In September of 2015, I embarked on my first trip abroad. I signed up for a 14-day tour through EF College Break (highly recommend) to visit London, Paris and Barcelona. To say I was excited would be an understatement. I. COULDN’T. WAIT.

There was 15 of us on the trip plus our amazing Tour Director named Garai. We fit as much as we could into the couple of days we were there and I’m glad we did! EF includes bus tours, walking tours, all sorts of tours that really give you a chance to see and learn so much while in this new place. Add these to your list of what to do in London, you won’t regret it! Check out some photos as well at the bottom of the post.

Covent Garden: plenty of places to eat and shop here! Got my first gelato of the trip here. There were live violinists playing underneath a lovely display by Charles Petillon, which was a nice surprise for all of us.

Trafalgar Square & Picadilly Circus: both were great meeting places as well as people watching areas. Picadilly is near tons of entertainment and shopping. Trafalgar is closer to Buckingham Palace.

The London Eye: You’ve gotta do this! It’s an observatory in the style of a ferris wheel, but 10 times better. Great views, great pictures and having a bird’s eye view of London was amazing!

The British Museum: filled with so many things! Great displays and could’ve spent hours exploring everything.

Big Ben & The Buckingham Palace: we had beautiful weather during our time in London so seeing these iconic places up close was great! I didn’t personally see the changing of the guards but add it to your list of things to do. I’m sure there are also tours to get inside of Big Ben, but the outside was just as amazing.

Kings Cross Square Station 9 3/4: If you don’t know where this is from, then please read the Harry Potter series while you travel 😉 Was great because I got to be very touristy and pose at the dedicated spot for all the HP fans out there.

We were super lucky because Garai was able to get us tickets to see Mamma Mia! while in London and it was absolutely perfect! I highly recommend seeing a musical if you have time.

Did I mention we became pros at “catching the tube”? Public transportation was very easy once you get the hang of it, so definitely use it while you’re out exploring for the day!

We took a smaller group excursion over to Oxford and to Stonehenge on our last full day there. Oxford is the type of place that I could’ve spent all day walking through and looking at the buildings and the shops along the way. We also got a tour of Oxford University which made me understand why people decide to study abroad through there because it was gorgeous.

Stonehenge is odd and fascinating all wrapped up in one. Seeing these huge stones out in the middle of nowhere surrounded by sheep, I was glad I chose to add it to my list of things I wanted to see. Makes you wonder how in the world they really got there! While we were there the findings of a larger and older site were becoming more widely known, but we didn’t get to see that. ALSO, I’m not sure if it was just that day, but man it was windy! So bring a jacket just in case.

If you know me at all, I love to dance, drink and have fun with my friends. I made friends with everyone on the trip and we did plenty of dancing and drinking, which was a cool way to interact with locals and tourists alike. Through reading my blog, you will find that having fun is my number one favorite thing to do!

Up next: PARIS!

Happy travels! 🙂