Welcome to London.
In the next 10 minutes, I’m going to give you 30 essential tips you need to know before coming here. And if you’re visiting London for the first time, I have a special freebie for you, so make sure you see to the end of the article to get it.
Let’s start with the basics.
Despite being in Europe we do not accept Euros here. We use the Great British Pound. So don’t try to pay with Euros or American Dollars. Only pounds are accepted.
Cars drive on the left side of the road here, so be careful when crossing. And in fact, you can look at the sidewalk and it will tell you which side of the road you need to look at before you cross.
The drinking age here in the UK is 18, but if you’re going out with your parents, you can drink at 16. Most places won’t ask for ID to enter, but it’s a good idea to have one just in case, and especially if you think you might be going to a club.
Let’s talk about money
Some say a quid, which is slang for a pound. And if someone says a fiver, that means five pounds. And if they say a tenner, that’s 10 pounds, obviously. Almost everywhere in London now accepts credit and debit and in fact, loads of places are actually cashless. So you could definitely walk around London and not have any cash. But if you want to take cash, exchange when you get home or use one of the many cash machines we have around town. Many of them are free to use, but your bank may charge you.
Let’s talk about tipping
If you go to a restaurant and a server takes your order at the table, you may notice an optional service charge of 12.5% ​​added to your bill. This is your tip. If no service charge is added to your bill, you can tip the staff 10 to 12% if you ask your server to charge your credit card the extra amount.
Or be happy with the service by leaving cash, of course. If you go to a pub or bar and you order a drink or food, even at the bar, you don’t have to tip.
Of course you can if you want. No one is going to say no to some free money, but it is definitely not expected.
Basically for anything else, tips are not expected. Of course, if you want to pay a little extra, no one will say no, and it will be appreciated, but unless you are doing one of these free walking tours you are not expected to pay anything. They live off those tips, so sure, you got those tips.
Let’s talk about transportation.
The best app to figure out how to get from point A to point A is CityMapper. Google Maps also works well, but if you want to know the cost of each option for your journey, CityMapper is the way to go. It covers bus, train, bike, taxi, all options. You don’t need to use an Oyster card to pay for public transport in London.
If you have a debit or credit card that has a contactless payment feature or you have Apple Pay or Google Pay, you can use either of these methods to pay for transport in London.
Alternatively, you can use an app called Get, which works like Uber, but only for black cabs. The cost of a tube ride in London depends on how many zones you travel through, but there is a daily cap depending on how many zones you travel through for the day. If you stick to zones one and two covering central London, The daily cap is £7.70, which means once you’ve taken £7.70 worth of rides on the Tube, then your remaining two rides and your bus rides are effectively completely free. So make the most of it.
If you want to cycle around London, we have a few different options.
The most popular are our Santander bikes,
Which is our standard city bike. But there are also plenty of electric bikes you can get around town, which you can book through apps like Uber. Too much stress. This is a zebra crossing or zebra crossing. If you see one of these, it means you’re crossing a street that you can only walk on because pedestrians have priority over cars and traffic must stop for you. That being said, obviously still check both ways, just in case they decide not to. If you ever see a blue plaque on the side of a building, it means something important has happened to that property.
For example, someone behind me said it was the home of John Logue Baird, who in 1926 had the first television show on the property. These blue plaques are all over the city, so if you see one, make sure you run to read it and see what happened in that place.
When you see street signs in London, you may notice numbers and letters in red. This is the postcode of the area. The letters stand for North, South, East and West, or C stands for Central, and the number represents how far that area or street is from the center of London.
Most intersections around town will have a pedestrian light that lets you know if it’s okay to go. But if it’s safe while it’s red, then you’re totally good to go. Just be very careful. perfect Cross, yes. Risk taker. If you see a station with this famous symbol, it means it is a tube station. But if you see one with this sign, it means it’s an overground train station, and this sign is a bus station.
Let’s talk about accommodation.
The area you choose to stay in will affect your trip. And I have guides that tell you about all the areas of London. But to give you a very top-line overview, Central London is the most touristic, West London is the most touristic. West London fancy. East London is the most eclectic, North London has the best outdoor stuff, and South London the lowest. So before booking make sure you know a bit about the area you will be staying in. So glamorous. In Piccadilly, Tharka. Hostels are the cheapest, most accommodating, and perhaps least comfortable accommodation option when it comes to London. But we have them all over the city and they’re great for those who want to stay here on a budget, especially solo travelers, because you can book just a bed in a dormitory-style room. Hotel prices can fluctuate here. So if you see something you like, it’s at a good price and there’s flexible cancellation, book it. You can always discard it if you find something better. But generally speaking, prices tend to go up and availability goes down the longer you wait to book a hotel here. So jump on it.
When it comes to Airbnb in London,
I do not recommend this for many reasons, but the biggest one is that it is negatively affecting our housing market. And also a lot can go if you book an Airbnb here. And so we have a lot of great different hotel options, which are great options, and I have a very good list of them, If you’re here for less than seven days, don’t leave London. If you want to do a lot of touristy stuff you will need at least 2-3 days, but you have only scratched the surface and there is so much more to explore in this city. So don’t be tempted to leave. Stay here and explore it further.
Now, if you want more tips for your first trip to London, then stay tuned to our website.
