Sleeping
Finding an inexpensive hotel in London is impossible. We paid £82 a night for a Double Room at Rosecourt Hotel by Marble Arch Station. Decent location, free wireless internet connection, but £82!!?
You might want to go to a hostel and save a lot of money. From £7.99 a night you can stay at the Smart Russell Square Hostel. The location is spot on, and they also got other locations if you prefer another part of the city.
Transporting
Get an Oyster Card. Top it up with some money and go as you like.
Arriving at Heathrow Airport we bought an Oyster Card and paid £2.2 to go to London. Leaving London you get back whatever’s on your card plus the deposit.
Public transport in London is really world class! The mix of buses going every minute and the complex Tube system is simply unrivalled in any European city. The politicians have succeeded in keeping the car drivers out of London because they have to pay a high congestion charge to drive in central London.
Maximum price with the Oyster Card is around £7 in weekdays and £5 in the weekends (off peak days).
If you are sound, you don’t bike in London!! Being a Copenhagener this will be a great loss if/when I’ll be moving to London…
A vid of winter biking in Copenhagen - sorry about the shitty music, it's Swedish;)
Eating
I fell in love with Pret a Manger which does for a happy love affair in London since they practically are at every other corner. Healthy, preservative-free, tasty sandwiches to-go or to stay at reasonable prices. Another great London concept with around 10 outlets is Spaghetti House which I really recommend trying.
Otherwise you might want to look for something special in East London (get off at Liverpool Street Station).
Going Out
Saturday night we went to meet some London friends at The Old Queens Head at 44 Essex Road east of Camden in Islington. Hip, anti-hip and basic Londoners in their twenties dancing and chatting while the DJ’s were mixing new and classic London music. I drank Bulmers Cider all night at £3.5 for 660ml. Who told me London was expensive!!??
Get off at Angel Station and find The Old Queens Head or stumble into one of many other venues. When we had enough we stumbled out and jumped onto the Night bus going 4 times an hour all the way to Marble Arch.
Actually we were supposed to go to Quinn's at 65 Kentish Town Road in Camden. I’ll have to go there next time.
Being tourist
Take the famous London red double-decker bus. Choose for instance line 15, get a seat upstairs by the front windows and enjoy the great view. For £1 (the bus trip price) you can see Oxford Street, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Tower Bridge and a lot more.
Get off by Sct. Paul’s Cathedral and stroll along Millennium Bridge to Tate Modern (free admission like the other museums).
View from British Museum at Trafalgar Square:
Shopping
Go to Primark at Oxford Street by Marble Arch. That’s it.
