London — Tips & Tricks

From NL to London

• Budget: Eindhoven → London Stansted with Ryanair, then the Stansted Express into the city. Book well in advance — the earlier you book, the cheaper (the cheapest tickets, from £9.90, require booking roughly 3 months ahead).
• Fancier: British Airways from Schiphol to Heathrow. From there, the Elizabeth Line — stops directly at London's major stations, including Liverpool Street. The Heathrow Express is an alternative (pricier, but faster: 15 minutes non-stop versus around 27 minutes with stops). Elizabeth Line journeys simply count toward the TfL daily cap; the Heathrow Express falls outside it.

Underground, bus and paying

• Use public transport: the Underground and buses. Both count toward the daily cap — currently £16.30 for Zones 1-6 combined, or a lower cap of around £5.25 if you only take the bus.
• Pay with a pre-purchased Visitor Oyster (with balance, nice as a keepsake) or simply contactless with your own bank card — the latter is easiest.
• We just navigate with Google Maps combined with the official TfL app — works great for real-time trip planning between Underground, bus and walking.

Discount passes: Go City / London Pass

• Solid discounts on major attractions, including The Shard and the Tower of London — check the current offer on the official Go City London page (opens in a new tab).
• Full (All-Inclusive) pass — available for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 or 10 days. Works on a credit system: each duration comes with a fixed balance (a 5-day pass, for example, gives £1,010 in credits), and each attraction costs credits in proportion to its normal entry price. Note: those credits CAN run out if you visit a few pricey attractions — we've experienced that ourselves.
• Explorer Pass — instead, you buy a fixed number of attractions (2 to 7), to be used within 30 days of activation.

Our favourite spots

• Flat Iron — our favourite chain. Affordable, tasty steak on a wooden board, spread across the city (we've been to the London Bridge and Marylebone branches, among others). Note: no vegetarian menu, apart from one roasted-aubergine option.
• Honest Burgers — also a chain, not the cheapest but delicious burgers.
• La Masseria — a standalone, family-run place we stumbled onto by accident and which became our regular breakfast spot. Remarkable: they recognise us every visit, quite something for a city with millions of tourists a year.
• Our tip for getting recognised somewhere: don't act like a typical tourist. Make eye contact, have a genuine chat with people and with staff — open and honest, not over the top but with real interest. People can tell instantly whether it's sincere or an obligation. Funnily enough, the opposite applies on the Tube (see below) — Londoners prefer to travel in silence there.

How many days do you need?

Our advance warning: plan on 5 days for a first visit — enough time to spread things out without running yourself ragged. If you only have 2-3 days, here's a compact core route: day 1 Westminster/Big Ben and Tower Bridge/Tower of London with a Flat Iron dinner in the evening; day 2 the London Eye or a free viewpoint like Sky Garden, the British Museum (free) and a market such as Borough Market or Camden; day 3 (if you have 3 days) the V&A or the Science Museum and a walk along the Thames. With 5 days there's room for a slower pace, a day in Camden or Notting Hill, extra museums, a West End show and Greenwich as a day trip.

What else you should know

• England uses pound sterling, not the euro — contactless is the norm, you barely need cash. Note: many restaurants already include a service charge (10-12.5%) in the bill.
• Great value tip: the British Museum, Tate Modern, National Gallery, V&A, Natural History Museum and Science Museum are all free to enter. Only the Science Museum still requires booking a free time slot in advance.
• Sky Garden is free but has a limited number of tickets per day — bookable up to 3 weeks ahead, and often booked up quickly. In that case, look at the Sunrise option (opens in a new tab): a (paid) early breakfast with a view, before opening hours, where there's often still room.
• The best view over the whole city is Horizon 22 (opens in a new tab) (Level 58, 22 Bishopsgate) — free, and new tickets are released every morning at 10:00 (often cancellations). So just check availability (opens in a new tab) on the day itself.
• Lost luggage before check-in or after check-out? We used Luggage Hero ourselves.
• A valid Dutch EHIC/health card covers necessary care during your visit to the UK, but is not a substitute for travel insurance.
• The UK has a different power outlet (type G) than the Netherlands — bring a travel adapter.
• London weather is unpredictable — layers and something water-resistant are recommended.

Small things that make a difference

• The British take queueing seriously — cutting in line is not done and gets noticed immediately.
• Underground rush hours: Mon-Fri 7:30-9:00 and 17:00-19:00. Quieter travel is possible between 8:45-17:00 or after 18:30.
• On the escalator: stand right, walk left. Let people off first, then board, and move all the way into the carriage.
• On the Tube everyone prefers to travel in silence — starting an unsolicited chat is seen here as intrusive rather than friendly (a nice contrast with our food tip above).
• England drives on the left — at busy crossings it's sometimes literally painted "LOOK RIGHT" on the road, because this is a well-known source of near-misses for visitors from right-hand-drive countries.
• The UK is 1 hour behind the Netherlands all year round — easy to forget when booking tickets or tables.
• Large shops may only open for 6 consecutive hours on Sundays (between 10am-6pm); small shops have no restriction.
• Tap water is perfectly safe to drink.
• Public toilets are often paid or hard to find — the free museums above make a handy, free toilet stop.
• Since Brexit, the UK no longer automatically falls under "EU roam-like-at-home" — check with your provider beforehand whether the UK is still included in your data plan, otherwise consider an eSIM.
• Children under 10 (up to 4 per adult) travel free on the Underground, buses and most trains within London, provided they're with an adult with a valid ticket.
• The Thames Clippers (riverbus) are a fun alternative way to travel along the Thames, also payable with Oyster/contactless — it just doesn't count toward the daily cap.