- Hello from London. I have tourists tell me all the time that they end up booking
tickets for things that at the end of the day they realise wasn't really worth it or they had to queue up for a long time to get in or they just didn't
really feel like they enjoyed. And that's because a
lot of people come here and don't know about
the things you should do but also the things that you
shouldn't do while you're here. So in this video, I'm
gonna tell you five things I think that you should
avoid when you're in London and also some great alternatives that I think you'll enjoy better anyway. Let's start with the view from the Shard. The Shard, behind me,
is the tallest building in Western Europe. You can pay 32 pounds per person for a ticket to the view from the Shard, which of course has
amazing views over London. It's obviously the highest place from London that you can get a viewpoint but you're gonna pay that ticket amount and you'll basically go up there, get your pictures and call it a day. I have a better alternative for you. Instead, go a few floors
down in the same building and book yourself a table at Gong. A luxurious Chinese
inspired cocktail bar where you're gonna have almost the same views as you would up at the view from the Shard but instead of only paying for the ticket you can take that money and
get yourself a cocktail, and there are really good cocktails here. But if you've got the kids in town and you don't wanna take
them to the bar, that's fine. You could instead book in
for a special afternoon tea up in the sky at one of the restaurants in the Shard called Ting. The Afternoon tea here is
amazing, highly recommended. Have you ever seen one of
those Hop-on Hop-off tours with those big buses with the open tops filled with tourists who are just going around the loops seeing the biggest tourist attractions? Well, you can do that,
but at 41 pounds a ticket maybe that's gonna be a
bit too steep for you. So instead I have a much
cheaper alternative. You can actually hop on one of our public red double decker buses
and get a very similar vibe but for only 1.65 pound per ride. In fact, if you take the route number 11, it goes by loads of the major attractions here in Central London. So you can hop on and
hop off as you please or you can just sit on the bus and go around until you make
the big circle and see it all. By the way, this video is sponsored by Google Pixel. I have been using Google
Pixel phones for years and you might have spotted
this Google Pixel six Pro in some of our past videos and content. There are a lot of great features when it comes to this phone but my favourite by far
is how good the camera is. I use it constantly,
whether it's for work, shooting stuff for the Love
London Instagram account, or for fun. Whenever I take group photos of my friends they always insist that
we take the picture on my Google Pixel six Pro because the pictures just
come out that much better. And if there ends up being anything in the the background that we don't want we can use the Magic Eraser
to take it out just like this. Like I said, I've been a
Google Pixel fan for years and this video has been
sponsored by Google Pixel. And if you wanna find out anything more about the phone and
all the features it has just click the link in the
description box of the video and now back to things
that you should avoid and what you should do instead. Okay, let's talk about Leicester Square. It's a funny one. It is right in the centre of London in between Piccadilly Circus,
Covent Garden and China town and all these other areas, and it is the perfect
area to completely avoid. It is a soulless square that is covered in international food chains, weird brands, casinos and there's even the M and M store. Instead, I would go a
few steps away to Soho, which is one of the buzziest
coolest areas in London. Also, a few steps away is China town where you can eat really
well, drink really well and we've actually got a
whole video telling you how you can spend an
entire day in China town which you can watch next if you want some ideas
for what to do there. So to summarise, there are much more interesting areas super close to Leicester Square so you can completely avoid
this while you're here. There are four attractions here in London that often get put together in these ticket bundles
that frankly are terrible. They're soulless, there
are experiences you can do in many other parts of the world. They're not particularly
very London focused and they're really expensive. I call them the awful four. And the awful four are the London Dungeon, Shrek's great adventure,
the London Aquarium and that creepy wax
museum, Madame Tussauds. There are so many other better things that you can spend your
money on in London. So I'm gonna tell you
about four better ways to spend the 30 to 40
pounds you would've paid per ticket for the awful four. Number one, booking afternoon tea. You can find very affordable
afternoon teas around the city most of which are kid friendly. Number two, get tickets
to a West End show. We have amazing theatre shows here and you can find tickets in
that price range for sure if you book in advance
or you do last minute. Number three, go see some
live jazz at Ronnie Scott's. You've got a world famous establishment right in the heart of Soho, you got live music and you
got good drinks, it's perfect. And number four, it is right behind me. This is the Tate Modern,
a contemporary art museum which is actually completely free to enter but if you wanna take that ticket money and spend it on something, you can see one of their paid exhibitions or go crazy in the gift shop. Next up on the list, the London Eye, what used to be the tallest
ferries wheel in the world and now that spins people around in glass capsules for
30 minutes at a time. That's all well and grand except for one, you gotta pay up to 36
pounds per person to get on it. Two, you still have to queue up even if you have a reserved time slot. And three, you're stuck in this capsule with like 25 other people
for 30 minutes out of time. Instead, a great alternative is the Sky garden. At 160 metres or 525 feet above ground, this is actually 25 metres
higher than the London Eye. Sky Garden is the tallest garden in London and it's also one of
the tallest viewpoints in all of the city with 360 degree views of the city skyline. And the best part is that
is completely free to visit. You just have to make a
reservation in advance which those do book up quickly. So make sure you do them asap, or if you don't manage
to get a reservation you can try to get a walk in on the day and see if they
have any spaces available. I hope this helps you to avoid the not so good stuff and go do some much better stuff when you're here in London. And if you want some more
tips for your London trip then click one of the videos
popping up right around me.
