New Year's Eve in London
London is one of the world's most important global cities and has been called the world's most powerful, desirable, influential, visited, expensive, sustainable, investment-friendly, and most-popular-for-work city. The official language is English and has a population of almost 3 million, but 36.7% of these people are foreign-born making London the city with the second largest immigrant population. Now, let's talk about our experience during our visit in London.
Where to Stay
We stayed in an Airbnb in Sloane Avenue. It was an 8-minute walk to the nearest metro station (South Kensington) and 15 minutes by train to the Buckingham Palace.
Transportation
We used public transportation; specifically underground train. The daily cost with a travel-card is approximately $17.00 per person.
What to do on New Year's Eve
- We tried to have a good view of the Buckingham Palace two days in a row. The first day we went during the Change of Guard which happens at 11am every other day from August to May and every day in June and July. There were way too many people so we tried again on New Year's Eve because there wasn't a change of guard happening that day.
- Tower Bridge- bascule and suspension bridge that crosses the River Thames.
- Tower of London- historic castle next to the Tower Bridge.
- The Shard- 95-story skyscraper; tallest building in UK.
- Big Ben - famous clock tower that, unfortunately, is in construction until 2021.
- Christmas Market - there are many Christmas markets around the city but we chose Southbank Centre Winter Festival and Winter Market near the London Eye.
- Winter Wonderland- Christmas event held in Hyde Park, from mid-November to early January. It features markets, rides and attractions.
- Picadilly Square - this might remind you of Times Square, New York.
- Walk through Westminster Abbey, a royal church, and Palace of Westminster, which serves as the meeting place for the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
- Watched the fireworks from the street behind the London Eye. Sadly, there was no phone service and we couldn't call our families. After midnight, we had to walk a lot to get to a train station that was not over packed with people and ended up getting to the apartment at 2am. Note: If you want to buy the tickets for the private areas with closer views of the fireworks, make sure you start looking for them at least 6 months in advance. I searched for them in Sept-Oct and they were already sold out.
What to do on New Year's Day
- Enjoy the New Year's Day Parade which starts at noon until 3 pm. The Parade route is as follows – Piccadilly, Piccadilly Circus, Lower Regent Street, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, Cockspur Street, Trafalgar Square, Whitehall and Parliament Street.
- Hang out around Trafalgar Square, Chinatown, M&M Store and watch a movie in one of the the many movie theaters such as VUE theatre. Relax in the reclining seats with popcorn and ice cream while watching a movie.
- Instead of a movie, if you buy tickets with anticipation, you can experience a live musical of your favorite comedy, romance or whatever you prefer.
Food
- ASDA - this is their version of Walmart. We took a bus to the closest one and bought everything for breakfast during our stay. We spent approximately $35.00 for food for 2 people for 3 days.
- Kahve Dunyasi - We had delicious cheesecakes, croissants and coffees near Picadilly Circus.
- We tried a Chinese buffet in Chinatown and it was a very hard decision because there are hundreds of options and they all had a lot of people. I don't remember the name but it had 2 floors...I hope that helps, sorry.
- Shake Shack - burgers, fries and milkshakes for 2 people for $40.00.
Note: Don't forget to buy an universal adapter plug because UK uses a different plug even though it's the same voltage as the rest of Europe.
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