What to do in London for a weekend? A two-day itinerary.

Are you visiting London but you have only a couple of days to stroll around the city? Here is a guide to London’s top locations to visit in only two days!

The first time I visited London, I was only 14 years old and it was a great experience. The thing about London though is… that it’s too big to see all at once! You definitely need to come back several times and every time there is space for more. Still, London is one of my favourite cities in the whole world and even while writing this post, I am wishing I could go back there soon.

The story started with us willing to do a city break and go visit an interesting place for one of the long weekends that we had last year. So, after talking to my boyfriend, we finally decided to go to London. Hooray! It had been a dream of mine to come back after 15 years and experience everything again, this time as a grown-up.

One of the things that we definitely spent some time on researching was the place to stay. It should not be surprising that this is one of the most expensive cities you will ever visit. We had a look at both hotels and AirBnb and honestly, it took us hours until we finally found a decent deal.

The second challenge was to organize a proper schedule of all the things that we wanted to do and see during those two days (including food which actually for me was the most fun part hihi). Therefore, what we did and what I would recommend that you do before you go to London for two days only, is to break things down to:

• Day 1: Famous tourist attractions and popular places
• Day 2: More different or unusual kind of places
• Both days: Restaurants or places you want to eat at

Tip #1: when coming from Belgium, France or the Netherlands, use the Eurostar train instead of flying! This will save you time (and maybe even money). The train stops at St Pancras station which is in the city. If you come by plane, then you will also need a transfer to the city.

Tip #2: Take the tube! It will save you a lot of time and it’s quite useful, especially if the weather is too cold, too rainy or as in our case, even too hot… You directly pay with a contactless bank card or purchase an Oyster card from the machines at the stations.

Tip #3: Catch a double-decker bus and sit all the way in the front on the second deck! It’s a great experience to see the city from a bird’s eye.

DAY 1

Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Lunch at the Cinnamon Club at the Old Westminster Library, Natural History museum and/or Victoria and Albert Museum, dinner at Berners Tavern

After lunch, we headed to a museum. One of the best things about museums in London is that most of them are free of charge! But be careful, for some of them you still need to book a timeslot in advance.

We chose to visit the Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum is the world’s largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design and is situated in South Kensington. It is also close to other museums, such as the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum.

Other options can be the National Gallery or British museum. Keep in mind that British museum is in a different area of the city, so if you would like to combine it with some of the aforementioned activities, it will be more difficult. Moreover, it’s a place where you can spend the whole day, so that’s why we decided to visit it another time when we come back to London.

And last but not least, dinner time!

I had booked in advance dinner at Berners Tavern which is a modern restaurant in the Berners hotel. If I have to be completely honest, I was mostly attracted by the design of the place which is one of the most beautifully decorated restaurants that I have ever visited. And the best thing is… they come to you with a champagne cart and serve Ruinart champagne, which is my favourite champagne! Although this is not a quiet restaurant, we had a lovely time. It was definitely a great ending of the first day.

TIP #4: Make reservations to go eat in advance. If you are planning to visit a more hyped kind of place, then you would probably have to book even 2 months in advance.

DAY 2: Notting Hill, Afternoon tea at Sketch, Hyde park, Drinks and dinner at the Churchill Arms in Kensington

The second day we chose something not that touristy. I always wanted to check out Notting Hill and see the colourful houses there. There are multiple streets where you can see rainbow-coloured houses But don’t forget to be respectful and quiet during your visit. Those houses are inhabited by people.

There are various things you can do in Notting Hill. There are quite some coffee places to sit and have a coffee or brunch at or you can also go for a pint at a local pub. There are small shops in the area and the famous Portobello market. We did not have that much time, so we headed to our next activity – the afternoon tea that I had booked.

One of the things that you definitely should do is going for an afternoon tea. We had booked tea at the Gallery at Sketch, an 18th century tea town house that is transformed into a quirky restaurant now. It had been on my list for a long time. It is famous for the pink interior of the Gallery room winch has 2 Michelin stars. Unfortunately when we went it wasn’t pink anymore but yellow, still very pretty though. Tea and food were great and we definitely enjoyed everything.

In the late afternoon we headed to Hyde Park for a walk. This park is huge and it takes around 45 minutes to cross it. We ended our day in a pub called The Churchill Arms in Kensington. The place is beautifully decorated and really interesting. It is actually one of the most historical pubs of London. It is claimed that Churchill’s grandparents were regular visitors there, which lead to the naming. The pub is open for drinks but there is also a very budget friendly Thai restaurant at a part of the pub.

Thank you for reading!