London

I moved to London in Autumn of 2016 for my university education. I've been lucky in that so many different types of people have shown me places to go including college students, young professionals, and even families. I won't jam pack my list with things I just thought were adequate, these are only recommendations that I genuinely enjoyed myself and would be happy sending a friend to. Enjoy, and let me know what you think!

 My first tip to you: Get an Oyster card. The tubes are the best way to get anywhere in London and it's really not worth Ubering all the time. Oyster cards work on buses as well. I prefer the tube but buses are a great way to see the city in a more scenic mode of transportation.

Everything is linked for your convenience

Food

I have been both very impressed and very let down with food in London. However, London is one of those places where you can really judge whether or not a place is going to be good by what it looks like, if it looks alright it probably is.

If you don't want to judge any books by their covers, I've got you covered below:

• Gordon's Wine Bar [The oldest wine bar in London in an underground cellar of sorts. This is my absolute favourite place to bring visitors. The charcuterie boards are to die for]

• The Glade at Sketch London [Restaurant that looks like an enchanted forest]

• The Gallery at Sketch London [Pink high tea room]

• Dumpling's Legend [Chinese]

• The Churchill Arms [Thai, restaurant has a gorgeous floral exterior]

• Dark Sugars [There are two of these on the same street, go to the bigger one. The best hot chocolate I've had in my life. They also give you samples!]

• Dishoom [Gorgeous Indian restaurant, order the pau bhaji]

• Halal Restaurant [My favourite authentic Indian in London, very reasonably priced too]

• Sexy Fish [Expensive Japanese, high quality sushi]

• NAC [Very reasonably priced fancy restaurant, order the rigatoni all vodka]

• Granger & Co. [This is the English name of Bill's Bondi]

• Farm Girl [Cute little cafe, there’s three locations]

• City Caphe [Vietnamese]

• Crosstown Doughnuts [My favourite is the Sea Salt Caramel Banana]

• The Breakfast Club [Try and time it so you don't have to wait in line, it's not worth a super long wait but good nonetheless! Several of these locations have secret bars hidden within the restaurant which are elaborated on in the section below]

• The Ritz [Afternoon Tea, very posh]

• Franco Manca [Pizza]

• Gail's Bakery [My favourite loaf of sourdough in the world]

• Kua 'Aina [Hawaiian burgers, order the chicken teriyaki burger]

• Nando's [Fast food chain you'll see everywhere. The ones in England are relatively good, honestly]

Going Out

Since I went to university in London, I did enjoy what are appropriately called "nights out". I say appropriately named due to the rarity of us returning home before the night had turned into morning even though the clubs all close relatively early compared to the rest of Europe. Get a kebab or McDonald's afterwards with the group you went out with, it doesn't matter if it's sort of bad - it's all part of the experience. However, I will note that the McDonald's on Strand street is particularly good. They also go out later than I was used to in America, I wouldn't recommend going to a club before 11 o'clock. Drinks are also very expensive, pre-game!

Here are my recommendations:

Cocktail Clubs/Bars

• London Cocktail Club [Go for Happy Hour!]

• The Cocktail Trading Co. Brick Lane

• Call Me Mr. Lucky [Secret bar within The Breakfast Club at London Bridge. Password is "I'm Feeling Lucky"]

• Mayor of Scaredy Cat Town [Secret bar behind a fridge door at The Breakfast Club in Spitalfields. Password is "I'd like to meet the mayor"]

• Opium [Dim sum and drinks served in a ceramic head of your Chinese zodiac animal]

• Refuel Bar & Restaurant [Go to the bar within The Soho Hotel, I love the vanilla martini! The food here is okay but nothing special]

Clubs

• XOYO [Nobody under 21 is allowed in on weekends which is annoying]

• Queen of Hoxton [Go downstairs]

• Zoo Bar [The most standard club out of the three of these]

Things To Do

• Walk around Shoreditch. Check out:

  • Boxpark [Pop up mall that always has interesting shops. Second floor is food and drinks]

  • Brick Lane is a main feature of Shoreditch, points of interest include:

    1. Rough Trade [Super cool record store, fun to browse even if you don't have a record player. They have good live events, too!]

    2. Dark Sugars [Home of the aforementioned stellar hot chocolate]

    3. Thrift Shops

• Victoria & Albert Museum [Free! My personal favourite museum in London. Find the cute indoor cafe]

• WAH Nails: [The best nail art]

• Sky Garden [Garden on the top floor of a glass encased skyscraper. Fantastic views. Free to book a table, which lets you skip the line. Try and time it with sunset]

• Tower of London [Old castle on the River Thames, fantastic if you're into history]

• Saatchi Gallery [Besides the cool exhibitions, this gallery has the best gift shop]

• Alfie's Antique Market [The coolest shop to walk around, you'll be tempted to buy so many things]

• Dover Street Market [Really cool designer store where all the stalls are set up like art exhibits]

• Walk around Notting Hill and check out Portobello Road Market

• I honestly don't think London is great for shopping. Pretty much everywhere you go is Topshop and Zara. However, if you want to browse the iconic department stores, which I often do:

  • Liberty London [Gorgeous building with great selection of products. My favourite section is the homewares on level 3]

  • Selfridges [Has midrange items as well]

  • Harrod's [Cool foodcourt, too]

  • Harvey Nichols [High tea on the roof is cute]

• Walk around SoHo and China Town

• Barbican Center [Architecture experiment of cement utopian living, Google what the inside of the apartments look like after you visit the museum/cafe]

• Walk around Hyde Park and Regent's Park

• Walk around Covent Garden

• Jack the Ripper Tour [Book any of these, good history content outside of the serial killer plus a comprehensive walking tour of one of the world's most notorious murderer's steps]

• White Cube [Gallery]

• The London Eye [I know, it's super touristy. I still enjoyed it]

• The London Dungeon [Again, touristy but still really fun. This is a walkthrough semi-interactional show/ride taking guests through London's scariest history including Jack the Ripper, the plague, and even fictitious characters such as Sweeney Todd]