My Favorite Free & Cheap London Activities (Part 2)

In my last post, I started talking about my favorite free and cheap activities in London, because it looks like London is a popular destination for my readers right now while we cant't travel. I want to continue my list of things that cost very little or nothing in the city to make a trip full and still make it feel like you experienced the best of what there is to offer. 

I always suggest adding free attractions and activities into your trip to stretch your budget, but this last trip we went on was more the other way around, because we have already done a ton of the main activities on our previous trips.

Neal's Yard

We did a lot of walking in London on our last trip (in fact, on all our trips there), because there's no better way to explore the feel of a place than by wandering through neighborhoods. London is very walkable, though it feels very spread out when you're taking the Tube everywhere. Neal's Yard in Covent Garden is a tiny little alcove neighborhood with super colorful buildings. You'll find boutique shops and tiny cafes, and everything just feels a little bit surreal. It's gorgeous, though, and you can wander up to the West End and Piccadilly Square from there.

Sky Garden

Want to see London from the sky? If you don't want to spend the money for the London Eye or the Tower Bridge Experience (though I highly recommend doing this for the walkway) or spending the money on a fancy dining experience at The Shard - and even if you do - Sky Garden is a must-do. You have to make reservations in advance, but tickets are free. Tickets open up for various slots throughout the day a month out, so you'll want to remember to plan ahead in order to get a good morning slot. The building has a 360-degree view and has some of the best photo ops inside and out.

Leadenhall Market

Are you a fan of Harry Potter? Even if you're not, Leadenhall is a beautiful covered marketplace that houses a ton of great merchants and eating establishments. If you are a fan of Harry Potter, this is the market used for Diagon Alley in Sorceror's Stone. I wasn't looking to make any purchases here. We, basically, visited for the vibe and to check out the store fronts. Worth it!

St. Dunstan in the East

There was once a parish church in London, but it was mostly destroyed in WWII. Instead of knocking down the rest of the church, the ruins were left and the city developed around it. Right in the middle of some huge skyscrapers is this quaint little park with standing stone walls that give you the feeling of being somewhere else. While we were there, a bridal party was getting their photos taken and some people were taking their lunch from work. There are plenty of places to sit and just take in the beauty and solace.

Wallace Collection

While there are a ton of big museums in London, this one that is not as well known is nestled in a quiet neighborhood and has a really interesting collection. I only learned about it by searching a list of best affordable afternoon teas. Their tea room has afternoon tea for approximately $22pp, but their collection has servingware, weapons, and armor, among other things. While there, we happened to be fortunate enough to visit during a special Manolo Blahnik shoe exhibit. 

Imperial War Museum

There are several locations of Imperial War Museums, and as a person who doesn't really love the idea of war at all, I have been very intrigued by my visits. We visited IWM London, which ended up with us taking a much longer walk than expected, but it was worth it. There was a holocaust exhibit then, which was fascinating and heartbreaking, where we learned quite a lot that we didn't know before. The museum isn't intimidating in size like others, so visiting can fit into a few hours.

St James's Park (Pelicans)

St James Park isn't the coolest or biggest park in London, but it's very pretty and the walkways are large. If you visit at certain times of the day, you can watch the park's resident pelicans being fed. If, like me, you've never seen a pelican in real life, you'll be astounded by the size of these birds. There's also a sweet little garden next to their chosen pond. St James's Park also empties out at Buckingham Palace, so you can easily check out the outside of the gates and building or get a good spot for the Changing of the Guard. 

Buckingham Palace

If seeing the guards in front of the palace are on your to-do list, then you'll need to know that there are always crowds. The Changing of the Guard takes place most days at 11am, and crowds will be heavy, even during the low tourist season. You'll want to get there at least an hour early to get a good standing spot and plan to stay there for at least two hours. Wear comfy shoes and be patient. There were many people trying to leave or move during the process and getting yelled at by MPs (cops). This is a tradition and it's considered polite to find a spot and stay there for the duration. 

House of MinaLima

Here's another place to go if you love Harry Potter. MinaLima (a husband and wife duo) created all the advertising and visual goods props in the movies, including all the Weasley goods packaging and the Daily Prophet newspapers. The House of MinaLima is housed in a historic building, painted bright pink, and stuffed with paper prop recreations (like book jackets, Quibblers, and acceptance letters) and the rooms are very small, but it really makes it feel very Harry Potter-y. I loved it. You can purchase most everything inside, but no purchase is necessary to explore and take photos. I'll be adding a separate post on MinaLima and other Harry Potter locations in London.

Grocery Shopping

One of my favorite things to do on trips is to visit a local grocery store, especially when I'm in another country, because there are so many different things that are sold than at your stores at home. Not only that, but I tend to pick up breakfast items when I arrive, so I can save money on dining out for one meal of the day. Somehow, I found many items that we have at home, but at a fraction of the price, even in pounds. We made a game out of trying a bunch of different UK candy bars, which are relatively cheap, to decide which were the best ones to bring home.

Walking Tours

London is home to walks.com that has a multitude of walks each day that are really affordable and cover everything from hiking up the hills in the Notting Hill neighborhood to coming the shores of the Thames for historical artifacts. We took several walks and all of the tour guides were awesome and informative. You don't need to make a reservation. You just show up at your designated meeting point at the time specified and pay £10 per person to your guide.

There you have it. A monster list that will get you through a short or a long trip to London and save you hundreds of dollars on your visit. Transportation and food are not going to be as forgiving, but you can opt to eat at street vendors or local chains like Wagamama, make lunch your big meal of the day, and also walk as much as possible. I recommend getting an Oyster Card for the Tube if you're going to use it, as it will still be cheaper than taking cabs or Uber (if/when they allow for that service again).

My Favorite Free & Cheap London Activities (Part 1)

I've been following the posts that are popular reads here on Shereen Travels Cheap during lockdown and it looks like you are all interested in London travel. I realized I never posted about some of things we did when we were there in September and now's the time to share it while everyone is dreaming of travel. 

Because we'd already been to London two other times, we spent a lot of time doing cheap and free activities on this last trip. So, I've decided this first post will be about my favorites from all my trips.

Hyde Park

There's so much to see in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, including a ton of fountains and sculptures and statues. You can spend half a day here just wandering through the park, but you can also eat here, rent a lounge chair to sit out by the water, watch the squirrels run around, go swimming (during certain seasons), feed birds, and take so many pictures. We visited on our first trip and again on our last trip and I don't think we saw any of the same things during these trips. If you wander into Kensington Gardens, you can visit Kensington Palace (not free), one of the homes of the Royals.

Holland Park

Smaller than Hyde Park, but packed with even more, Holland Park is in a beautiful neighborhood and has playgrounds, sports fields, a Japanese Garden, a museum, art installations, a restaurant, an herb garden and more. We easily got lost here for several hours trying to check out everything that we saw.

National Gallery

There are so many museums in London and, unlike most of the museums other places, so many of them are free to enter. We carry several one-pound or two-pound coins to drop in the donation box at the entrance, as they all run on donations. We have more than gotten our donation fee's worth, especially at the National Gallery. Spend some time out front in Trafalgar Square and then head inside for multiple floors and rooms of art of all kinds. We barely scratched the surface after 2 hours inside.

Markets

London could be defined by its markets. Each time we visit, we try to go to some new ones, because each is only open certain days of the week, and we could easily spend our whole trip just going from market to market and not do anything else. This wouldn't be a bad way to spend a week, in my opinion, because each market really showcases the best of the neighborhood it's found in. Here are a few of my favorites:

• Borough Market - I can't believe it took us so long to visit Borough when it was open. We briefly walked through on our first trip on a Harry Potter filming location walk, but visiting while it is open is a crazy amazing experience. The market bustles with the most gorgeous food I've ever seen. I spent a good 40 minutes just browsing spices. We also picked up some great fresh bread and got delicious goat milk ice cream as we were walking around.
• Portobello Road Market - We tend to visit this market every trip we take, because there's just so much to look at. It has both an antique area, a food area, and a general items area. You can get doughnuts the size of your head, fresh fruit, vintage books, and a Mind the Gap tote bag all in one trip. The market is also surrounded by great shops and restaurants, too.
• Camden Market - There's nothing super exciting about this market, because you can probably purchase all the things there elsewhere, but the Camden area is just worth visiting, if nothing else but because the buildings around the market have 3D artwork on top and the area is just so hip feeling that you'll want to spend time browsing for souvenirs in the market.
• Brick Lane Market - If you love a more creative feel, then head over to Brick Lane, because it's full of handmade items and local artists. You'll also find second hand items like clothing and furniture here, too. You'll even find food stalls here to keep your bargain-hunting going.

Brick Lane area street art

While I enjoy the market, I loved Brick Lane 100% for the amazing street art on every available surface. Everywhere you look is fantastic wall murals and graffiti art. I could have spent an entire day here, but instead I got a handcrafted coffee hit up an indoor market with vintage items and locally-made items, then had brunch at Pachamama, where I had been dying to go for quite a while due to their Instagram posts. I wasn't disappointed.

Shoreditch area street art

Shoreditch is very trendy, as evidenced by their Boxpark, a shopping center composed of mini shops in shipping containers. Boxpark was on the cusp of innovation years ago when people where just learning that shipping containers had more than one use. Everywhere you look in Shoreditch is covered in awesome street art as well. This is more upscale graffiti artwork, giving you a very cool grunge vibe. This may not really fully explain what I mean, but imagine some of the most realistic portraits done in spray paint mixed in with funky political art. It's very New York feel to me.

Walk along the Thames

I recommend walking along the river both during the day and the evening, because you get a totally different feel at different times of the day. Also, make sure you walk over a bridge to see both sides on each visit. During the day you can watch a ton of independent artists and musicians entertaining visitors and at night it's just a lovely way to take in the lights of the city, but we also happened upon a street fair. We find that you can get so many different kinds of photos of the city this way too.

British Museum

I love a good museum and when you also have one in a historic building and/or one that has a very cool architecture feature. The British Museum is worth just walking through the main hall purely for the large swirled glass ceiling. Of course, I recommend exploring the rest of the museum as well, because they have everything. It covers 2 million years of human history, including everything from Egyptian artifacts to impressionist art.

V&A

Down the way from the British Museum is the Victoria & Albert museum, which features textiles, pottery, and other decorative art. If you enjoy seeing human history through things like rugs, clothing and swords, this is the museum you want to visit above all else. The lobby has a large Chihuly hanging from the ceiling and that pretty much sets the tone for the whole building. One of my favorite pieces was a huge Muslim prayer rug that was housed in a glass enclosure that had different levels of light cycles to show the handwoven fibers while also protecting it from harsh light that could destroy it. I also greatly enjoyed the Samurai armor collection. 

I have quite a few more places for you to check out in London that will save your budget, but I'll add them to a second post. You could easily visit this expensive city and only pay for transportation and dining, instead of blowing a ton of money on spendy attractions like the London Eye, but I would suggest doing at least some of those, because they are great ways to see and experience the city as well. The London Explorer Pass can save you a lot of money on those things, too, so you don't go broke experiencing everything you want in the city.

If you've been to London (or surrounding area), what was your favorite free or cheap activity?

How Travel Will Change After Coronavirus

We're all probably so tired of hearing about Covid-19 and Coronavirus. There's almost no other news happening and it can get overwhelming. It sucks. We're all stuck at home trying to stay afloat and figure out how to adjust to this new normal for the time being where we don't get to hug others and have to throw game nights via Zoom or Discord and can only see people from across the street. I hope some good things will come from this, including a lot more kindness toward people, a greater appreciation for the things we've usually taken for granted, and a safer/healthier world.

Thinking about this, I feel like when we return to travel, it's going to be different, but it's also going to be better. Not only is nature becoming a bit more wild and skies/waters are becoming clearer, but think of how exciting life is going to be when you can see a place for the first time again. Even your favorite destinations may change.

Here is some speculation on how travel itself will be different:

• You'll see more people everywhere wearing masks outside and at landmarks and attractions.
• There's going to be a lot more hand sanitizer everywhere you go.
• Cleaning practices are going to be much more stringent.
• There will be stricter limits on capacity, even at outdoor attractions, like the Bellagio Fountains in Las Vegas.
• Credit card and contactless payments will be the new norm and more available in places like public transportation (all buses in the UK that we took last year had tap to pay).
• Fewer people will be allowed in restaurants, and there will be fewer tables overall, to help with social distancing.
• More virtual queues to allow for less standing around waiting at restaurants.
• More places accepting reservations to space out visitors.
• Employees everywhere wearing masks and gloves, especially in food service, where you may also receive your food covered to prevent germs getting to it before it arrives.
• More airports may employ therapy dogs/animals to lessen the stress of travel for passengers.

I can't say that I'll be sad to see any of these changes if/when they happen. It's going to make crowd management a bit more complicated, but it's also going to make it easier to navigate places in my opinion.

How will the TSA change? 

Right now, there are approximately 90% fewer travelers at airports going through security when compared to the same time last year. When the travel bans are lifted, or if you have to travel for an emergency, here's what's going to be different:

• Travelers will be allowed to bring a bottle of sanitizer up to 12oz with them on the plane. Any container over the 3.4oz limit will need to be scanned separately.
• You'll be encouraged to put anything in your pockets into your purse or carry-on through security and not use a bin/tray at all.
• Security will allow travelers to wear face masks, but may also be asked to adjust them in order to match you to your ID or passport.
• If your ID has expired, you may still be able to use it to travel. If your license or ID expired on or after March 1, 2020. TSA agents will accept expired driver's licenses or state-issued ID a year after expiration or 60 days after the duration of the emergency, whichever is longer.

Travelers will be encouraged to wash their hands before and after going through airport security. They also suggest you bring the following with you when traveling: Aside from hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes and face masks. They also remind you that you can ask TSA officers to change their gloves before patting you down or handling your belongings. If you have other questions about traveling during the pandemic, check out TSA.gov/coronavirus.

What do you think of these new travel precautions? And how do you think travel will change beyond the travel bans and shelter-at-home orders?