If I could only have two words to describe our four weeks in Europe, they would be fever dream. Sitting in freezing, rainy Sydney after a month in England, France, Switzerland and Italy, I still can’t believe we actually went.
This trip was a long time coming, so when Australia finally reopened international travel earlier this year, we were so excited for a Euro summer adventure. The challenge was reducing the plan for six months of travel (our original six month trip from 2020) into four weeks.
The result? An absolutely incredible but extremely busy trip that flew by!
Now that we’ve been back to reality for a few weeks, I’m excited to go through the many many photos, videos and notes I curated on the trip and put together travel diaries for each city.
As this was our first time in Europe with a lot of touristy things, I won’t follow my usual travel guide format, instead this will be more of a visual diary with a few recommendations. Plus, we filmed a lot this time, so each city will have its own vlog.
First up, England 🇬🇧
Things to do – first time in London
As this was my first time in London, the goal was to see all the touristy things. We landed early in the morning, so had the whole day to wander around and tick almost everything off.
- Visit all the tourist sights: Tower Bridge, Big Ben, London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace
- See a West End show: we saw Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella and it was INCREDIBLE. That run of Cinderella is over now, but seeing a West End show is an essential bucket list experience for theatre lovers
- Visit The View From Shard: be sure to prebook your tickets and be rewarded with panoramic views of the city
- Ride an e-bike through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens – only £1 for the day
Extra recs: Darts at Flight Club • Pizza at Franco Manca • Quick lunches at Itsu
Day Trips
We had three nights in the city and then stayed with Jade’s family for another four nights about an hour out of London. This was a great base to do day trips.
- Bath: we took the train from London to walk around Bath, visit the Roman Baths, and take ourselves on a walking tour of some Bridgerton filming spots (thanks to this post).
- Brighton: a day trip to the seaside was essential
- Hampton Court Palace: this is the home of King Henry VIII and is incredibly grand
- Hever Castle & Gardens: the childhood home of Anne Boleyn featured the most stunning castle and gardens. This was much smaller than Hampton Court but felt quintessentially British
Stay
London is very well connected by public transport with most tourist attractions located close to a tube station. As long as you’re near a tube stop, you should be good. We stayed at the Comfort Inn Westminster which was within a few hundred metres of Victoria station (train and tube) and even closer to Pimlico tube stop. The facilities were basic but it was relatively cheap and a great base to explore the city.
London City
Bath
Hampton Court Palace
Hever Castle
Brighton
I hope you enjoyed this visual diary from our time in London. If you haven’t already, subscribe to my YouTube channel or watch my travel vlog from the trip:
You can check out my other travel guides for more inspiration and follow my adventures on Instagram, Tik Tok & YouTube.
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