My birthday is St. Patrick’s Day so for my 30th birthday, my dream trip was to celebrate in Dublin! So we did, and then decided to hop over (for $50 each!) to London for two days. It was a hectic two days, we saw a lot but I do feel like we came, saw and conquered it. We hit a good mix of touristy must-sees and local favorites.

Overall Tip: If you are short on time in any big touristy city, I highly recommend getting that city’s ‘pass’. They allow you to skip most tourist attraction lines, include discounts and help you jam as much as possible when you are short on time. We absolutely felt like the London Pass was worth it for our two day adventure.

Day 1:

We flew in and I purposely picked a hotel near a lot of attractions such as Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Kensington Gardens and the Underground (London subway). So we took the Underground and walked right across the street to the Z Hotel Victoria. This hotel was amazing, it was super luxe but compact and included breakfast.

The day we went to Buckingham Palace, there was some sort of event happening and it was WAY more crowded than normal which was unfortunate. So we took a few pictures and went on our way. We accidentally discovered the beautiful Hyde Park.

Tower of London was our first stop. We were tipped off that there were free tours to take that left every 30 minutes and that they were absolutely hilarious! If you go to the Tower of London (which is a MUST-DO), you absolutely need to take a tour with the free guide!

We went back to the hotel and this was when we found out about the all you can eat and drink wine and cheese at our hotel…cannot tell you how great and terrible of an idea that was…

Then we went to Harrods to explore this massive food and other shopping mall. My husband was not excited about this but ultimately appreciated the experience; this place is like no other ‘mall’ I’ve been to!

Day 2:

We intentionally wanted to jam-pack this day with the touristy things mixed with some breaks to find other local items.

Our first venture was Westminster Abbey. This was a long wait and the London Pass did not help with it but it was worth it in my opinion. The history that this place holds, the history that has affected so much of America and the rest of the world is mind blowing.

Side note: Westminster Abbey is right next to Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Bridge. All three of these are breathtaking and worth some time and pictures.

After this, we needed a nature break, so we explored the Kensington Gardens. I will also add that we took most of the tour of the Kensington Palace; we are not impressed. To be completely honest, my main goal of seeing Kensington Gardens was to see the palace, the swans and Peter Pan (because of Winning London).

After our nature adventure, we needed a hefty drink and a snack. Those cravings brought us randomly to The Swan. We found many locals here, not so many tourists which we appreciated. This was a beautiful restaurant/bar that was across the street from the Kensington Gardens.

We started to head back to the hotel when we came across one of the most ‘London’ bars I think exists and of course drank with some locals there. This magical place was The Churchill Arms.

After drinking around thousands of flowers and Winston Churchill decor, we decided it was time for some food (and drinks?) back at the hotel.

We stopped at a few places that night, most notably was the Piano Kensington. This piano bar was packed and the pianist could play any pop, country, rock song requested!

The next morning, we got the early train back to Gatwick airport. 🙁

If you have some amazing restaurant/bar finds in London, please let me know! We did struggle to find great food here and I KNOW there is amazing food somewhere in this fantastic city!