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Home | Travel | One Day in London

One Day in London

Published: Sep 3, 2013 · Modified: Jul 27, 2020 by Andrea - Leave a Comment

Is one day enough to visit London? No! But, is it worth spending one day in London? Yes! Take a look at all the things we did with little time in London!

one day in london

London, like any other big and famous city, deserves many days of a trip, but if you can visit it for only one day or not visit at all, the first option wins!

We were vacationing in Paris and decided to spend one day visiting this other amazing city. We have always wanted to go to London and since we didn't want to wait for a future vacation, we did our 1 day trip to London. Our day was perfect and we could do everything we had planned, which gave us a pretty good idea of the city.

We arrived at St Pancras train station and the first thing we did was to buy a One Day TravelCard Off Peak Zones 1 and 2 for 7.30 pounds per person. This card gave us unlimited access to public transportation on that day. It was good from 9:30am and zones 1 and 2 are good enough for tourists. Our daughter Isabella didn't pay (children aged under 11 can travel free). Is it worth the price? It's a bargain if you consider that each trip costs 4 pounds, and we rode de bus and subway (or the tube) five times.

Well, now it's time to talk about our day...

What to do in London in one day

We took the subway - Circle Line Eastbound -  to Tower Hill. On our way out of the station we could see the Tower of London, and after a few steps, the Thames and Tower Bridge. The bridge kind of disappointed us, but it was a must-see.

We bought a map, took some pictures and got on another tube that took us to Victoria Station, very close to Buckingham Palace. We arrived a little before the ceremony of changing the guard, so it was pretty crowded. But we didn't wait for the ceremony.

one day in london - buckingham

Then we went to St James Park and on our way out we had the chance of running into the guards and their horses going to the ceremony. We passed by Westminster Abbey and a few minutes later we arrived at the Houses of Parliament (Palace of Westminster) with Big Ben. It was a great moment and since we were there at midday we could hear Big Ben ringing 12 times.

one day in london - westmisnter

We walked by the Thames for a while and it was time for lunch. We went to The Clarence Pub and had a wonderful meal. We had Steak and Ale Pie and of course, Fish and Chips. We highly recommend this place!

one day in london - the clarence pub

After lunch, we went to Trafagal Square, passed by Regent St, dropped by Tesco supermarket to buy some tea (Twinnings had a new collection that we couldn't find anywhere else), we saw the craziness of Picadilly Circus and stopped by M&M's World.

one day in london - m&ms world

On our way to the bus stop we passed by Chinatown with its delicious smells coming from the restaurants! We then got on the famous red double-decker bus and sat on the second floor right in front which was great. Isabella just loved it! We got off close to our next destination, the Museum of Natural History.

We stayed at the museum for about one hour and it was definitely Isabella's favorite part of the day because we focused on the dinosaurs, and she loves dinosaurs. We even saw a huge T-Rex that looked very real - ok, probably, because we have neven seen a real one :). It's good to mention that many museums in London are free of charge which was great for us, because it wouldn't be worth paying one day admission and stay for only one hour.

one day in london - museum natural history

Then we went to Harrods, visited mainly the Food Hall and had a typical English Tea at The Tea Room, on the second floor. We savored great tea and delicious scones!

one day in london - harrods - afternoon tea

At this point it was time to head to the train station to go back to Paris. We spent our last pounds buying a snack from Pret a Manger to have on the train, went to Harry Potter's store, which even has a wall like Platform 9 3/4. The line to take pictures was long and we couldn't miss the train to go home 😉

We had a great day! And if you do that with children the secret is to go slow (ok, not that slow, otherwise you won't have time to see all this) and alternate things you want to do with things your kids want.  And we can say that Isabella was a great partner!

I hope our London one day itinerary might help you plan yours!

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