Bonus Episode: A Family Trip to London – Markets, Museum & More (from our archives)

Foreign.

Welcome back to travel in 10, and this is our third episode on London, England this week.

What to really dig into the city.

But also I referenced on some of our earlier podcasts that we had done an earlier episode about a first family trip to London, and I realized if any of you went back and listened to that, you probably wouldn't have found it in our archives because we removed all of our video episodes a little while ago and moved them over to a Voyagescape YouTube channel so you would still find it there.

But there wasn't an audio version here on our channel anymore.

So as a bonus this week thought we would also share that episode on a first trip to London.

So really between the three, you should have a good overview of tons of things to see and do in the city.

All the recommendations still stand.

Other than one.

One restaurant we talked about, Jamie Oliver's fifteen restaurant is no longer there, but in its place, I would recommend Jamie Oliver's Catherine street, his new sort of flagship restaurant in London, as a sub out.

But everywhere else we've talked about in the show are still great recommendations and great things to see and do.

And I also love that in this podcast you get into a bit more of the immersive sounds of the city as well.

So hopefully you've enjoyed these past two episodes on London, England this week and this bonus episode from our archives as well.

This is travel in 10 and welcome to London.

Well, on today's podcast we are going to be looking at one of the great capital cities of the world, London, England.

Talking about what to see and what to do, particularly if you've brought children along on a trip here to London with children over three or four days, some of the things you might want to check out, we're going to look at what to eat, where to stay and where to go.

And in any city that I go to around the world, one of the things I always love to do is go check out some of the local markets.

Gives you some great insight into the culture and lets you really feel like a local.

And a Sunday in London is a great opportunity to do that.

Old Spitifield Market is a great place to start.

This is an indoor market, so if you've got bad weather the day that you're Touring around makes a good place to start your day.

You're going to find clothes here, food here, some great restaurants around the interior of the market and a great jumping off point to explore the area and a few other great Sunday markets.

Just out of Spitalfield Market you're going to find a place called Brick Lane.

And up Brick Lane there's a number of different markets as well as on the weekend, tons of merchants out selling their wares on the street itself.

One of my favorite stops along the way, Vibe Bar.

This is a great place to stop for a cold drink on a hot summer's day.

Also on weekends they've got a pop up salon there.

So if you're there with your wife, your girlfriend, they can go in and get a complete makeover as you tour through.

And they've also got vintage records and just some really interesting market stalls all along the street.

Makes a great place for people watching.

Great place for touring around.

Continuing up Brick Lane, you're going to come across the Sunday upmarket.

As the name implies, this market only runs on Sundays, but certainly one of my favorite of all the markets we checked out while in London.

A lot of local designers who are featuring their clothes here.

A lot of vintage clothes here as well and some fantastic food.

You're going to find amazing food stalls.

Everything from Thai to Vietnamese to Brazilian.

Makes a great place to stop for lunch.

Continuing up Brick Lane, eventually you'll come to Columbia Road.

And Columbia Road has a great flower market that has a ton of personality.

Another short walk from here is a place called the Museum of Childhood.

It's about a 15 minute walk away from Columbia Road.

The VA Museum of Childhood.

It's a free museum, so that's a nice feature.

A lot of very interactive exhibits as you can see here.

A lot of very hands on things that if you're here with kids they're going to absolutely love.

You know you can show them the toys that you played with when you're a kid.

They're going to see a lot of things that they know and love as well.

Place where they can dress up, lot areas that they can can go and check out a museum that any kid would enjoy.

Another place that I think you've got to see when you're in London is the London Eye.

A well known global landmark.

Something that was built for the millennium and has now become sort of a permanent fixture on the London skyline.

And really one of the best known landmarks anywhere in the world.

Provides an Amazing view of the city.

Well worth the price of admission.

It's about a half hour to go around the wheel altogether and you can buy tickets in advance online.

So certainly something I would recommend checking into.

Sunset's a great time to come check it out.

Another nice thing about touring wanna is when you're there, you're right in the heart of the city.

Just across the bridge is Big Ben at the Parliament building.

So that's another thing that you can go see in the area.

Westminster Abbey is a very short walk away.

10 Downing street, the Prime Minister's official residence is also a short walk away.

You're not all that far from Beckingham palace either.

So by coming over to the London Eye, really you're in the middle of the city.

You can make a whole day of it.

London also has some amazing galleries and amazing museums.

A lot of them are free to get into like the National Gallery where you can see everything from Picassos to Van Gogh's.

The British Museum, probably one of the best museums in the world.

If you only see one sort of museum or gallery in town, I think this has got to be the one.

It has antiquities from ancient Egypt, from ancient Greece, from Africa, from North America.

It's really sort of the breadth of the history of civilization as we know it.

And some amazing artifacts here somewhere that you could really come spend a whole day.

If you're with kids, they've got a lot of activities specifically geared at kids to keep them interested.

And one of the most popular rooms in the museum was the Egyptian section where you can see a range of Egyptian antiquities, including mummies as you see here.

Certainly something that made one of the more popular stops the day we were there.

Right across the street from the museum you'll find a great British pub, the Museum Tavern, a good place to try traditional British cuisine and makes a good quick stop when you're done with museum.

In terms of how to get around town, unquestionably one of the best ways is going to be the Tube.

You can get a card called an Oyster card that will give you access to not only the Tube, but also to the bus system throughout the city.

So for double depot buses, another great way to see the city.

And the one card will give you access to both the tube and the buses around quite a few of the tourist attractions.

You'll also find cycles for hire that you can tour around on on a nice summer day as well.

So that's worth checking out.

Where to sleep One of my favorite places has got to be the new W Hotel The W, Leicester Square in London.

All the W's around the world are fantastic hotels, but this one has got a great location like all the W's, very hip, very modern.

It almost feels like you're staying in, you know, a cross between a nightclub and a hotel.

But in this case, it's been very well done.

I mean, if you've ever stayed at hotels in London, you'll know the rooms tend to be small here.

The rooms, actually, I found they made great use of the space and they're extremely comfortable.

Like all London hotels, it's not inexpensive.

You're certainly going to pay a hefty rate to stay here for the evening.

But if you're going to pay to stay at a nice London hotel, I think this one is in a great location somewhere that you.

You're certainly not going to go wrong.

You're only a few blocks away from Trafalgar Square as you see here, a few blocks away from Piccadilly Circus, and you're right in Leicester Square itself.

So you're really in the heart of the city.

It'll be a great place to be during the Olympics, but I think a great place to be anytime and a hotel.

I would highly recommend checking out in terms of where to eat in the city.

There are no shortage of choices in London.

And if you're staying at the W, another great thing about it is as you come out the doors, you're right in the heart of Chinatown.

So you'll find food options really, 24 hours a day all around you.

And the restaurant itself in the hotel itself is fantastic.

The spice market.

There's also, if you've ever been to the Spice market in London or Dubai, a similar concept is here.

Sort of fusion Asian cuisine, but a great restaurant.

Definitely worth checking out.

Jamie Oliver's 15, another place that I would recommend.

If you've seen the reality show, this is where Jamie Oliver has sort of beyond just being a restaurant, has also got a bit of a social purpose here, where he takes in underprivileged youth, trains them to work in the, in the restaurant industry and gives them their start here at the restaurant.

If you're looking for Italian cuisine, certainly 15 is one place, but another I would recommend checking out is Bocca di Lupo.

This was recommended by Gwyneth Paltrow on her website, goop.com and really one of the best Italian restaurants that I've ever been to.

Again, we're only a few blocks away from the W Hotel, right in the heart of the theater district, so certainly well located.

It's a bit hard to find, but definitely worth seeking out.

Fantastic meal here.

It's got a great open kitchen, great fresh Italian cuisine, lots of choices here, and I don't think you're going to go wrong with with a meal there.

Another great feature of Boca D Lupo is right across the street.

The same chef has also opened a great gelato place, Jalupo, where they've got different fresh flavors of gelato every day.

So that in and of itself is worth checking out.

But it's also got other Italian cuisine that you can buy everything from.

Olive oil imported directly from Italy, different cheeses, different meats, cookbooks from Italy.

So you get sort of the full Italian experience.

Since we've already mentioned Jamie Oliver's restaurant, another great London chef, we've got to mention Gordon Ramsay has got a new restaurant actually in the airport, at Heathrow Airport.

So it gives you a chance, really quite unlike most airport restaurants, to get some great cuisine on your way in or out of town at Gordon Ramsay's Plain Food.

And another great thing about it is they've got these sort of picnic baskets that you just saw there that you can take on the plane with you as well and enjoy some Gordon Ramsay cuisine on your flight back home.

So I hope that's given you a good overview of a few things to see and do on a quick tour through London and hope you come back and check out some of the other episodes of the Travel Intend podcast from around the world.