We have for Love in London, we sell a three-day itinerary, that's our most popular thing. And we also have a six-day one, which has actually been really popular as well because most of my audience are people who are coming from the US, so they are coming for usually more than three days.

But a week is a great amount of time. And I usually say, if you want to do day trips, I usually recommend not doing them if you have less than a week because there's just so much you can do in London. And again, if you're still feeling a bit jet lagged and you've come to London, you've been running, running, running for the first few days, and then you have to hop on a train one day and head out to Bath or Oxford or wherever you want to go, that's great.

But also you might want to just slow it down a little bit, in my opinion. I'm always trying to get people to just be like, "Okay, there's a lot to do and you can't do it all. So let's try to slow down and leave some room for if you see a shop that you want to go into and spend an hour in, or you run past a cafe and you're like, "Let's just sit for an hour and have a nice coffee and just relax," then you can do that.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of All The Hacks, a show about upgrading your life, money and travel. If you're new here, I'm your host, Chris Hutchins, and one of the areas I love optimizing the most is travel. I've been to 60 plus countries and on every trip, I love meeting locals, trying to understand their culture, having authentic experiences.

And most of all, I love finding a way to eat all the best foods a place has to offer. So I thought it'd be fun to introduce a new type of episode where I bring in a local expert in another country to share all the hacks for visiting their city.

I was originally going to start with Japan because it just opened, I have the perfect person in mind, and it's probably my favorite travel destination in the world. But that episode will be next because after my episode with Bill Perkins, which is amazing if you haven't checked it out, I started talking with Amy about how we could start optimizing for more net fulfillment in our lives.

And so we actually decided to book a last minute trip to London on less than two weeks notice and ended up getting a ridiculous deal with points, which I will talk about at the end of this episode. So with a trip to London on the horizon, I reached out to Jessica Dante, who not only has been living there for almost a decade, but runs the Love in London YouTube channel, which has over 20 million views, and she knows so much about London.

We're going to get into why you should visit, what you should do, what mistakes to avoid, and get all of Jess' secret spots to visit to have an incredible trip. So let's get into it right after this. Jess, thank you for joining the first travel destination episode of All The Hacks.

Amazing. Thanks for having me. Really happy that London is the first. I'm not going to lie. I think I'm a little biased, but I think it's maybe the best in my opinion, but you know. Well, it's not just you. So someone shared me this list from afar, the website and magazine afar, there was the 10 best cities and London was number one.

And there was another study that residents did on the best cities and in London was number one. It just came out also for 2023. And then I looked at travel and leisure's best destinations for 2023 and London's on that list. So I was like, "Wow. So London's the number one city." It wasn't even just to live or to travel.

It was just the number one city on two lists. So I think I want to ask you, why do you love London? What is it about London that makes it such an amazing city? Oh my gosh. Well, there's so many things, but I think a couple of the top things are, I love how diverse that the city is.

So that goes from the people that live here to the architecture, to the types of cuisines that you can try here. You just meet so many different people with so many different backgrounds. You can eat so much amazing food and you can experience so many different things, no matter what your interest is or what your budget is.

There's just basically something for everyone, whether you live here or you just come to visit. So I love that. And as someone who works telling people what to do in London, I don't want to ever get bored and I never will because there's so much to experience and it's always changing too.

So I'm going to be here for like 30 years and there's still going to be more for me to check out. And I'll be like, "I haven't been there yet. I got to go check that out and see if it's good or not." Is there something that sets it apart from other major metros that of course have diversity, have lots of restaurants, have lots of things to do?

Yeah. So I think London is a really interesting in-between, in my opinion, of New York and the rest of Europe. So I'm originally from New York. I'm from Long Island, but I've spent time in New York, obviously, I have friends who live there. And New York City is go, go, go, right?

Which I love. I love that energy and it's really intense. And then very generally speaking, a lot of parts of mainland Europe are a lot more relaxed, right? When it comes to working culture, basically all of the culture, it's seen as like a lot more relaxed and liberal, whereas London's kind of like in the middle.

So it's a really good balance for me. And I think a couple of good examples of that is our work-life balance is better here. So people are a bit better than say New York about actually leaving work at six o'clock, mainly because people want to get to the pub, which I'm totally down for.

I think that's a great motivation, if that's your motivation. And yeah. And I think something that's also really unique about London that as someone who lives here, I really feel is like super important is that we have so much green space here. So compared to my time in New York and other major cities, London's really spread out and you're really actually never that far from a beautiful public, free green space that you can enjoy.

And I think that works actually for tourists as well. And it's one of the beautiful things you can experience when you come to visit London, too. So we have green spaces. We have gone to a pub. Are there other few other like top London experiences for you? Not for anyone else, just for you.

I love Sunday roast. Do you know what Sunday roast is? OK, so it's a British tradition of obviously it happens on Sundays where you go to the pub and they on the menu only on Sundays. They have this special roast menu and you choose from different types of meat.

So it's usually chicken, pork, beef and sometimes a couple other ones or loads of places do vegetarian, which is where I usually go for and also vegan. And then basically from the Americans, I always kind of equate it to they bring this plate out and it's not dissimilar to Thanksgiving food.

So it's kind of like you can have Thanksgiving like every Sunday. It's a plate that has roast vegetables on it. There's really good potatoes. They do gravy. There's this kind of like a pastry that's called Yorkshire pudding, which is like so yummy and you use that to soak up the gravy and sometimes there's cauliflower cheese.

And it's just like a really nice tradition where you gather up your family or you gather up your friends and you're like, let's go for a Sunday roast. You just go to the local pub and sit and you eat Sunday roast. And if you want to have a pint of beer, you can do that, too.

So I like that's one of my favorite things I always tell people to make sure you get to a pub on a Sunday and experience that. What sounds like one thing that is uniquely London is that the pub is something that you could do with your family. I'm like I'm thinking as someone flying over overseas with a two year old and a six month old, I'm like, oh, you know, we're not really going to have the same trip we used to.

It sounds like in London I could just go to the pub with my kids and we could have a beer. You can. Yeah. So pubs are really they're very family friendly, especially on the weekends and especially in the areas not they're not as friendly in very central London. So around like the really main touristy areas.

But for example, one of my favorite areas that I tell people to go to for pub experience is Notting Hill. And you'll always on a weekend go to the pubs in Notting Hill and see families there and they've got little kids, they've got teenagers and it's like a family thing.

Sometimes it's big groups of families that will go and it's very normal. They cater to kids. So it's like nothing out of the ordinary. And it's a really nice daytime weekend experience for families. Awesome. So while I'm actually planning a trip to London, though, we've already booked flights and where we're staying.

I'm going to assume most people aren't. So I want to start this and just talk about all the awesome things there are to do, get people excited. And then at the end, we can wrap up and talk about things like hotels, flights, transportation, that kind of stuff. What's the vibe of people in London?

Is it easy to meet people? Are they friendly? What should we know about Londoners? So Londoners are very nice, but we're a little bit more closed off when it comes to meeting "outsiders" only because I think it comes from that everyone's just really busy and we just – the British are just a tiny bit more closed off than compared to the Americans, which everyone's a little bit more closed off that I think compared to us Americans.

Right? So that's not a hard feat. That being said, if you do end up talking to somebody who lives in London, generally they will be very nice and if you, for example, need help on the street and you can't figure out where the tube station is, you can stop somebody and they'll be like, "Yeah, yeah.

No worries. It's just down that way," or they might even walk you. But it is a little bit harder to meet people. That does change, though, when alcohol is involved. It's much easier to make friends when everyone's had a couple of pints. Is there a type of person you think a trip to London is best for?

Is it young, old, single kids? I don't – I mean, I don't think so because there is so much that you can do here. I think that everyone's basically covered. I think people that come with kids, maybe it's a little bit harder because if you're trying to use public transportation, it is trickier if you've got like a lot of stuff that you're carrying or if you've got strollers.

That is tricky because a lot of the tube stations don't have steps or they do have steps and they don't have escalators or elevators. So that's tricky. That being said, though, if you're staying pretty central and you've got kids, a lot of people end up just walking everywhere. So maybe they'll do like an hour walk to get to the first area that they want to go explore.

So it is doable. I mean, you save money doing that too. But there is kind of something for everyone and then you just kind of have to adjust based on your needs and your budget. Yeah. For that one, we just bought a super compact light stroller that's like one click pop on your shoulder, carry a kid down the stairs.

So we are prepared for running around the city. We don't have one of these giant American bus strollers with us for this trip. Is there a best time? And by all means, if I pick anything, if I tell you I'm staying somewhere and you're like, that's the worst place to stay or that's the worst time of year to go.

Don't feel bad about offending me like this is for everyone else. But yeah, when would you say someone should plan their trip? A lot of it will depend on what your budget is. So and again, it's not not to be like that every time of year is great to go.

But actually, the beauty of London is that there's always going to be a pro of a time that you're going to visit and there's going to be a con. So for example, you guys are coming in very soon. So that will be middle to end of December. The pro is it's so festive here.

It is incredibly beautiful. There's so many fun Christmasy things to do if that's what you're into. There's also like lots of ice skating rinks and there's great shopping. The downside of that is that it is cold, of course, and also it is very crowded. So like what you guys probably are going to want to do is if you want to do some of the major things like the free museums, like the Natural History Museum, for sure, you'll want to avoid weekends because it is right now just like absolutely rammed with people who come from outside of London, take the train in and take the kids to go do everything.

So every time of year has a pro and con. If you come in January, it's really, really cold, but it's also the quietest time and also the cheapest time. If you come in the summer, you're hopefully, fingers crossed, going to get the best weather. You're also going to get the most sunlight because it stays light till almost 10 o'clock, which is really cool.

But also the prices are highest because it's peak travel season. And again, you're going to see those crowds. And if you get a heat wave, we don't deal with heat waves very well here. A lot of places do not have air cons. So if that's something that like you're considering that would be really tricky for you, then that's probably not going to be a good time for you to come.

And then shoulder seasons are always great because they've got kind of the mix of the peak and the downtime. So, yeah. So if you want to deal, avoid the summer, I would say avoid Christmas, New Year's kind of holidays. But we're going like the two weeks before that. And we got amazing deals because I think no one wants to.

Everyone's traveling in the States for Thanksgiving. Everyone's traveling around Christmas, New Year's. No one's really traveling the first few weeks of December. So I think it's a great deal time. We'll see how the weekends, how we fare on the weekends. Maybe those are our park days to just kind of let the kids run wild.

But yeah, I have a friend who always was like, you know what, you can go to any city for any amount of time. Is it crazy if you live in New York and it's seven hours to go for the weekend? Like is it crazy to go for a week, two weeks?

At what point in time do you say maybe if you're going that long, check out some other place for a few days? You can do a weekend. So when I first moved over here and I was working at a travel company, this travel company was selling to the British crowd these three day trips to New York.

And I was like, that is absurd. Who would fly all the way to New York for three days? But I mean, it is doable. It's actually not that far if you really think about it. But it is quite a journey, right? So I usually say at least a week is a really good amount of time because you can really dig into some of the areas, not just like the main tourist attractions, but you can also give yourself time and you don't have to feel like you're rushing around because you have three days to see whether it's all the main tourist attractions, or if there's like you want to see Shoreditch and you want to do Notting Hill, but those are really far apart.

So you're probably not going to do those in the same day. Just gives you some time to take your time and also be a little bit more spontaneous. We have for Love in London, we sell a three day itinerary. That's our most popular thing. And we also have a six day one, which has actually been really popular as well because most of my audience are people who are coming from the US.

So they are coming for usually more than three days, but a week is a great amount of time. And I usually say if you want to do day trips, I usually recommend not doing them if you have less than a week because there's just so much you can do in London.

And again, if you're still feeling a bit jet lagged and you've come to London, you've been running, running, running for the first few days, and then you have to hop on a train one day and head out to Bath or Oxford or wherever you want to go, that's great.

But also you might want to just slow it down a little bit. In my opinion, I'm always trying to get people to just be like, OK, there's a lot to do. So and you can't do it all. So let's try to like slow down and leave some room for if you see a shop that you want to go into and spend an hour in or you run past a cafe and you're like, let's just sit for an hour and have a nice coffee and just relax and you can do that.

So we're going for, I think, six days. We're not going anywhere else. Our style of travel, though, to be clear, we haven't actually done this with kids is much more like I want to get the experience of like being in London, living in London. So if we miss some of the tourist destinations, that's fine.

Like London is so central to so many European trips that I'm sure we'll be back in the future. So I think we're trying to go on the kind of trip you describe. And I went through one of those itineraries you made and I was like, this is exactly what I want.

I would say maybe I was like, we have two kids. It's probably a little over overkill for two kid trip. But some of those things we'll just we'll just skip. We talked about the people, but what's the style like? You know, what is a typical London style? What are people wearing?

What are people? How do people? Yeah, you know. So I it's funny because people ask me that. And like a few years ago, I used to kind of have an as like a specific idea. And now because of how fashion is, it actually depends on what area that you're in in London and what kind of place that you're in, what type of restaurant people in London have, like a really big range of style.

We do have a lot of people who work in fashion here. And so there's a lot of people who dress quite trendy. There's a lot of people who dress very classic. So, you know, the usual like trench coat, kind of what you would expect. So the nice thing is you can kind of wear what you are comfortable in.

I would usually say, though, and again, if we're speaking to the American audience, that generally in London, people are a little bit more dressed up than people tend to be in the US. So if you tend to be like really casual when you go out to eat and you're going to a nice place when you come to London, you're probably going to want to like just judge it up just a little bit like and just to feel like you're going to kind of like fit in a little bit more.

But like I said, it's a major city and you're never you're not going to be like reprimanded for what you're wearing. No one's going to like poke fun at you or anything like that. It's like everyone's too worried about themselves, to be honest. So you're totally fine. Yeah, it's it's a really interesting mix.

And actually, like if you go to East London, the style is very, very different. East London is very trendy. A lot of artists live around and work around there. So and then if you go to West London, like to Notting Hill, that's where you'll find more of like the classic looks.

But then there's also mixes of both in those. So it's really quite interesting. What about food? Is it is it is London, you know, you said there's lots of cuisines for all the world. But would you say London's like a foodie town for drinks? Is it like there's pubs?

So is it more of a beer crowd? You know, California seems like it's more wine and now cocktails in the city. Yeah. So everything all of the above. So London's amazing of just you can just you can try any cuisine here from all over the world, which I think is something I do see that's a little bit of a mistake from tourists sometimes is that you come to London and you only just want to have British food, which I'm not saying don't have British food, like have try fish and chips, bangers and mash, the pie, like totally do that if that's what you want to do.

But there's also so many different cuisines that especially if like if you don't think you're ever going to get to Malaysia, why don't you try like Malaysian food or Sri Lankan food? And you can really expand your palate and try cuisines that you might not ever get to try again if you're never going to go to like a major metropolitan city.

So we have a huge foodie scene here. Same with drinks. So pubs are huge, but also cocktail bars. We've got great wine bars. There's drinking for the lower end of the budget and just like rowdy, like more fun younger crowds. Then there's also really fancy speakeasies and really like exclusive cocktail bars.

Anything you can want. We've got it here. So again, like this is what's so cool about London is that anything that you want, you're going to be able to find it. You just kind of have to like do a little sifting. So we're going to get into a lot of these things and I want some real recommendations.

What you said a mistake is eating just British food. I feel like British food has a pretty terrible reputation. So I'm like, man, if you're if that's what you're coming to London for, you're probably doing it wrong. What other mistakes are people making when they're coming to London? Well, I am going to caveat that what you just said, actually.

So British food has gotten much better. So you can do really well. And if you do want to have British food, I always say the best place is at pubs because most pubs will have restaurant sections and they'll have like classic pub menus or they'll do they'll be more of like a gastropub and do a modern take on similar British dishes.

So it is good. But yeah, I just wanted to throw that in there. But I think it is definitely the type of food that you'll get sick of after like eating it three times in a row. So for sure. Yeah. And I think I watched a few of your videos and one of them was like, if it says it's like truly authentic pub, just like run away.

Yeah, exactly. It's one of those things like if you have to say it, you probably aren't. So I do forget what your original question was. Other mistakes. Oh, yeah. So something that I have been seeing with tourists recently is there's a lot of content around when you use public transportation here that you have to get an Oyster card, which I used to always talk about this.

So a lot of people are seeing some of my old videos. An Oyster card is basically something that you can buy once you get here, where you add your money to it and you use it to tap in and out for the underground system or to use the buses.

But then you have to keep topping it up. You also have to pay seven pounds for each of the cards and it's non-refundable. So instead, I'm just trying to tell people you can actually use Apple Pay or Google Pay and you don't have to worry about doing the top up.

And also, if you have any credit or debit cards that are contactless, you can use those too. You don't have to use your credit card. You don't have to wait in the queue to top it up at the station every time you run out of credit. So that's something I see quite a lot.

I also see a lot of people who think that you have to spend a ton of money on their hotel to make sure that they're in a safe area or they're just at a safe property. And they end up sticking to, let's say, some of the big U.S. corporate brands, which is fine.

That's fine. That's fine and stuff. So a lot of people are trying to stick to the Marriotts and this and that, blah, blah, blah. That's completely fine. But we have so many amazing, safe boutique hotel properties that are so beautiful and interesting and they're small. And they're in great areas too, even if they're not in very central London.

So I would say don't ever discount something that looks like it's a good deal if it just doesn't seem like it's something that's a name that's recognizable to you or it's in an area that you don't necessarily recognize as Covent Garden or Soho right in the center of London.

So yeah, you could end up in a really amazing hotel and also in a cool area. Is there a good rating site in the UK that's like, "Oh, I'm looking at this hotel. Is it good?" I don't personally put a lot of faith in TripAdvisor. And so I'm curious, whether it's restaurants or hotels, is there a thing?

So for hotels, I personally use Booking.com. I find that the ratings generally are on point. And then obviously, you can just book right through Booking.com. So it's really easy. I use that. I don't really use TripAdvisor for anything actually anymore. And then in terms of food, so we don't have like a Yelp here.

And TripAdvisor is generally tourists. So I would say if you're looking for like what locals think about food or a bar or something like that, probably like Google Reviews, which you never really know. But I think that's where most Londoners would go if they're looking for reviews in a style that's a site like that with like actual reviews from people.

Otherwise, we have websites like The Infatuation is really big here, Time Out, Love & London. I don't know if you heard of it, but we talk about food and drink and all the things, of course. Yeah. So you briefly said something about safety. Like, is there dangerous parts of London?

Should people be concerned at all? I feel like I had this one realization where I was reading this Lonely Planet book for New York for fun. I think someone we knew was traveling around the States and it was like, New York, make sure you get a money belt and you put all of your money in your money belt and tuck it in your pants.

And I was like, I've been to New York dozens of times. It's never crossed my mind. I've lived there. Never been a thing. Is everyone just always kind of scaring people? So what's the lowdown there? Are there places to avoid? Are there times a day to avoid? Is the tube rampant with pickpockets?

There are areas in London that are, relatively speaking, not safe, but they're never where tourists are going to end up. So I always say, don't worry about the area. It's never a place that you would ever go. So it doesn't have anything that you would want to go to anyway.

So areas are completely fine. In terms of pickpockets and things like that, just like you would in any other city, just keep your stuff close to you. Don't have your phone waving around. We do have a little bit of a problem at the moment of mopeds going by and grabbing phones out of hands.

So that's really the main thing, but otherwise, just the same rules you would apply to any major city. Don't have your pockets open. Don't have anything in the back pocket where people can easily take it from you. Keep everything zipped up, everything close to you. Don't have any valuables out in plain sight.

But millions of people run around the city every day and have absolutely no problem. So it's really nothing to be concerned about. And I think in terms of safety at night, generally, the only thing I would say is that women on their own... So I usually, past 11 o'clock, will get an Uber to get home.

But if I was with somebody else, then we're fine to be on public transport and to walk on our own. So yeah, you can take that. People can interpret it as how they want to. I want to get a lay of the land. And we could spend so long talking about, "Here's this neighbor, that neighbor." But is there generally a way you break up the city and kind of group it into a few major areas?

The most popular area that tourists a lot of times only stay in is what's called central London. Which is the really famous areas like Soho, Covent Garden, Marlebone, the South Bank, Westminster, which is where Buckingham Palace, Houses of Parliament, all those places are. And it includes a few other areas.

That's where the majority of the tourist attractions are. And it is the dead center of London. So that's where even Londoners will go there if we're meeting a friend for dinner and we both live on other parts of the city. So that's where a lot of tourists end up doing a lot of stuff.

There's lots of good restaurants around there and bars and things like that. You just have to know where you're going. So there's also some really not so good stuff there. It's like very tourist trappy and kind of gross. It's those like authentic pub kind of places that you'll find there.

And then beyond that, there is basically the city's broken up into four major areas, simply North London, South London, East London and West London. And in each of those areas, there's a few main areas that I would say that tourists are more likely to go to because there's things to do and it's not only just kind of like neighborhood-y.

There's good bars, good restaurants, parks, activities, things like that. So personally for me, I live in East London. That's my favorite part of the city. There's just lots of stuff to do around here and it's fun and beautiful. But then West London has Notting Hill and lots of great museums and really interesting things to do there.

And North and South also have their great things too. And we also, as Londoners, we have this like really big divide of we self-identify if we're East or West London and we think the other side is terrible. We don't know why people live there. And then the same with North of the River, which is the River Thames or South of the River.

And there's like this constant battle of like, "Why would you live on the other side? It's so boring there." And it's just always been like that. Let's highlight a couple neighborhoods where you're like, "These are just really cool spots." Whether you stay there, you spend an afternoon or a morning there, what would you put on your list of like, I don't know, three or four awesome neighborhoods in London?

Not all in East London. I know you think it's the coolest place ever, but... Okay. Fine. Fine. Right. So I've said Notting Hill a lot. I think that's a really famous one. So I might not spend too much time on that. But Notting Hill is a really beautiful area and it's one of the few areas of London where even though it's quite popular with tourists, it still has a really interesting local vibe where neighbors actually say hello to each other.

People pass by each other on the streets. The actual Londoners that live there are... It's a really lovely community area and that's why the pub scene around there is so great. And that's why I always recommend people to go do pub hopping around there for like a nice relaxed afternoon.

It's not like a crazy like, "Let's get drunk pub," kind of area. And then if we... But if we skip on past Notting Hill, in North London, there's an area called Hampstead, which has the main thing there is this park called Hampstead Heath. And it's this beautiful big park that has viewpoints.

There's swimming ponds that people go to in the summer. There's Kenwood House, which if... Have you ever seen the movie Notting Hill actually, Chris? I'm not sure if I have. Like when you say it, I'm like, "Of course, it's a movie. I remember it." But now I'm like, "Have I?

I don't know." That's okay. Well, if you do watch it, and I'm sure there will be people listening that have seen it. Kenwood House is featured in the movie towards the end when she's filming this like Victorian film and Hugh Grant's like listening to her speak. And it's a whole thing.

You'll have to watch it at some point. So the house that's featured in that is in Hampstead Heath. So people like go to Hampstead Heath to see this beautiful Victorian house, which actually is also a little museum that has art and other things that you can see in there.

So that's a really good jumping off point. Really great to take kids there because they can run around and see the wildlife. They can see people swimming. They can go swimming if that's maybe not right now, but it'll take a while. Probably not on this trip. Yeah. Not this trip.

Not this trip. And then you can go into Hampstead Village, which has really great cafes, bars, restaurants, and it's super family friendly. It's also this really just beautiful area with like multi-million pound houses. A lot of celebrities live around here and there's a lot of historical value. So that's Hampstead.

Yeah. And then, I mean, it's hard to pick because there's so many and I love to kind of talk a little bit more about the areas that people don't go to as much. Like if we go to South London, there's an area that's called Brixton and Brixton is super diverse, has really great markets that have been around for ages and they have vendors selling like all different types of wares and as well as there's little wine bars, there's little shops there.

So yeah, Brixton is just a really cool, interesting area with lots of up and coming bars and restaurants and just lots of interesting things to do down there. If you're going to stay central though, there's an area that I really like going to that's called Seven Dials. So it's really close to Covent Garden, which is one of the most famous areas in central to go.

But Seven Dials is basically seven streets that converge onto each other and there's a sundial in the middle of it. That's obviously where the name comes from. And down these streets, there's some not independent places, but there's also lots of great independent cafes and restaurants. There's a couple of pubs in the area and there's a really great indoor food market called Seven Dials Food Market, which I highly recommend.

And then there's also this hidden little courtyard that's called Neal's Yard, which you can go into. It's where it's the home of Neal's Yard Remedies, which is quite a famous skincare brand. And in there you'll find this fantastic wine bar called CVS and also one of my favorite restaurants in London called The Barbary.

And now they have a new place next door called The Barbary next door. And they do food that's inspired by the Barbary Coast. And it's so good, really, really good. So it's one of those ways I'm like, I don't really love telling people about this, but I don't want to gatekeep.

So yeah, really yummy food there, but it's a really cute, colorful little courtyard. And so it looks really nice in photos as well. And you can sit there, have a glass of wine, have some food, have a coffee. It's great. Awesome. And then I am going to circle over to East London.

It is my favorite. There's an area called Shoreditch. This is probably the most popular area of East London. And it is very eclectic, is the area that's the most popular for street art. So if you are really interested in seeing street art, this is where you're going to do it.

You can either walk around on your own and easily find it, or there's loads of like really affordable or free street art tours that you can do. This is also where a lot of creative agencies are based, a lot of artistic agencies. So a lot of the people that are in this area, even during the week, are very creative.

So you always kind of feel that vibe while you're there. And of course, you're going to have good cafes, good coffee, fantastic restaurants. This is a really, I come to this area a lot to eat. Where? Just like one level, cafes, coffee shops. A little bit more. Yeah, yeah.

Where do you go? So one of the restaurants that I love is called Bao, and they do Taiwanese bao buns. And in Shoreditch, they have a noodle shop, which is really good. So highly recommend going there. And for cafes, there's, God, there's a lot of places. Attendant Cafe is really good.

They do really nice coffee. And probably the most popular cafe around this area at the moment is a place called Jolene. And there is basically always a line outside the door, especially on the weekends. But the coffee here is just fantastic. And they do great pastries as well. So if you want coffee, that's a good spot to go.

Awesome. All right. So I feel like kind of got a little bit of lay of the land. Obviously, I'm gonna have to walk around. You talked earlier about how you have these awesome itinerary. So I've been going through the three day because I was like, I don't want to plan too much.

So let's take the three day spread it out over six day. What do you think things people should be really trying to do on their trip? You know, I'm sure someone could find a list best attractions in London, like we don't need to go through everything. What are the highlights of an itinerary?

I mean, of course, everybody wants to go see the House of Parliament and Big Ben and Westminster Bridge. But I think like do whatever the sites that you're really interested in, make sure you do them because I get it like you're in London, right? And you've seen these things on TV and in movies for years.

So make sure you do that. For me, I think I'm always trying to think of like an interesting way to see something. So I think a good example is everyone knows the Tower of London, right? So the Tower of London, it's been around for like 1000 years, and it's still in this place.

And you can go and have tours there. They're very family friendly. But you can also do something that's quite interesting, which is called the Ceremony of the Keys. And what this is, it's a tradition that's been happening for 700 years. And they've done it every single day for 700 years, except I think there's one day during one of the wars that they had to stop doing it.

And you go, you got tickets for it. And you basically watch this tradition of where they exchange the keys when they're kind of like closing up the tower at night. And it's never been recorded. You're not allowed to take your phone or you're not allowed to film it. You're not allowed to take pictures.

And I think it's a really interesting, different way to experience this like really popular tourist attractions. And it's very hard to get tickets. But it's definitely doable. And the tickets are only five pounds, whereas it's usually I think about 25 pounds for adults to get in at normal times of the day.

So I think that's really cool. In terms of viewpoint, so a lot of people like to do the London Eye, which that's cool. The first time I ever came to London, I did the London Eye as well. I thought it was great. It is a bit of a steep price for the tickets.

So if you still want to do some kind of viewpoint, but maybe you don't need to do the London Eye, you could go to this place called the Sky Garden, which is completely free to visit. And it's actually higher up than the London Eye. It's basically this garden in the sky.

You take a lift all the way up to the top of the building that's called the walkie talkie building because it looks like a walkie talkie. And there's all this plant life that you walk around. But there's also these amazing views over the London skyline. It's pretty cool and a lot cheaper, obviously.

I know you're like the spokesperson for London on YouTube, in my mind. But don't be afraid to be like, this is not worth it. Don't waste your time there. You know, I know you've said that about Leicester Square, but. Yeah. Leicester Square is for sure the number one thing that I'm like, avoid it at all costs.

Like I even will walk around it if I'm just navigating to get somewhere else in the city. Obviously, Leicester Square is this part of central London where it's just lined with like McDonald's, Burger King. There's a couple of casinos. There's a couple of movie theaters. There's the M&M store, which I have so much disdain for the M&M store.

I just don't understand. And there's always such a line to get into it. The Lego store. There's just no... For some reason, there's so much stuff out there saying to go see Leicester Square. I'm like, there's nothing here. This is... It's just... And it's... I don't know. It's not upkept very well.

And so I always say to avoid that. Instead, you could actually go just one block over and you're in Chinatown, which is amazing. We have a small Chinatown in London, but really good food. There's some hidden bars there and just a really interesting place to walk around. So I'm always like, skip Leicester Square.

Instead go to Chinatown. It's literally one block over. Do you have a favorite hidden bar? So in Chinatown, there's one that's called Opium and it's a green door that is unmarked and you go up the stairs and there's three different rooms and the cocktails are really good. They're super unique and different, but they're all oriental themed.

So they are super interesting and they serve food there as well. But the cocktails... Go for the cocktails. But that's hard to pick a favorite hidden bar, but I actually went to a really good one last night called Nightjar. There's two different locations and it's Prohibition themed. So you go like down the stairs, the cocktails are...

The menu is like themed with different parts of the Prohibition and the war and the servers are dressed up like they're old timey and the service is amazing and the cocktails are really cool. And are these the kind of places where you need to make a reservation? How does that typically work?

Yes. Yeah. So especially recently, London is very... You have to make reservations to get into places, especially the ones that are quite popular even if they are kind of under the radar. People still find out about them because Londoners love under the radar stuff. So anytime you can make a reservation, I highly, highly recommend it because also a lot of places in London are just very small.

So they have very little covers. So if 10 people show up, that might cover the whole restaurant. So anytime you can make a reservation for sure, or go very early or very late and you might be okay. It's funny. I'm like such an optimizer. And normally I'm like, "Okay, I'm going to research all this stuff." And then I was looking through your three-day itinerary, I was like, "This is pretty good.

You just put it together." So for me, normally I would want to go through all this and I was like, "Why don't we just use this? Why don't we just... This is our new playbook and save us a lot of time." So I appreciate that. But high level, any other must-see things that people need to do when they're here for a short trip?

Personally, my mindset for what I do is that there's not really any must-sees because it completely depends on what you're interested in. So some people might say, "Oh, you have to go to the National Portrait Gallery." But if you're not into portrait art, even though it's free to go into, don't waste your time there.

Find art that you like or skip art altogether if you're not... The tape modern is not going to be interesting to you if you're not interested in modern art. So yeah, I definitely... I'm trying to give people the permission to don't feel like you have to do something because someone has said like, "You have to do London Eye." You don't have to.

There's so many things you can do. Just do whatever is going to work for you and also your budget because some of the stuff is really pricey. So if you're going to take the four of you on the London Eye, that's going to cost you like £100, then is that really going to feel worth it if you weren't really that interested?

Are there deals for some of these things that I should know about going in? Like, I don't know, book it in advance or buy it from this guy who works down this alley in the street? If you want to do the main attractions, I always tell people to look into the London Pass, which it's got like 150 of the biggest attractions on this pass.

And you get a two-day pass, a three-day pass, a six-day pass, whatever you choose. And the tickets are included in the price that you pay. And if it works with what you want to see, you can save a lot of money with that. You just have to plan and do some math to make sure that it all adds up.

Because if you're mostly wanting to see stuff that has low ticket prices, then it's probably not going to be worth it. But if you're going to the big things with big ticket prices, it does end up saving and especially if you've got four of you, five of you, because they have kids passes as well.

It actually can end up saving you like hundreds of dollars. It's actually kind of crazy. So yeah, the London Pass. We do have something on our website where it helps people understand if it's going to work for them or not before they buy it. So if you just Google "London Pass" on our site, that's helpful.

I'll link to that page on the show notes. Perfect. Okay, great. Speaking of the Sunday roast that we were talking about, another British tradition here is called afternoon tea. And I personally love afternoon tea. So basically what you do is you go to, it's mostly hotels that will put on afternoon tea.

Some restaurants do it as well. Around like one o'clock, two o'clock, you'll go to this hotel that you've booked and they bring out your selection of tea. You get to choose if you want tea or coffee. If you go really high end, they'll have like extra specialty that's been flown in from Sri Lanka or India or wherever.

It's like really a beautiful experience. And then you get a bunch of different types of treats. So we'll start with little finger sandwiches of various variety of different kinds. Then you'll also get scones, which I love scones. Scones are basically, they're like kind of resemble crumpets, but they're a little bit nicer than crumpets.

They're a lot nicer than crumpets in my opinion. And you eat those with jam and cream. And then the final tier is the sweet treats. So the really nice places, this is where like they shine. They do these little pieces of artwork that you eat for your lunch slash breakfast, whatever time you ended up going.

And it's a really lovely experience. A lot of people in London will do it as like a special occasion for someone's birthday or for bridal showers and things like that. But it's very British and it's lovely. It's really lovely. One of the places that I always recommend if you want like a very classic traditional afternoon tea experience is Fortnum & Mason, which is a department store.

And they've got a beautiful tea room, which was, I think the queen actually opened it up if I remember correctly. Yeah. It's very classic. They've got like the classical music playing. Somebody's playing piano. You can get champagne if you want champagne. So I recommend either there or if you want something really special with amazing views, there is the Shard, which is the tallest building in Western Europe.

And there's the Shangri-La Hotel, which is in the Shard and their restaurant Ting does a sky high afternoon tea, which they like pull out all the stops. It's really, it's an amazing experience. This is also something that as we did some research, it's like not everywhere, but many places are pretty kid friendly and even sometimes like kid themed.

So it looked pretty cool as something we could do with the kids. Yes, definitely. Also, if you want another recommendation for a kid friendly tea at the One Aldwych Hotel, they do a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory themed tea, which is really great for the adults as well, but they have the kids love it too.

So it's like really cute. So I have a random question, but specific, very specific to tea. So we looked at this one. It seems like make reservations for most of these places, but I was looking at the menu and I guess either it's an entire meal, right? Like it doesn't, it looks like it's enough food that like you're skipping lunch that day.

Or I was like, Oh, our daughter usually naps like one. What if we went at three o'clock? I don't want to ruin dinner. Would it be poor form to go and just get like one or two for four people? Or do you need to order one for every person?

So you, it's a bit different with kids. If you've got like really little ones, then you don't have to order ones for them, obviously if they're not going to eat it, but you usually do order one for each person. Okay. Yeah. I was looking for like a little deal.

If you just want a little snack here and there. I know. Well, the kids ones are cheaper. So they're like significantly cheaper. So that's good. But actually a lot of people ask me that. So that's a good question. Yeah. Whenever my wife and I do like a tasting menu, we're like, can we just do wine for one of us?

And then we just, because we don't need six glasses of wine. So we'll just do the tasty menu with wine. And one person doesn't do the wine, but then we just share. So little, little things like that after any other cool experiences, even if they're small, like I'll say in New York city, one of my favorite things to tell people to do is if you're downtown, take the six train at the end of the line and just ride it South till it turns around and comes back North.

And you loop through city hall station, which is an closed station. It's like many, many years old. It's really cool. It was like the shining star of the subway system, but it's not open and you can like once or twice a year, get a tour there. But if you just ride the six train, it actually says, I think it's Brooklyn bridge.

It's like you're on a downtown six train next stop, Brooklyn bridge, uptown. And you could like ride this cool loop. So there's like, there's always these like kind of cool, random, weird things that would never make an average tourist list. In San Francisco, there was this thing for anyone who did it.

You'll know exactly what I mean. Unfortunately, it's closed called the JeJune Institute. And you like went to this office building and you just like went up to the 30th floor. You knocked on a door, the door opened, you went into a room and you like watched a weird video and they like there was an envelope and then you would go on like a scavenger hunt.

And I'm like, I have no idea how this works, like you put a twenty dollars in a slot, but there were no people. It was the weirdest thing. It was like it wasn't an escape room because there was no escaping, but it kind of had that vibe and it was the coolest thing ever.

But no, not on any tourist guide. So any of those kind of like cool experiences that you might do on the weekends with friends that would never really make a guide, maybe it would make one of your guides, but it's definitely not in the average guide. OK, so I'll give you two because I'll give you a little one, but then let me give you like a bit of a bigger one that you can spend an afternoon.

So there is this area in London called Bermondsey and running through Bermondsey because it's very close to London Bridge Station, which is one of the biggest stations in London. There are elevated railway tracks. So and then underneath the railway tracks are businesses that are in the arches. So because they're small spaces are all very small businesses that are very independent.

And in one specific area of Bermondsey under these arches, it all happens to be breweries and gin distilleries. And so this thing has come about where it's like the unofficial name for it is called the Bermondsey Beer Mile. And on Saturdays, these breweries open up and they let people come in and have do tastings or just get a pint or try the gin.

And what people do is they hop around to they make a Saturday of it and they hop around to all the different distilleries and breweries and try all the different drinks. And it can get a little bit messy, obviously, depending on how quickly you do it. You can also pair that with a visit to Maltby Street Market, which is literally right there.

And you can get food and they have really good independent food stall vendors that are selling like they have probably the most diverse food vendors in of all the markets in London. So that's like I love doing that Bermondsey Beer Mile. It's really fun. And it's I feel like it gets skipped over so much because there's no like there's there's no official like website for it.

There's someone who's made an unofficial one, but it's pretty easy to find. You just navigate to Maltby Street Market and then you'll see all of the breweries and distilleries. And so that's one of my favorite. I love recommending that, but I don't think that many people take me up on it, sadly.

But it's almost good, though. So it's fine. I don't know if we'll do the full drinking mile, but we will 100% go to food. So I'm like a sucker for street food, food market, anything like that. Favorite stall? I mean, I had an amazing banh mi sandwich that's so Vietnamese.

I don't remember the name of the stall. They do kind of change them out sometimes, too, which is nice because then everyone can like try different things. But I think probably that banh mi is a favorite I've had so far. And then just for a little fun, a smaller one, too.

So there's we were talking about Shoreditch before, and I mentioned that it's like the most famous area in London for street art. So if you want to go street art spotting, you can do that. A fun little thing you can do while you're doing that is there's a bunch of tiny 3D broccolis scattered around the Brick Lane area.

So you can go and spot all of the little broccolis. And the broccolis were put there, I think was about 15 years ago by this artist, Adrian Boswell. And he actually has a gallery there and like broccolis are his thing. So you can end up spotting all the broccolis and then go to his gallery and see what the deal is in there, too.

So that's kind of a fun thing. But it's one of those things where I didn't I'd never noticed that. And then a couple of years ago, somebody pointed it out to me and I was like, oh, my God, that's so cool. I've never in all of my research, I've never heard anyone talk about that before.

I feel like my daughter would love a walk around looking for broccoli. So that was that's a great one. Perfect. And they're like colorful. And so, yeah, they're great. Great for kids, too. We're talking about food a lot. And it just happens to be noon in San Francisco, so I'm already getting hungry.

But I think the reason that we travel is often for food. And so one of the challenges is it's so easy if you're going to Malaysia, it's like this is like I know the kind of food I want to go get. But when I think of London, it's like I've been told the best Indian food in the world outside of India is in London.

We're like, OK, we got a little list there. Are there I don't even know how to ask this question, like, where should we be eating? Like, there's just so many options. I'm like, are there a couple of things that you're like cuisines or a couple of restaurants? I'm sure you could have a list of a thousand.

I'm sure the itinerary I was looking at probably has the list of a thousand. But what are just a few like restaurants that are just must must go to? They don't have to be the most popular. They don't have to be the most expensive. Ideally, they're not the ones that you have to plan two months in advance to get a table.

This is a hard one because it's there's just so many good places. Also, I think what's interesting about London, in my personal opinion, is that you don't have to spend a lot of money to have a really, really good food experience. I actually find that the mid range restaurants are my favorites.

I have many all of my favorites are at the mid range level, not like super luxury. We did talk about a couple of them that I love already. So we did the Barbary. We talked about Bao. There's an Italian that's called Campania and Jones, and it's in a tiny little place off of Columbia Road, which this is east London and Columbia Road is quite famous for being this like very beautiful, picturesque street that has all independent shops on it.

And on Sundays, it has a world famous flower market, which people love to go visit. You can pick up flowers or you can just walk around and see the chaos that kind of ensues with it. It's very fun. So just off of that is Campania and Jones, and they do regional Italian dishes from Campania, obviously.

And the food here is amazing. It is. It can be tricky to get reservations, but if you can do a weekday and do it like five o'clock when they open, then or do like a later one, like nine thirty, then it is doable. And if you if anyone does end up going there, there's a starter that's called nudie and it comes with sage butter.

And that was it was like one of the best things I've ever had. It's so nice. It's really good. I was with friends and we were eating it and we all just stopped talking, which is a lot for me and my friends. So because we're all just like, oh, my God, this is amazing.

It's basically it's kind of like Italian dumplings. So good. So I love Indian. I also love Sri Lankan. I have been to Sri Lanka before and like my interest just has been peaked and people have been we have some really good Sri Lankan restaurants here and one that is one of my favorites is called Paradise and it's right in Soho.

So it's very central London. It's a modern take on Sri Lankan food. So they do like really great small dishes. So you share you just order a bunch of them and everybody shares theirs. They do this chickpea curry, which is like so good. And they do amazing cocktails as well.

And this is another one. I would say for sure you do want to you're going to all the good places you do have to reserve. Like that's just kind of how it is. But I did the other day go there and managed to only a couple days ahead, get a 530 booking so that for four people.

So it is doable. Just like do it on on a Monday or Tuesday if you can and go early and that works well. And then finally, I'm going to give one more Italian and you're going to give one more Indian because I just want one more Indian. Let's do it.

So yeah, so Dishoom is like the most popular Indian place in London. They do. It's a little bit more of a modern take on Indian. They've got like four or five locations now. And obviously, I can't speak to how incredibly authentic it is because I'm not from India, but it's really popular because they do really, really good food at affordable prices.

The staff are amazing. And the decor is it's supposed to be kind of like one of a small restaurant that you might see in Bombay. So the decor is really interesting and kid friendly works for everyone. They also actually do. It's one of my favorite places to go for breakfast.

Oh, yeah. They do really good. I've been to India, so I've had Indian breakfast, but I don't know if I've had like a westernized version of an Indian breakfast. It's definitely it's a it's a British version. They kind of like combine Indian food with what would be considered like a British breakfast.

But it's really good. And that's also if you struggle to get in because they don't really take reservations at most of the locations, especially for dinner. So either try to reserve for lunch or go for breakfast if you can't get for lunch either there, but some of the locations, they have really long lines and people wait like an hour and a half.

I don't really think you should do that for anything, in my opinion, but there's ways we can get around that. So try to reserve at lunchtime, go during the week at lunchtime or go for breakfast. And what about like our walk ins a thing like in a lot of Japan, it's like, no, we fully book our tables.

You can't necessarily walk in. What about for us who have two young kids and like eating dinner at five o'clock is the norm? That's doable. So we have a really big range. So some places will be reservations. And if they're booked up, they're booked up. Some places will have a mix of they'll reserve half of it for walk ins and half of it for reservations.

And then some places are walk ins only. So it kind of just depends on and for every budget that varies. So it's not like if it's a budget restaurant, it's always walk in. They sometimes will do reservations as well. If you're trying to find something that's like an easy walk in and you're kind of like, we've had a long day, I don't want to do too much research.

Pizza is really good here. There's a lot of places that do good Italian pizza for very affordable and that they do kids menus as well, like there's Pizza Pilgrims and Franco Manca. Those are two different places. They're fantastic, really easy. You'll be able to get in no problem. And you had one more Italian.

Oh, yes. So, yeah, I went here last night. So it's it's fresh on the mind right now. And it's in the it's in the guides as well. So you'll see it in there. So it's called Padella and they do basically simple pasta dishes. And the word Padella comes from the Italian word that is I forget exactly what the Italian word is, but it's what you call how they actually make the pasta here, which is they kind of they make they finish it off in a pan basically.

Very simple, but really, really good and also affordable. This is a walk in place, which if you go at five thirty, you're golden. You will be able to get in. No problem. Otherwise, people queue up or they have like a queuing system where they can text you when your table is ready.

If you go to Padella, my recommendations are to start with the burrata and order bread on the side because the burrata there is so beautiful. And then I always ordered the cacio e pepe because they it's the best cacio e pepe I've had in London. It's not too cheesy.

It's like it's just really nice. So those are always my recommendations. And I love going there. What about just general dining etiquette? Are meals slow or meals fast? Is there something you need to know to get the attention of the waitstaff, tipping all this stuff? So things are generally a bit slower than say, if we're comparing to the US.

So we are having I won't get into all the reasons, but every place is very understaffed right now. So just kind of pack your patience pants when you come, because especially I mean, Chris, you're coming very soon and it's a very, very busy time of year. So it's things are just generally slower, but it's probably going to continue like that for the next year or so.

So patience definitely. So you probably will have to like ask for the server unless you're in a more high end place. But you might have to a few times like raise your hand and be like, can we get some more water? Can we get this blah, blah, blah. And you definitely will have to ask for the bill.

And then do you want me to go through tipping? Or wherever it applies if beyond restaurants? Okay, perfect. So for restaurants in London, generally what happens is you will get the bill and on the bill, it will say optional service charge. And that's generally 12 and a half percent that's been added onto your bill.

If you've had really bad service, you can ask for that to be removed. Generally we people just end up paying it even if they weren't super happy. But once you've paid that service charge, you don't have to tip anything additional on top of that. And that service charge usually gets distributed between front of house and back of house.

So it doesn't only go to your server, it just gets put into the pool and it goes to people in the kitchen as well. In terms of tipping for other things, we're not a huge tipping culture here. If you're at the hotel and your bags have been carried for you, you could tip but you won't make anyone upset if you don't.

But of course, no one's going to be upset about some extra money. For taxis and things like that, you can round up to the next pound or if you had someone who was really great and you had a long journey from the airport or something, you can give an extra couple of pounds.

But you don't have to -- it's not like extremely expected. I'm in my very like British mode now. What else do people usually tip on? I don't know, you'd get a drink at a bar, you leave a couple bucks. Oh, yes. If you go up to the bar and you're ordering yourself, so someone's not come to your table, then you do not have to tip.

You can. So sometimes people will leave like a pound coin. Sometimes a bar will have a jar where you can leave tips. There's also this thing where you can say, "Oh, can I like buy you one as well?" to the bartender and then they will basically charge you for another drink and then that money will go into a pot for everyone at the end of the night.

I think sometimes it's a little bit dodgy if they actually get that. So if you do want to tip, I would just say, "Leave a pound coin or two," and that's going to be like the best option. But you don't -- again, like you don't have to. I never tip at the bar.

Occasionally, if I've had someone really good, I'll pop something into -- if they have a tip jar. But it's definitely for sure not expected at all and there will be no service charge added on to your bill if you order at the bar. If you got table service, then service charge will probably be added.

And if it's not, then you can leave around 10% if you'd like. So while we're on the topic of drinking at a bar, it might not be as relevant to our trip, but I want to talk a little bit about nightlife because I feel like London is well known for it.

Let's talk about what people should be doing at night who aren't in the situation we are with two kids, two and under. What's nightlife like? Where should people go? What should people be doing? The biggest areas for nightlife in London are generally Soho and Shoreditch. So Soho is the very center of London.

It's very eclectic. It's also where the majority of the LGBTQ+ clubs and bars are. So anyone who's looking for that, Soho is your place for that. And then Shoreditch is a little bit more artsy-ish kind of, but also very popular for all different types of people who want to go out.

Both areas have both cheap and cheerful drinking. That's very like rowdy and crowded. They've got the cocktail bars, wine bars, and then both also have clubs. I'm not going to lie, clubs are not really my thing anymore, but I can give a couple of recommendations off the top of my head.

So in Soho, there's a club called Freedom, which is quite popular. They've got a pretty like standard upstairs and then down in the basement, they've got DJs and a dance floor. And then for Shoreditch, we had a really famous place there that just got shut, but actually you can just walk around and follow the crowds and hear the music and then you can find places that way.

So it's pretty easy and yeah. And then what time do things close? Does transportation still run? So okay, transportation generally stops at midnight when we talk about the tube. If you are out past midnight, there are a couple of options. There are night buses, so they have an N in front of the number.

And so if you're using City Mapper or Google Maps and you're trying to get back to your hotel, you might see N87 and that will be a night bus and those run all night. There are also some night tubes which run all night as well on Friday and Saturday nights.

So again, Google Maps might be like, "Oh, go on this line," and that's because it's running all night. Both of those are generally pretty safe options, but also, of course, you can get taxis. So you can either use Uber or Free Now if you want to call a taxi or if you see a black cab, which we're quite famous for our black cabs here, and it's got a light on, that means that it's free and available so you can put your hand out and call it and they'll pull over and take you.

Do one of those apps also call if you're like, "I want to take the London black cab experience," which I've heard actually for kids is easy because you could roll a stroller in and set it down. It's not so crazy. Yeah. Both Uber and Free Now call black cabs.

I know Uber does. I'm pretty sure Free Now does. And yes, I 100% agree. Also anybody who might be traveling with someone with a wheelchair, the black cabs are the best option because the seats fold up so they can accommodate wheelchairs. So wheelchairs, buggies, which is the British term, the strollers, things like that.

Also, if you just have a lot of bags too, they're best for that. And then in terms of when the actual nightlife closes, so generally, pubs will only stay open until about 11, 11.30, bars will stay open until about 2, 2.30, and then the clubs, a lot of them shut at 4, but also a lot of them go a lot later than 4.

So depending on which one you decide to go to. I can assure you that I am more likely to be waking up at 4 than still awake at 4. Same. And while we're on transportation, right? So that makes sense. I feel like we're planning on doing a lot more public transit than taxis, I guess.

What about the airport getting in easy? Any tips there? We do have six different airports here in London. Most people who are flying from like the US or just doing like the big long haul flights will fly probably into Heathrow Airport. That's our main airport and our biggest one.

That is technically still kind of London, but it's actually not really. So it is quite far west of the city, but it's very easy to get into central. Of course, you can take a taxi or an Uber if you want to, but we have lots of really good public transport options with the main one being well, the main couple being the Elizabeth Line, which only just launched a few months ago back in May.

And that is basically like a tube line and it can actually get you into Paddington Station. It can get you into central London. It also can get you to East London to Liverpool Street Station. And it only costs £12.70 at the moment, which is great. There's also the Heathrow Express, which gets into Paddington and it's faster than the Elizabeth Line.

It only takes about 16 minutes, I think it is, but it's also £25 per adult, although kids under 16 go free with an adult. It also doesn't really make sense to take the Heathrow Express because you might not be staying anywhere near Paddington. So your best bet really is to use City Mapper or Google Maps and navigate from Heathrow to your hotel and see which options are saying for you, but also make sure you adjust for your arrival time, because if it's really early or really late, then the availability drastically reduces.

So then you might actually get stuck just taking a taxi or a very, very long night bus. I know the London theatre scene is pretty big. In New York, my wife and I hit up a lot of Broadway shows. We did the Rush stuff to get discounts on tickets.

We did all the kind of cool, crazy theatre, immersive stuff like Sleep No More. Anything stand out in those areas? Yes. So we have the people who have done Sleep No More, so Punchdrunk, they recently have opened a similar to Sleep No More show called The Burnt City here in London, and I just went last week and it was awesome.

Highly, highly recommend it. For people who don't know what that is, it's basically, it's like immersive theatre, right? Where you go into, well, first of all, if you're a viewer, you have to wear a mask. You always have to keep this like mask on. And you go into what's like this huge set.

And we don't mean like a COVID mask, we're talking like face masks. Exactly. It looks like the scream mask a little bit, but a little not as quite as scary, I think. And then what you do is you go into what is like basically a massive movie set that has multiple different rooms and all these different props, and you see live actors that are acting out different scenarios.

And sometimes they interact, sometimes they split ways, and you follow all of these people around and follow their stories. And the details are amazing, like even the smells of the room are different. Chris, I know I'm preaching to the choir here, you've done all this already, but it was a really amazing theatrical experience.

So definitely if they're running until April, I think at the moment. So if you're in London before April, 2023, definitely check that out. But if you want to do something a little bit more traditional in the London theatre scene, there is the longest running theatre show of all time here in London, which is called Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap, and it's been on for 70 years.

So this is the 70 year anniversary. So it's actually quite special if you end up getting like, I guess it's only a few people will be able to get there before it's a 71st year, but still, it is like a linchpin of London theatre. And it's very kind of old school, and it very much represents British whodunit theatre, which is a little bit like over the top, but it's really fun.

And it's really cool. It's just definitely like a very London experience. So I would highly recommend people get tickets to that. And you can actually get like 15 pound tickets for that. Even if you book in advance, if you just go for the really high up seats, but they also do some last minute deals as well, which you can get through TKTS or it's also called Official London Theatre.

Wow. Okay. I feel like this is a masterclass in London, which was the goal. We talked, I think, about most of the things people need to plan out in advance. So I just want to recap, like make your reservations at restaurants if you want to go to hotspots and you want to eat in prime time.

Any tickets for things that especially during peak season tourist attractions, any other things that people really need to make sure they figure out before they get there? Yeah, I think if you're doing peak season, anything that you can book in advance is a good idea. Also, ever since COVID, a lot of the major attractions are now having time to entry.

Not all of them stick to it, but they will sell out for a certain time. So if you've got a pretty strict schedule that you want to stick to, then at least give yourself a couple of days ahead of time to book the tickets. So you don't have to worry about like, "Oh, well, now we didn't get the time that we wanted.

So we're going to have to run back and do this and do that, blah, blah, blah." I would say in 2023, anyone who's visiting, tourism has really come back with a vengeance and we're already seeing availability of hotels really low for even like the end of next year. So I would definitely recommend anyone coming next year to book hotel as quickly as possible.

You can always do something that you can cancel, but it would just be good to have something just in case you don't find anything else at the price that you're looking for. So just get it done, do it in advance. Any favorites amongst the hotels that fall in that category of like, you might not find them on the major sites, you might overlook it because it seems like it is this random property?

Yeah. So there's one place I really like, again, in East London, it's called Mama Shelter. And they do, I think it's a Parisian brand because they've got a few places in France. And LA. And oh, that's right. That's the one in LA. Yeah. I helped our au pair book a room there like six months ago.

So and she said it was really cool. Yeah, they've got a really nice rooftop at that one. It's really nice. The one here, I think gets overlooked sometimes because it's a little bit out of the way it is out of the way if you want to do only the main attractions, but it's actually really well located.

If you want to do some of the more local stuff in East London, for example, it's not far from Broadway Market, which is this Saturday market that's quite famous now. Lots of great stalls selling food and jewelry and artisan pieces and things like that. Also walkable in about 20 minutes to Shoreditch, or there's a bus that will get you there even quicker.

And it's a good, I would say it's on the higher range of budget hotels, but the staff are amazing. It's really colorful. They do karaoke nights. They've got a gym there. You can and if you book in advance, you can get a pretty good deal there. So that's probably one of my favorite recommendations for hotels.

Anything on the next tier up, like the mid-range? So I really like the Henrietta Hotel. Maybe it's more luxury. The Henrietta Hotel is right in Covent Garden. It is a small boutique hotel that is French inspired and really beautiful decor. You can't get any better on the location. You just walk out the front door, you're in Covent Garden.

It's amazing. And the rooms are beautiful and they're big and the bathrooms are amazing. And then I have a really special luxury high-end recommendation. We talked about the Shangri-La earlier. That hotel is the highest hotel in London, obviously, because it's in the tallest building in Western Europe and is super special too, because they have an indoor pool, which is the highest hotel pool in Western Europe, but probably a lot of other parts of Europe as well.

So it's got floor-to-ceiling windows, and you're just swimming around, looking down onto London and across the skyline. It's a pretty special experience. So definitely, I recommend that one. We filmed a video in one of their suites there. It was the coolest experience. It was awesome. There's going to be a lot of links in the show notes to anything you mentioned.

Send me all those links also. And for anyone who's new and hasn't heard, we have a hotel booking service at All The Hacks that, for those five-star hotels, can hook you up with usually an upgrade, a property credit, late check-in, early check-out, free breakfast, all that stuff. So you just go to allthehacks.com/upgrades, and you can see that.

Also a couple other hotel things. So one, this is new for me. Normally, we stay at hotels. And we're never really the Airbnb type. And then we started traveling with a family, and we were like, "Okay, we got two adults, two kids, and an au pair. We're looking at hotels." One of the challenges in Europe is that a lot of hotels have capacity limits on rooms.

And so I do know that if you are booking a chain, whether it's Hyatt or Accor or Marriott or Hilton, I think almost all of them have a program in Europe, including some of the hotels in London, where you get 50% off the second room. So definitely inquire. It's not just if you book two rooms.

But if you book two rooms and your kids are coming, they give you a deal for that second room. That's true in a lot of other places. And then we booked an Airbnb, and I didn't know this, but you can negotiate Airbnbs. And so we saw a place, we're planning it pretty last minute, and we're like, "Hey, you have six days free.

We're going to be there for those exact six days you have free. We're coming in a week. So your place is a little nicer than some of the places we're looking at, and it's a little more expensive. If you could bring it down 25%, we'd book it." And we did that for London.

We're also going to Paris. And both places brought the price down about 20%. And we booked it right away. And so we were able to save 20%. So normally, I think the idea of staying at a hotel where you got free breakfast and there's a lot more things figured out was easier.

But it turns out if you're two adults, two kids in an au pair, we just couldn't find a hotel setup that worked, especially over the holidays, where we would be able to have a place that we could hang out while the kids are sleeping in the rooms. And so I think for the next little bit, it's going to be hard for us, but...

Can I give a recommendation for anyone who is looking for something like that and wants to do almost like a service department? I don't even know what that means, but of course you can. It's basically, it's like an apart hotel, I would say. So there's this brand here in London called the Cheval Residences.

This is quite... Actually, you can get pretty good deals there if you book in advance. So you just have to kind of like play it out, but they've got one property that overlooks Tower Bridge and they have apartments that do... You can get like two-bedroom. I think they have three-bedroom as well.

And they're great with kids because they can provide anything you might need like cribs, high chairs, they can accommodate stuff if you want to bring your pets. Anything you basically need, they can give it to you. And then this place is extra special because if you get one of the Riverside places, you wake up and you go on your little balcony and overlook Tower Bridge.

It's amazing. But there, when I have families that are looking for... Because we kind of, personally for us, we try to dissuade people from Airbnb just because of the ethical side of it in London. We're having a really bad housing crisis here. So I usually try to push people to apart hotels.

And with families who need like the multiple rooms off of the living area, Cheval usually is like a really good option for that. And it's really nice. Well, I apologize for contributing to your London problem. It's okay. No, no. It's okay. It's a tricky one. I understand the... But you guys are...

You're not the only people who have struggled with that. And that's part of where Airbnb has flourished is for stuff like that. So it's not to shame you or anything, but we just... I try to give alternatives. And on the topic of kids, what's the vibe of bringing your kids around?

People are annoyed by it. Are they cool? What should we be thinking? Can you give my wife breastfeed in public? I know London's a little conservative. She can definitely breastfeed in public. That's totally fine. I think that... I don't have kids, so I can't fully speak for families who are going out in the world all the time in London with children.

Most of the time though, as long as the kids are fairly well-behaved and they're feeling okay, it's pretty doable, especially during the day. You can take the kids anywhere during the day. All restaurants will take them, they'll accommodate them, all of the sites and everything, obviously. And like we talked about, pubs, you can take the kids to the pubs during the day as well.

So generally, the reception is good. And I have been told by parent friends that the reception is better in London than New York and some of the other major cities that they've been in. All right. Well, I am incredibly excited for this trip. I have one last thing before we wrap.

We're not going to put this in the show notes. You've already given a lot of great recommendations, but is there one best kept secret that you were like, "I don't really want anyone to know that this restaurant is here. It's my favorite. It's not crowded yet," or bar or something that we can leave right at the end of the episode only for the people that are still here?

Yeah. Okay. This is like, there's a cocktail bar that's called Lounge Bohemia, and it is in Shoreditch. I had passed it a million times. It's just like a very random door. I would say it's speakeasy vibes. I'd pass it a million times over my nine, 10 years here, and someone eventually was like, "Oh, you've never been there.

You should go try it." I was like, "Okay." I randomly went in there one day, and it's this tiny, tiny little basement bar that has like 10 seats, and they do very experimental cocktails. Basically the guy who runs it, who ironically does not drink, so his wife tests all the cocktails for him, but he runs this bar as a tester for the work that he does for corporate events and things like that.

He gets hired to do these crazy, crazy, huge special events, really high end, but you can go to Lounge Bohemia, and you can do a tasting menu, and it's, I believe, five different cocktails that are off the wall. One of the cocktails I had was, it was called a Canadian Breakfast, and they brought out this little tray that had a little pan of blueberry pancakes, and then they lit a fire and cooked the pancakes, and then you mixed up the jam, and that was part of the drink, and then you put the pancakes in the drink.

It's just crazy stuff like that. One of the cocktails was called Winnie the Pooh, and it has an actual bee on the side of it that, I'm vegetarian, so I made sure that no bees were hurt in the making of this cocktail. They're residual bees from, I forget what he was, he said it was exactly, that would have just gone to waste anyway, actually, but it's an actual bee that sits on the side of the drink, and you can eat it.

It's like off the wall, crazy, crazy stuff. Because it's so small, you do need to book ahead, but if you're a cocktail connoisseur who really likes off the wall, crazy stuff, that's the best place to go. I feel like you just described me. I love crazy, weird cocktails. The only twist that would make it hit every mark for me is if it was also a spicy cocktail, but I'm sure there is one there that meets that criteria.

I've been fortunate to peruse a ton of your content, but where can everyone here go to plan their next trip and get all the stuff you're putting out? Everything is under the name Love & London. We have over 300 YouTube videos at this point talking about how to take the tube, where to eat, things like that, mistakes not to make.

We also have a website, we've got Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, and an email list, so there's lots of tons of free content. And then we've got a few of our paid guides like the itineraries that we talked about, which are all linked on the website. Also, we do have something for your listeners.

We do have a special discount that can be used in the Love & London shop, which is where you can buy all of our digital travel guides. So we will put a little discount code for 10% off the entire shop in the show notes or we'll put it somewhere.

Yeah, we'll put it in the show notes, and so you can find that and everybody can check that out. Thank you. Cool. Yeah. And there's a one-on-one guide that's also free that I'll link to in the show notes, which was great, like just kind of high-level overview. So I really appreciate it.

Oh, you did not market one thing that I think is the crown jewel of the content that you sell is so much of my trip planning is usually done in Google Maps, and we're just really far behind on this trip because we planned it a week ago. And in the guide, it was like, "Click here.

Boom. Here is your Google Map." And I was like, "What?" So I now have this like better than I normally would lay out, like with icons of this is a restaurant, this is a bar, that kind of stuff. And I think that that is undersold on your website because I think that you could just sell for maybe even the same price, the Google Map of it.

And so that was my favorite feature is that now I have Google Maps loaded on my phone where I'm like, "When we're out and about, we know what we're doing and we could find cool spots." So thank you for putting those in there. Make sure everyone else knows about them.

Cool. Yeah. No, that was... I added that because I was like, "I feel like when I get stuff like this, I'm always just adding it to Google Maps anyway." So I'm like, "Why don't I just do it for them?" So it made sense. Yeah. Cool. Thanks. Thank you for doing that.

And even more, thank you for being here. I mean, we have a lot of stuff to figure out. Good. No, it's great. Well, you can ask me anything, obviously, and thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah. And maybe we'll see if we run into each other next week, and I'll be excited.

Yeah.