10 mistakes tourists ALWAYS make in London

welcome to the city of London yes of course it's raining over 20 million tourists descend upon this historic City each and every year and you very well might be one of them hopefully on a day a little bit better than this now my name is Evan duninger I've lived here for over 10 years and today I'm going to be helping you not make the same mistakes that every tourist makes upon visiting the city so hopefully you can get the most of what the city has to offer so first big mistake staying in zone one for accommodation London is a massive City and a lot of tourists to wrongfully assume that they need to stay somewhere near the center of the city so they can see everything but there's a couple big issues with that it is a really large city so no matter where you stay you're going to end up having to travel at least a little bit to get to some places you want to go to the public transit here is amazing this ain't America provided you within a 10 minute walk of your nearest Underground Station actually another thing about it that's probably my biggest tip wherever you stay in London make sure you're within a 10 minute walk of an underground station and then the whole of the City opens up to you you can get anywhere you want really quickly even in 10 Downing Street boy Rishi Russia you snack let me in every tourist is already pretty familiar with Covent Garden St Paul's Kensington and the like but you're already probably going to be visiting those places anyway so why not develop a more intimate connection with an area outside of the standard touristy zones but who else can say that they've stayed in Fulham people in Fulham don't even want to tell you that just replace Fulham with balm or clap them or any of those other Parts Plus I haven't even mentioned how expensive it is to stay in zone one it's a no-brainer you save money get a better connection with an area outside of the touristy spots don't stay in zone one and now I'm from mistake number two which really goes hand in hand with mistake number one we already talked about how you shouldn't really be staying in zone one for accommodation but you also shouldn't be spending the majority of your time here especially in all of the touristy locations such as Leicester Square where I am right now now there's no doubt if you've heard of London you've heard of Leicester Square or even Oxford Street the busiest shopping street in all of Europe however what used to be a great place full of individual little shops and places to pick up things has now become essentially an amalgamation of different overpriced American candy stores and other tourist traps that you really shouldn't be spending any time in especially in the evening this place is absolutely packed but it plays an incredibly important role in London society which is to make sure all the tourists go here so that we have a little bit more space in the rest of the city doing things we actually want to do so instead of walking down American candy Street why not try out nearby carnaby Street which still has a lively Vibe with actual shops and good food or instead of Leicester Square why not try out seven dials one of the most beautiful parts of inner London it's right next to Covent Garden and has one of my absolute favorite pizzas in all of the city that of course being home slice you gotta try it as a guy from New Jersey I can attest those big pizzas are well worth the 20 quid but you'd also be making a mistake not to venture out of the center of the city at all London has so many beautiful parks and each one has its own vibe that you can just go pick one for the day and explore and you'll have a blast what do you even do in Leicester Square uh you got a premieres pretty much that's it what about the m m store I I've been in there once and I didn't buy anything assuming you're flying into London Heathrow one of the big mistakes I made when I first moved here was booking a mini cab to take me from the airport to my accommodation in Tottenham and that rang me up 75 quid nearly a hundred dollars back in the day when if in reality I'd just taken the Piccadilly line per se it would have cost me a little bit around a Fiverr yikes and at the time I didn't even have any suitcases because Air Canada lost them so really big L's coming out of Evan however obviously price aside the big reason to get a black cab bolt or an Uber or whatever would be for the comfort yes you get to have a cab all to yourself it is a bit pricey but it's comfortable now if you're thinking you want to get one because it might be faster to get from point A to point B with one of those actually from my experience most the time I think I'm gonna book a cab because I don't want to be late and then it gets stuck in London's horrendous car traffic it would have been way less stress inducing and way cheaper just to get the underground and that's enough about that cab bout cat that's Dreadful taking the TF else also while you're here if you want to blend in instead of pronouncing it with a t say tube like subscribe to my YouTube channel I still like it now originally the mistake I was going to talk about here was that a lot of tourists don't realize that in between certain tube stops is only like a five minute walk so you might as well just get out and see something new however while filming this video I've seen so many tourists make some just crucial mistakes that I feel like just doing a PSA and adding two additional ones here so first off if you're a tourist and you're in a central area in the evening you can't mistake it you'll see a rickshaw slash tuck tuck or hundreds of them passing by blurry excruciatingly loud music and do not get one of these no London are we caught dead in one they're pretty much a tourist trap and if you're unaware it has been in a legal battle for the last decade and nobody seems to care but essentially they're completely unregulated by tfl so if you a tourist go oh you know it would be nice listening to despacito while my eardrums burst and we go down Oxford Street in a little Rickshaw that sounds fun how you know what else is fun 100 pounds oh that that sounds pretty cheap for only a mile how about 180 500 pounds is that good for you I'm not making these numbers up there's been more than enough stories of tourists being scammed because the Rickshaw drivers can charge whatever they want so just don't get in a rickshaw now you might see these red phone booths behind me and your heart will swell thinking of Dave from accounting and his amazing trip to London he has some photos inside of some of these don't be like Dave Dave probably still smells of piss the scent doesn't quite wash off you can take a photo next to one of these short get your Gram pose next to it look all aesthetic whatever you want to do but the second you open that door it's like opening a hot oven except instead of heat it's a smell of hot piss so maybe just don't do that and if I find out that you came to London and you went inside of one of these things it's really gonna piss me off so I don't know don't do that crime mistake number five they commit crime that's pretty nice well before we move on to some food related mistakes that I see Taurus making time and time again you may want to make a day trip out of the city during part of your visit and they say a man is born of London is bored of life and I do agree but the rest of the parts of the UK are also pretty stunning so if you want to take a trip out to Henley or Brighton or any other cute little towns like Cambridge outside of London they're well worth a quick visit but what's the best way of booking your tickets there you may have heard that British people love queuing well they sure do but there's no reason to queue unnecessarily for a paper ticket to travel out of the city with the train Pal app you can download your e-tickets your rail cards and more all within their app safe on your phone and what's more is that train pal always try and find a way to save you more money when you're booking so they split the fares up whether that be two different singles or they offer you vouchers such as if you use the code Evan when downloading the app you get a couple free vouchers on me you're welcome buying a rail card usually costs about 30 pounds but if you do it through the train Pile app you can pay 19 pounds and 80 Pence link that up to your oyster and get even more savings when traveling through London and according to the app says I've already saved enough money to buy two pints of beer now I'd probably say that's more or less two pints of a Carling in a scouse pub between the hours of 4 and 5 p.m on Wednesday after the coronation but savings are savings and if you do use train pow there's this pretty nifty feature where it lets you see all the different places that you've traveled to and from well if you look at mine you might think I have an interest in maidenhead but I could assure you the only reason I'm visiting maidenhead is because the love of my life is there I'm not talking about Theresa May though I did visit the maidenhead museum the other day and uh I saw her shoes the country I love so thank you very much to train pal for sponsoring today's video and like I said download the app using the link in my description using codef and to get some free vouchers and let's get to some food mistakes we've all heard the stereotypes British food is extra Bland you know who made those stereotypes all the people that decided to go to the most touristy looking Pub in the world next to Westminster Abbey and went oh this food doesn't taste too good really really if you're going to go to a place who advertises and says real British pies and fish and chips served here you deserve to have a microwave meal okay I'm giving it a tip here though don't go to those types of places if you're going to go to a pub to have some really good pub food just do a little bit of research beforehand don't just walk into any place that says dumb tourists accepted here maybe look up the places on Google reviews make sure it's not a spoons weather spoons is a chain of Pub that serve really delicious microwave meals so I would make sure that it's not a spoons you can go there it's really cheap but it's kind of like saying I went to Taco Bell for the most authentic Mexican food ever by saying I went to Spoons for good pup food just not necessarily the place you want to go now if you are in Central and you're like but I do want to go to a nice Pub well there's waxy O'Connors near Piccadilly Circus it's kind of like if an Irishman went I want to build a pub but I also want to build a tree house and then says why is my accent so shite that would be the place you'd go it's lovely it's huge it's beautiful there's live Irish bands every Friday really love waxy O'Connors for a central big Pub and if you want to have a drink on the Thames maybe Riverside another central place it's called the anchor and it's near London Bridge and lastly a place I used to frequent when I worked in Covent Garden so it's very Central you've got the lemon flag one of the oldest pubs in all of London and one of Charles dickens's favorites also it's quite cool because the tunnel to get there is so short that I as a six foot four man really have to crouch to get in but it makes it more fun especially when you're inebriated but the main reason to not frequent too many Central pubs this costs seven pound fifty each yeah Northerners are having a heart attack right now the next big mistake tourists make in London is eating only English food sure pub food can be great depending on where you're going but London is one of the most diverse cities in the world and it has the cuisine to prove it fun fact did you know that there are more Indian restaurants in London than in Mumbai in India that's the real deal Indian food in London is an experience now if you're someone that for instance isn't that big a fan of spicy food don't worry a lot of the Indian food here was made with the palette of the Brits so basically the national dish at this point the chicken tikka masala is one I highly recommend is a nice smooth Curry that's not too hot in the slightest you can also go for butter chicken or chicken korma but do try and get any old Indian takeaway and there's a good chance it'll be better than where you're from especially if you're from the U.S it's kind of like saying Mexican food in the UK is bad because it very much is but in the U.S it's better we have the argument here for Indian food now like I said pretty much any Indian restaurant you go to you're going to get a good time however if you want the true London experience you've got to go down to deshoom deshume is by far one of the most delicious Indian foods you can get in the city there's usually a huge cue to get in Diane you should wait for it if your curiosity will get the better try the gun pounder potatoes okay now this next mistake is probably the easiest way of spotting a tourist from an actual Londoner using a paper ticket on the Underground stop just stop it okay it's not 99 anymore you don't have to fear modern technology Y2K it never happened okay you can use any contactless card from most any major Bank just tap it on you're good to go it's smooth sailing you even got your Apple pay and all of your other weird pays Google pay Samsung pay all that's fine just tap on in move on through no one likes having to wait behind some idiot that's using one of these stupid tickets as they try and fumble it through and the whole thing is causing congestion and boy just stop also you're like oh but it saves me money it doesn't actually these things cost you more money because if you're using your contactless card if you're using your Apple pay there's actually a cap placed on the total amount you can spend depending on what zones you're going through so it just makes sense use a contactless card use an oyster card use an Apple pay it all works now to throw my girlfriend Under The Big Red Bus when she first started visiting me in London from Marlow she would get azone's one to six travel card if you're a Londoner you're already laughing because I don't live in zone six but she thought because she's commuting from outside of zone six that would save her money no it's like the no we can all laugh at her pain okay the actual thing would be she's commuting into Zone one and since I live within zones two and three she can get a Zone one to three travel card if we really plan on going wild and traveling on the tfl that week but usually not so there you go don't get the Zone one to six unless you're living or constantly visiting someone out there for some reason I used to work in this building up on the third floor right down the road from Saint Paul's Cathedral when you descend into one of the underground stations and your train finally pulls up to the platform you might get the overwhelming urge to listen to the sign on every single Carriage that says push button to open door don't do it you're just gonna look stupid because if you can believe it the doors open automatically the driver has a button that opens all the doors simultaneously so you'll just be looking a bit stupid trying to push the button when the driver hasn't opened the doors yet why is that a thing I don't know that's an underground fact for you but it is just on the Underground so if you are on the DLR National Rail or the overground by all means push the button or you'll be left on the platform but while I'm here in Hyde Park I guess why not tell you a couple other quick London Underground mistakes I'm assuming you know this already but just in case you don't please stand on the right side of the escalator do not stand on the left side of the escalator if you're on the Underground just move to the right just stand to the right that allows normal people that want to walk up the stairs or walk down the stairs to do such they do so on the left so keep to the right or you'll be getting quite loudly and I guess the final one this is an unspoken rule pun intended but you're not really supposed to interact with strangers on the Underground just everyone's keeping themselves got their airpods in reading the book or I don't know playing music on the speakers for some Dawn reason but the rule is you're not really supposed to speak to strangers but honestly I don't know it's nice to have a chatty Taurus every once in a while but too often I don't know I've become too much of a Londoner I've moved here as an American and I was like how's it going nice day in London in it and now I'm like listen I'm trying to increase my Spanish streak right now could you uh not I guess if I had to cut one of the rules out of this video that is one tube e forgotten two these are getting worse my train of thought has left the station de-platform me so here I am at Big Ben this is the famous One and Only Clock Tower in London pretty much an icon recently been refurbished looking pretty stunning except it's not actually Big Ben Big Ben is the name of the Bell within the clock tower known as Elizabeth Tower but if you say to someone oh I I went to Big Ben they know what you're talking about language evolves we all know it's actually the name of the bell and nobody really cares about that at the end of the day but you do need to make sure you say certain landmarks in London by their correct names because you could wind up in the wrong place such as here I am next to London Bridge the famous bridge you know of in London except this isn't London Bridge this is Tower Bridge this bridge is the one you actually want to go to Because the actual London Bridge you're going to be incredibly underwhelmed yeah this here is London Bridge don't get the names mixed up you don't want to wind up here it is only like a 10 minute walk but still now the Millennium Bridge is a very touristy bridge in London but it still works it's got lovely shots over Saint Paul's and londoners are still pretty upset after it had to be rebuilt after the Death Eaters destroyed it but just don't bring that up we're still heard about it and now with all your newfound knowledge you're going to blend in like a true Londoner unless you try and use cash on the buses or something like that oh God I might have to make a part two for this well if you're interested in that please be sure to subscribe and also I made a video on the pros and cons of living in London if that's something you fancy so go click that if you're interested anyway thanks so much for watching hope you had a nice viewing because I'm dead see you next Sunday [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Evan Edinger

Views: 222,222

Keywords: London, tourists, evan edinger, 2023, tourism, what to do in London, mistakes, england, UK, british

Id: oS_dSDU4skg

Length: 15min 13sec (913 seconds)

Published: Sun May 28 2023