I recently returned from a quick trip to the United Kingdom and thought it would be great to share a few tips from my experience traveling there. During my trip I spent most of my time in London as I was there to see some friends, but I did get a day or so to get lost and take photos. 

Tip 1: Pickup an Oyster Card

Although there is Uber and taxis in London the easiest way to get around is using their excellent underground train system. You can pay as you go like other transit systems but I highly recommend picking up an Oyster Card which is the UK's transit system card. It can be setup for just the underground or both the underground and buses.  When you get the card it will offer you a variety of options such as which zones you want to access. For my trip out there Zone 1 & 2 covered all the main areas and seemed to touch all the hot spots. Definitely check the places you want to see and what zone they fall under, but if you’re looking for the main hot spots such as Big Ben, The London Eye, and Hyde Park they will all be covered in those first two zones.  You can also pick these up when you arrive at the airport so you can get going right away. 

The last things I’ll say about these cards is they do charge a small fee for them but you can reclaim that deposit by returning the card to the machines before you leave. 

Tip 2: Heathrow Express

When entering London from Heathrow you have two options to get into the main city area. You can take the normal underground train or the Heathrow Express. The Heathrow Express as it sounds is a faster way to get into the city as it goes directly to one of the main hubs. It will cost you a little more to get in but it’s a straight shot into London without any stops. You can purchase a round trip ticket as well which is the route I went with. I figured there would be less of a chance for delays with the express vs the normal underground when trying to make my return flight home. However if you don’t mind taking a little longer of a trip, the standard underground works great and will get you where you need to go.

Tip 3: All About the Contactless  

Coming from the US we are still playing catchup when it comes to mobile payments. The UK uses contactless for the majority of their payments. Contactless means most transactions take place by either tapping your card or mobile phone against a payment device to complete a transaction. It’s incredibly easy and fast but for us in the US most of our cards are by default not the contactless versions. To figure out if you card is compatible look for a little “wifi” looking graphic as seen on the card to the right. If it has this it’s contactless enabled.

If your cards do not have this feature don’t worry you can still swipe or use the chip reader. It’s just not as fast and will require you to sign a receipt. Also since we’re talking about card payments one thing to also note is that unlike the US the UK does not take your card to the register. They will bring you a portable card reader for all your transactions. 

Finally, the better alternative if you want to live the contactless life like a Londoner is you can setup your phone for contactless payments if it supports it. For example, if you have an iPhone you can use the wallet app to add your card to it. Then all you do is just trigger the card on your phone and tap your phone to complete the transaction. It’s quick and easy and cool since you can get around without really carrying a wallet. I even ran into a couple places that would not accept my physical card and were only contactless so it’s nice to have this setup. 

Tip 4: Find Locations Based off the Postcode

In the US we have zip codes we use as our postcode as part of our addresses. These generally associated with a particular area. In the UK they have postcodes as well but they are actually much more precise to each address so if you need to pull up a location on Google Maps or an app like Uber you can just enter the postcode for that location. This will save you an incredible amount of time as you can map or locate things quickly. For example the address to the Tate Modern, one of the most well known museums in London, is Bankside, London SE1 9TG, United Kingdom. To pull this up in maps you can just enter in the postcode of SE1 9TG and it will locate the place for you. This was really helpful in getting around and my friends would often just share the postcode of where we are meeting up instead of the full address.

Tip 5: Get an Free View of London and Some Coffee at the Tate

The Tate Modern is one of the UK's most well known modern art galleries. It features art from around the world and it’s collections of British art is completely free to view.  In addition to the great art you can go to it’s topmost floor and get some amazing views of London. They have a nice little coffee spot up there as well so you can go take in the sights and stay warm at the same time. It’s hard to argue against great art and free access so I’d say add this to your list of stops while visiting London. They do have some temporary exhibits as well from international acclaimed artists and these require purchase of a ticket but are worth it. 

Tip 6: Photo Meetups

There are a lot of amazing photographers in London. You can find groups that do everything from street photography to fashion portraits there. These are great places to meet locals and make new friends. If you want something more in-depth I saw plenty of photo schools there offering fun classes on a variety of genres. I didn’t get a chance to meet up since I was there to spend time with family and friends but when I go back I'm definitely going to join some of the photo walks and other meetups. 

Tip 7: A Lighted City

London is one of the most beautiful cities I’ve seen at night. Almost all the main areas I visited were well lit.  This meant I could have a lot of fun shooting different night scenes and I some of my favorite shots of the trip were from exploring after sunset.  So I recommend saving some of your energy to take in the night and see how the city comes alive during this time. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

In addition there were always people around in the majority of places I visited, which made me feel a bit safer with my equipment. You should always be careful no matter what, but I had no issues while I was traveling around taking photos. 

I hope these tips were helpful and if you have any of your own travel tips for London please feel free to share them in the comments below. If you would like to see more of my London images you can view them all here. Lastly, if you like this post I can do similar posts for other places I’ve visited. As always happy shooting!