Well, while I don't live there, from what I can remember from my week trip there a few years ago, its freaking huge, super busy, but at the same time it has places where it was somewhat peaceful, one place I can remember being amazing was soho square. MAKE SURE TO GO TO SOHO SQUARE. I really enjoyed te city, I would like to eventually have a shot at living there for a while, but will need to get money for that it was expensive and conversion to AUD was terrible... (and it still is huzzar...) Hopefully someone from the city tells us more about what its like living there.
It's the most visited city in the world, so it must be pretty nice. As a place to live, I probably wouldn't advise it these days. Extremely expensive. It's becoming a shadow of its former self with gentrification on a massive scale.
I love London personally. It's a great way to see cultures from all around the world collide. Just in one tube carriage you'll see a cross-section of different races, ethnicities and backgrounds. But despite everyone being very different, there seems to be an underlying personality that brings together London. It's hard to explain, but everything seems to fit together. I've had a lot of school trips and family visits to London and I still haven't seen anywhere near everything. But I have had the privilege, when my friends and I got to semifinals in a STEM competition, to have a tour around Westminster Palace and meet my local MP in Portcullis House. It's a beautiful building with a lot of history. I've also visited a Gurdwara, lots of museums, and some lovely parks. Overall London is a brilliant city which I fully recommend you visit.
I want to go to see some of the historic sites, like Westminster Abbey, but I've always figured that London is really a very modern place that happens to just have lots of historic stuff. And I want to visit the Tate Modern.
Every time I've gone, I've really disliked it as a city because it's huge, crowded and polluted. There are loads of really great things to see there, though, and I do go back every so often for events or to have a look at the museums. It is very expensive and can be quite confusing to get around (although the underground system makes it a lot easier, but it's a bit claustrophobic, especially at rush hour). I guess, like most places, there are good and bad sides to it.
I work there quite a bit as we have an office there, but I don't live there and wouldn't want to. It's an interesting, multicultural city. If you go on a boat-bus down the Thames you will get the most amazing views of both the modern banking quarters, and the really old, historic buildings, bridges etc. I'm not usually a big fan of London as it's noisy and busy, and though my office is right by Westminster, you still tend to just see the bit around you, and travel by tube. The view of the city from the river really wowed me - after working there for years! There's lots to see and do. There are other cities in the UK well worth a visit though, including Bath, Cambridge, Edinburgh.
I'm British. I don't live in London but I've been there a fair few times. And I've been to Manhattan and Paris. London is better. The architecture is stunning and impressive, the parks are lovely, the city is exciting and everything's happening there, the tube is 1000000000x better than the subway, there's Buckingham Palace, there's Soho, there's the most amaziiiing museums, there's a river, there's rich history, there's amazing shopping, it's multicultural. I really don't know what more you could want from a city. Oh and obviously the roads are chokka and so's the amazingly organised tube network (that will get you around pretty fast so its not too bad, and when your a tourist you likely won't be travelling in rush hour, so then its pretty empty), but you can also ride round on bikes that you can rent with your card off little stands around the city. So you should have no problem getting around no matter what.
Forget everything you saw on Mary Poppins, it's just a city, a big city. If you enjoy going to cities then you will love it but there's nothing magical about it. If you do go then remember to take a fat wallet.
I like the great outdoors, but sometimes I do enjoy all the stuff a city can provide. And if there are good botanical gardens (which I hear London has...) then I can kind of get my outdoor fix that way. As for the high prices, that's what I keep hearing..... I've tried to google how much a decent daily food/entertainment budget would be, but it's like the Internet just starts laughing at me.... lol
The 4 words that I've always used to describe London: noise, traffic, crowded, expensive. The one thing I love about it is that it's so convenient. The tube goes literally anywhere and you have every shop that you could possibly need within a 20 minute walk of central London. I mean for tourists there's a lot to do and see so it tends to be great but living there? Hell no.
Expensive it is, yes. But the (music) sub cultures are like nowhere else on Earth. People live for this. I for one am very heavily invested in UK music so I love London to bits. But it is big, noisy and crowded. Like any other big city.
The others are right to say that it's busy, crowded and noisy city. However, there are some great tourist attractions, architecture, and points of interest. It's a fun city to visit - there certainly is a "buzz" about it. Like any city, as long as you're up for absorbing the culture and having a more full-on (rather than relaxing) trip, I think you'll find plenty to like.
I have lived in London for a bit shy of a decade. It is one of the most diverse cities in the world. Its expensive, but there is nothing that London does not offer. Whether it be culture, history, art, beautiful guys, its all there! its a great place to visit, but unfortunately, you would never see everything there is to see on one single visit. Even having lived here as long has I have, I still find new things that amaze me!