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London Trip Report with Nathan Pickle · UK Travel Planning

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Join us for episode 149 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast and our first trip report of 2025.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Discover guest Nathan's top five London experiences, top tip for visitors, plus what he did where he stayed, and more during his and wife Sarah's March trip to London.
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracy Collins.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: In this podcast, tracy shares destination guides, travel tips and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Hi and welcome to another episode of the UK Travel Planner Podcast.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: As you will have learnt from the short intro, we have our first trip report for 2025.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Doug and I helped Nathan plan his trip to London a few months ago in the itinerary consult and we were really delighted when he agreed to come on the podcast and do a trip report when he arrived back in the US.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So, without further ado, I'm going to just let Nathan take the floor and explain about his trip.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: So I started off, as always, by asking Nathan to introduce himself and give a little bit about his background, who he traveled with and kind of the reasons for his trip to London.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: Yes, hi, my name is Nathan Pickle.
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: I am 51 years old.
• 1:38
  Speaker 3: I am married to my wife.
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: His name is Sarah.
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: We have boy-girl twins, william and Caroline, that are almost 17.
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: We live outside of San Antonio, texas.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: And, yeah, I work in the digital health and wellness industry and, yeah, I came across the podcast.
• 1:56
  Speaker 3: I was researching a trip and that's how I got connected with Tracy and Doug and had a wonderful consult that I'm sure we're going to talk about in a minute.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, so I'm happy to be here.
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you agreed to come on the podcast, nathan, and it was lovely when we met for the consult when you said, oh, I love the podcast, I'm such a fan, because then it's a really easy question for me to say well, you know what, when you come back from your trip, would you love to do a trip report?
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: So I'm so happy that you agreed to do it and it's lovely to talk to you again.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Would you like to talk to us a little bit about when did you go to London?
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And obviously I know you went with Sarah.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: But if you want to just discuss a little bit about what you planned and I know things changed slightly so you had to adjust things so do you want to explain a little bit about what went on?
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: For sure?
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: So do you want to explain a?
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: little bit about what went on For sure.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: So a little background.
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: So we are twins.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: We knew this like way a long time ago when they were in kindergarten At their school.
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: They take a trip as juniors to Italy and Greece, okay.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: And so the spring break of their junior year, and so we kind of started thinking you know what?
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: We haven't been to Europe in 19 years.
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: Sarah and I used to live in Hamburg, germany, for three years, from 2002 to 2005.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: And so we had traveled decently around Europe before and a lot to London.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: I had some friends that lived there and we just loved it, but again, we haven't been back in almost 20 years.
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: I always say, kind of kids got in the way a little bit, but we just said, oh, you know what, the twins are going to be gone, let's take advantage of that and let's go.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: And so I think our goal and then our goals for this trip were kind of, I think, twofold.
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: Number one was to take advantage of the fact that you know the twins were going to be gone.
• 3:46
  Speaker 3: Let's go do something.
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: And the other part was is our 20th wedding anniversary was on March 12th.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: It fell during that week.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: We didn't realize this when we got married that every year on our anniversary is spring break in America, and so we had, you know, we never really, sarah and I never really did a whole lot on our anniversary, other than maybe going to dinner, and so we wanted to do something a little more special this time.
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: And then you know again, we, as you alluded to, we had planned to go to Hamburg, germany, first, because we have friends that still live there it's a very special place for us since we live there and then after that to go to London.
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: So that's kind of how I booked the trip is we left from Texas to go to Hamburg, got there on a Friday.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: We had originally planned to leave on Monday morning to go to London and spend five nights in London, like five full days in London.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: Well, I get there and my friend picks us up from our hotel in Hamburg on Friday afternoon to go to his house to have dinner with him and his wife and his kids, and he tells me hey, I don't know if you saw this or not, but there's going to be a strike, an airport worker strike, in Germany, all over Germany on Monday.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: And I'm like you got to be kidding me.
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: So I went ahead and called Lufthansa that's who had my tickets through and they rebooked me on Sunday.
• 5:11
  Speaker 3: So we were going to cut a day short in Hamburg, which was fine, and it was going to give us another day in London, which was great.
• 5:18
  Speaker 3: So I extended my hotel by a day in London, rebooked the flight, worked out the leaving the hotel in Hamburg, which was fine, and then on Sunday morning we're packing up to go to the airport in Germany.
• 5:35
  Speaker 3: I get a text on my phone from Lufthansa your flight's been canceled.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: I go huh.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: And so then I call back and there was.
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: What happened was the union, the workers?
• 5:47
  Speaker 3: They did a surprise strike just in Hamburg on Sunday morning and so no flights were getting out of Hamburg Sunday or Monday, so we had to.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: Then the quickest that they could get us out of Hamburg was Tuesday afternoon, and then via Brussels.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: We had to stop in Brussels and lay over for three hours, so we didn't get to London until five o'clock-ish PM on Tuesday.
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: So we really missed out on two full days in London.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Now I was a little frustrated at first, but you know what I was like.
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: You know what we're in Hamburg.
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: We actually got to do some things in Hamburg that we didn't plan on being able to do.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: We went to the place that had made our wedding rings and they polished them for us and it was really sweet time, and so we did a couple of things that filled the time.
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: So I guess my advice to people is if you do, you're going to have delays and things like that, Just try to make the best of it, and that's what we did.
• 6:45
  Speaker 3: Our hotel was gracious.
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: We called the London Hotel and I'll talk about that in a minute.
• 6:49
  Speaker 3: They honored our because I tried to go online and just change my reservation and it allowed me to, or it was going to like double the cost of my stay.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: That's just how they did it when I went from those number of days.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: But I called the hotel and they were so great.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: They said, Mr Pickle, don't worry about it.
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: And they honored my price, and so it worked out.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: We weren't out any money.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Let's put it that way.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: That's good.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: It's always a bit nerve wracking when you're in the middle of a trip and something happens, or at the beginning of a trip I know.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: When we actually flew from Brisbane to Los Angeles last year, we were expecting to go to the airport about.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: I was about five hours before we would go to the airport and we got the same that message your flight's been cancelled.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: So it was a bit of a panic.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: So we lost a day in Los Angeles, which was you know, you have to make the most of it.
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: We changed things around and we did stuff, and I know that's exactly what you ended up.
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: You filled those three days up.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: I know that.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Now what?
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: What was really interesting when we initially met and talked as well before when you start to put your itinerary together, is that you'd already been in London quite a few times and had a lot of knowledge about visiting London and visiting other places in England.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: So it was really lovely that you kind of reached out and wanted that itinerary consult with us.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: So I guess that's something else I want to talk about.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Did you find that a valuable experience?
• 8:11
  Speaker 3: Because, even though, as I say, you had visited London a number of times before, you felt that it was worthwhile A hundred percent Because, again, even though I had been there a few times before, I mean it had been a while, first of all, and then you know things have changed, obviously.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: I mean, when I lived there before and went there before, you know, smartphones didn't exist, Contactless payments didn't exist All of that didn't exist, right.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: I mean we have a lot more information now in traveling and you know you don't carry as much cash I mean different things like that.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: So you guys were very helpful around that, but also, too, I think, your insights around trips outside London, some of the experiences regarding I'm going to talk about the Black Cab Tour in a minute the Black Cab Tour in a minute, just getting to and from the airport, and just that knowledge that you guys talked to me in the console and provided on the information afterwards was super valuable, and so I highly recommend anyone talking to you guys about that.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: So I felt that that was super helpful and it was very detailed and organized right, and I mean you were very responsive and answered a bunch of my questions and different things like that.
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: So, again, I'm going to, as I mentioned before, we're planning another trip in March and we'll be scheduling another consult with you guys.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Oh well, we're really looking forward to chatting with you and helping you with that trip.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I have to say, Nathan, that's going to be a lot of fun and we love doing the consults.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: It's just we feel like we've got friends all around the world now, which is just fantastic, and even more special when you guys come and do a consult and do a podcast, like you are now as well.
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: So let's talk.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: Well, one other thing real quick I'll add to this is that what I and we're going to talk about this in a minute.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: But we did some things that you recommended from an experience, and we worked with a couple of your partners and that gave me confidence and peace of mind that you had vetted it out and done the research and all of that, that I didn't have to worry about it and I knew I was going to have a great experiences and it by far exceeded our expectations.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: So I just wanted to add that as well and let your listeners know.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Oh no, that's really good.
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: Well, we're very strict with how we work with partners and we make sure that we get to know all our partners.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: We try out the experiences.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: We want to work with the best and we get asked quite a lot of companies to work with them.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: But we're very strict.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: We want to make sure that we work with the best so that you guys get to experience the best as well and make the best of your holiday really, which is what we want.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: So should we talk about because you ended up, I guess, with the three, four days?
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Should we talk about some of the highlights of those of the time that you were there?
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: What were the standout moments?
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: What are the things that I guess you and sarah are still talking about now?
• 11:02
  Speaker 3: yeah, I think I think I wrote down.
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: I wrote down kind of five Okay, um, I think the first one was the discover real London black cab tour.
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: Um, and the our driver his name was Matt and it was unbelievable and we actually went.
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: Since we only had three days full days Okay, we had Wednesday, thursday, friday and then we were flying back Saturday morning I ended up booking it and I kind of booked it last minute because when I again realized, okay, hey, we're going to have less time or whatever, maybe a week before I guess, I said you know what, let's do this.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: And we did what they call the detour right, which is kind of the hidden.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: It's more of a bespoke tour.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: When I booked it, ollie got in touch with me and asked me some specific questions.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: There's certain things you wanted to see.
• 11:59
  Speaker 3: I'm very big into music and rock and roll history, especially English bands and things like that, and so they Matt knew he's probably about my age, I guess, and he knew and Londoner grew up in East London and he was just awesome.
• 12:15
  Speaker 3: So we went.
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: He picked us up at our hotel at like seven in the morning and it was four hours.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: Long is how long the tour was.
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: We covered a lot of ground and we had him pick us up and he said look, this is what I kind of have in mind.
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: What do you think?
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: Let's go.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: We saw so much that I had never seen before and he ended up suggesting he goes, I can take you back to your hotel, but maybe I could drop you back off around this side of London this is where I was thinking and by Borough Market, and we hadn't planned on going to Borough Market, honestly, even though you had recommended it, just because of the shortness of time.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: But he dropped us off there and and um, that that's probably number two.
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: Um, not, I'm not not with particular order, I guess.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: Um, but Borough Market was a highlight.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Not in a particular order, I guess, but Borough Market was a highlight.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: I think our hotel location was also the hotel itself and our location.
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: We stayed at the Conrad Hilton in St James, right literally across the street from the St James' Park tube station, and then the half-day trip to Windsor was fabulous.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: Okay, um, as another highlight.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: And then I do think that, um, just walking around in our and that's kind of my, our style of travel is a little slower, maybe, um, especially when it's just Sarah and I is just walking around and looking up, exploring side streets, popping into shops, exploring neighborhoods, taking different forms of transport to get there.
• 13:56
  Speaker 3: That was a big highlight and I highly recommend that.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: I mean, I know, tracy, you always say don't pack in too much, don't over plan, you're going to wear yourself out, and even it's hard to do that when you only have three days right, but we really did do that.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: Hit some plates, shops in different places.
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: We just had fun doing that.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: It was great.
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: So those are probably the biggest highlights of our trip was just being able to do that.
• 14:23
  Speaker 3: We got loads of pictures from all over the city.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: That's great.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: I mean you did a lot in three days.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: You say we did and I think sometimes you know the wandering down a street and just popping into a shop or popping into a pub, which obviously you can do in London.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: It's just fun.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: It just makes it a little bit more fun.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: I think it's it's too overpacked and too regimental and I've seen itineraries with you know like nine till ten we're doing this and then 11 or 12 we're doing that, but it's never gonna work.
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: I would say that it's never, ever gonna work to do that.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: So I know you mentioned um going to windsor and I kind of just I'm going to tie this in with how you got around london.
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: So obviously you know use the, the tube, and you know use your feet.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: You walked around a lot and I find London's quite a walkable city.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: I mean you get yourself from tube to tube but once you're in an area, just explore and have a walk around.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: So how did you find it getting around London?
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: And then how did you find it getting out to Windsor to do that visit?
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so getting around London is super easy and again, I'm, we're, we're walkers and I'm, I'm very I'm a decently active person, but I mean I don't average 25,000 steps a day Like I got in London.
• 15:34
  Speaker 3: So we were pretty worn out after the at the end of it.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: But I mean, we use the tube, we use buses, we walked a lot.
• 15:42
  Speaker 3: You know, we hadn't I hadn't really planned on going on a lot of buses, but CityMapper app was great, for we would just say you know what, why don't we just hop on a bus?
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: And since, especially since we were one tube stop away from Victoria, that really made it easy.
• 15:59
  Speaker 3: There's so many buses that are going to and from Victoria.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: You know Friday, you know Friday, after our last afternoon, we hadn't really had anything planned after the tour and we're like you know what, we've never really spent that much time in Notting Hill, and so we took the tube over to Notting Hill and then took the bus back and it was great, it was super easy.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: Windsor was awesome.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: So I actually booked our train tickets to Windsor ahead of time.
• 16:28
  Speaker 3: I don't know if I really needed to do that.
• 16:31
  Speaker 3: I probably won't next time because it was super easy and we actually did Victoria change at one stop, at Clapham Junction, and then straight to Eaton Riverside, and it may have been a little longer than the other route, I think maybe by 10 or 15 minutes, but it was so easy and it's an easy train, it wasn't crowded.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: We purposely booked the first slot at Windsor and the tour, which I think is 9.30 in the morning and it doesn't open till 10, but you can kind of queue up around 9.30.
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: And we were actually first in line, not that it really mattered, but it was.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: We actually got there because there's so many trains going.
• 17:19
  Speaker 3: We got to Windsor on purpose.
• 17:24
  Speaker 3: We're kind of early risers by nature, and so we got there pretty early, I think around eight maybe in the morning, and so we were able to walk over to Eaton across the bridge and, like, we went to this awesome coffee shop and had scones and coffee and it was.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: There was the school kids that go to Eaton College.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: Around there was no tourist at all because it was a random Thursday morning in March and so we really had some extra time to kind of explore a little bit before we actually did the Windsor tour.
• 17:58
  Speaker 3: So it was super, it was super easy.
• 18:01
  Speaker 3: I don't be intimidated.
• 18:03
  Speaker 3: Tell people don't be intimidated by public transport.
• 18:07
  Speaker 3: It's just so easy and it's easy to figure out.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: And yeah, I will add this Obviously you talk about it a lot in your podcast that there's these big debates between Oyster Cards and contactless and all that.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: So I ended up doing contactless because apparently there's a way that you can add a transport option in your Apple wallet.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: Iphone, you know, have a credit card or a debit card attached to it.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: And you, I didn't even have to.
• 18:42
  Speaker 3: I mean I just I didn't even have to turn my, we didn't even have to turn our phones on.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: So when we got on the bus and the tube, we just put our phone by the reader and it opened the gates.
• 18:51
  Speaker 3: That was super easy.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: And you still get the fare caps and all of that.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: So that made it.
• 18:58
  Speaker 3: Um, and you still get the fair caps and all of that.
• 19:00
  Speaker 3: So that made it.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: I mean I have wasn't having to get a card out or anything.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: It was great.
• 19:03
  Speaker 3: It never was an issue.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: I was worried about it at first when I first did it, and then it worked like it worked like a charm the whole time.
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: To be honest, I think that's what we say to everybody.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: It's like, whether you contactless or using Oyster card, they're both really easy.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: Whichever suits.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: And it's always one of the biggest bones of contention in the Facebook group whenever anybody asks that question, and we just say to people, as I'm going to say now, just read about both options and decide what works for you, because whatever will work for you will work for you.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: It's absolutely fine.
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: What we don't do is and I've seen this a few times we've been told don't ever get an Oyster card.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: No Londoner uses an Oyster card.
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: Well, actually, I have friends that live in London who do use Oyster cards.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: So again, it's just kind of what suits you.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's one of those, but I'm glad it worked out.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: And yeah, you wouldn't need to book the tickets for Windsor beforehand.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: You could have got them because there's so many trains out there, as you say and that and it is.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: And we again it's another question we get asked about you know how do I get to windsor, is it?
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: It's really easy.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: In fact, most of the train journeys in the uk are not that difficult.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: Doug helps out in his uk train travel tips uh group.
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: So if you're listening anything.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: I'm going to travel by train.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I'm not sure you know he can help out with that and answer questions, um, but in london and help, you can always ask people as well.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: People always help you out, whether it's catching the tube.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: If somebody sees that you're a bit confused, somebody will say, oh, you need to hop on this line and then change there.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: It's really easy, okay.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: So, nathan, you mentioned a little bit about where you stayed, so let's talk about your accommodation, and I know you mentioned it before the name of it.
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: Is it something that a place that you area that you'd recommend and an accommodation that you'd recommend?
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, a hundred percent.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: So again, we stayed um in the Conrad London St James.
• 20:48
  Speaker 3: It's a Hilton property and I get Hilton points.
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: I originally planned on staying around the Sloan square area because we had stayed there prior on my first trip to London when I had graduated from university and did a trip on my own.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: I stayed at this little B&B off of Sloan Square and it's reconverted into a flat now, but they have options over there, but we just ended up staying there.
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: I hadn't been around that area or I hadn't remembered it that much, and I hadn't been around that area or I hadn't remembered it that much.
• 21:19
  Speaker 3: But it turned out to be a very good choice.
• 21:22
  Speaker 3: It was reasonably priced for the area.
• 21:25
  Speaker 3: There's not that many hotels.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: So basically, where it's located is literally, as I mentioned before, across the street from the St James's Park Tube Station.
• 21:32
  Speaker 3: We could see the top of Westminster Abbey from our hotel room.
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: You literally walk around the corner and there's Westminster Abbey from our hotel room.
• 21:40
  Speaker 3: You literally walk around the corner and there's Westminster Abbey and then you walk a little bit five minutes and you're at St James's Park.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: So we would cross through St James's Park almost every day going into Mayfair.
• 21:50
  Speaker 3: Seeing Buckingham.
• 21:51
  Speaker 3: I mean you are literally right in the center and I was worried a little bit about, okay, is there going to be noise?
• 21:56
  Speaker 3: There's a pub next door, there's one around the corner, super quiet, because at night there's only a couple of hotels around there.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: So there's, I mean there was.
• 22:04
  Speaker 3: I mean I saw a few tourists.
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: There were a lot of business travelers in the hotel for that time of year, but service was great.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: It was again super quiet.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: But the location and I knew this because you had mentioned this as well being across the street from the tube station and having it close to your hotel after a long day was really refreshing because we knew, hey, I'm going to get off the tube, walk a little bit and I'm literally walking upstairs and getting into bed, and so that part you recommend that staying close to a tube station or a bus stop that's close to a tube station Highly recommend that for anyone going to London because it just makes it easy.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: Right Now I saw a sign, not that it really mattered to us too much.
• 22:55
  Speaker 3: There isn't in St James's Park tube station station.
• 22:57
  Speaker 3: There's not lifts, um, so you have to be aware of that.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: There may be certain stations that don't have lifts.
• 23:04
  Speaker 3: Most do um in terms of like getting your bags, all of that, but it was great.
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: Highly recommend it um, so yeah brilliant, brilliant and also I think you know you right.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: We do say that about trying to stay as close as possible to a tube stop because I just know myself I kind of go off my own experience, when I've walked 25,000 steps Like I just I don't want to is actually um, uh, we've got a link to uh which tube stations have and haven't got kind of uh lifts and stuff.
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: I'll put a link to that.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: It's on the I think it's transport for london, um go app.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: There should be links to that in that um.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: But what kind of links us to how you got to the airport?
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: So I'm guessing, because you were there for a few days you didn't have a huge amount of luggage.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: But even still, when you arrive into into london from wherever you've been flying in from, it's like think, right, how am I going to get to my hotel?
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: So, so how did logistically you sort that?
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: well we had.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: I mean, we didn't have a huge lot of luggage, but it was heavy, um, thanks to sarah, my wife I'm just joking um, so I so we had originally planned again before the strike and we had to change our plans.
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: We were arriving on a Monday morning and we were just going to.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: Honestly, we were going to just take Heathrow Express and I've taken the tube from Heathrow Inn and that's an option, but it can get busy, especially if you've got a lot of luggage and booked, um, a trip, a trip in with your recommendation, with Riz, with XFA cars, and I will tell you that was a super great.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: That was the best decision we made.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: Um, and I mean, he personally picked us up, Okay, and that whole experience of how he handles things in terms of I had downloaded WhatsApp because my friends in Germany use WhatsApp.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Whatsapp's not near as popular in the States as it is in Europe.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: But he said, hey, I had read that on his website.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: You know, WhatsApp is a lot easier to communicate.
• 25:35
  Speaker 3: So, and he sent me like photos and videos of a map, where to go, a video of where to like, of walking through out, coming out of the baggage claim.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: I couldn't believe it.
• 25:48
  Speaker 3: I was just like it was super simple.
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: It was like I didn't have to think about it and we got there, he, he picked us up and then it only took like 45 to 50 minutes and we were coming in kind of at rush hour on a Tuesday and it was awesome.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: We talked the whole time, we had a blast.
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: So it was absolutely worth a little bit of extra money versus the other options to get into London.
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: So highly recommend that for folks.
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: Now on the way back, we actually were leaving pretty early in the morning on a Saturday and we ended up just taking a black cab to Paddington early in the morning there was no traffic on a Saturday morning and then just took Heathrow Express from Paddington back to Heathrow.
• 26:41
  Speaker 3: That's what we did to come back and that worked out fine.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: And honestly, if you add up the cost of Heathrow Express, maybe if you take a cab from your hotel to Paddington or whatever, the XFA car is probably about the same price.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: And you know what.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: You also miss out on the experience of meeting Riz.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: If it's Riz that picks you up, which quite a lot of times, it is Because, honestly, he's becoming a I joke with him he's becoming a bit of a minor celebrity.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: I shouldn't say minor, because he's probably a major celebrity soon honestly, because he is so popular and everybody who meets Riz absolutely loves Riz to death because he's just such an amazing guy.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Not only is he an amazing guy, but he's so professional with how he runs XFA cars as well and, as you say, it's so smooth.
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: We are traveling around.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: As you know, doug and I are traveling around a lot at the moment and every time we land at an airport, I just want to have Riz pick me up, because it just it's.
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: You know, we, we, we always arrange to pick up.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: There's nothing worse, even from shorter flights.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: I want to be met at the airport.
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: I don't want the stress of having to think how am I going to get my luggage into wherever I'm going to the hotel?
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: I just want to get off the plane, get my luggage and get to the hotel.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: That's just how I work and I just think it just makes life so much easier and, as I say, riz is such a cool guy anyway to meet no doubt.
• 28:00
  Speaker 3: And again you've got to factor in, I mean, you know this, when you take Heathrow Express or the tube or whatever, to the terminal it's a really long walk.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: I mean I don't mind it, but for some folks, if that's a factor having someone meet you or drop you off directly, when you I mean mean literally you come out of baggage claim and he's standing there and so that that, that and you just it, that transfer and the whole process, even though maybe the drive to London is longer than the 15 minutes on Heathrow Express, you're not factoring in how long it takes you to walk and all of that it's going to about the same time, if not probably a little less, with risk exactly.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: Highly recommend the stress of it as well.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: Anyway, let's, let's pivot to food.
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: Let's talk about food.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: You sent me some fantastic pictures and um, so we'll be sharing those in the show notes.
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: Uh, so let's talk about some of your favorite foodie experiences when you were in London.
• 28:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so just a little bit of background.
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: So we really enjoy when we travel is eating local food, right, and so, whether you know, wherever we are, we want to try to go to some places that maybe locals go to or are recommended to us, and so we definitely did that and a lot of.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: We ate at a lot of pubs just because, especially in London, usually the food that we had at the pubs was great.
• 29:33
  Speaker 3: For our anniversary dinner we went to a restaurant in Mayfair called the Guinea Grill.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: It's kind of an old sort of I didn't realize it at the time sort of famous place.
• 29:45
  Speaker 3: We made reservations like a month in advance and you know I had beef Wellington for the first time, which was fabulous, Service was impeccable and I didn't see him.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: But when we walked out Anthony Hopkins was walking in.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: I didn't see him, my wife did, and so that was kind of a highlight for her seeing him walk in.
• 30:06
  Speaker 3: So yeah, that was great.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: We had tea at Harrods in the food hall, which was super fun, just sitting down at the counter, relaxing, kind of taking it in, just sitting down at the counter, relaxing, kind of taking it in the whole site of that.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: You know a couple of pubs that we went to, where we had food that we really like it.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: I've been to the Antelope before.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: It's in Belgravia.
• 30:30
  Speaker 3: Another hidden pub that I highly recommend is called the Grenadier.
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: There's a history behind that.
• 30:37
  Speaker 3: You know some of the inspiration or I guess not only from you guys telling me, uh, some ideas.
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: But, um, I bought a couple of books, Um, one is historic pub crawls through London by Thomas Vosper.
• 30:51
  Speaker 3: Um, this book, right here I'm showing you on the screen.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Um, that was really helpful, um, in in looking at, and then I found that, personally, the DK guides were really good as well.
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: But we went to a place in the city over by Royal Exchange, in Leighton Hall Market, called the Counting House.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: That was excellent, excellent.
• 31:19
  Speaker 3: And then Borough Market.
• 31:20
  Speaker 3: So, as I mentioned before, we hadn't really planned on going there.
• 31:23
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it was on my consult.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: I heard this on a podcast episode that I think it was.
• 31:29
  Speaker 3: Doug said that he really liked sausage rolls, and so I got a sausage roll at Ginger Pig in Borough Market.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: My wife got the strawberries, of course, Um, and I know those are tourist things to do and all of that, but when we were there in March, um, I mean there was no lines.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: I mean there were people there.
• 31:47
  Speaker 3: There was no lines, it was, it was, it was great it was, and it was on a like kind of on a Friday morning sort of, when we were there, Um, so we also went to an M and S food a couple of those and grabbed some quick bites as well.
• 32:04
  Speaker 3: The coffee shop in Windsor is called Anytime Coffee on Eaton High Street.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: Great scones, jam and cream and all that was awesome.
• 32:13
  Speaker 3: We had planned on doing a tea at Fortnum and Mason in Royal Exchange but that was on a day we had to cancel it and so I'm looking forward to we walk through the Royal Exchange when we were there and saw the area and it's beautiful and an old building and all that.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: So I hope we get to do that next time.
• 32:37
  Speaker 3: Do that next time.
• 32:41
  Speaker 3: But one piece of advice that I would give that I didn't really think about too much was some folks, you might want to plan a little bit of your food sort of in advance.
• 32:48
  Speaker 3: I know you don't want to overbook and all of that, but one night we hadn't done that and we ended up going and getting some pizza and it was really overpriced and it wasn't great, and so I think you just have to think through that a little bit Again.
• 33:08
  Speaker 3: Sometimes I don't want to book, every hour, every minute have everything reserved, but I do think if you're looking for a lot more commonplace than they are in the States, even for just small restaurants, I think that just popping in sometimes you may not get a table because restaurants tend to be smaller.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: So just something to think about.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: But, yeah, I would recommend all of the places that we went to.
• 33:47
  Speaker 3: They were fabulous.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: That's good to hear, because I think sometimes people's expectations aren't particularly high about British cuisine, but actually there's some fabulous restaurants in London, so good, really fantastic places to eat.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: And, like you say, I think it's good to do a bit of research before you go to these particular places that you really want to go and eat.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: Or you want to go and have an afternoon tea, because they do get booked up and they get busy.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: Um, because we, we love to go out and eat as well.
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: Um, and sunday roast comes up all the time.
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: I always ask but it's like you need to book it because us brits go out and have sunday roast out as well.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: So, um, yeah, and we were kind of bummed we weren't there on a sunday, because we had had sunday roast in the past and and we also, you know, love a good curry too and had had been on Brick Lane a couple of times.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: We didn't have time to do that this trip, but I highly recommend that to folks.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that'd be cool and you can.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: Obviously next year, when you'll be back over, we'll look in there, including some of those cool experiences.
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: Is there anything from this trip?
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: Because obviously you had to, things changed quite a lot from what you planned.
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: Is there anything that you would?
• 34:58
  Speaker 3: kind of change if you were, if you were kind of going back and sorting the trip out again, or were you happy how, how you managed to kind of go with things?
• 35:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I think, as I mentioned before, we might have planned out at least our main meal of the day um a little better.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: I mean, we did that once, but the other times we didn't Probably pack lighter Not that we were lugging our luggage around that much, but probably could have packed a little lighter.
• 35:20
  Speaker 3: We were in early March.
• 35:22
  Speaker 3: So it was the weather In Hamburg the first part of our trip.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: It got into the low 20 Celsius, which in sunny it was nice, and then it was a little cooler in London.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: So we had jackets and long pants, trousers and things like that.
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: So we were kind of in this.
• 35:43
  Speaker 3: You know we had to pack for both kind of weather, but we could have probably packed a little lighter.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: I will say that I would have and I would recommend to folks that they do the Discover Real London Black Cab Tour on their first day versus the last.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: We did it on our very last day and the reason for that is that Matt, our driver and tour guide, he told us all these places right?
• 36:10
  Speaker 3: Oh, you need to go.
• 36:11
  Speaker 3: The best fish and chips is in East London.
• 36:13
  Speaker 3: By this, you know this, you need to do this and we didn't have time to do all of those things.
• 36:18
  Speaker 3: So if we would have done it the tour earlier in our trip, we probably would have done some of those things, because we're getting, you know, up-to-date recommendations directly from a person that lives there.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: So just that, I might've changed that.
• 36:34
  Speaker 3: I learned that a little bit.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: But again, we probably we kind of had the mindset of really just taking our time and exploring and popping into shops and you know different neighborhoods and streets, and looking up and taking lots of pictures.
• 36:52
  Speaker 3: I'm a history buff too.
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: I think London is so unique in the sense that there's so many old buildings mingled in with the new.
• 37:02
  Speaker 3: It's just a great way to have that kind of mindset.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: Just take your time.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: If you see something, stop, walk over to the side, let everybody walk past.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: You see something, stop, walk over to the side, let everybody walk past you.
• 37:14
  Speaker 3: You know, look around, take a breath and I think, don't feel so rushed.
• 37:21
  Speaker 3: And even in our short trip, I think that was something that we accomplished, that we really appreciated and it made the looking back on the pictures that we took made the experience so much better.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: And the other thing too and I've always kind of had this mentality when I've traveled to different destinations is I always have the mindset if it's a place that I like, I want to come back.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: And so we left so much to do next time with the kids.
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: You know I haven't talked about a lot of the bigger sites other than going to Windsor and I haven't talked about a lot of the bigger sites other than going to Windsor because we didn't really do that this trip.
• 37:56
  Speaker 3: You know we didn't go into Tower of London or Westminster Abbey or National Gallery or St Paul's or any of that.
• 38:03
  Speaker 3: We walked by all of them, took a lot of pictures and different things like that, but we had been in and toured all of those places before, but we knew that we were going to want to bring the kids back and do those next time and do some of those experiences that you have recommended.
• 38:21
  Speaker 3: So that was kind of our mindset and it made it even a short trip.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: That was a little annoying that we got there two days later.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: We just we filled it up and really had a wonderful time.
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: It's great and it's great to hear that as well Like it worked out that you had such a fabulous time in London and that you know, even though you've been there before yeah, it was a long time ago You'd still, there's still things about London that are just magical and amazing and I kind of awe, inspiring.
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: I think it is just one of those cities.
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: One question I did want to ask because we've kind of touched on it a lot through the through this chat, is the fact that you went in march, um so and we talked about that before I should start recording the podcast.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: I think it's actually worth it.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: You know, if, if you're listening to the podcast now and you're thinking, actually I'd prefer to go when it's not high season, so kind of june, july, august, when it gets really busy, or christmas again it's really busy.
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: So March, how did you find it overall in March in terms of the weather, how busy it was, kind of getting around, all those sorts of things.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: How did it feel generally?
• 39:24
  Speaker 3: Couldn't have asked for a better time and I was a little skeptical because in the States we have spring break, and spring break is kind of throughout the US, whether it's grade school or college, university could be.
• 39:42
  Speaker 3: It's usually a week, but it starts for some places at the beginning of March all the way through mid-April, and I was worried about that in terms of, you know, the amount of tourists at certain places and how busy it might be, and it was the exact opposite.
• 39:59
  Speaker 3: It was a fabulous time to go, brain thinks, but it was from pretty much the forties to the low sixties, which, um, if you're, you know we're bringing layers, you can take off a jacket or whatever, being outside a lot.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: I never got hot, um, now, our accommodation in London had air, air con, um, but in Hamburg it didn't, um, and so I also, because I lived there for three years, I know that, if you don't, my, my apartment in Hamburg didn't have air con and there was a few times when and so that was, you know, played into it as well, and I had been obviously to London several different seasons and there's an argument for every season, but I will say early March when we went, was absolutely a great time to go, and that's we're going to do it again next year because of that, um, because we, and we felt it from a price standpoint um, from hotels and um train tickets and different things like that and I'm already looking for next year or super reasonable, uh, compared to maybe December or the peak season in summer or things like that.
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it does become really really expensive and more crowded and less pleasant, and actually London, when it's very hot, is, in my mind, not the most pleasant city to be in, to be honest Not at all, because there's not a lot of AC around.
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: But what an amazing place to celebrate your 20th wedding anniversary.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: And, as you know, when we chatted, it was also Doug and I's 20th wedding anniversary in March as well.
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: Not the same day as you guys, but we're not that far away, so congratulations on that.
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: So you'll be spending, hopefully, your 21st wedding anniversary as well in the UK, which is amazing.
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: Now I know that you are a fan of the podcast, so you know the question that's going to come up now because I ask at the end of every single podcast.
• 41:59
  Speaker 3: So so, nathan, what would be the one tip that you would give to someone visiting London for the first time?
• 42:03
  Speaker 3: Honestly, follow Tracy and Doug's recommendations.
• 42:04
  Speaker 3: I'm serious and I know that.
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: That, um, and you didn't pay me to say that, so it truly made a difference.
• 42:11
  Speaker 3: Okay, and I, I very much appreciate it.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: My wife appreciates it.
• 42:15
  Speaker 3: Just follow the, follow her recommendations and listen on the podcast, use her resources and again, just do that and just slow down, slow down.
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: Have some fun, you know.
• 42:30
  Speaker 3: Explore, have some fun, you know.
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: Explore, don't don't overdo it and um, leave plenty for next time.
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Brilliant, oh, nathan, it's been so lovely to chat to you this week for the for this episode of the podcast.
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: I love doing trip reports and I love hearing about how just your experience it was so good.
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: So, um, again once you'd be next year we'll be doing another one.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: So you, this isn't so you'll be a repeat offender on the podcast.
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: Nathan, you're not getting away with it.
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: So this is episode 149.
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: So, goodness knows, it will be in another 12 months' time, but fabulous to talk to you.
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your experiences and your recommendations for London Brilliant.
• 43:06
  Speaker 3: Okay, thank you for having me Appreciate it.
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favorite podcast app?
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: We love to hear from you and you never know.
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: You may receive a shout out in a future episode, but, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week.
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: Happy UK travel planning.