Vibrant London . Review on London

My husband and I always longed to go to London. Though we have been to Europe twice before, somehow we never made it to London. We would see London in all Hrithik movies and our longing got reinforced every time . So this October holidays we decided that we HAD to go there inspite of all the '' BEWARE OF EXPENSIVE LONDON '' Warnings.

We had 15 days in all and decided to spend our holiday like this - 5 nights in London , 2 nights in the countryside, 3 nights in Oxford , 3 nights in Edinburgh and 2 nights in Frankfurt. Coming to think of it, we realised that it was the perfect itinerary with just enough time in each place to get the essence of it .

Where you stay forms a large part of your memories of the place , so it is a good idea to spend the 10% more and get a nice place to live in . We found a good deal on the internet with the baholidays.com webiste. At about 100 pounds a day for a triple ( my husband , my 6 year old daughter and me) inclusive of taxes and breakfast, we made a reservation at Hoilday Inn Kensington Forum .

It was an excellent choice. The location was superb being just 5 minutes walk from the Gloucester tube station and in a very fashionable area , Kensington. We decided not to buy any of the visit london cards or britrail passes because we didnt think we wanted to see so many palaces and museums . The main attractions like Madame Tussauds and London Eye were as it is not covered .It was a good decision . We visited Tower of London which is where the Kohinoor diamond is .

This is a must see place . It costed us 30 pounds for 2 adults and 1 child. madame Tussaud's is also a place not to be missed and costs around the same . London Eye is the world's largest observation wheel and is definitely a good experience. You could buy a clubbed ticket with Madame Tussaud's and London Eye. This costs a little less than buying them individually.

Eveyone sees the change of guard and so we went too. There was a huge crowd to see it , but frankly I was not that impressed. We enjoyed the horseguards at Whitehall more . And The park adjoining the whitehall called St James Park is really beautiful. We took the hop on hop off bus and that is worth while because it gives us time to linger around whatever we liked more and skip the uninteresting parts. Food was never a problem , inspite of being vegetarian .

Breakfast was heavy and filling and there was always a pizza hut or burger king for a quick meal. We liked burger king much more than mac donalds for veggie food. We didnt miss Indian food at all. Didnt even try to find an Indian restaurant. We were lucky with clothes shopping . We found a sale happening at Debenhams and Lillywhites . We bought a lot of clothes here.

Anywhere else was toooo expensive. In spite of London's bad reputation on the weather front , we had great weather for the first 3 days ,it was very cold but did not rain . The next 2 days it rained but it didnt spoil the fun. We just wore jackets and caps and moved around. So there is nothing to worry too much about. We were glad that we had taken thermals for my daughter though . She definitely needed them. At the end I would like to say that we had a great time in London. Would love to go back!!

Pros : Moving around

Cons: Expensive attractions