- Welcome to London. I'm gonna tell you about
the biggest mistakes I always see tourists make
when they come to the city, so that you know about them and you don't make them yourself. By the way, I'm Jess. I run Love and London, and we help tourists who visit
London like they live here. And if it's your first
time coming to the city, I have a special freebie for you, so make sure you watch to the
end of the video to get it. By far, the biggest mistake
I hear from London tourists is that they didn't realise
how big that London is. London is actually the biggest
city in Western Europe, and for comparison we have
nine million people here, and the second biggest city is Berlin with just 3.4 million. And even Paris only has two. So you can fit a bunch
of Parises into London. That just goes to show how
massive that this city is. So when you're here, be prepared
to hop on public transport, whether it's the riverboat,
the Tube, the bus, anything, so you can make sure you're exploring as much of London as possible, which leads us to the next mistake. Not going beyond the very touristy areas. I see a lot of tourists
coming for a few days and not going beyond a few blocks where the major tourist attractions are. And listen, do the tourist
attractions, that's fine. But if you only do that,
you are missing out on a whole entire London
that us Londoners love and that I definitely think
you should experience. So if you wanna get out of Central London, I've got a bunch of amazing video guides that will tell you some
great things to do, a little bit more on the
outskirts of the city. And I will link those videos in the description box of this video. Not grouping your
activities together by area. I see a lot of tourists
that don't realise, as mentioned before, how big London is, so they don't plan in advance to do the same things in
the same area in one day, which means you could spend tonnes of time traipsing around the
city on public transport and getting taxis. For example, you don't wanna
do Notting Hill in West London on the same day that
you're gonna do Shoreditch, which is over here in East London. It's gonna take a tonne of
time to get there on the Tube. So instead, if you do Notting Hill, also pair that with a
visit around Kensington. And when you go to Shoreditch, pair that with a visit to the Barbican. If you're struggling with figuring out what things to do in each area of London, I have travel guides that
do exactly that for you. It's called the "Casual Tourist Guides," and I'll leave a link to
them in the description box. Thinking you can only go
and party on the weekends. There is something going on at night every single day of the
week here in London, especially when you're in bustling areas like Shoreditch or Soho, where we are now. So don't think you can't
go out if it's a weekday. In fact, the weekdays
are super fun to go out, because it's a little less crowded, it tends to be more people
that actually live in London versus people who come
from the outskirts in. (relaxed music) ♪ Get me out of here ♪ ♪ This is my worst nightmare ♪ Not pre-booking your activities and your restaurants ahead of time. Especially if you're coming
to London in peak times, like the summer, like it is right now, or around Christmas time you for sure need to
pre-book your activities and your restaurant
reservations in advance. You don't wanna be wasting precious time waiting in lines for places
that you could have actually booked a time slot ahead of time, and then you wouldn't have
to do all this waiting. For example, the London
Eye, you can do that. Same goes for restaurant reservations. If it's important for you to
eat well, which it should be, then you wanna make sure you
get your reservations in early so you don't miss out on
the best dining experiences, especially around Central
London and on the weekends. Only trying British food
when you come to London. Listen, try the Full English breakfast, have some fish and chips,
get a pie and mash, but you are truly missing out if you stick to only British food. That's because London is one
of the best cities in the world for international cuisines, and we have amazing
restaurants that serve dishes from Italy, Japan, Sri
Lanka, the Caribbean, and loads of other places
that are all worth trying. So don't stick to only British food. You will definitely be missing out, and I think there are
a lot of other cuisines that are actually much better
than British food anyway. If you need lots of good
local food recommendations, make sure you go to the
Love and London shop. I have so many amazing places
to eat in my London guides. - I am so sorry.
- Hi, that's okay. Amazing. Yeah, of course, yeah. - Inspired our whole vacation. - Oh my gosh, amazing. One of the biggest safety mistakes tourists make here in London is not looking both ways
when you cross the road. They drive on the left
side of the road here, so if you're not used to that, you wanna make sure you look
both ways before you cross or look down at the pavement, 'cause it might be telling you which way you should look before you cross. But just to be safe, look both ways, and then you won't have to get run over. Buying a paper ticket for
travelling on the Tube. The daily travel card is such a rip off. Do not buy it. Instead use a contactless payment method like Google Pay, Apple Pay, or just a contactless debit
or credit card to pay, or if you've got an Oyster already, an Oyster card works, too. Those methods of payment have a daily cap, which is automatically applied, which is a lot cheaper than if you were to buy a
paper daily travel card. So, there's really no reason to buy it. (gentle music) Not observing Tube etiquette. If you wanna see a Londoner
get very frustrated, but also try to have
patience at the same time, stand on the left side of the
escalator in a Tube station, and you'll very quickly hear
a, "Excuse me," from behind. That's because the left
lane is the express lane, you keep moving. And if you wanna stand on the escalator make sure you're standing
on the right side. And when you're waiting for
a Tube, when one arrives, make sure you're not stood
in front of the doors, step to the side, let everybody
step off the train first, and then you can get on. Thinking all of London is going to be quintessentially English. A lot of tourists come here and think they're gonna see Londoners running around with top hats on, saying, "Cheerio" to everyone, and sweeping chimneys like
Bert from "Mary Poppins." But actually London is a lot different from the rest of the UK. It's an incredibly multicultural city with people from all over the world, and we have global influences on the food, the architecture, the people, everything. It's one of the best parts of the city. So make sure you embrace it and enjoy it. (gentle bright music) Thinking you can predict
the London weather. Now listen, here in England
we have all four seasons, but it can vary significantly
from day to day. For example, you might
have a day like today, where it's hot and sunny,
and you don't need a jacket, and then literally tomorrow
it could be so cold that you feel like you need
a proper winter jacket on. It does vary that much. So, check the forecast a couple of days before you come to London,
pack according to that, but also pack in case there
are any major changes. And if you need any help with your packing and planning what to wear, I have that all in the
"London Packing Guide," which I will link in the description box. Leaving the city for a day
trip too early in your trip. There is so much to do and see in London that you could be here for weeks exploring and still have not even
scratched the surface. So I see a lot of tourists
leaving to go on a day trip outside of the city, like
two days into their trip, before they've even really
like properly seen anything. My rule of thumb is to
not do any day trips unless you are in London
for at least seven days. And if you find yourself
getting bored of London after a couple days, you're just not doin' it right. Sorry. (upbeat music) Thinking there is a best
time to visit London. You might have a favourite
season to come to London. Mine is summer. But every time of the year
has its pros and cons. For example, summer is
gonna be the best chance for getting good weather, but it also means there's
gonna be the most crowds and the highest prices. But you can come in January where it'll be the lowest
prices and the least crowds, but you're also gonna be dealing
with dark and cold weather. So it completely depends. In this video I talk
about the pros and cons of coming each month of the year. So have a watch of that after this video to figure out what's gonna be
the best time of year for you. (relaxed music) Another big mistake London tourists make when they come to the city is to spend any time in Leicester Square. Like literally, don't spend any time here. London tourists apparently think that this is a great place
to come, and they're wrong. Unless you wanna experience
international cuisine at Pizza Hut, or experience world
class arts and culture, or to get overpriced American candy, a candy shop that's
currently being investigated for money laundering, or go to one of the three
movie theatres slash casinos in this immediate area. If you wanna do those things, you can come to Leicester Square. But otherwise, completely avoid it. M&Ms? What is the point? Thinking you can pay in any
currency besides British pounds. It's a little bit of a weird one. I don't know why you'd
go to a foreign country and try to pay in your own currency. But I've heard it be done. We use Great British pounds here, and even though we are in
Europe, we are not on the euros. You can't use euros here. You can't use American dollars. Only use British pounds. If you find someplace that says they will take your home currency, run. It is gonna be a huge rip off. Something is goin' on
there that is really weird. And sometimes if you're paying by card, the machine will ask you if you wanna pay in your home currency
or Great British pounds. Always pick pounds, because when it converts
to your home currency it's actually gonna severely rip you off. Now if you wanna avoid even more mistakes when you come to London, make sure you grab my
free "London 101 Guide." It has everything you need
to know before you get here. You can get that by clicking the link in the description box of the video. And also make sure you watch one of my many, many
other videos about London before you come, which you can do by clicking
one of the boxes around me. These daily paper tickets that you can buy are such a rip off... Oh, that was very New York. Such a rip off. (laughing) I love crowds.
