Visit London - What to Know Before You Visit London

hey there fellow travelers mark you with Walters ruled and today we are in London no not London Ontario not New London Illinois we are in London England it's the only half for you are some things you should know before you actually come to London so you can have a better trip just some of the basic things for tourists that might be coming here for the first time so let's get started now the first thing you need to know is depending where you're flying from you could be ending up in one of five airports here in London if you're coming from the u.s. usually you're coming into Heathrow or Gatwick both easy you can they both have an express Heathrow Express and Gatwick Express which is more which is more expensive than the local transport but it does get you here Stansted if you're flying in with easyJet or Ryanair the the cheap airlines a lot of them go there easyJet also goes to Gatwick and when you're going to come from Stansted they have also the stands that Express there's a train that comes in but there's also buses and all the airports here have a bus that will bring you into town at a significantly lower price than any of the train services okay however they do take significantly longer as well so that would be one thing I would say if you're going to be taking these trains in a lot of times you're gonna be coming in to another station and you're gonna have to take the tube when you go around and the tube is the metro system here in London you know the subway system it goes everywhere if you've got a pass man you can go anywhere you want to go but the thing you need to know is the tube or the subway you know in London is expensive if you don't have it what they call Oyster card you're gonna pay maybe three pounds per ride for my American friends that's about five dollars per subway ride yeah insane expensive so what you need to do is get an oyster card you pay like five or six pounds for it and what it is it's a reloadable transport card that you can use on the the subway on the tube or you can use on the buses and things like that it just kind of ticks off the money and what happens is if you use the Oyster Card that actually charge you a lower fare but the thing is you cannot forget to tap in and tap out with your Oyster card because if you Tapout they charge you like the whole largest fee they possibly can and that can be a lot more expensive than just paying three pounds okay now another thing of the transportation around here is you can take the black cabs around here I mean the London cabbies are famous for their width their humor and knowing where every freakin thing is in this town and that's what's so cool and the thing is if you're going to take a London cab before you get in you know you look in the window say hey I want to go to I wanna go to Soho or I want to go to the Parliament you tell them where you want to go beforehand and they say sure get in you hop in and they'll take you there and you can ask them questions and all kinds of stuff and they're usually very helpful and the camps can be kind of pricey when you are here so just be a heads up on that one they do have a burr and those things here so you can use that to save money there's also private cars you can hire to take you places so if you want to go to the airport stuff like that I will warn you there are unlicensed cabs here as well and that's up to you to take them I recommend taking the black cabs or or they're doing that now in terms of the currency you have here they use the British Pound okay and it comes in various town nominations five ten twenty fifty you know you get the basic ideas but also they have coins there's a one pound coin and a two pound coin and the thing and there's more smaller coins you know and that kind of leads us into something you need to know about money here London is an expensive vacation destination places where you're going to stay it's gonna cost a lot of money you're going to go out to eat it's gonna cost a lot of money drinking costs a lot of money and the thing is you got to watch out because some of the sights as well can be very pricey st. Paul's or Madame Tussauds which I don't think it's worth the money just FYI the Tower of London these things can really add up but what's cool is here in London they have tons of free stuff you can see like yeah going to see the parliament from outside or going to the British Museum to see the via the sarcophagus from the Egyptians or we're going to see the stuff from Greece I mean there's some the rosetta stone there's so many fantastic things at the British Museum and the Tate and the tape monitor the National Gallery there's all kinds of really cool free stuff to do around town that you don't have to spend a lot of money when you are here but just know if you do go to a paid place like you know Westminster Abbey which is really cool and well worth it you will pay quite a bit all right now with the money you might say where should I exchange my money just bring your ATM card from from your home make sure you let your bank in the u.s. your home country know that you're going to be in England so therefore they know that oh this cards in England they'll let you take out money because in general when you use your debit card from your local bank it usually gives you a lower like a better exchange rate and less fees because I take money out with my normal visa card well they might add a 3% charge on to that and another charge here and there and the bank here might have a charge so your best bet is your ATM debit card from your home bank just let them know before you go and also ATMs are all over London so you can get money anywhere it's not a problem and I do accept credit cards pretty much everywhere so it's like the u.s. that way that you don't really need to get money because you always play with plastic that's helpful sometimes you know do need some cash though still have a few a few bills on hand or some coins on hand because they are worth something now probably the most dangerous thing about London is the traffic because they drive on the left side of the road here so you know if you're in the US or Germany you look left then right and then left and then you cross the street well here you need to look right and then left and then right because the cars are coming from on the other direction and that's where a lot of Swiss actually do get hurt I actually every time I've come here and I've been here a lot of times I still don't catch myself a couple times but whoo I didn't look right first so make sure you look right left right otherwise so be careful for that other safety concerns you would have here London is kind of a pickpocket place it's not as bad as some of the other major cities in Europe but you do need to pay attention at big tourist sites late night we do they do like to have their drink here so that might make some people feel uncomfortable but overall alum is a really cool place it's not really too problematic with safety and things like that so you shouldn't worry too much just watch out for the cars the buses on the street because that's where most the tourists get hurt now another thing you might want to do is you're gonna take a lot of pictures here cuz there's so many cool sites in London whether you're taking up boats who are on the teams or you're up on the in the gallery up at the very top of st. Paul's or or of course Big Ben Parliament kids you're gonna take a lot of pictures your phone's gonna get low on battery you might want to know is how are the plugs here now in the u.s. you know we have the two flat plugs like this and then in in mainland Europe they the two circle plugs like this here in England they have a different one there's three flat things to this way and then went up on top like that and the thing is when you buy an international converter make sure you get one that works in multiple countries because you do that it will almost always have the UK Europe in the US and that'll take area just fine that's what I bring with me now another thing you might notice about this video here in in London is it's not raining no it does not rain all the time in London but it does rain a lot so make sure if you're coming make sure you bring like a jacket or or a poncho if you will something small you can take with you I have us I have a sweatshirt actually with me to wear because it can rain out of nowhere when you are here I've been here a lot of times I remember your for New Year's one year and literally I felt like it was raining horizontally okay so when it rains it could really rain the most like you when you are here it will have a rain here and there so make sure you do bring some yeah waterproof shoes and you know some kind of waterproof jacket just just in case but the thing is when it's nice weather here the people go out they have their beers outside of the pub and they're eating outside you see this a ball because that's only people now outside but there were ton of people in this park when I got here a little while ago and they really enjoy being outside when they can be outside so make sure if you get that chance do go out and enjoy things don't just sit inside the pub when it's nice out get out because then you'll get to meet the people and that's one thing about London people think Oh London England its Downton Abbey and all stuffy and the Queen will say hi to me all the time no London is an international city you will hear Chinese you will hear Spanish you will hear Italian you'll hear a newish you will hear Scott issue you're all kinds of stuff and that's what makes this kitties this city so cool this is a really like integration of all these places throughout the world here in Europe and that's what's cool it's like a New York with all the different you know people and all the different nations and all the different religions all the different you know people and it's really cool and that adds to the feel of London so when you go to different sections of town you can really feel it you know you don't just go to Piccadilly Circus to see the one statue and the and the things and Leicester Square to see the pictures you go to Chinatown to have really good Chinese food or you're going to the West End to see a show with actors from all over the world that you've seen in movies and all kinds of stuff and this international feel of London really is one of the coolest things about it that's why a lot of people move here to work because you can be from anywhere and still be a Londoner so it's really kind of a cool thing and the last thing I want to say is what are you gonna eat when you're here look I know England doesn't have the greatest reputation for food I mean no one would say I going to England for a culinary vacation look you can hit up the pubs or the chippies and stuff like that and get your your really English food like your fish and chips and your steak and kidney pie or or if you're here on a Sunday the Sunday roast with Yorkshire pudding there's all kinds of great English things you can do in the pubs but what's cool is like I was talking about before with Chinatown the Chinese food you have so many different nationalities here they've brought their cuisines from all over the world and you can eat great here whatever it is you want I spent 15 years living in Europe and whenever I missed America I wanted to have some like more international food I would come here for great American food great Mexican food great Chinese food all kinds of stuff and that's what's cool about London you can eat and drink so well anyway I hope this helps you to prepare for coming to London if you want to learn more five things you love and hate about visiting London ten things they'll shock you about London some don'ts about those in London check us out on our website at Walters worldcom we're also on Twitter Facebook Instagram YouTube I think you get the point and we really appreciate it like subscriptions and we hope you have a great time here in London because I know you will bye

Channel: Wolters World

Views: 166,172

Keywords: travel, europe, mark wolters, wolters world, travel advice, tourist attractions, travel vlogger, honest travel, fat travel guy

Id: PVBHjIaxVf8

Length: 10min 21sec (621 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 03 2018