LONDON

London is the capital city of the United Kingdom. It's such a big city that can satisfy everyone's expectations. It has not only beautiful architecture and sights, but also museums, big parks, shops, and so much diversity.

In this blogpost you're going to find a detailed 4-day planning of  a trip to London. This is all based on our experience, so we can recommend you the best of the city.

FIRST DAY

We arrived at Gatwick Airport at 1PM. Our flight with Vueling had been pleasant, even though it had been delayed. We stayed at the Ibis Hotel at Earl's Court, which was a decent hotel without many accomodations, although we had everything necessar we needed for our short trip. A bus brought us to the city centre every day.

The first thing we did was go to Leicester Square to have lunch. To go there, we went through Trafalgar Square and saw Westminster's abbey. It's a square with restaurants and shops, including a huge Lego shop and the biggest M&M's store. If I were you, I would visit both these shops, and make sure to visit the other floors on the M&M's store, which is something some of us forgot.

After lunch, we walked to Buckingham Palace, and then took a walk around St. James' Park. This park was one of the most beautiful sights of the trip. We had a lot of fun because there were many squirrels and they approached us and we could even pet them.

Then, we walked to the Thames and saw the Houses of the Parliament, the Big Ben and the London Eye, and we took a walk around the area. It was beautiful but the Houses of the Parliament were all covered because of the reparations, and we could only see the clock of the Big Ben. (If you follow this planning, keep in mind that the next day you're going to end up here too after getting a ferry, so we suggest you visit something else this time). After this, we went to the hotel, we settled in and then we had dinner.

SECOND DAY

First of all, we had breakfast at the hotel, which was a delicious meal, and then we took a bus to Camden Town. Camden is a neighborhood full of marketplaces, mostly fake things. There are plenty of things you can buy and the atmosphere of the place is sort of an alternative one. We took a walk around the market and spent most of our money there. Camden is a very interesting place to visit, and we recommend you to bargain with the sellers: you can get amazing deals. We also had lunch there, because there are a lot of small food stalls, mostly of fast food. We personally recommend going the Cereal Killer, which is a cafe where you can get any ceral you want and even milkshakes and ice cream.

After visitig Camden, we took the underground to the Tower of London and visited it. The installation has some museums dedicated to the crown jewels, the army and the torture instruments. When we finished our visit, we took some pictures around Tower Bridge while we waited for our ferry. We truly recommend going on the ferry because the sights are breathtaking and you see most of the important buildings on the side of the river. 

We got off the ferry at the London Eye and the Houses of the Parliament, and we walked 10 minutes or so to get to our bus. 

THIRD DAY

We got up in the morning, and our bus took us directly to the Museum of Natural History in South Kensington, where we spent most of our morning. Most of us enjoyed the museum a lot, since it's so big and the installations are modern and interactive. It has different areas dedicated to many different natural topics, such as geology, the history of the universe, dinosaurs, aquatic animals, etc. Even if you don't like science, you'll probably have a lot of fun and the museum shops are great.

After that, we took a long walk to Oxford Street: we walked through the richest area of London, Harrods, and Hyde Park. Even though the walk was beautiful, we were extremely tired from walking so much (keep in mind that you also walk a lot inside the museum). If you get tired easily, maybe you should search for a bus that takes you through the area so you can reach the same place and see the sights from the vehicle.

We ate lunch at Oxford Street, even though there weren't much places to eat. It's the best spot the hit the shops, though. Save some money from Camden to spend there!

Then, we walked through Oxford Circus to reach Piccadilly Circus, which is only 5 minutes or so away by foot. Piccadilly Circus is beautiful, but there's not much to see. Take a break there, and disconnect for a while.

Then we walked through Chinatown and the West End(the theatre area). Both are very beautiful and interesting places to see because of how unique they are. Next to Chinatown, there's Covent Garden, which is a market similar to Camden but more fancy. You can take a walk around it and spend some more money there.

We went to Tesco, the English supermarket, to get some food for dinner because we were going to see a musical shortly after. The musical we saw was Mamma Mia! and it was amazing. The actors were really good and the songs made everyone dance on their seats. We highly recommend you see a musical on West End when you go to London.

After the musical we were super tired so we went directly to the hotel to get some sleep.

FOURTH DAY

We spent the fourth day of our trip in Oxford, which is a city with the historical University of Oxford. We got there with our bus, but there's probably a lot of trains and buses for tourists that you can get. Oxford is about two hours and a half away from London. 

When we got there, we just wandered around the city and saw some of the old university buildings. Then, we had some free time to take a walk around the center and have lunch. After that, our bus took us to Gatwick airport to go back home. Our flight took off at 9-10pm and we got to Barcelona at 1am. We were so tired!

Regarding Oxford, he city itself is beautiful, but we feel as though we didn't get to enjoy it much. We saw very few things of the university and had too much free time. We suggest that if you want to go, you should first get informed of what to see or get a guide. 

Another option we thought we could have done is that instead of going to Oxford we could have spent another day in London and see some things we didn't have time for: Madame Tussauds, Regent's Park, Sherlock's house, Notting Hill, The British Museum, The Shard, Kensington Gardens, etc.