The Perfect 5 Days in London! BEST London Travel Guide

London is iconic. It's the center of British culture, home to the royal monarchy, the financial hub of Europe, and one of the most visited cities in the world. And for good reason. It's historic, charming, and multicultural. It's the birthplace of world-class theater, music, and cuisine. Today, nearly 9 million people from every corner of the globe call this city home. And while you'll never see it all in one trip, if you're visiting London, subscribe and join us as we explore its most iconic sights, and unforgettable dining, as we have the perfect five days in London. As one of the world's mega-cities, London is massive and sprawling. Hotels here are not cheap, and we wanted to balance location, comfort, and value for our money. So we booked a room at the Best Western Mornington Hotel in Hyde Park, one of the nine Best Western Hotels in central London. The Mornington had lots of charm and was well-equipped with everything we could want for a longer stay, including a fantastic breakfast. It was very well-located, just two blocks from Kensington Gardens or Hyde Park, and a quick 10-minute walk from the Paddington train station, which connects to the Heathrow Airport Express and Elizabeth Tube Line, which we'll be using a lot on this trip. The next morning, we did what one should only do on their first day in London, get a proper English breakfast. The breakfast of champions. Full English, we got beans, bacon, which is more like ham for us in the United States, huge sausage, toast, beautifully fried eggs, and two hash browns. You can find English breakfast in pretty much any traditional breakfast spot across the city, but we came to one right around the corner from our hotel, and it's not disappointing. This is delicious. I love the bacon, love the sausage. It all just works well together. I mean, I'd never think beans for breakfast, but I'm digging it. Oh, that bus is packed with people. This is crazy. Normally, getting around London is fairly easy. You can use the Tube, which is their metro system underground. It's very well-connected, super affordable, fast. This week, unfortunately, while we're here, they are having a strike for the Underground. So we're trying to get to our first destination for the day, which was about a 20, 25-minute drive last night, but because it's a work day, obviously, other people aren't able to use the Tube as well. It is just like so ridiculously challenging to find a taxi or an Uber. They do have Line bikes and Santander bikes that you can rent and get around the city, but even that was going to take us way longer than usual. Hopefully, when you visit, there's no strike. We wanted to see some of London's top sights on our first day without having to walk all over the city, so we opted for a boat cruise along the Thames. Departing from the Westminster Pier next to the gorgeous Elizabeth Tower and iconic Big Ben, we began our one-hour cruise passing places like the Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, and other historic buildings, while the boat crew shared some fun facts about what we were seeing, like how the London Bridge is not the bridge everyone thinks it is. That's the Tower Bridge. The London Bridge is actually very unassuming. It's so lovely to get out on the river on such a beautiful day. We're getting to see all of the highlights of London, and it's really good to get the lay of the land since this is the beginning of the trip. It's just very relaxing, and truly, it couldn't be a more beautiful day. We're here in the beginning of September, which they told us could be quite gloomy and rainy, but so far it has been lush, so sunny, perfect weather. Scan the QR code here if you want to book this exact tour, or use the links in the video description below. We purchased boat tickets that included a stop at Grimwich Pier, so we could explore Grimwich Borough, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, more by foot. It's a charming historical area that could easily take up a whole day on any London itinerary. It's home to the world's prime meridian, the zero-degree longitudinal line that divides the eastern and western hemispheres. All global time zones are set by their distance from this line. It's also where the National Maritime Museum and Royal Naval College are located. A lot of visitors come here specifically to see the Painted Hall, with 3,700 square meters and nearly 40,000 square feet of hand-painted murals covering the walls and ceilings. But we needed food, so we headed to the Grimwich Market, which has been operating since 1737. This place is awesome. Several different food stalls to try from. They all look amazing. I wish we had a bigger belly so we could eat all of the different foods. I just like the market culture that they have in London. There's all of these different markets, pretty much each neighborhood, so people have really affordable, diverse options. And you can tell locals are really coming here. We ended up going with Ethiopian. It's something different. We don't always get good access to Ethiopian as we're traveling. We ended up going with chickpeas. We got a little bit of goat, beef, and samosas. We got three different types of chicken, beef, and vegetarian one. I have no idea how to describe this. It's very tasty. London is a multicultural hub, and while pub food is so iconic and delicious, you definitely should try all of the different cuisines here, like Ethiopian. Oh, whatever that was, was so good. And all too soon, we're back on the boat for the cruise home. But this time, we got off at Tower Pier, close to the heart of London. This would be a great time to squeeze in a tour of Tower Bridge. Timed entry tickets allow you to go into the towers and stroll over a glass floor walkway to see roughly 13 million rivets that hold the landmark together. We however, had reservations for a different high rise experience about 10 minutes away, the Sky Garden. Located on the 43rd floor of the walkie talkie building, Sky Garden offers 360 degree panoramic views of London's beauty. Sky Garden is very unique. I can imagine sunset, it would be incredible. It's free to come here, which is like a total win. But you do have to reserve your time to entry and they get booked up weeks in advance. So if you want a sunset spot, which is very coveted, you need to be on there the second they're released. There's like good music playing. There's all these like greenery all around. So we wanted some cocktails to enjoy while we were having the view. $20 per drink later. Skip the drinks, come for the views. London is a unique mix of ancient and modern influence. Much of the city was founded during Roman rule around 47 AD. Over the centuries, the city has grown and modernized. But places like Leiden Hall Market, just a short walk from Sky Garden, are perfect reminders of London's storied past, quietly hiding among the shadows of the skyscrapers. The food scene in London is unreal. Rivaling major culinary cities like New York or Hong Kong, you can find everything here and really good versions of it too. If you're looking for an affordable, casual, and tasty dinner, you should go to Bao, known for their Taiwanese noodles and house-made bao buns. We got the classic Taiwanese beef noodle soup and their new beef bone marrow noodles, which were exceptional. If you're craving a more upscale experience, we suggest Falo, just around the corner from Leicester Square. Recommended by the Michelin Guide, Falo calls themselves conscious gastronomy focused on sustainability. They get creative growing mushrooms in-house and find ways to use the entirety of each product. We started with their famous fried corn ribs with a house-made kombu seasoning. Whoa, this is amazing. It has like the barbecue vibe, but almost like with an elote spice kind of in the back end. This is great. Followed by their take on a duck pancake, topped with crispy fried duck trim, barbecue ketchup, and 36-hour brined duck breast with umami mayo. Yeah, it's like everything you love in an Asian dish. Savory, umami, it has some sweetness and citrus, so some acidity there. What's this? Glazed dairy cow beef ribs? Uh, yes please. This is amazing. Beef ribs are such a treat. It's rare to see on a menu. Their showstopper was their cod's head with sriracha butter sauce and leek oil. Rather than using the fillets of the cod, the most popular pieces, they use the head of the fish, covered with tender pockets of sweet flavorful meat. Are you kidding me? This is massive and stunning. Yes. The sriracha they make is in-house and it's fantastic. It's not overly spicy. My excitement meter is like 100 out of 10 right now. Like most millennials, we are obsessed with Harry Potter and Harry Potter Studios is about an hour outside of London, so today we are taking a tour of the studios. We get four hours to spend here. It's happening. I know all the Potterheads watching are going to love this part, but even if you're not a huge Harry Potter fan, don't skip ahead. This is still such a worthwhile experience that I absolutely think you will love if you visit Warner Brothers. Harry Potter Studios is where all eight films were actually made. And coming here is not about transporting you to Hogwarts, like the Wizarding World of Harry Potter's the Orlando theme parks do. It's about pulling back the curtain and taking you behind the scenes. You get to walk the sets, see the original props and costumes, and learn the insider secrets of how the magic came to life. From green screen tricks, makeup, and special effects, it took thousands of people to make this vision come to life and is truly so fascinating. The green screen effect for the invisibility cloak, or the magic trick behind the scene, is that they put green fabric so every time they turned it around they could just make him disappear. Hagrid Tut! This is cooler than I imagined. I love that some of the sets are still here while others were just taken down completely like day after day. I just can't even contain my excitement. Every room is more amazing than the last. Whoa, look at that for the bank. The bus. Dennis, the bus. Oh, this is gonna be cool. The dark forest. This is what you're supposed to do. Platform nine and three quarters. Scabbers is there. We're only halfway done. We have so much more to see. I can't wait to go inside. This is gonna be cool. Oh my god, all the letters. This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie. You know when Aunt Marge gets blown up and like goes out of the back house? They built miniature versions of everything to make her look large. Don't worry, we're not going to give away all the secrets. Honestly, there's no way we could possibly show it all. This place is way bigger than it looks and there's something exciting to see everywhere you look. But the thing that really blew us away was the skills required to make all the final details appear so real. They tried to minimize the amount of computer-generated effects they used and often made animatronics to create the lifelike creatures and scenes in each movie. Fenrir Greyback, he's like just so creepy, but they did such a good job with him. His mask took three hours to put on and every piece of hair on it was real piece of goat hair. Oh my god, Dennis, it's amazing. That was absolutely amazing. Truly my face hurts from smiling so much. You have to come here if you are coming to London. Even if you're not a huge Harry Potter fan, I do think it is absolutely worth it. It was so cool to see behind the scenes and all of the work that went into making this movie. We booked this specific tour with Get Your Guide as well as all of the other experiences you're going to see in this video. They're an online booking platform that has thousands of unique activities to book in different countries across the world. We've used them for so many unique experiences. They've increased our knowledge as we're traveling and help us kind of get to know the culture, the cuisine, and do really fun things while we're visiting new places. A lot of their bookings will include to and from transportation like this one, having the bus pick us up and bring us back to London has been a lifesaver with this tube strike going on. Their app makes it really easy to check in. All you have to do is scan the QR code and if you need to cancel for any reason within 24 hours there are no fees. So if you're booking a trip in the future and you want to have a more unique or local experience, I highly encourage you to check out Get Your Guide. We're going to have QR codes pop up on the screen for all the activities we booked with Get Your Guide and we'll have links in the video description below. You cannot visit London without going to a pub. Dating back to Roman times, pubs are the cornerstone of daily life here. A place to grab a pint, share a meal, and unwind with friends. Many of the best pubs are centuries old, tucked away in narrow alleys and steeped in character, cozy and unpretentious. Out of respect for other patrons, we didn't film inside the pubs, but we did join a historical pub tour that was absolutely incredible and something we'd highly recommend if you want to dive deeper into London's pub scene. And if you happen to be visiting on Sunday, a pub experience you cannot miss is a classic Sunday roast. The tradition dates back to the 15th century and remains one of Britain's most beloved meals. We enjoyed ours at the Mall Tavern in Notting Hill, a charming neighborhood pub just a short walk from our hotel. Beautiful. The garlic literally melts in your mouth. The chicken is cooked so perfectly. It has a nice like crisp skin. And look at this Yorkshire pudding. What do you even do with this? Fluffy, airy. I also hear the word pudding and I think it's going to be sweet. This is not. That's the move. Oh it's so tender. Roast beef is cooked beautifully. This gravy man is the winner. The gravy is tasty. Everything on this plate has been roasted so well from the veggies to the beef. It's all perfect. This is definitely a must do if you're in London. Another nightmare day getting around during the tube strike. The buses are also diverted and being affected by remit, but we did get to ride our first double-decker bus. That was really fun. Our first stop today is the Tower of London, one of the top attractions in the city and home to the royal family's crown jewels, with over 100 objects like the imperial state crown worn by the monarch at the end of the coronation ceremony. The tours are rolling in now and there's so many more people than we first got here. I'm glad we went to the crown jewels first because I've heard the queue can get pretty insane for it. Sometimes you're waiting 30 minutes up to a few hours just to get inside. You're not allowed to film inside but holy moly trust me when I tell you it is wild, opulent, insane. The size of some of these stones, they have the world's largest diamond ever found in two of the pieces, a crown and a scepter. Those two stones were cut from an even larger stone. I think they made eight in total. Definitely worth coming here just for the crown jewels experience, but there's still a lot more to see at the tower other than the crown jewels. You can take a guided tour here and they even had like a paid audio guide with headphones. We're just going to be using our phones, the free version. The London Tower is royal property commissioned by William the Conqueror and taking over 20 years to build on reclaimed land from the Thames River. Back then the fortress helped protect the country and its currency. For a time it was the residence of queens and the royal mint. Today it remains a safeguard for the royal jewels and armory, but it also served as a prison for some of the most notorious criminals under British rule, as well as London's first zoo. The kings and queens were gifted a menagerie of exotic wild animals like lions, monkeys, elephants and even a polar bear. It quickly became a popular tourist attraction, but after several accidents the menagerie was shut down and the animals were relocated to the modern London Zoo in 1835. Before you could actually come and visit. This would be like the first stop, so in the 1700s just everyday people from across Britain could come here. They used to keep them in this tower. They even made a watchtower so they could watch the lions fight each other. All that fun at the Tower of London worked up an appetite and there's no better place for a midday meal than Borough Market, just a 15 minute walk away. It smells good, it smells good. Borough Market here we come. This is like the number one most recommended market. It's the largest, one of the oldest and it's a really good spot for like locals to come as well. It's not just a tourist market and there is every type of food imaginable. I've heard it gets absolutely packed and can be a complete madhouse though, so you do want to try and come earlier in the day. The lines here for a lot of the popular places are outrageous. We just probably waited 20 minutes in the ginger pig spot, which they're known for their sausage rolls. I think it's going to be worth it. It's like this buttery flaky pastry filled with fresh sausage. The goal today is just to go to several different spots, although I will warn you not every food place despite their line is worth it, so we'll have some of the spots people have recommended to us that are local. Oh my god, this is so good. It's savory, almost like cheesy, but I don't think there's cheese in it. Greasy, buttery, the outside is so flaky. Yes, you need this. You need this. Not very delicate though. I feel like I look like I'm like argh. It's not first date food. Or is it? Stop number two is La Tua. They do freshly in-house made pastas. We got a burrata and truffle tortellini in a sage butter sauce. It looks heavenly. Like look at these gorgeous tortellini. Wow, that's incredible pasta. You can tell it's freshly made and the burrata is filled with truffle flavor and that sauce with it is so perfect. It's like delicate, nothing overpowers the other. Next is the black pig, home to an award-winning sandwich. Slow roast pork shoulder, honey truffle parm mayo, salsa verde, pepperoncini, fennel apple slaw, and 30 month aged parmesan on top. The bread is awesome. The pork so good and it's spicy. Very very good sandwich. Not my favorite of the day, but it's awesome. We thought we were going to make it through a few more stalls than we actually can. The portion size of these places are gimungous. Come with an empty belly. This is definitely a place we have to come back to time and time and again to taste everything. You can't do it all in one day, that's for dang sure, but it's tasty. A short 10-minute walk from Borough Market, you'll find the original site of the Globe Theater, where Shakespeare debuted many of his most famous works. After the original burned down, it was rebuilt alongside the Thames next to the Millennium Bridge, a pedestrian-only bridge you might recognize from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The bridge connects St. Paul's Cathedral with our next stop, the Tate Modern Museum. Dedicated to modern and contemporary art, it's well worth the visit when you're in the area. If you're craving something other than traditional British fare for dinner, head to Chinatown. This neighborhood became popular among Chinese immigrants in the 19th century and is now packed with amazing Asian restaurants and shops. We met up with some friends for dinner at the Noodle Inn, famous for their hand-pulled noodles and cozy no-frills atmosphere. To start, we got a variety of dumplings. How do I eat this? Plus their signature hand-pulled noodles with braised beef that our waiter kindly cut up for us. Everything was so fresh, flavorful, and fantastic. It was truly one of our favorite meals of the trip. I don't know about you, but as I've gotten older, I've come to appreciate a good museum. And there's probably no better museum in the world for historical artifacts than the British Museum. It's the first public national museum ever opened and is one of the most popular places to visit in London, with an absolutely massive collection of roughly eight million artifacts, historical documents, and artworks from across the globe. Its goal is to illustrate the history of humans over the last two million years, and it has some really impressive artifacts on display, like the Rosetta Stone, which helped scholars finally translate ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics, something no one had been able to do before it was discovered in 1799. Like most museums in London, the entry here is free, but you do need a timed ticket to get in. If you can, book an early slot because this museum gets busy. I'm learning with these massive museums the best thing to do is just book a guided tour. We followed their self-guided like one hour through the museum to see some of the highlights, and it was honestly overwhelming. We got to like half of them. There's so much to see here, and it definitely has a controversial past with how some of these artifacts were collected, but it is still fascinating to see such a diverse amount of cultures and history represented here. You can learn so much. We'll have a link to book a guided tour below, but definitely give yourself a lot of time here because it is massive and there is so much to see. A short walk from the British Museum is Covent Garden, a popular area for restaurants, shopping, and theaters. It's also home to one of the several Dishoom locations sprinkled across the city. Celebrating the cuisine of Bombay, India, a former British colony, Dishoom has become the number one Indian restaurant in London and is a must-do on any visit to the city. This may be the restaurant I was the most excited about dining at when we were coming to London. Dishoom was recommended to us by so many people. It was the number one recommended place. We started with the paneer rumali roll, a crispy roll stuffed with grilled paneer cheese, onions, peppers, and spices. There's so much flavor in this. It has a good dry spice on it. Delicious. Next up, prawn patia, 24-hour marinated prawns with garlic, ginger, and lime. Grilled and smothered with a tomato curry. Wow, there's a lot going on in that. Like warming and earthy cardamom cinnamony vibe. That's yummy. Nothing has been too spicy, which is really nice because sometimes Indian food, it can be spicy. Their famous charred lamb chops blackened on the grill with a Kashmiri chili sauce. It's gorgeous. Oh my god. I don't think I'm being proper by eating it with my hands at all, but I don't care. This is good. To finish, the chicken biryani, slow-cooked aromatic rice with chunks of chicken, ginger, garlic, mint, and coriander. Oh, so aromatic. I honestly don't even think it needs a rice cup. It's great. Before we slip into a food coma, we needed to walk off some of that food. And honestly, when you have a sunny beautiful day like today in London, you take advantage of it. So we headed to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. There are a lot of beautiful green spaces and parks to enjoy throughout the city. It really depends on what neighborhood you're staying at in London, but probably the most famous is Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Our hotel is literally a two-minute walk from it, which is so nice. It's a beautiful green space that offers a little bit of serenity in the chaos of a big city. It's also where you'll find the Princess Diana Memorial and Kensington Palace, which is where many of the royal family members have lived over the years, including Princess Diana. Today's another beautiful day in London, and there's so many people out here just playing with their dogs and having coffees at the little cafes all around. You can walk all the way from Kensington Palace to Buckingham Palace. The parks kind of connect right there, and then you can continue on to a lot of the big attractions of London, like Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Buckingham Palace. I'd say this is probably the number one spot visitors want to see when they come to London. I mean, who doesn't want to see the palace where King Charles III lives and where Queen Elizabeth used to live? The monarchy is glamorized across the world. I mean, we have shows about it, we have the crown, Downton Abbey, all these things that give you a glimpse into the life of royalty. I think a lot of people like to come for the changing of the guards. It's a very iconic activity, but I've heard it can be a madhouse, and because there's so many people, you can't actually see the changing of the guards very well. So I recommend if you want to come to Buckingham Palace, come when they are not doing that, and you can get pretty close to the gates. The monarchy as a whole can kind of be felt all around London. There's many neighborhoods, particularly on the west side, where it is very clear of the king and queen's role in Great Britain, and I know for a lot of Brits, it's kind of a controversial topic of the monarchy, whether they want it to continue or they'd like to see a different structure moving forward. But regardless of the political stance on the monarchy, it is very cool to be in front of the official royal palace. Oh, is it starting again? Yeah, it's starting again. It's so on and off here. The weather, it's crazy. Like literally, the storms will last for two minutes, but it'll dump. When I was a child, I used to play tea. I had my own china set, and it was one of my favorite, favorite things to do, and it feels so special to actually be in London having a proper afternoon tea. This is something that was brought into popularity in the 1840s by a duchess. After the industrialization started to spread across England, they started having dinner later and later, around 9 p.m., but they were still having lunch at about noon. Midway through that period, she started to request tea and snacks like cakes and breads to be brought to her room so that she wasn't ravished before dinner, and after hosting others, it became quite the popular activity to do, and now it is a part of British culture. There's so many places that you can go to for afternoon tea. I did a lot of research on which place had a quality afternoon tea because there's a lot of places that have a lavish experience, but the food that they serve you isn't necessarily fantastic, and as foodies, we were not about to waste that opportunity on mediocre food, so we decided to come to the Ham Yard Hotel. They have a restaurant and bar here that is stunning, and they are known for having an excellent afternoon tea. Oh, it's here, it's here. So starting with your savories, we've got smoked salmon on the seaweed base, cucumber in the creme fraiche, seafood cocktail on a pear bread, chicken and tarragon mayonnaise with fried onions, sausage roll, oil sweets, then the blueberry blackberry tart, we have the strawberry cheesecake, the Pimm's cup, the raspberry mascarpone eclair. Underneath it, we've got fresh gums baked today, we've got strawberry and champagne jam, gooseberry jam, and plums cream. Oh my god, this is even more beautiful and impressive than I ever imagined. I truly am like getting emotional right now. I'm so excited. All of this looks incredible, like they have a silver leaf on one of these pastries. This is a tasty treat. You think everywhere would have tea. I was shocked to find there's a lot of coffee places here, but this experience like really shines for what tea can offer. They have a huge selection of different teas to try, it's not just earl grey or breakfast tea. I got Rubio's with cactus and orange, and Dennis got a milky oolong. Now let's try one of these little cucumber and cream cheese. It's so bright and fresh, the cucumber is so lovely, and the bread is like perfectly soft, it doesn't match that. The scones have the perfect crust on the bottom, and they are flaky and soft as can be. Amazing. I'm just loving this so much. One point or another you're probably going to end up in Piccadilly Circus, which is kind of like the Times Square of London. There's huge billboards everywhere, street performers, it's super duper busy. It's also right next to the Theatre District. Seeing a musical theatre or a play here is one of the top things to do. They have a lot of amazing theatre productions including Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera, which both debuted here. We're not going to get to a theatre show sadly, on this trip it's just not enough time. Which brings me to another point, you need a lot of time to explore London, and even with a lot of time you are not going to see it all. It is a massive city and each neighbourhood has so much to uncover and explore and enjoy. This is a place you need to come to many many times, so just have a realistic expectation and also give yourself time to just take in the beauty, because half of the fun of coming to London is just roaming down the streets, admiring the beautiful buildings, stopping in at a pub, just taking it slow and enjoying the diversity and uniqueness of London. He looks curmudgeon-y, he's kind of cute, he looks very curmudgeon-y. This is how I feel about the corn rib. Corny, I know. Oh! And Phantom of the Opera, which both just debuted here. Excuse us, excuse us, we're, yeah, oh sorry, thank you. Okay.