Highlights From Our Trip To England (London, Nottingham, Leeds & Brighton)

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The final video from our England trip is here! We spent two weeks in England just after Christmas and had an absolute blast, so we thought we’d share our favorite moments from the trip. Scroll below for photos and links to the places we visited and be sure to watch the video for more!

If you are curious what we ate on the trip, check out The Best Vegan Food We Ate In England.

Where We Stayed

We loved all of the places we stayed on this trip, and I can be pretty picky. Our favorites were the two “hub by Premier Inns” we stayed at. The “hub” branch of Premier Inn is a very affordable, minimalist, modern hotel chain with locations near city centers. The rooms are very small, but the savings were definitely worth it for us!

London:
hub by Premier Inn London King’s Cross – We stayed here on our first night since we were taking a train from King’s Cross Station in the morning!

hub by Premier Inn London Goodge Street – We stayed at this place for the majority of our time in London. It is very centrally located with easy access to two different Underground stations.

Hilton London Heathrow Airport – This was a great place to stay the night before our flight home! It is connected to the airport via a tunnel.

Nottingham:
Airbnb near the City Centre – This was our very first Airbnb experience and it did not disappoint! We were close enough to walk to everything we wanted to do in Nottingham and the apartment was spotless.

Leeds:
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Leeds City Centre – You can’t really beat a centrally located hotel that is right next to the train station!

What We Did

Below are all of the places we talked about in the video, along with extra photos and links to more information!

We started the trip with one night in London, went to Nottingham for two nights, on to Leeds for one night, then back to London, where we stayed for the remaining nine nights. We wanted to take a couple more day trips from London during our time there, but I ended up getting a pretty bad cold. However, we did make it to Brighton for our last full day of the trip!

YouTube Space London

When we first arrived in London, we stayed near King’s Cross station since we were taking the train to Nottingham the next day. In the morning, we got up and wandered around the area. We realized we were right next to the YouTube Space in London, so we went to check it out. Unfortunately, it was closed. Maybe next time. 😀

Website: youtube.com/space/london
Address: 6 Pancras Rd, Kings Cross, London N1C 4AG, United Kingdom

Nottingham

It was so fun to be in England around Christmastime, because everything was still decorated and there were a ton of Christmas markets! In Nottingham, we walked from our Airbnb to Old Market Square, where they were hosting Winter Wonderland. There were plenty of food vendors (vegan options as well!), rides, an ice skating rink and more.

Our original reason for visiting Nottingham was to see a Cinderella pantomime at the Theatre Royal. Our friend Martin The Great Potato Mage introduced me to England’s beloved Sooty (and Sweep!) and I just had to go see him in the show! It was our very first pantomime and it did not disappoint. I can’t wait to go to another someday!

As you probably know by now, Martin actually joined us in Nottingham and we had a jolly old time exploring the city with him. He is a big board games nerd 🙂 and we visited two different board game cafés in Nottingham. The first one, called The Dice Cup, actually features an all vegan menu.

After the pantomime, we walked over to Ludorati where they had HUNDREDS of games to choose from. We played a fun round of a game called Takenoko. It features a tiny panda bear, so you know it was right up my alley!

We spent a lot of our time in Nottingham just hanging out with Martin and filming this video of Brian cooking us a vegan FEAST! Be sure to check out Martin’s behind-the-scenes video to see more content from our stay in Nottingham.

The Dice Cup (vegan board game café)
Website: dicecupcafe.co.uk
Address: 68-70 Mansfield Rd, Nottingham NG1 3GY, United Kingdom

Ludorati Café (board game café)
Website: ludoraticafe.com
Address: 72 Maid Marian Way, Nottingham NG1 6BJ, United Kingdom

Theatre Royal Nottingham
Website: trch.co.uk
Address: Theatre Square, Nottingham NG1 5ND, United Kingdom

Winter Wonderland Nottingham (Christmas Market)
Website: nottinghamwinterwonderland.co.uk
Address: Old Market Square, Nottingham NG1 2LN, United Kingdom

Leeds

When planning for other cities we wanted to visit in England, Leeds was on Brian’s list for one very specific reason – the Royal Armouries Museum. This was a “bucket list” thing for Brian. The museum houses one of the oldest and largest collections of arms and armour in the world. He was like a kid in a candy shop the entire time. I love seeing him get geeked out over stuff 🙂

It also just so happens that my friend Lisa lives near Leeds! I started chatting with Lisa via Instagram after she watched our YouTube channel, so I was super excited for an opportunity to meet up with her in person! We also had Martin with us, and Mike came along as well. We had a blast walking around the Armouries together. And yes, we brought stuffed animals and puppets. Don’t judge us. LOL.

We didn’t have a lot of time in Leeds, but it was a very beautiful city that I definitely want to return to one day. We did briefly check out the Corn Exchange and Kirkgate Market before it was time to get on a train back to London.

Royal Armouries Museum
Website: royalarmouries.org
Address: Armouries Dr, Leeds LS10 1LT, United Kingdom

Leeds Corn Exchange
Website: leedscornexchange.co.uk
Address: Call Ln, Leeds LS1 7BR, United Kingdom

Leeds Kirkgate Market
Website: leeds.gov.uk/leedsmarkets
Address: Vicar Lane, Leeds City Centre LS2 7HY

New Year’s Eve Fireworks in London

For New Year’s Eve, I purchased tickets in advance for access to the “best” viewing area right across from the London Eye. We were very impressed with how organized the whole event was. Basically, to avoid mass chaos, they sell £10 tickets to the various viewing platforms. We were in the “Blue” Victoria Embankment Zone.

The fireworks display was certainly the most impressive we have ever seen. It was cold and we had hours of waiting, but we had fun and it was a great way to ring in 2020!

You can get more information about the 2020 Fireworks Event here.

Arsenal v. Manchester United Game

Brian scored us some free tickets through work to the Arensal v. Manchester United game on New Year’s Day. I honestly didn’t know anything about football (aka soccer) before going, but this ended up being one of my favorite things on the trip. It was fascinating just being in the stadium with all of the super dedicated fans. It was a different experience to any sporting event I’ve ever attended!

Emirates Stadium
Website: arsenal.com/the-club/emirates-stadium
Address: Hornsey Rd, London N7 7AJ, United Kingdom

Museums in London

You can’t go to London without hitting up some of their amazing (and mostly FREE) museums!

The British Museum was FULL of a ton of really cool artifacts from throughout history. If you are going to check out one museum, I would highly recommend this one. The most famous item is the Rosetta Stone, which was just crazy to actually see in person.

The National Gallery is another free museum featuring works of art by Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Leonardo da Vinci and so many more. There are literally thousand of paintings.

Brian really loves history, so the Imperial War Museum was a favorite for him.

I discovered there is a toy museum called the V&A Museum of Childhood, so of course we had to go check it out. We even found some old Sooty, Sweep & Sue puppets!

The British Museum
Website: britishmuseum.org
Address: Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom

The National Gallery
Website: nationalgallery.org.uk
Address: Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, London WC2N 5DN, United Kingdom

Imperial War Museum
Website: iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london
Address: Lambeth Rd, London SE1 6HZ, United Kingdom

V&A Museum of Childhood
Website: vam.ac.uk/moc
Address: Cambridge Heath Rd, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PA, United Kingdom

Shows in London

Another thing you must do in London is check out at least a few shows!

We went to Death of a Salesman at The Piccadilly Theatre. The show starred Wendell Pierce, who I know from the TV show Suits! It was a great show with amazing production value.

Brian’s favorite Christmas movie is White Christmas, so when we found out there was a musical at the Dominion Theatre, we decided to check it out. It was a really fun evening out. Brian was super amused by the binoculars you can rent for £1.

We also went to a Sunday evening Hillsong Church service, which was also at the Dominion Theatre.

Tower Bridge

I love walking across a good bridge, and you can’t get much better than Tower Bridge! It is definitely one of the prettiest bridges and the views from the top are just as beautiful.

You can walk straight across the bridge or pay a fee to go to the top level. On the top, there are two sides you can check out. They even have glass that you can walk over and see the cars passing by below. On both sides, there are tiny windows you can open to get better photos of the amazing views as well!

Website: towerbridge.org.uk
Address: Tower Bridge Rd, London SE1 2UP, United Kingdom

Borough Market

After we crossed over Tower Bridge, we walked along the River Thames until we got to Borough Market. Unfortunately we went on a day when not all of the shops were open and we had very limited time, but Brian found a really cool spice shop called Spice Mountain. He picked up several spices to cook with at home.

Borough Market
Website: boroughmarket.org.uk
Address: 8 Southwark St, London SE1 1TL, United Kingdom

Spice Mountain
Website: spicemountain.co.uk
Address: Arch 6b Voyager Business Park, Spa Rd, London SE16 4RP, United Kingdom

Paddington Bear Walking Tour

I booked us on a Paddington Bear Walking Tour and it was so much fun! We got to see a bunch of places that were used for filming the movies and also learn about the history of Paddington and author Michael Bond. Our tour guide was amazing and it was fun to get a tour of the area from a local. The tour ended on Portobello Road, so we checked out the shops there and had a great time.

Paddington Station
Website: networkrail.co.uk
Address: Praed St, Paddington, London, United Kingdom

Get more information on the tour we booked here!

Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park

If you are going to London during the holiday season, you have to check out Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park! There is plenty to do for children and adults as well. They have carnival games, food, rides, shows, ice skating and more. We went to a really cool (and COLD) ice sculpture exhibit and also saw Paddington On Ice!

Website: hydeparkwinterwonderland.com
Address: Hyde Park, London W2 2UH

Brighton

On the last full day of our trip, we decided to take the train down to Brighton. We walked along the pebble beach and caught a storm rolling in. It was a magical sight to see. This was honestly one of my favorite days of the entire trip.

We walked to the pier and checked out a couple of arcades as well. I even won a Brighton teddy bear from a claw machine!

We also checked out ARTBOX Cafe, a really cute shop and cafe that changes themes every few months. When we were there it was themed after the character Pusheen.

The last thing we did in Brighton was go to the Royal Pavilion Ice Rink. It was such a cool backdrop to skate in front of. I had such a great time!

Brighton Palace Pier
Website: brightonpier.co.uk
Address: Madeira Dr, Brighton BN2 1TW, United Kingdom

ARTBOX Cafe
Website: artbox.co.uk
Address: 5-6, East St, Brighton BN1 1HP, United Kingdom

Royal Pavilion Ice Rink
Website: royalpavilionicerink.co.uk
Address: Royal Pavilion, Brighton BN1 1FN, United Kingdom

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We had so much fun on this trip and hope you are able to visit and check out some of these places as well! We can’t wait to get back and explore more of England in the future.

We love to travel and although our main focus is sharing our whole food, plant-based lifestyle with you, we love getting to share other sides of our lives as well. I am actually considering starting a separate channel to share more travel content, so comment below if that is something you would be interested in following!