Fly into any London airport. Stay in Central or East London. Don’t forget your passport.

Where To Stay

We suggest that you stay near any station on the Elizabeth line from Bond Street to Whitechapel or any station on the Victoria line from Green Park to Highbury & Islington. These locations will be convenient both for the event and for accessing the rest of the city.

If you just want to make your life easy, our top suggestion is staying near the Liverpool Street or Whitechapel stations. Based on some Googling, we can suggest these hotels:

But, you truly don’t have to stay in any of these hotels or locations. We’re just suggesting them for your convenience. As long as you’re in East or Central London, you’ll be fine. If you’re looking west of Paddington or east of Stratford, you’re on the wrong track.

If in doubt, run your hotel location by us (mgjordan314@gmail.com, mayaflippen@gmail.com).

Flights

London has four airports: Heathrow (big), Gatwick (small), Luton (smaller), and London City (smallest). They’re all about an hour from the city center on public transit.

You might want to choose one based on your hotel location. Otherwise they’re all good airports, so we’d suggest just choosing the flight that works best for you.

Cell Service

It’s 2025. You will want cell service while you’re in London. More importantly, you will need cell service to go on our adventure.

Our suggestion: don’t pay your phone company $15/day to roam; instead, use an eSIM.

Just download the Airalo app on your phone, select the country you’re travelling to (United Kingdom), and pay $5 USD per 1 GB of data. This will let you access the internet on your smartphone while you’re in London. You can use Maya’s discount code of MAYA5730 to get $3 off, so you will only need to pay $2 per GB for cell service. We recommend that you download the app and buy the data before you leave on your flight. If you’re a light phone user, 1 GB is probably enough data for a few days. If you’re a heavy user, maybe get a few GBs (you can always top up).

Getting Around

London has three transit systems: the Underground, the Overground, and trains. The Underground is the subway (confusingly, it sometimes goes overground). The Overground is also the subway (unfortunately, it sometimes goes underground). Trains are trains and if you stay on them long enough they might take you elsewhere in the UK. But, within city limits the three systems interconnect and you can use them interchangeably (train rides are slightly more expensive). Last rides are generally about 12:30am. There’s also a bus system, which is okay, but less reliable (you might have to wait a minute for a bus).

All systems are tap-in, tap-out within city limits (except buses, where you only need to tap in) with a mobile phone or most contactless credit or debit cards. As long as you use the same device or card and tap-out then the system will automatically charge you the lowest rate for your journey (a daily/weekly cap will apply). No reason to buy any kind of special card, pass, or ticket unless you’re taking the train outside the city.

Uber and the famous black cabs are also options, but we don’t generally recommend them. They tend to be expensive and London traffic is terrible, so they’re rarely the fastest choice.

Travel Tips

In no particular order:

  • The Elizabeth Line on the Underground is fancy, new, fast, and nice. Consider staying along it.

  • Expect to do some walking in transit stations. Newer stations (the Elizabeth Line, hint hint) will have escalators almost everywhere, but older ones typically have some stairs.

  • Bring an umbrella. Historically speaking, the weather should be nice, but it is the UK.

  • For our American attendees: You do not have to tip 20% everywhere you go, truly, we promise (pinky swear). It’s just not expected or necessary. Traveling is expensive enough, so we suggest leaving this custom back in America.

  • Bring an adapter for electrical sockets.

  • Don’t bring blowdryers/electric razors/etc. built for US voltage. If you do, you’ll need a transformer (not just an adapter) to step down the voltage or else UK voltage will fry them.

  • The museums are world class and mostly free. Take advantage of them. (yes, everything in them is stolen)

  • M&S sandwiches.