So if people travel to London in May, what part of the city should they stay in? Something that is not too touristy but still close to where people are (coffee-shops, small stores, restaurants, etc.).
It would also be nice if it’s an area with some form of public transportation.
And a question from a paranoid fellow traveler: is public transportation in London dangerous?
London is very safe, but if travelling by bus, bring the correct change, otherwise you could be in trouble if they check the tickets and you don’t have one.
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Correct change? Buy an oyster card. Tickets are about half the price when you use an oyster instead of cash. I personally would make sure that I live close to a good tube line. Then you can even live a bit further out, which is cheaper, but still can reach the centre quickly. Btw, I don’t consider public transport in London dangerous but when walking or cylcing you must pay more attention than in the average German town since drivers are more reckless.
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When I first saw “oyster card”, I thought you meant the kind of card I get at my favorite restaurant where they record the number of oysters I have ordered and then give me free ones. 🙂 🙂
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Angel and islington are nice, convenient for the central bits and safe.
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Long time Londoner here: public transport is ridiculously safe – the worst you are likely to experience is pick pocketing and I – who has travelled on buses and tubes and trains for the past twenty years – have never had ths happen. And yes – get an Oyster card as it will considerably reduce your travel costs. If you’re staying for a while, you might find it cheaper to purchase a weekly / monthly pass for say zones 1&2 and just ‘top up’ when you travel outsde these zones.
Huge swathes of central London are accessible within 30 minutes of travel. In general, West and South West London are the most expensive. Prices drop considerably once you go to zone 3 (where I live and it still only takes me 30 minutes to get to work in central London), East is cheapest. London is so huge that it’s hard to be more specific – one of the ‘quirks’ of London is that a mile in each direction and you are in a completely different neighbourhoods / income brackets. We don’t really have the ghettoistion that I see in so many American cities. If you’re comfortable with posting some more details about what you intend to do / see / visit whilst you’re in London am happy to chip in some more details.
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Oh, I’m so happy to have a long time Londoner visit the blog! You are a lucky person to live in such an amazing city.
We want to spend a day walking around, sitting in coffee-shops, eating at an Indian restaurant or two (or five), visiting small stores. I saw Notting Hill in a movie and it looked fun. And there is also a place called Marylebone Road that sounds fascinating. Should we go there? Are they big enough for people to wander there for an entire day?
We don’t want to do the touristy Trafalgar Square / museums thing. I’ve done that before anyways.
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Some ideas: Notting Hill (also within walking distance of Kensington High Street and Portobello Market (weekends only) has plenty of what you’re looking for albeit on the expensive side.
Camden Market: (easily accessible on the tube) is vast but you might enjoy the part nearest to Camden Lock which has lots of stalls with quirky handmade items.
From Angel to Highbury (one long road) also has planty of independently owned shops and cafes (avoid the indoor mall bit which just has chain stores).
A little further out is Crouch End (take the tube to Finsbury Park and then the W7 bus) which has lots of independently owned shops and cafes. From there you could also visit Muswell Hill and Alexandra Palace – the latter giving you great views over London and the original location of BBC TV.
You might also want to try Shoreditch (take the tube to Old Street and walk (about 10 minutes) and Hoxton which has some great little shops and cafes and is where artists / start ups congregate. Also the location of Shh! – a sex shop for women (men only allowed in if accompanied by a woman).
For Indian restaurants, Drummond Street (behind Euston station) has some great ones. You could also travel out to Brick Lane in the East End which is where many of the migrants from the Indian sub-continent live – to the extent that Brick Lane is also known as Bangra Lane) (and it’s certainly an interesting part of London to visit as it is where most of the new migrants to the UK start off so it has a really rich cultural history) but I think there are some equally good restaurants elsewhere. I recently went to Rasa (http://www.rasarestaurants.com/UserPages/index.aspx) which was awesome and right in central London.
Top Table is a good site for locating good places to eat with offers on all the time: http://www.toptable.com/
Most London buses now announce each stop so you where you are which makes going places a lot easier and the journey planner on http://www.tfl.gov.uk makes it easier still.
Will come back and add some more as and when I think of them!
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Oh, thank you for this wealth of useful information, you wonderful, wonderful person!!!
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You’re more than welcome. I *love* London and hope you enjoy it too. Ask away if there’s anything else you want to know.
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A few more suggestions:
Spittalfields market – great for small shops and stalls and fabulous food
Primrose Hill / West Hampstead – great views over London, nice small shops and cafes
London Bridge to Tower Bridge along the river – nice cafes and bars and very close to Borough market (Fri-Sun only) – a fabuous foodie destination.
Brixton market – also a great foodie destination and the heart of London’s African-Caribbean community
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I got the impression (from books) that Brixton Market is a little dangerous. Is that true?
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Not at all. I mean you wouldn’t want to wander around the nearby estates at 2am but I was guessing that this wasn’t part of your plan anyway?! It’s the site of two massive nightclubs so it gets busy at night- time and can sometimes feel edgy (in that there’s lots of minicabs, lots of people, some of them drunk, higher than usual number of people begging etc) but rarely feels dangerous. It’s fine during the day. Think Harlem.
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PS Marylebone Road isn’t up to much.
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Another long time Londoner here – though a few years since I’ve been. I recommend Harrow. It’s far enough out to have some fresh air but unlike other places like that, it has a very fast underground connection to the center (ahem I mean “centre”) on the Metropolitan line and only takes about 20 min. It’s got a nice little mall and shopping area too.
And you picked the best month for London btw. And watch out for late night returns as the underground stops running over night.
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