I am so excited to get to tell you all about our time in London! This was a very cool opportunity that came about quickly. I was actually emailed about it months prior but I thought it was spam (lol!) and sent it to my manager to dig deeper into. In the end, it was very much not spam and instead a dream, all expenses paid, trip to London!
Basically, Barclays Bank wanted to do a campaign around starting a savings account to plan for a dream trip and asked me if I would partner with them to do it. Nate and I have had a savings account specifically for our family to travel for the last decade. We put money into it every month, and when we take family trips, we pay for it out of that account. This was something we already practiced and believed in, so it was an easy yes for us. The trip also included getting to watch the final Premier League match of the season because Barclays sponsors the Premier League. Nate loves soccer and watches it every weekend, so all around, this was a very cool opportunity.
The hardest part for me personally was that there were so many things happening behind the scenes that I wanted to show you!! Barclays very politely asked me not to share certain things to respect the privacy of everyone involved which I completely understood but man I wanted you to see the full picture of what was going on. For instance, there was a film crew there filming me. Multiple cameras and a video editor!! There were so many cool moments that I couldn’t really show on Instagram, so I thought I’d tell you about them here.
I’ll walk you through the trip day by day and sprinkle in some behind-the-scenes details along the way.
We left on Wednesday evening, flew from Charleston to Washington, D.C., and then took the red-eye to London. We landed at 7:00 a.m. London time with a full day ahead of us with zero plans.
We got incredibly lucky and were able to check into our room at The Corinthia around 9:00 that morning. We dropped our bags, brushed our teeth, and immediately headed out to explore. The Corinthia is incredible. It’s a 5-star historic hotel located right by the River Thames. Within minutes, we could walk and see the London Eye, Big Ben, and were right around the corner from Trafalgar Square.
We popped into the National Gallery, which was incredible!! I still can’t quite get over the fact that it’s free. You can just walk in and see Monet, Van Gogh, and Seurat.
Afterward, we stumbled into a tiny restaurant called Bancone serving homemade pasta and had one of those meals that wasn’t on the itinerary at all but ended up being a favorite.
From there, we hopped on the Tube and headed toward Harrods. I had been excited to see it, but honestly it was a little less exciting than I expected. It felt like a giant luxury department store and way less “London” feeling than I remembered.
After Harrods, we walked through St. James’s Park, passed Buckingham Palace, and made our way to the Churchill War Rooms, which Nate was especially excited about. We put on the headsets, explored the underground rooms, and spent a few hours there before heading back toward the hotel.
That evening we met briefly with the Barclays team and Naked City (the film crew) to go over plans for the next day, then Nate and I headed out to dinner.
I knew I wanted Indian food while we were in London, and I had heard wonderful things about Dishoom and The Cinnamon Club, but we couldn’t get reservations, so we went to Colonel Saab. I had one of the best gin drinks I have ever tasted and it’s pretty hard to mess up butter chicken and naan bread. A great meal!
One of the coolest things we learned about London pub culture is that people simply stand outside the pubs with their drinks. The weather was beautiful while we were there, and multiple times we thought people were lined up for an event only to realize they were just outside enjoying a beer with friends. You walk in, order your drink, and then head outside. It felt so simple and communal. After dinner we wandered over to a pub called Sherlock Holmes near our hotel and stood outside like the locals to have a drink.
By 9 pm we had walked thousands and thousands of steps and I was three drinks deep. We headed back to the hotel and absolutely crashed.
One thing I really appreciated was that all of the things we were filming were things I genuinely wanted to do anyway. Barclays had mapped out a great itinerary, which made the day really easy and enjoyable. Also after coming back to the states I realized this was very wonderful for our marriage: Nate and I spend a ton of time needing to communicate and plan both for my job and for our family. To go on a trip where someone else did the majority of the planning and we just got to go and enjoy was absolutely incredible. While this was most definitely a work trip, I felt like the planning side of my brain got to take a break and I loved that.
We started along the River Thames filming some content and then headed to Borough Market, which was hands down one of the coolest places I’ve ever visited! Imagine a farmer’s market on steroids with everything from fresh produce to risotto to homemade donuts. HEAVEN!
One of the girls on the Barclays team told us she dreams about a sandwich from The Black Pig called “THE BEST ONE” and now I will dream about it too. We also tried the viral mushroom risotto from Turnips, plus fresh strawberries, homemade donuts, and about a dozen other things. We basically ate our body weight in food and loved every minute of it.
From there we visited a “kit shop” which is the UK term for a soccer jersey store. We picked out jerseys for friends and family and filmed some content tied to the Premier League partnership.
After that we headed to a Premier League pub called The Golden Lion for a late lunch of fish and chips.
By around 4:00 we were finished filming for the day. Nate and I wandered around Westminster Abbey and Big Ben, did a little shopping for the kids, and then headed back to the hotel for a light dinner because we’d eaten so much earlier, then headed to bed.
The next morning was another filming day, and this one included something I had specifically requested: a double-decker bus tour. Eeek! The weather was absolutely showing off the entire trip, and riding around London from the top deck was just as fun as I hoped it would be.
Eventually we made our way back to St. James’s Park, where we filmed a little more content, had a picnic, and ate soft-serve ice cream with a Flake bar stuck into it. If you’ve never had one, it’s basically a crumbly chocolate stick and having one stuck into vanilla soft serve is (I later learned) common.
After filming wrapped around 4pm, Nate and I headed back to the hotel to cool off and regroup before taking the Tube over to Soho to shop a bit and watch a soccer match at a pub called The Green Man.
Sidenote: I got a cookie from this hole in the wall called Ben’s Cookies and it was divine.
One place I really wanted to visit was Liberty London. I’ve always loved Liberty fabric and wanted to see the flagship store. It’s super historic and so pretty! Sadly, by this point Nate was running low on energy and we were both getting hungry, so we left Soho and opted to walk back to the hotel. We found a Thai restaurant called Thai Square on the route home that was perfect for dinner. We then headed back to the hotel, I took a bath, and we called it an early night.
We had a slow morning at the hotel before boarding a bus with the Barclays team and heading to the stadium for a tour before the match started. We were there to watch the final match of the Premier League: Arsenal versus Crystal Palace at Crystal Palace, and one of the main reasons Barclays had brought us over. It was surprisingly warm, even by Charleston standards, which London is definitely not used to!!
One really fun detail: this is the same stadium used in Ted Lasso, so there were definitely parts that looked familiar. For instance: the seats are red and blue and spell out CRYSTAL PALACE on one side just like they spell out TED LASSO in the intro of the show.
One thing that was difficult for me as a creator was that I wasn’t allowed to share footage of the actual match. I could film for personal use, but because of league rights and broadcast rules, I couldn’t post any footage at all of the game itself. What I really wanted to show you were the fans!! The energy was incredible!! So many chants and cheers. I also learned that people do not eat and drink inside the stadium. You do so before the game, come in for the first half, leave at halftime to go drink some beer, then come back for the second half.
I also learned that home and away sections are taken very seriously. There is a designated away section, and if you show up in opposing gear in the wrong section, things probably aren’t going to go well for you.
The chanting, the songs, the cheering—people knew everything by heart. The level of passion was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced at a sporting event.
We got to watch Arsenal receive the trophy for winning the Premier League, then we headed back to the hotel. Nate and I split a smash burger and Caesar salad at the hotel bar, and basically passed out from exhaustion.
The next morning we woke up, had breakfast at the hotel, and headed to the airport. I was excited to see the kids, but to be honest if you had told me we could have two more days I would have taken them. I absolutely loved it and absolutely want to come back with the kids.
On that note: I want to close by talking about London with kids. We’ve done New York City with our kids, and honestly, aside from the actual travel portion, I think London would be incredibly doable with children and appeared much easier than NYC.
First, the travel itself wasn’t bad. We flew from Charleston to Washington, D.C., which was about an hour, and then from D.C. to London, which was around six and a half hours. Even in the grand scheme of international travel, that’s not an especially long flight. We had TVs on the backs of the seats, everybody was comfortable, and I genuinely think our kids would have handled it just fine.
Once you’re there, there are so many kid-friendly things to do.
I actually kept a little note on my phone while we were there of things that seemed fun for families:
Tons of playgrounds all around the city and lots of green space
St. James Park is huge and has lots of ice cream vendors
A boat tour on the Thames River
Going on the London Eye (it’s a massive ferris wheel with pods you can stand in)
A double-decker bus tour
A day trip to Windsor
Hamleys Toy Shop (think FAO Schwartz in London)
The whole city just felt incredibly family-friendly. It definitely left me thinking that London is a trip I want to do again someday with the kids.
Hope this was helpful, and major thanks to Barclays for this dream trip!!!
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