Is London Overrated? Reasons For & Against Visiting – By A UK Local
Is London really overrated? It depends on who you speak to…
As an English guy I’ve visited London countless times over a 20 year period and in my experience I mostly enjoy visiting the capital – it has so many awesome places to discover upon every visit.
In my honest opinion it’s not overrated at all, but a lot of tourists are shocked to discover just how expensive, overcrowded and tiring London can be.
The truth is that there are many pros and cons to visiting London. In this blog post I’ll cover this topic thoroughly and will settle the debate once and for all!
⌚ In a rush? Here are My Top London Recommendations:
✅ Top Rated Tourist Attractions:
– The London Eye
– The Tower of London
🏨 Hotel Recommendations:
– Seymour Hotel
– Montcalm Brewery Townhouse
– The Berkeley
Reasons why London is Overrated
Let’s start by looking at all the reasons why London is indeed overrated:
Everything is expensive!
This is probably the biggest complaint that tourists have when saying that London is overrated. Compared to the rest of the UK, London is so expensive!
I’m always disappointed when I order a typical British pint of beer from a London pub and see the price; anywhere from £6 upwards which is so extortionate! I can get a beer for half that price in most other cities in the UK, such as Birmingham.
And it’s not just the beer that’s overpriced. London restaurants are on the pricey side, as are hotels, transportation and a lot of tourist attractions too, as we’ll discover shortly.
In short, if you do decide to visit London then make sure you have a sufficient budget otherwise you’ll be in for a shock!
London is too crowded
Yes, most big cities around the world are too crowded and it’s a bit of a generalisation, but London especially is always crowded no matter what time of year you visit!
Not everywhere in London are crowded but if you head to the main tourist hotspots such as Leicester Square or Covent Garden then expect lots of people!
This is also true if you take a ride on the London Underground, especially during peak hours either before 9am when everyone is rushing to work or after 5pm when everyone is trying to get back home.
I can’t remember how many times I’ve had to squeeze into a packed tube carriage, feeling like a sardine in a tin can! This can be a really off putting experience if you don’t like your personal space being infringed upon.
And the London Underground brings us to my next point…
London is unfriendly
Maybe it’s the reserved nature of us Brits, but we’re not exactly forthcoming with over friendliness when we’re out and about. This is the case whenever you use the London Underground.
Everyone is desperately avoiding eye contact with each other and keeping themselves to themselves, which can come across as rude.
To be honest I don’t think Londoners in particular are rude or unfriendly, it’s just how most of us Brits are – reserved, quiet and not forthcoming. Don’t take it personally!
Tourist Attractions
There are many great tourist attractions in London, from the London Eye to the Tower of London. However, most of them are far from cheap, making your holiday in London a very expensive visit.
But there is good news! Although many attractions are costly, there are plenty of museum, galleries and sights such as Big Ben for example that don’t cost a penny.
The British Museum, the National Gallery and the National History Museum are all free – definitely head to these and other free entry museums if you’re on a tight budget!
👉 Pro Tip: if you want to visit a lot of the best tourist attractions in the city in a relatively short amount of time, then I recommend a one day walking tour of London.
There are a plethora of walking tour options, from typical sightseeing tours to historical tours and even Harry Potter tours.
Accommodation
Another important factor when deciding on if London is overrated is accommodation.
Unless you want to slum it out in a hostel and you’re happy sharing a large mixed dormitory with other fellow travellers, then you’re going to have to fork out quite a lot of money for decent accommodation.
Most London hotels are not cheap, especially if you want to stay central. You can expect to pay around £70 upwards a night for a typical two star basic hotel accommodation, and that’s a conservative figure.
I’ve stayed in a lot of cheap hotels in London that seem like a great deal at the time, but in reality are very basic rooms lacking in quality to put it kindly.
If you want to stay at a decent central London hotel, then be prepared to pay anywhere from £100 to £400 a night or more.
There are some cheap gems you can find, especially if you book up several months in advance, but be prepared to stay on the outskirts of the city. Airbnb’s are also just as costly as well.
Top Central London Hotel Choices:
✅ Budget hotel in central London: Seymour Hotel (£70 per night)
✅ Mid-range hotel in central London: Montcalm Brewery Townhouse (£161 per night)
✅ Luxurious hotel in central London: The Berkeley (£837 per night)
London Underground
As previously mentioned, the London Underground can be quite an experience. It is extremely reliable and without a doubt the best way to travel around London, but it can be very daunting when using it for the first time.
Just trying to find exactly which line you need to be on to get to your stop can be a headscratcher and then some! The underground is colour coordinated, with each line having it’s own colour and there are an overwhelming 11 lines in total.
The most popular lines you’ll probably use include the Victoria Line (blue), the Central Line (red) and the Piccadilly Line (dark blue) which in particular takes you all the way to and from Heathrow Airport.
Most tourist attractions are within zones 1 and 2. If you travel to other zones then it gets more expensive.
To be honest, you’ll likely only visit zones 1 and 2, the other zones mostly make up more residential areas which you won’t have any reason for visiting.
👉 Pro tip: I strongly recommend downloading a London underground map app on your phone before your visit to London.
Take some time to familiarize yourself with the colour schemes of the different lines – this will save you a lot of time and hassle!
How to buy a ticket on the Underground
There are several ways to pay on the underground as well. Most people have an Oyster card, and this is the best option if you’re visiting London for three days or less.
If you plan to be in London for over four days then a 7 day travelcard is advised. You can buy a travel card at the ticket machines at any underground station or at a national rail station in London.
Same goes for an Oyster card, although it is advised to pay for this online before your trip and it’ll be posted to your home address. Make sure to do this way in advance of your trip so that it arrives in time!
👉 Pro Tip: Instead of wasting time purchasing an Oyster card or a travel card, I recommend using your credit/debit card if it is contactless.
This will save you so much time! You can simply tap your card at a barrier when entering and exiting each station and your credit or bank account will be charged for how far you’ve travelled.
There are of course other public transport options in London. There is a good bus service throughout the city but this will take you longer to get to your destination as of course you’ll have to take London traffic into account.
You can catch a famous London black cab (taxi) as well but be warned: it won’t be cheap!
Weather
Ah yes, the famous British weather! I know a lot of tourists expect terrible weather when visiting London, and for the most part of the year they’d be right!
Expect not so great weather or temperatures if you plan on visiting London during the winter months.
From October to March it’s going to be dark, cold, rainy, windy, snowy, you name it! But it’s not always terrible weather.
Visit London during the peak summer months from June to August and for sure there will be plenty of sunny days with temperatures in the 20’s (Celsius).
And if you’re very lucky you might experience one or two days when the temperature is even in the 30’s!
Spring and autumn months can also be lovely times to visit the big city, but British weather is extremely changeable! But on the whole, London has better weather than most other big cities in the UK, such as Edinburgh.
Reasons to Visit London
Okay, so those are a few of the negatives when it comes if London is overrated. Now let’s focus on the positives, it’s not all that bad!
Restaurants
Not everyone will agree with me on this point, a lot of people think London is overrated when it comes to restaurants, but I think they are very good and British restaurants are unfairly underrated!
British food has had a very poor reputation for a long time, but you may be surprised when in London.
Yes, try some fish and chips and maybe some classic British pub food, but you should also visit some of the many great international restaurants that London has to offer.
In fact, a vast majority of London restaurants are international themed restaurants. They cater for whatever food you’re craving for from whatever country, you’ll be surprised with the variety on offer!
There are many fantastic fine dining restaurants (which of course will be very expensive), as well as classic British food chains which are much cheaper like Nandos, Pizza Express, Wagamama etc.
And London has so many great food markets, so let’s have a look at some of those in more detail…
Food Markets
I love visiting the awesome food markets that London has, they are exceptional! Most London food markets feature unique dishes from around the world and they aren’t so expensive either.
Pop up food markets have become trendy all over London in recent years and they are hugely popular. I highly recommend visiting these three markets which are my personal favourites:
📍 Borough Market: one of the most famous and oldest food markets in London and one of the best! It’s situated close to the Southbank and is a quick five minute walk from London Bridge.
📍 Camden Market: another famous market and a favourite with tourists. It’s situated in the heart of trendy Camden Town which is a cool place to visit and people watch as well.
📍 Mercato Metropolitano: this is an awesome indoor market that I love to visit, it features pop up vendors selling all types of amazing international food. It’s situated near Elephant & Castle tube station.
Museums
As mentioned earlier in this post, there are lots of museums in London that have free entry! This is really unique for such a big international city, and it’s certainly not the case in New York or Paris.
Whether you want to learn about history, art, war or science, London has you covered!
Of course you have the popular tourist museums like the British Museum, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, which are all free and well worth a visit.
But London has many other fascinating and unique museums covering every kind of topic you can imagine! Some exceptional museums which are not free but worth a mention are:
👉 London Dungeon: excellent interactive tour of London’s gritty past with live actors.
👉 The Clink Prison Museum: one of England’s oldest and most notorious prisons.
👉 The Sherlock Holmes Museum: which is actually based on Baker Street!
Parks
I love London parks! This is one area where London is not overrated for sure! There are several really beautiful parks in the heart of the city, which are great to escape the hustle and bustle of London life, especially on a hot summer day!
Here are my top three favourite London parks that I love to visit whenever I’m in London, which are all free to enter:
📍 Greenwich Park: This is a beautiful park in the heart of Greenwich, which is a great part of London that’s worth a visit on it’s own!
There are fantastic views of Canary Wharf in the distance and there’s lots to do in Greenwich too, such as visiting the Cutty Sark ship and the Royal Observatory.
📍 St. James’ Park: The most beautiful park in all of London in my opinion! It’s based very central in the City of Westminster and features lovely lakes and plenty of wildlife.
📍 Hyde Park: Ask most Londoners what the best park in London to visit is and they’ll tell you Hyde Park!
It’s a massive park with lovely historical aspects to it. It’s based pretty central too, very close to St. James Park and is also home to the Diana Memorial fountain.
Trendy Soho
Soho is a cool, vibrant, trendy place to visit in the heart of London, which I love! Walking the streets of Soho, you get a real feel of what London is really like away from all the typical tourist traps.
It’s based just a few minutes walk from Leicester Square off of Shaftsbury Avenue.
Soho is a hub for the British film industry, with lots of big budget Hollywood studios based there with post production offices. There’s countless trendy cocktail bars and also old school British pubs which are always busy. Well worth a visit.
Other Cities to visit in the UK
Of course, you don’t have to stay in London! If after a few days you think London is overrated and too expensive and not to your liking, then there are plenty of other interesting cities to visit in the UK that are not nearly as expensive.
Other UK cities I recommend visiting:
- Brighton – a lot of Londoners actually prefer Brighton and see it as a great alternative city compared to the busy, hectic life in London. It takes less than an hour to reach by train from London (from either Victoria or London Bridge), so it’s the perfect day trip!
- Edinburgh – arguably the second most popular city to visit after London, it’s a much smaller city meaning you can see a lot of the main tourist attractions within just 24 hours.
- Bath – a beautiful historical city famous for its Roman baths.
- Oxford – amazing architecture and famous for it’s Universities and film locations.
- Liverpool – the home of the Beatles and a fantastic vibrant city.
- Manchester – another musically inspired city which many people believe is the true second city of England after London.
- Birmingham – very underrated city with so many places worth exploring.
Is London Overrated FAQs
There are lots of frequently asked questions that tourists want to know about London, so let’s cover some of the most asked questions:
Is London safe?
Absolutely! I have always felt safe whenever visiting the capital and have never experienced or witnessed any crimes at all.
However, there are some boroughs in London that experience a high crime rate, such as Tower Hamlets and Hackney, which I strongly recommend you avoid visiting.
I also recommend staying in zones 1-2 of London (which are the central zones of the city) rather than venturing out into zones 3-5 (which are the greater London areas of the city and not very touristy).
It’s not that these zones are all dangerous and unsafe, but as a tourist you’ll probably stick out like a sore thumb in zones 3-5 and you could attract the wrong kind of attention.
There’s not much to see in the outer zones to be honest, so you won’t miss out on much.
You’ll be able to see which zone of London you are in whenever you catch a London Underground tube train, or you can check a London map app as well.
Is it suitable for solo travellers?
London is totally safe for solo travellers! It’s a great city to meet people from all over the world, especially at hostels, clubs and at events.
Even if Brits can seem reserved and not willing to connect at first, most people are friendly and open.
Does it snow in London?
As discussed earlier in the post, expect the unexpected when it comes to British weather! Yes, it does sometimes snow in London and the UK, especially during winter months.
But it’s not for weeks on end, most snowstorms last for a few days or a week maximum, and only a few times a year.
Can I drink the tap water in London?
British tap water is claimed to be some of the safest in the world, so generally yes, you can drink the tap water in London.
However, a lot of people who live in London say that the tap water does have a certain bitter taste to it, which might not be to your liking, but it is safe!
If you’re unsure then bottled water is always an option, but I would say it’s very unlikely you’ll get ill from drinking the tap water in London.
Do you tip in London?
If you’re in a nice London restaurant then it is standard to tip usually around 10%. But it’s not seen as rude if you decide not to tip, the majority of people prefer not to and tipping is more of an exception rather than a rule.
If you use a London taxi then a tip is appreciated but would be less than 10%.
Conclusion: Is London Overrated?
So there you have it! All the reasons for and against if London is overrated. It can be something of a marmite city (you’ll either love it or hate it).
I know plenty of people who absolutely don’t like London at all and plenty of people who do, but I would most definitely recommend visiting London, even if just for one day.
It is for sure one of the top reasons why you should visit England. Be aware of what to expect in terms of cost and you’ll have a great experience.
It’s a diverse, vast city with lots to offer and you shouldn’t be put off by other’s opinions. Is London overrated? Yeah, maybe it is somewhat, but that doesn’t mean you should never visit London, you’ll regret it otherwise!
➡️ Planning your trip? Here are my favourite resources:
🏨 Accommodation: I recommend using Booking.com
🚙 Rental Car: Use Discover Cars for the best car rental prices
❤️ Travel Insurance: I recommend using Visitors Coverage
✈️ Flights: Use Kiwi.com for the best prices on flights
