What Not to Miss: A Guide to Enjoying London
Written by Shaylyn’s Upper-Intermediate Class
Sara Reyes, Julia Valadares, Ahmed el Fassi, Shunta Takigawa, and Hajeong Shim
Our class has students from around the world, but we all have one thing in common: we love London! That’s why we have come together to write out our absolute favourite things to do in this wonderful city. If you are looking for advice on how to take advantage of your time in London, look no further!
OUR FAVORITE THINGS TO DO IN LONDON WITH FRIENDS
Written by Ahmed el Fassi and Shunta Takigawa
We would like to tell you about fun things to do in London when you hang out with friends, as well as plans to take advantage of at the weekends.
Weekends are very important days in the week, so we have to take advantage of them, and what better way to do it than by going for a picnic with your friends on a sunny Saturday. Go to a beautiful park like Regents or Hyde Park. You can also visit the London Zoo in Regents Park; they have penguins, which are so funny.
There are also some great places for taking pictures and having fun as well. You can go to the Thames river where you can find amazing views to the London Eye and Big Ben. It’s even better if you take your pictures on the London Eye, as you can see the whole skyline from a moving ferris wheel. It’s particularly beautiful when the sun is down. If you’re looking for night life, you and your friends should plan for a fun night in one of the famous clubs in central London, starting with Tiger Tiger. Afterwards you could maybe book a ticket for the Banana Pub Crawl, which is a really fun meeting with a big group of people from different places and cities next to a giant inflatable banana.
From that point you can go to three different clubs in one night and get to know new people as if you have been friends forever.
We also recommend you enjoy walking beside the Thames river. The river is beautiful at night, and if you want to watch a movie, there is a cinema on Southbank called BFI Imax which has the biggest screen in the UK. There are a lot of delicious restaurants around there so you can spend a long time there.
If you are looking for somewhere to stay, we have some advice. In London you can find a lot of fancy hotels, but one that really catches our eyes was the Savoy. They have a very pretty and luxurious restaurant and a cafe surrounded by big chandeliers and elegant carpets, and you can have coffee or tea there without reserving a room. It’s just easier for the tourists to enjoy English luxury without paying thousands of pounds per night.
Next to The Savoy is a very famous theater with the same name as the hotel, (the savoy theater). So if you like theatre you can check it out!
Finally, you can find a good variety of really interesting museums and they are all free. The first one that we recommend is The British Museum. You can find so many mind blowing things like a 5000 year old mummy from the desert; his hair and parts of his body are preserved thanks to the dryness of the climate and real mummies' graves were painted by hand thousands of years ago with incredible attention to detail. It’s really fantastic and we recommend it!
HOW TO SPEND THE PERFECT WEEKEND IN LONDON
Written by Sara Reyes and Julia Valadares
Here we are going to give some tips for your first time in London with great places that you can’t miss:
If you have arrived on a Saturday morning, you should go to the famous tourist spots, for example, the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace which starts at 10:45 a.m. You can also go to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, which is the most famous art museum in London, for free. After that, you can walk to 10 Downing Street to see the Prime Minister’s House. Next, the beautiful Big Ben is only 5 minutes away. Furthermore, you can cross the river and go to the London Eye to see the city from the top for £43.50 or visit the fantastic Sky Garden for free! (but remember to make a booking before).
If you are hungry, you can take the tube to Camden Town, there’s a wonderful street market and you can eat delicious things like typical food from different countries such as Venezuelan arepas, Greek salads, Turkish kebab, etc.
On Sunday, you can visit even more tourist places such as the Shard (which is stunning), Shakespeare’s Globe, Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. If you want to spend a lovely afternoon with friends, you could go to one of London's famous parks, in particular to Regent’s Park and have a little picnic. Specifically, you can find the food at Sainsbury and Tesco nearby.
Also, you can take a card, namely the oyster card for public transport to get around more easily. And if you like to go out at night you can go to Soho to some local pubs and restaurants. And one more tip, if you want to enjoy an incredible boat trip down the Thames river you can take an uber boat from Waterloo to Greenwich, which costs between £7.40 - £12.
THE BEST WAY TO CHILL WITH FRIENDS IN LONDON
Written by Hajeong Shim
We would like to recommend some places for those who want to feel the local residential vibe and relax in London. It should be a really nice time.
So first, we recommended Columbia road flower market.
It is a flower market in the street that you walk through.
You’ll be feeling good and smelling flowers.
You can also see other people’s nice vibe such as a free mind and easygoing spirit. That's why it makes you feel relaxed as well.
Second, if you like shopping, in particular you should go to Broadway market. You can get there by foot only a few minutes from the flower market. There are connecting roads, some nice street food like cupcakes, tortillas, fries,etc and beautiful little stores and bookstores.
They have vintage shopping areas in the street as well.
It’s amazing to go shopping.
Later on, we recommend a live music venue.
It's called the Ninety-one Living Room. It's a kind of jazz bar which is perfect for hanging out.
They have different live performances and change performers every day. We recommend checking their schedule on their website, you have to book a table inside or outside to enjoy the incredible atmosphere.
They have lots of food and drink, specifically they have a “Jazz Lates” set menu.
So try dinner with wonderful live jazz!
So if you are following this programme, here is some advice !
1. The flower market is open only Sundays from 8am-2pm (They open quite early so we recommend a brunch cafe near here. It's called Cake Hole Cafe. They have super delicious cream teas.)
2. Clothes we recommend - Casual clothes or cute accessories with some colorful clothes look great.
3. Cost - Basically the markets are all free, but if you want to get something you have to pay for sure. It depends on what you get, but usually flower prices are around £10.
The jazz bar entry cost is around £10, but I’m sure they play amazing music.
So from finding places to eat, to listening to music, to seeing famous sites, or wandering through markets, London has something for everyone!