Royal Caribbean offers cruises each summer from Southampton, England, which is a short distance away from London. If you're like me, you'll want to spend a few days there to explore the city.
Before I ever visited London, I started doing research to find out what I should and shouldn't do to maximize my trip.
Jessica Dante is a travel expert specializing in visiting London, and her videos and blogs have the best advice I could find.
She lives in London and regularly shares the sort of information anyone looking to spend a few days in England's capital would want to know as part of a broader European vacation.
She recently shared her for recommendations on how to have the best trip possible and avoid common mistakes while in London.
Stay in Central London
If you're staying less than a week in London, Jessica recommends staying close to the area you're going to be spending the most time in.
She recommends Central London because of how centralized all the major tourist attractions are, "most people who are somewhat familiar with London would be familiar with areas like Covent Garden, Soho; Those are all super central."
Plus, staying in Central London makes it convenient to get to Waterloo Station, which is the train station that gets you to Southampton.
I then asked if there's a place to avoid staying, and she cautioned before booking a hotel on the outskirts of London to save money, to read reviews.
"I would just then look at reviews of a hotel that you're looking at, because reviews will always tell you if people thought the area, if there wasn't much going on, if there wasn't breakfast spots nearby, or if they just found it to be a bit dodgy."
London is bigger than you think
I asked Jessica what's the most common mistake tourists make when visiting, and she said it's underestimating the city's size.
"People really don't they don't understand until they get to London how expansive and wide the city is," she explained. "It is really a city that you do have to do a lot of planning for your days if you're planning to squeeze in a lot of stuff."
The issue is you might start listing places you want to visit without realizing the distances between areas.
For example, Tower of London and Notting Hill are 40 minutes away, and if you start doing more hopping around the city like that, you're going to spend half your day commuting.
"You could end up spending hours on the tube. And the tube is not always comfortable. It's not always running," Jessica said.
Her advice is plan out your day so that you don't have to rely on transport to get from each place.
Don't buy the Oyster card
A lot of tourists think they need to buy an Oyster card to use the London Underground, but it's not only unnecessary, it's expensive.
The Oyster card is something you can buy to load credits to use the city's mass transportation. It costs around £10, but it takes time to ship and be delivered.
"They're really pointless, to be honest. There's there's just really no need for it," she explained.
Instead, all you need is probably something you already have: tap to pay on your phone or a chip-enabled credit card.
"It is really simple to just use that to pay for the tube and for the bus and whatever else transport you're going to use in London. You can even use it for things like the Uber boat, if that's something that you want to hop on."
She admitted some tourists like to buy the Oyster card as a kind of souvenir, but for visiting London for just a few days it's simply not worth it.
Skip the hop-on hop-off bus
Perhaps Jessica's most controversial recommendation was to skip paying for the hop-on hop-off bus tour.
While she says it's perfectly fine someone with mobility issues, or someone who cannot walk long distances, it's ultimately unnecessary for most people.
Her recommendation is to instead rely on the Tube or the city's double decker buses.
"We do use the double decker buses. I use them almost every day to get around the city. And you can go to the top and sit at the front, and that's a really nice view."
In terms of walking, Central London is very flat, so you won't have any hills to contend with as you get around on foot.
She added there are a lot of great parks in London, so you could take a rest and enjoy them too.
How to get from the airport into London
After flying into Heathrow Airport, how do you get your family and bags to your hotel in London?
Her top recommendation is the Heathrow Express, which is a high speed train that takes 15 minutes to get from Heathrow to Paddington Station.
But if you aren't staying near Paddington, then that might not be the most convenient option.
Another idea is to take the Elizabeth Line train because it goes to Central London stations like Tottenham Court Road and Bond Street.
It does take longer (about 40 minutes), but is cheaper than the Heathrow Express.
If you have a lot of luggage, Jessica recommends a car service called Welcome Pickups, "they will actually track your flight and they will walk into the terminal and they will find you and then take you to the car."
If you are flying into Gatwick, do not take the Gatwick Express, "I actually think the trains work better for Gatwick. You kind of only have like a couple of options there, but they the trains go into a few different stations and avoid the Gatwick Express because it's a rip off."
Don't count on your hotel offering breakfast
One difference Americans might pick up on quickly is your hotel probably doesn't offer breakfast included in your room rate.
"I think as Americans we're quite used to hotels that have breakfast included in the room rate, and that is almost non-existent here in London," Jessica explained.
As a result, you should plan in your budget to eat breakfast out.
She said a lot of hotels offer breakfast for an additional cost, but it can be pricey.
Her recommendation is to skip the hotel breakfast and take advantage of cafes and places to eat nearby, "The great thing about staying in Central London is that you will have loads of inexpensive breakfast options and cafes."
There's quick options as well as sit down restaurants.
Two local chains she recommends are Grind (coffee shop cafe) and Dishoom (Indian and British breakfast).
You don't need to exchange money
One thing you don't need to bother with is getting cash for your time in London.
"London is mostly a cash free city at this point," Jessica said.
Instead, you can pay for everything with a credit card. I recommend getting a credit card with no foreign transaction fees, and ensure it's either a Visa or Mastercard. Discover and American Express are rarely accepted outside the United States.
Cash could be useful in two situations, " The only reason I would say that you would need cash is if people want to tip anybody at their hotel when they first arrive, if they want to tip their taxi driver, or if you want to tip your tour guides. All of which is not fully expected, but always welcome, of course."
Picky eaters can still find food to enjoy
London is known for its variety of international cuisines, but if you have picky eaters in your group, there's always something for them too.
My kids are not very adventurous eaters, so I asked for recommendations on what to eat with them.
Jessica said pizza is never far away, as there are a lot of Italian restaurants in the city.
He recommended Pizza Pilgrims, which started out as a street food van and has since grown into a pizzeria chain. The chain has received recognition, including being named one of the world's best pizzerias by 50 Top Pizza.
If you're looking for a quick bite, she recommended Pret A Manger or Leon, "In central London, you're never very far from one of these places."
