London Dreams

London 2022

We have been wanting to visit London for so long that we finally decided to visit London in 2022. Our family lives there so we thought it would be great to spend some time with them. Our UK VISAS arrive in about 3 weeks but applying for VISA was so painful.

They needed last 10 years of travel history, we spent one of the nights scouring through our pages of passport and emails to find all past travels entry and exit dates, we finally finished it by midnight and submitted our application.

Pro Tip - Be mindful of making any errors on the application because even to correct something, you have to pay a fee to connect via their email id with support :D. Fee is minimal like 1.25 USD per email response but I mean come on ..

Day 0

We landed at Heathrow Airport. While we waited for our Brother in law to pick us up, we enjoyed some delicious oat milk latte at Caffe Nero.

We headed home and enjoyed some family time with loved ones.

We planned our day trips over next few days and I will write the snapshot below and then talk more about the details in later sections:

Itinerary:

1. Day 1 - Seven Dials Market & Covent Garden

2. Day 2 - London Eye, London Bridge, Big Ben, Birmingham Palace (Change of Guards), 10 Downing

3. Day 3 - Piccadilly Circus and another trip to Covent Garden

4. Day 4 - Night Hop on Tour for a lot of famous sights in London

5. Day 5-7 - Portobello Market, Boroughs Market, The Shard, Camden Market & Carnaby Street

6. Day 8 - Cambridge University

7. Day 9 - Cliveden Estate

+ a lot of beautiful pubs, restaurants and bars were involved through out our trip, I will share more about them below.

Markets

London is full of beautiful markets and you can technically spend days to visit, there are so many of them. We really enjoyed our day trips and walking in various markets like Covent Garden, Seven dials, Piccadilly Circus, Portobello (yes the Hugh Grant Door is still there :), Boroughs market. All the markets are unique on their own for example:

1. Portobello - has a lot of antique shops, the famous Notting Hill Hugh grant door. The market is surrounded by many cafes, cute little restaurants for you to try. We enjoyed a falafel sandwich and some Japanese food.

2. Covent Garden - They have beautiful boutique and designer shops with so many restaurants. They also amazing evening fun events like live music, dance and magic shows so pick up your favorite spot and enjoy your evening.

3. Boroughs Market - A beautiful and amazing spot to pick up some local cheese, chocolates, Olive oil, fruits and vegetables. We picked up some coffee in a near by cafe and walked around the market.

4. Seven Dials Market - Again amazing spot to spend the whole day or evening for shopping, events and amazing cafes/restaurant.

China Town

Cute Coffee Shops like @Roastingplang

Artist unknown

Shop, Walk, Eat and Repeat

There are so many places in London to walk around, you can literally never get bored.

Covent Garden - It is located at the west end of London. The place is flooded with luxury shops, beauty stores, Wine bars, upscale restaurants and cafes.

Covent Garden is also home to craft stalls at Apple Market and Royal Opera house.

It is one of the best one-stop shop for everything you need. I would plan the day like this;

1. Take the tube and get off at "Covent Garden" station.

2. Walk to the main area and get a coffee and French Macarons from the famous French spot "Laduree". If you missed the breakfast in morning, no worries, Laduree offered variety of selections for famous breakfast items plus Champagne. Try the Portuguese Santa Nata and don't forget to enjoy Tea at Chelsea Tea bar.

3. Walk around luxury shops and visit the Apple Market. Hungry yet, Enjoy lunch at one of the famous restaurants at the Piazza. Thank God, no advanced reservation is required for restaurants and cages here. Because in my opinion, London restaurants are notorious and too strict and ask for advanced reservations almost all the time.

After some delicious lunch enjoy some more walk around the area before getting a glass of wine

at one of the beautiful wine bars, I suggest "Lady of the Grapes". Beautiful wine menu and LOVED the Castelvetrano olives.

5. Head to "The Punch and Judy balcony" order a drink and find a good spot to enjoy the live shows from their balcony. We liked the place so much, we went there twice. But please keep in mind, this is not a fancy seated/service area. You go to the bar, get a drink and pray to find a slot by the balcony.

6. Wrap up by enjoying some dinner, try - Cinnamon Bazar, Chez Antoinette, Buns and Buns or any other place you fancy.

You can find more information on Covent Garden and plan - HERE

Piccadilly Circus

Again hovering at the West End area and reaching at Piccadilly. It is located at the junction of 5 main busy streets. Piccadilly Circus is an open space that dazzle the tourists and locals with its video displays and neon signs. This is very similar to Times Square in New York (New Yorkers, don't come at me, I am not comparing but only building an idea of what The Circus is :)

The Circus is a busy meeting place and when I say, I mean extremely busy and crowded. But it is a great place to find a traditional English pub and enjoy a pint along with many restaurants and cafes.

It is also my favorite place to watch a nice west end show. 2:22 was on display when we were there in 2022 and some shows like Les Miserables etc. are always on. Advanced tickets are recommended to enjoy a nice show.

if you get bored of walking around in the area then either head to - Fortnum and Mason to enjoy some luxury shopping or gift hampers OR to Trafalgar Square, both are under 10mins from the main junction.

so as I said, there is so much to do that you can never get bored in London. I will talk about our experience or Cambridge and Cliveden in a separate post as it calls out for a special section.

Hope you enjoyed reading and planning your London trip already!