So a couple of months ago I went on my very first trip to Europe, I went on a Contiki trip going to London and Paris. I had wanted to do a Contiki trip ever since I graduated University, but I never had the funds to do one until this year. I had heard of the reputation of Contiki prior to booking my trip, that it was mostly full of people who liked to drink and party especially on the trips to Europe because it caters to the younger crowd. I wasn't super nervous about going on the trip since I was going with my Boyfriend, if I was a solo traveler I would probably have been having a panic attack since I'm super introverted and I'm terrible at meeting new people.
Going to London
I was flying out of Los Angeles, CA so the flight to London was about 10.5 hours, since I have previously flown to South Korea which is like a 13.5 hour flight I didn't really mind the duration of this flight to london. The only thing that I was nervous about flying into London was how I was going to make my way to the hotel, since Contiki does not send a rep to go and pick you up from the airport. My boyfriend and I decided to take the Tube to the hotel since it would be the cheapest and fastest method to use, and it was surprisingly very easy to use.
London
I do suggest buying a pre-paid data sim card off of amazon to use when going abroad, I was able to use google maps to get to my hotel and it also told me what subway stations and buses to use so that I didn't get lost. The hotel I stayed at in London for my trip was the Imperial Hotel in Russell Square, It was an okay hotel, and their breakfast buffet in the mornings was really good in my opinion (I love baked beans now). Since we did not use the Contiki Bus for the London part of the trip we received Oyster cards to get around the city. Our trip leader would take us on the tube or buses and get us to our included activities (or the optional Me Time activities if you had signed up for them), after those you would make your own way back to the hotel yourself.
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| Buffet Style Breakfast at the Imperial Hotel |
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Tried to get a good shot of the whole palace
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I really liked the freedom we had to go and explore things around the city, I ended up going to Buckingham Palace to do the State Rooms tour with my boyfriend on a morning we decided to skip an optional ME Time activity to the London Eye. It was amazing to walk inside and look at all the paintings and the beautifully decorated rooms, however they did not allow us to take any photographs once inside the Palace. After the tour they had a little Cafe you could buy pastries from and I ended up getting a lemon tart and a Strawberry Ice Cream, and let me tell you that the Ice Cream was sooo good. And a side tip, if you do want to try the ice cream do not buy the ice cream from the cafe, if you walk further down past the gift shop, there is an outdoor Ice Cream parlor and they scoop out the ice cream for you and put it in a cone, much better than buying one of the pre packaged ice cream cups from the cafe.
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| So crowded |
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| After tour snacks |
Our trip in London had included activities one of which was the Jack the Ripper tour, I was super excited about this one but it turned out to be my least favorite part of the trip in London. We were left to wander Brick Lane and find our own dinner before the tour started, and that place looked a bit dodgy. The tour itself was unremarkable, I could barely hear the tour guide since we were a big group, and it also decided to rain that night during the tour so maybe that added to the lackluster experience I had.
The other included activity we had in our itinerary was the West End Musical, you don't know which musical you will see until your orientation meeting. We saw Kinky Boots at the Adelphi Theater, I'm not really a musical person but it was an included activity so I decided to see it, and Im so glad I did. We were dropped off at Covent Garden to find our own dinner before the show and I loved it there, so many restaurants and shops and it is definitely on my need to go back there list. I ended up eating at a small little shop called Herman Ze German, wonderful delicious Hotdogs and their Fritz Kola was so good. After that we went to go see Kinky Boots and it was amazing, it was so funny and the music is so catchy, you will not be disappointed with the show, I know I wasn't!
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| Best Hot Dog |
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| Waiting for the show to start |
The only optional activity I signed up for on the London trip was for the London Tower, it is definitely a must visit attraction, and definitely take comfortable shoes because you will climb a lot of steps and walk a lot there. One of the attractions I wanted to see at the London Tower was the Crown Jewels Exhibit, like Buckingham Palace there was no photographs allowed but oh my goodness those jewels were stunning. And the Ravens.. they look like crows on steroids, they were free to roam the premises so people would stand near them and take pictures with them.
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| Tower of London |
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| Traitor's Gate |
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| King's Swords |
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| Tower Bridge |
One of my bucket list items for London was to go eat at Nando's, since I heard so much about those restaurants and there are none in California I was dying to eat there. If you have ever had Peruvian chicken, its similar to that. They have a variety of spicy sauces you can put on your chicken, I can say that it lived up to my expectations, so if you love flame broiled chicken definitely go try that place out.
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| Cheeky Nando's |
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