travelling to london 🇬🇧

preparations

visas

Unless you have dual citizenship (a valid British or Irish passport), you will need a visa in order to get into the UK. There are two options for obtaining authorisation to go through the border:

Standard Visit Visa

A Standard Visit Visa is a more reliable option for traveling to the UK, although you will need to apply for one 3 months before your visit and it is signficantly more priceier at $127 GBP ($262.76 AUD). Each person will need to fill out a seperate application themselves and pay the fee.

While on your visa you cannot:

Apply for a visa at: https://visas-immigration.service.gov.uk/alt-language-selection-skip-visa

Electronic Travel Authorisation

You can get an Electronic Travel Authorisation, which lasts for 6 months and is relatively cheap at around $16 GBP ($33.10 AUD). Although the one big pitfall is that you can be denied access at the border. Use this option if you are 100% sure that your record is squeaky clean.

extra preperations

london public transportation

In order to get around the City of London, you will be using its public transport, primarily the Tube. Before arriving in london you should first install the TfL Go app for either Android or iOS. The app provides information on navigation and possible line disruptions. It will be assumed you have this app installed and that you use it, and as such instructions on how to get to places will not be provided unless they deviate.

A map of the tube is provided below, and you can find a live copy at the Transport for London Website.

A map of the London Tube system

eSIMs

!WARNING It is difficult to connect to the free wifi at the Heathrow Terminal, so you should buy your travel eSIM before your trip. (in my experience)

Roaming in another country usually has massive charges depending on your carrier, some having insane charges like $15/mb. Before arriving, buy a 7 day 10GB eSIM from Ubigi for $8 USD (around $12.31 AUD as of 12/08/25) an activate it. Keep in mind this is sim only does data, for calls and texts you should use something over data (iMessage, Whatsapp, Signal, etc).

Your phone supports eSIMs if it is: