Visit London - The DON'Ts of Visiting London, England

Also a tip from a Londoner, you can ride the boats with your oyster card :)

It's a very small thing but if you're walking around and need to stop to check a map or something, please move to the side and do your business. Nothing is more frustrating than when you're trying to get somewhere and there's a group of 10 tourists stood in the middle of the pavement.

Don’t buy a discounted Tube ticket from a stranger in the street. It’s a scam!

Would also recommend the natural history museum and the science museum.

Just to clarify a common misconception, I know you said it in jest but some of your viewers might not realise it. The fact is we don't love to queue. We can often find it irritating and it can try our patience, but we do it because we believe in fairness and the principle of first-come-first-served. So it can really get our goat when somebody pushes in who hasn't - in effect - put the work in!

As a Londoner.... please don't stand on the left side of the escalators. That's my one gripe with tourists 😂

My tip as a Brit living outside of London would be DON'T just go to London...visit other cities too...visit the seaside...visit the countryside...visit Wales & Scotland. We're a relatively small island with diverse landcapes and types of environment!

Go to a "Greggs" bakery and get a hot Cornish Pasty. Enough culture in one of those bad boys to last a full week.

Remember to also stand right and walk left on escalators!

Here are my tips for visiting London and the UK in general: 1. Oyster cards are not accepted outside of London - now this can be a bit confusing because the airports outside of London are called London airports, for example Stansted is known as London Stansted airport even though it is in the county of Essex and not a part of the city. I was on the train home from work on the Stansted Express train and I saw two young American boys fined £80 (each) because they presented their Oyster cards which are not accepted outside of London. 2. Watch a play at the Globe - it is a brilliant experience, for both tourists and natives, and you may even see a famous actor (I saw the guy who played the butler in the Fresh Prince of Bel Air!) I will warn you though, that no matter how you watch the play you will be uncomfortable, if you stand in the pit (which is the cheapest) your feet are going to hurt, whilst if you sit in the balconies your bum is going to go numb as they are basically church pews (you can rent a cushion to sit on but it makes no difference and its expensive). 3. Explore! - London is a great place to set out from to explore the rest of the country. I highly recommend seeing Cambridge, brilliant shops, museums, sights and history. But, also try going out and seeing the countryside, the pretty villages and market towns - these are great places to see at this time of year as the weather is generally pleasant (with a spot of rain) and you may even get to see a few country fairs, markets and proper country pubs (you can get more for your money as well!) But what makes London so brilliant is that you can travel from London to any other part of the country via coach, car, train or plane so take advantage of that and go and see Bath (a beautiful city), the Lake District, pretty much the whole of Scotland (Inverness is my favourite) or anywhere! (P.S. If your stuck for ideas on what to see outside of London then look up the National Trust, they own loads of historic buildings, estates and woodland that make for brilliant days out) I hope this has helped :)

I'm not from London but one thing I notice about American tourists is they are really LOUD, it's not the worst thing and there are totally public spaces you can be loud in, but read the room guys, if everyone else is speaking in low voices it's probably polite to copy.

I just returned from my first visit in ages and loved it. The Underground is so efficient compared to NYC and D.C. subway systems. So much to see and do there; I wouldn't be too worried about the "don'ts." Just be polite and use common sense and everything is good. Please and thank you go far.

Don't mess with the queen's guard.

You're right about not treating it as England. As someone who lives in Hampshire it seems like a completely different world... and when I first visited London I felt like just as much of a tourist as someone from a place like America.

Donts: 1. When at a station, please do not stand at the top or bottom of the stairs while you try and figure out where you are supposed to be going particularly during rush hour. People are rushing for their train and tend to get rather angry when there is suddenly a bottle neck because some clueless tourist chose the bottom of the stairs as a good place to idly stand while they get out their map. If you need to do that, find a space at the back of the platform or in a more secluded area where you are going to cause less of a problem for people. 2. Similarly have your card or ticket ready BEFORE you get to the ticket barrier - dont cause a big hold up behind you when you stop to start rifling though your bag to find your ticket. 3. Dont just stick to restaurants when you want to eat - there are some great markets and outside eating areas all over London (my favourites are Borough Market and the South Bank) and you can get a much better variety of food. 4. The Guards at Buckingham Palace and the Beafeaters at The Tower of London may be all dressed up but they are NOT there for the tourists. They actually have a real job to be getting on with so by all means enjoy standing and watching them do their thing, but do not mess with them and do not stand in front of the Beafeaters trying to taking photographs when they are marching - they stop for nothing and the WILL run over you (it has happened). 5. The buses no longer accept cash so come prepared 6. There are 4 Airports that will say they are London plus another that services London. However only one of those airports is actually IN London (London City Airport). Heathrow is now technically within the boundaries of Greater London (it is in what was once part of Middlesex) but you a literally on the boundary line. London Stansted is in Essex and London Gatwick is in West Sussex. All of them service London and therefore have reasonable transport links into central London but DONT expect that if you are flying to one of these airports that you are close to where you want to be as it is still going to take you a while to get into Central London. 7. Dont underestimate the crowds that certain events draw in, the crowd control measures you will have to negotiate or the distance you may still have to travel once you get off the train if you are intending to attend one of these events. Nottinghill Carnival - you will need to dedicate a day not just for the carnival but for the one way systems the Police put in place afterwards to ensure everyone leaves the area safely plus the crowds on the trains can add a further couple of hours. Wimbledon Tennis and Epsom Derby (thats pronounced DAR-BEE not DER-BEE) are still a distance from the station and although taxi's and buses are laid on to transport people from the station (for which you buy a special ticket - your oyster card or travel card will not work for these) and as the local towns get completely clogged with traffic during these events it can still take a while to get there so leave plenty of time to get to where you are going. 8. Dont forget that people who live near to London will often choose school holidays as a chance to take their kids to do the touristy things in London for themselves - a day out at Tower of London and you may actually have exhausted your hyperactive child sufficiently for at least 2 days of however long it is you need to keep your kids occupied before they go back to school. If you can avoid it, dont come during the Summer or Easter school holidays (I would also say half term but as we tend to stagger those it may be too complicated to factor them in). The point is that there will be even more people when you factor in the daytrippers and you may not therefore necessarily get the best use of your time if you have to wait in huge queues for everything. 9. Dont rely on £50 notes and American Express cards. If you get given a £50 note get it changed for a lower denomination as soon as possible as lots of places refuse to take them. You also tend to find lots of places wont accept American Express due to the charges they incur for using it. There are many places that still will take it, but if you are solely relying on it then it may cause a problem given so many place wont take it. Also if you are travelling to Scotland and then back to England and you pick up any Scottish notes while in Scotland then try to get rid of them while still in Scotland (the note will say if its Bank of England or Bank of Scotland). The reason is that while Scottish notes can be accepted as legal tender in England (and vice versa with English notes in Scotland), it is not uncommon for English shops and restaurants to refuse Scottish notes either because they look so different from the notes that they are used to so they think they are fake, or because they are different to the notes they are used to so they dont have the facility to tell whether they are fake, or because they are unaware that Scottish notes can be accepted in England or because they know they are legal tender but they also know its hard to get rid of them for the aforementioned reasons and its just easier to refuse them then have the hassle. Its daft but better just to try to avoid encountering the problem in the first place then to get into an argument with someone about the fact it is perfectly legal for you to present a Scottish £5 note as payment (as I once did). 10. While there are many things to see and do in London itself, you dont just have to stick to London. Many people avoid going outside London as trips to the North, the South West, Scotland and Wales are often going to be more than a daytrip and if you are staying in London you might not want to spend further money on hotels elsewhere if you were not anticipating it. However there are many things you can do outside London that you can get to and back within a day. Brighton makes a great day trip and its just an hour on the train from London Victoria. Hever Castle in Edenbridge (the home of Anne Bolelyn) from London Victoria, Hampton Court Palace at Hampton Court (about an hour from London Waterloo), Canterbury Cathedral, Leeds Castle (not in Leeds), Hastings, Chichester, Kingston, Arundel, Tonbridge Wells, Lewes, the list goes on and on. If you are a Harry Potter Fan dont forget the studio tour in Leavesden which can easily be done in a day (although you have to book in advance, you cannot buy tickets when you get there)

The British Museum is one of my favorite things we did when we visited England (that and Oxford). My favorite thing in the British Museum (because I'm weird) was the back of the Rosetta Stone because you never see it in pictures.

and also: don't mess with the queens guards. they are trained killers who have the ultimate honour of guarding the queen without some annoying tourist mimicking them. i have said my piece. enjoy your trip to london!

Londoner here. Don't be afraid to venture out of London on a day trip. You can be at the coast in an hour from Fenchurch Street near tower hill. Leigh on Sea is lovely and there's a nice little amusement park in Southend called Adventure Island. For the full British Seaside experience try the 2p machines! Also, I do love steak and kidney pie but I prefer steak and ale, so give that a try too!

Don’t get a hire car in London. You don’t need one and the traffic jams are endless...

As two Brits, one of whom lived in London, this was so bang on we were in fits laughing! Our don'ts would include; Don't litter, there are plenty of bins (trash cans) around, we are very proud of our 'Keep Britain Tidy' ethics. Don't pay a fortune for coffee, private establishments charge extortionate prices and we love Starbuck's and Costa, so you will find plenty of reasonable prices and, dare we say better, standards of coffee in there. And... Don't forget there are wonderful cities only a couple of hours away, our beloved home city, Liverpool, is only two hours by train, always welcome here!