:38:55.020 | I think it's a little out of date,

01:38:56.380 | but it's a good starting point.

01:38:58.020 | And I'll also put a link in the show notes

01:38:59.660 | to a few articles I liked

01:39:01.180 | that specifically went through a bunch

01:39:02.960 | of London hotel options at different points budgets.

01:39:06.300 | And if you're booking for a family,

01:39:07.580 | you should know that a lot of hotels

01:39:09.400 | have max capacity limits in Europe.

01:39:11.920 | Sometimes it's two, sometimes it's three people.

01:39:14.520 | So definitely make sure that when you're searching,

01:39:16.480 | you put the right number of guests in your search.

01:39:19.620 | In general, some of the best points options

01:39:21.380 | for families are Club Carlson,

01:39:23.280 | which lets you book premium or bigger rooms

01:39:25.480 | for not too many points.

01:39:27.000 | Marriott, Hilton, and IHG are the most likely

01:39:29.320 | to have rooms with three plus person capacity.

01:39:32.720 | And some of the Hyatt hotels,

01:39:33.940 | like the Churchill and the Andaz,

01:39:35.640 | have some large rooms or suites

01:39:37.560 | that you can book for points that have larger capacities.

01:39:40.560 | Finally, if you're not gonna use points, two tips.

01:39:43.960 | One, first, if you're looking for luxury hotels,

01:39:46.840 | definitely check out

01:39:47.760 | the All The Hacks Luxury Upgrade Program.

01:39:50.340 | You can find it at allthehacks.com/upgrade,

01:39:53.440 | where through a partnership I set up,

01:39:55.060 | we can get you free upgrades, free breakfast,

01:39:57.680 | late checkout, and a property credit

01:39:59.880 | at hotels in London like the Connaught,

01:40:01.680 | the Ham Yard, the Four Seasons, and dozens more.

01:40:04.680 | And this, by the way,

01:40:05.520 | applies to almost any other luxury hotel in the world.

01:40:09.280 | Second, check out @hotel on Instagram and send them a DM.

01:40:13.620 | They sometimes have ridiculously good deals on hotels

01:40:17.040 | because of the fact that requiring you to DM them

01:40:20.220 | makes their access private,

01:40:22.580 | which means they can offer rates better

01:40:24.280 | than what you see on hotel websites

01:40:26.100 | or sites like booking.com.

01:40:27.900 | (upbeat music)

01:40:29.360 | Hopefully that helps you with hotels on your trip.

01:40:31.920 | And I think that covers everything for this episode.

01:40:34.520 | I am so curious to hear what you all think about this one,

01:40:37.640 | because I've never done a city

01:40:39.240 | or country-specific travel episode.

01:40:41.600 | So I would love any or all feedback

01:40:44.480 | so I know whether to keep doing them,

01:40:46.520 | what cities to prioritize,

01:40:48.120 | or if there's anything else I could do to make them better.

01:40:51.120 | Finally, happy holidays to everyone.

01:40:53.840 | I hope you have a wonderful time

01:40:55.520 | celebrating the holiday season with your families.

01:40:57.720 | I am so thankful for all your support this year,

01:41:00.760 | and I'll see you next week.

01:41:03.120 | (upbeat music)

01:41:06.400 | (electricity buzzing)

01:41:09.560 | (birds chirping)

01:41:12.300 | [BLANK_AUDIO]