London Part 1

I had the chance to visit london twice this year, once in March during winter with my husband and again in June during spring with my sister. i would say the best time to visit would be end of June as the weather is perfect and the day i was leaving that's when oxford street has SALE signs all over the stores. So yeah, do come when its summer sale ( late June) everything is unbelievably cheap

For a start i would suggest you get a 'tube' and 'central London' map to plan your day. I got mine from lost and found counter next to the Baker street station.

For this London entry ill blog about what i did on both visits. Lets start with


Transport in london
From the airport
1>You can either take a taxi ( my sister pre-book a taxi online)

2>Take Heathrow Connect which costs 7.90 straight to central london. I find this better as you arrive faster and its less of a hassel to change tubes and buses
https://www.heathrowconnect.com/index.asp?SID={46D3EE2F-EDBD-4874-B1C8-427A5D6D076C}

3>or you can take the tube straight from the airport



tube and bus takes you almost to every tourist attraction you can think of in london. tube map is available at any tube station at its very easy to understand, it took me and my husband (first timer to london) 2 days to understand and by then we were pro-public transport traveler : )

to travel by tube or bus its better to purchase an oyster card from newsagents or i think you can get it from the tube station. oyster is a great way to travel and you can choose any travel package that suits your budget.



there is daily tube/bus, daily bus/tube, weekly bus/tube. i suggest if you think you might take mora than 3 buses a day better go for daily buss package, it costs 3.90 and you can hop on and off the busses anytime.

if you plan to go on the buss every day during your stay get weekly, its equivelant to 5 times of daily bus for 7 days basically its a free 2 day thing.

I personally prefer the bus than the tube as you can see the stores outside, just stop and hop back on.

For information on oyster, printable tube maps and basically anything you would like to know about public transport in london you can find it on this page http://www.tfl.gov.uk/

London shopping

London is a shopping heaven (i love it more if everything is on sale) to name a few would be Oxford street (a must), here you can find westfield shopping centre, jhon lewis, H&M, Primark etc etc.

High end shops like mango, zara, burberry etc etc is closer to Piccadilly circus. At Piccadilly circus bus stop you can also visit lilywhite ( cheap sports stuff and also a store for camping stuff - which was my favorite store)



Harrods

Harrods is a luxury shopping mall with everything under one roof. When i say everything, it really is everything. view the website for more detail
http://www.harrods.com/harrodsstore/

Hamleys
Is a shopping heaven for kids. Its one of the largest toy store in the world with seven floors covering different categories of toy on each floor . Definitely a shopping heaven for kids

5th floor: Boys
4th floor: Hobbies
3rd floor:Girls
2nd floor: Preschool
1st floor:Games
Ground floor:Soft toys
Basement:Interective
http://www.hamleys.com/

Food


halal food is easy to find every mosque will have a canteen

subway at Goodge st is halal, nearby is a place for prayer at Muslim world league (walking distance from oxford st as i can vaguely remember) Use transport for London .. around paddington st there is a number of halal restaurants.





Malaysia hall is in Bayswater, and the food is all halal
Malaysia Hall 30
Queensborough Terrace
London W2 3ST

Prayer

Here is a directory for mosques or prayer area in london. Plan where you would like to go and see if you can find a prayer area around the place you visit
http://www.iccuk.org/page.php?section=religious&page=masjiddirectory