LDN 2018 Diary:

Okay, so first of all I love, love, love London. Capital of the world in my opinion. Me and John took this holiday at the beginning of me starting uni, the main reason for the trip being, that we could go to the Harry Potter Studios which I'll get into later. We also however, took plenty of time to sight see and shop as John had never been to London before we had to of course give him the full London experience which was me being classically unorganised at the airport and continuously being convinced that I had lost my passport. Once again we booked with Easyjet which is in my opinion one of the best airlines to book last minute with and we stayed in a StaySafe Hostel located in Elephant and Castle and although this location is a little bit out it doesn't prove a problem as the subway will have you near enough anywhere in ten to fifteen minutes.

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HARRY POTTER STUDIOS:

You're a wizard Harry!

Costume Tour: We are wearing Gryffindor cloaks obvs

So for all the hype that this tour received, let me tell you it definitely doesn't disappoint whether you're a mad crazed potter fan, interested in movie making and sets or have simply been dragged along you're bound to have a great time.

One of the best aspects to this experience is that it actually isn't a guided tour and you can go about the place at your own pace which me and John both really appreciated. This allowed us to spend time getting photos and reading the various amounts of information.

When you first enter the tour you appear in Hogwarts Great Hall where Dumbledor, Snape and other teachers from the school's costumes are there. You will definitely want to spend time here as it is one of the most recognisable sets from the film and one of the coolest.

I also enjoyed the mechanics section of the tour as this shows you how the magic comes to life and shows how they created the best scenes in the franchise such as the romping willow hitting Ron's families car.

There's also many interactive aspects of the tour such as you can board the Hogwarts express, enter the Dudlay's household, walk through the enchanted forest and if you have children when we went the death eaters had a wand fight with the children on the bridge (although we went when it was celebrating the dark arts so this may have changed since.)

As always you should treat yourself to some butter beer whilst at their vegetarian friendly restaurant, this is a good way to break up your day as I would recommend spending the whole day here as you will have plenty to do and won't get bored.

As you will see from the photo above we paid extra for the costume tour which although you can see many other costumes about other exhibits I wold recommend doing this especially if it is you first time and have never done so before. Here they allow you to see costumes which are too precious and delicate to be on display constantly, these are the likes of Voldemort's cloak to Cedric Diggory's tournament top.

If you can treat yourself to something from the gift shop which has a wide range of gifts, we each ended up buying a classic chocolate frog and a the cutest honeydukes mug.

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SIGHTS:

As John had never been to London before besides briefly for the airport, much of our trip was spent taking in sights such as Big Ben (which was ugly af btw due to the reconstruction currently taking place. We also enjoyed spending much of our time in Picadilly Circus which evidently resulted in us going to Legoland and M&M World. These are a must if you visit London and I will not hear otherwise. And of course we found ourselves at Buckingham Palace with the perfect opportunity for a photo shoot and this is exactly what we done.

We were lucky when we visited London that the weather behaved and often revealed t-shirt weather which called for the sunglasses being brought out.

Seen as the weather was so gorgeous this required a trip on the London Eye to fully appreciate London's brilliance and beauty. The whole trip takes around fifteen minutes although it will fly by as much of our time was spent taking in the views and taking photos. The wheel moves slow enough so as you will have plenty of time to enjoy the experience. The only scary point for me is that the wheel at no point stops so you have to run on and off when boarding and leaving the pod. Although you are more than welcome to take your own photos such as we done your photo is taken for you half way up and you can purchase this at the shop afterwards if you desire.

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WEST END:

SO I LOVE MUSICAL THEATRE! I know many of you won't feel the same and that's okay maybe best if you just go ahead and skip this section. Still here? Good. Well this time round we went to go see 'Phantom of the opera and since this has become my all time favourite show/ musical. This may be because I typically prefer more serious musicals such as 'Miss Saigon' to the likes of 'Hairspray' (although hairspray is class don't get me wrong.) But the songs, set and costumes just really completed the whole experience for me and this is a show that I feel I could see numbers times and still be shocked at the end (if you know you know).

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MADAME TUSSAUDS:

I mean who doesn't love getting their selfie with Barak Obama? Madame Tussauds provides a fun filled day with plenty of opportunities to make your insta story pop. This is another attraction that you can take at your own pace. This is advisable as often you will need to wait for certain wax figures the more famous they are. Here are just a few of my favourite snaps that I got. I would recommend that if you have enough time you should definitely build this into the itinerary of your trip.