London, England (Arrival)

We scored round-trip tickets to London for our family of four for 320 EUR (including one checked bag) on RyanAir.  We left Frankfurt Hahn at 12:45 p.m. and arrived in London Stansted at 1 p.m. (wohoo time change!).  It was an easy flight and once at the airport we were able to purchase round-trip train tickets into London Liverpool for 75 EUR.  The train leaves the airport every 15 min. and takes about 45 min. to get there...easy peasy!

Once into London Liverpool we purchased an Oyster Card for 60 EUR (we were refunded 14 EUR for returning the cards at the end of our trip).  The Oyster Card was easy to use and cheaper than single passes for the Tube, buses, trams, etc.  At first we only put about 15 EUR per card but ended up "topping off" to get us through our trip (our kids were free).

The Tube was also easy to use and everything was well-connected.  It was so nice traveling somewhere without a language barrier too!  The only downside would be the cost (1 BPS = 1.19 EUR = 1.66 USD) and perhaps the food.  The boys were not a fan, they thought everything was "bland," but my daughter really enjoyed the "fish and chips" and I loved their English Breakfast!

We stayed at the Comfort Inn on Buckingham Palace Rd. in Victoria (4 nights, 760 EUR, breakfast not included).  The hotel was nice, had free wi-fi, and was close to the Victoria Underground station.  We would stay there again!

(Photo: www.comfortinn.com)

Also, by purchasing train tickets from London Stansted to London Liverpool we qualified for some great 2 for 1 offers!  All we had to do was download and print our 2 for 1 vouchers and present them along with our train tickets to each attraction...bonus...our kids were free for most of them!

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Day 1 - Arrival

Day 2 - Hop-On/Hoff-Off Tour

Day 3 - Run to the Beat Half Marathon

Day 4 - Changing of the Guard

Day 4 - Kensington Palace