London Travel Guide - Weekends in London

Modern, dense, diverse, expensive. As international as it is British, London is a city made for the world. Open to anyone willing to compete and stake their claim for a spot in one of the greatest capitals in our modern age. The city is a sprawling capital with soaring house prices, foreign billionaires and brutal competition. There's no room for scragglers here and there's no time for sympathy. It's as they say across a great pond. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. Welcome to London. What's up everyone, it's Alan here and welcome to Weekends. So the point of this series is to give you guys a lowdown on what to do, what to see and what to eat in a 36 to 72 hours time frame. And today I'm here in London, a true metropolitan city, but most importantly a melting pot of nationalities, cultures, which means that the place has a wide variety of different sort of foods and cuisines. If you are fortunate enough to live in the city, you have access to some of the best food around and I can't wait today to dig in and see what's on offer. London has more than six airports spread across the outskirts of the city, the main ones being Heathrow and Gatwick, along with Luton and Stansted. We just arrived here in Stansted airport or specifically down here in the train station right now, but if you fly on a budget airline to London, you're most likely going to land either in Luton or Stansted. We landed in Stansted and the quickest and probably most convenient way to London city is by the Stansted express line. It's a little bit more pricier but it's just a lot more faster. It takes around 47 minutes compared to like about an hour and a half on a bus. You can pre-book your tickets online before you arrive here in Stansted and that's going to save you a few pounds or so. Also it's worth mentioning that you should probably get your hands on an Oyster traveler card. It's basically like any electronic sort of travel card that's found in a major city. It works the same, you put some credit on it and allows you to use any sort of public transportation in a city including buses and trains etc. Regardless of which airport you arrive at, there'll be plenty of transportation options. If you arrive at Heathrow, consider going either on the Heathrow Connect or Heathrow Express. With the Heathrow Connect, it takes approximately 30 to 40 minutes to London City, while the Express line only takes about 15 minutes with an added price premium. From Gatwick, I recommend going with the Southern Rail if you want to save a bit on travel expenses. From Luton, you can catch a 10-minute shuttle bus from the airport to the closest train station at Luton Airport Parkway. From there, you can hop on the direct train to London with a travel time of approximately 40 minutes. London is massive. With a city population of more than 8 million people, you can easily get overwhelmed with where to stay during your weekend escapades. I recommend staying in the Westminster area, as central as you can get and close to most tourist attractions such as Big Ben, London Eye and the British Museum. You also gain access to some cool neighborhoods such as the ever-interesting Soho and you can easily satisfy your shopping needs at Oxford Street. I will also make a case for the trendy area of Shoreditch. Despite its gritty exterior, the area is filled with wonderful eateries and unique bars worth checking out. The best and affordable way to travel in London is via the iconic London Tube system. Unlike many metro systems, the one found in London works efficiently and effectively. An additional tip is to download the TubeMap app. It allows you to plan your travel itinerary with relative ease. The best part about it, it also works offline. Alright, so we're absolutely starving here and what better way to start the trip than to get a classic sort of signature dish which is fish and chips. And we're one of the best places here, at least what I've heard, here at Poppy's. So let's go in and see how it is. Alright, so we have our fish and chips here. First of all, I'm gonna try the chips out. Nice. They're not too dry, still very moist inside. I'm gonna go ahead and dig into the fish. Alright, yeah. Crispy on the outside, quite moist inside. I didn't expect a lot from this initially. When I thought about fish and chips, it didn't really make me want to, you know, try it out or whatever. But since we're here and since it's an almost a national dish here in the UK, you have to try it and it's actually pretty decent. Still hungry for more? If you want to try out some other lunch spots, here's my list of recommendations. Sketch for some afternoon tea. Honey and Co. for some Middle Eastern delicacies. A Wong for a modern take on dim sum. In addition, you might want to check out Gymkhana for some Indian spices. Ceviche Soho for some Peruvian seafood. And Uchi for some Japanese home-cooked dishes. It's also recommended to check out one of the many museums in London, such as the National Gallery or the British Museum. They're all free to access, so you don't really have an excuse if you're the least bit interested in art or history. After spending a good part of the day doing all the touristy stuff, you start to feel the munchies. As dinner time arrives, we head over to Chinatown in search of the popular Taiwanese Bao's, which is taken in London by storm. So we're in Bao and this is like a sort of a Taiwanese-inspired restaurant which creates these small sort of white buns. And we ordered like two of them. We ordered their classic bun, which is sort of like braised pork and some peanuts over it. And then we also ordered their pork confit or pork belly. And basically the buns, there aren't really anything foreign. You can find them in any other sort of Asian restaurant. They're all the rave right now here in London specifically, so we're going to give it a taste and see how it goes. So first we're going to take the classic. Flavor is solid. I definitely taste the nuts, plays really well with the bun. Pretty good, pretty good. And let's go to the pork belly version. See here, nice pork belly, like with sauce. And I think it's like some fried onions, I believe. I'm not sure. Let's give it a taste. Oh, even better. This is by far my favorite one. The pork belly is like tender. There's like this sort of like sauce on it that really works well. And also the onion gives it a little bit more crunch. You can check out Bao in Soho or at the Fitzrovia department, which allows for reservations and a more upscale restaurant experience. As for other dining options, you may want to consider checking out Kiln, Koya Bar, or Somsa for its deep fried sea bass, burgers and lobsters for its fantastic lobster roll. And if money isn't an issue, then you don't want to miss out on the social eating house. We head back to Chinatown to try out a bubble wrap, which is a Taiwanese dessert making its round in Western Europe. All right, so we just grabbed a bubble wrap, but let's give it a taste. A bit too sweet for me, but I can see why people get this. London is a city filled with a history of struggles and fights as much as glory and achievement. The city for some represents excitement and opportunity, while for others the city is considered dangerous, hostile, and difficult to live in. Longtime Londoners are slowly but increasingly moving out of the capital, complaining about the state of the city and increasing violence and acts against humanity happening all over. Yet some might say that isn't anything new. The people of London have experienced many dark days, such as during the blitz in the early 1940s, or even the several bombings happening between the 80s and 90s. But life moves on in London. As people move out, new people move in. It's just that now most of the people moving in comes from other countries. From Russian oligarchs buying up London real estate, to willing and hard-working Polish immigrants trying to live out the British dream. Heck, even walking through Chinatown, you hear more of the mainland Mandarin being spoken, rather than the classic Hong Kong Cantonese we've grown so accustomed to. Nowadays, London is a place of choice, rather than birth. People come to the city in hopes of making it big. However, London is brutal. But for bypassing travelers such as myself, this has allowed for the birth of one of the most diverse and interesting cities to be in. There's a certain charm about the city, and you can only admire the people coming here, willing to risk it all to achieve their dreams. The following day, we went for a quick lunch at Hopper's to try out the famous Sri Lankan dish. Afterwards, we paid the famous Madame Tussauds a visit. Although expensive, I did overall enjoy the experience here, and if you haven't been to one of the Madame Tussauds around the world, then you might as well do it here in London. For more quirky activities to occupy yourselves with, try the following. God's Own Junkyard, if you're wondering what Neon Heaven looks like. Or have a drink at Sky Garden, plus the view isn't too bad. Go on a graffiti street art tour at Brick Lane, or if you want to have prison inmates serving you a full course menu, then visit The Clink for your next restaurant experience. If you haven't had enough food yet, but want to try out a variety of dishes, then visit Borough Market. It's one of the oldest markets in London, and has developed to be one of the more popular ones amongst foodies. So we're in Borough Market, and we bought ourselves a little plate of mussels. Looks absolutely delicious, honestly. It's like the sea in the mouth. If you need a quick pick-me-up, then go right next door to Maumau Coffee and grab a caffeine boost. If you're still craving for some more street food, or simply want to check out some different food markets, here's a couple more to consider. Camden Market, Bourke Street Market, Old Spitalfields Market, Hawker's House, and Dinerama in Shoreditch. If there's one thing you absolutely must do while in London, then it has to be attending a West End show. If you aren't too picky with what shows to watch, then look for last minute shows for a great bargain deal. As it's our final night in London, we decide to head out for some drinks and snacks. We go to the ever-popular Ichiban. With its prominent Japanese decor, consisting of manga books and half of a Japanese kei truck, we grab a few tasty buns and a beer or two. However, the place doesn't quite hit the spot, so we leave and continue our search for a more interesting location. We enter a hidden dark doorway and climb a set of old stairs. After three floors, we reach a peculiar jade door. The smell of sweetly burning incense sits through its worn out cracks, while the sound of retro beats buzzes behind it. Nervously, I push through the door with excitement of what's to come next, for the night is still young and we're just getting started. Enter Opium, a cocktail-infused dim sum parlor all dressed to look the part of a 1920s opium den. Oriental, shabby, but stylish. The bar serves Zodiac-inspired drinks, while funky retro beats play throughout the room. Although a traditional lunch item, you can even grab a couple of char siu bao or other dim sum dishes while you're here. Opium clearly doesn't play by the rules. It's a great place to warm up for the night or even ending it, and if there's one thing you can rely on here in Opium, then it's the bartender's potent concoctions. If you're looking for some other alternative bars, here's a few to check out. Oreole if you enjoy a bit of jazz with your drink. First 8 bucks for the 20 to early 30 somethings. Rubies for some strong tasting cocktail. Tea Room at Bun House, a throwback to 1960s Hong Kong tea rooms. And Bounce if you're up for testing your ping pong skills. As the night is ending, so does our time in London. Many more nights can be spent wandering the streets of the city from one eatery to another, or one drink or two more. It's comforting to know that I've barely scratched the surface of what this great city has on offer. I can understand people's difficulty with the city, an unforgiving place for the uninitiated hopeful. However, for a wandering traveler with simple wants and needs, this place offers everything you would want in a weekend getaway. I wouldn't mind paying another visit just to eat and drink my way through the city once again. As always, follow me on the relevant social media platforms for updates and behind the scenes footage, and if you like the video, remember to hit the like button and subscribe for more content, and I'll see you guys later.