Why I Keep Returning to London

I’ve always said that London is my favourite city in the world. After first visiting in 2012 – it was my first stop on my first trip to Europe and first solo trip ever – I was head over heels.

I loved the posh accents, the rich history, and the endless number of museums to visit, restaurants to eat at and musicals to watch on the West End.

That love for London didn’t wane on a 3-day stopover in 2013 on my way to intern in Eswatini, during three separate visits in 2014 while I studied abroad in Amsterdam, when I convinced my husband to fall in love with the city in 2018 and then my siblings in 2020, or the handful of other times I’ve returned to London in the last decade.

But as I geared up for my 10th visit to London in January 2023, I was nervous. I hadn’t visited the city since January 2020, before the pandemic took hold, and I hadn’t been there solo in many years. How would this trip be different?

Turns out, both London and I had changed. But despite our years apart, I was still as in love with London as ever. It may not be my number one favourite city in the world anymore, but it’s definitely still up there!

First time to London? Don’t miss my 3 day London itinerary!

For my 10th-ish visit to London (give or take a visit!), I felt almost no pressure. I had been to almost all of the major tourist attractions before. And, because I was travelling solo, there was no one I needed to show around or plan an itinerary for. I could indulge in only the parts of London I really wanted to.

And for me, that means musicals! I managed to see four musicals in three days in London, each one making me happier than the last. Instead of spending my money on the London Eye or a hop-on-hop-off bus or even a museum I wouldn’t have enjoyed as much, I prioritized live theatre in my London budget.

The West End is one of my favourite things about London and I wanted to enjoy as many shows as I could.

If you’re curious, I saw Newsies, & Juliet, Wicked and The Choir of Man. All of them were fantastic!

In between shows, I found myself strolling through the city. Lucky for me, I happened to visit during a very sunny week in London (quite rare in January!). And while it was cold, the sun kept me warm enough for a walk along the Thames and leisurely afternoon in Kensington Gardens.

It was nice to be able to just take my time, passing landmarks and meandering down streets I may have hurried past on previous visits. I beamed to myself as I watched a group of school girls pose for a photo outside of the Globe Theatre and as I snuck a selfie with Tower Bridge in the background.

Walking the streets of London, nowhere to be until showtime and no one to show around, I started to feel a little like a local.

Of course, most London locals aren’t walking around the city for hours on a random Thursday – they’re probably at work, grocery shopping, picking up kids, etc. But I still felt like I was having a different, and less touristy, experience than on past trips to London.

I used to think that I would be a London local one day, spending a year or two living in the city thanks to Canada’s working holiday visa option. When I studied abroad in Amsterdam in 2014, my flatmate Gabby and I talked about how we’d room together again in London one day.

Our plan was to finish up school – me in Vancouver and her in New Zealand – and then get jobs in London. In fact, my dream job at an international charity had just opened up a London office, so the plan was perfect!

Of course, that’s not exactly how it happened. I did work for that charity, but in their Vancouver office. When I became burnt out and disenfranchised with a charity that prioritized their image over wages, training and morale, I took a job at my alma mater, UBC.

While the people were nice and the pay was good, I realized that a career in university admin was not something I wanted to commit to at 24 years old. I eventually left that job to chart out my freelance writing career, which I’ve been doing ever since.

I could’ve moved to London at any point. But after meeting Colin, my now-husband, in 2015, I was excited to see where our relationship, rooted in Vancouver, would take us.

Eventually, we did decide to move abroad and the UK was our first choice. But by that point, I learned that the life I wanted to live in London – a nice flat in a central location with lots of time spent eating out, going to shows and travelling – was going to be prohibitively expensive.

So instead, we decided to live in a cheaper UK city and make frequent visits to the Big Smoke.

A series of events both in and out of our control eventually changed our plans so that we moved to Prague instead of the UK. Prague meant a lower cost of living, easier travel connections to the rest of Europe, and that Ellie, our dog, would get to join us on our year abroad.

It was an easy win and I didn’t feel like we were giving anything up by choosing Prague.

So as I walked through the streets of London in January 2023, feeling more local than I ever had, it was an interesting feeling that washed over me.

There was a nostalgia for this city that I loved and had visited so often over the years, and also a nostalgia for a dream I no longer held onto so tight. I’ll never say never, but I don’t think I will end up living in London.

(Spoiler alert: I was wrong! We did end up living in London for five weeks in 2025!. And we lived in London with our baby and dog!)

And right now, that feels okay. I am very content to keep returning to London over the years and enjoying my favourite parts of the city – the musicals, the restaurants, the history, the parks – while making home elsewhere in the world.

This trip to London was also different for the people I got to share it with. I spent my first two days in London enjoying my own company, seeing shows and reflecting on my relationship with the big city.

I hadn’t travelled solo since visiting Stockholm in 2019, so it was nice to go at my own pace and soak in the parts of London I most wanted to.

But on my third day in London, I got to meet up with friends. I spent the morning grabbing coffee with a travel friend I had met on Twitter.

Holly and her husband, Ollie, were so nice and we had so much fun that coffee turned into heading next door for a cider and chicken wings at the Canadian pub.

Not only were they so great to chat with, they also kindly treated our food and drinks. I can’t wait to see them again and return the favour when they visit Vancouver this summer!

London was also where I reunited with my friend from university, Mireille. Since our UBC days, Mireille has made a home for herself all around the world – studying abroad in Sweden, teaching English in Japan, getting her masters in Ottawa, and now working for the Canadian government alongside her partner in Cheltenham, UK.

Since Cheltenham is just a couple of hours from London, she came into the city for a couple of days before hosting me at her place.

It was so nice to be reunited with an old friend in a familiar city. We caught up over ramen bowls and spent the afternoon talking and laughing as we walked through Green Park and Hyde Park, refuelling with coffee and cake ahead of our evening show.

Mireille, like myself, is a big musical fan. And it was so much fun to watch The Choir of Man with her as it’s definitely the kind of show you want to sing, dance and smile along to (which is always more fun with a friend!).

After the show, we went out to Mireille’s friend’s birthday party and spent the rest of the night singing questionably good karaoke and enjoying a few more ciders.

Once again, I felt extremely local. The bar we went to – part bar, part bowling alley, part karaoke rooms, part dance floor – did not seem like a place frequented by many London tourists.

The next morning, Mireille and I headed to Dishoom, the well-known Indian chain for brunch. The place was packed, probably with both locals and tourists, and absolutely worth it.

My favourite meal in London was without a doubt the breakfast naan roll at Dishoom. I am seriously still dreaming about it! (And thanks to my friend, Carolin, who sent me the recipe from the Dishoom cookbook!)

PS: Dishoom became a big favourite when we visited London with our baby in 2025/2026 – she was a big fan too!

After that, we talked about maybe going to a museum or trying to fit in another activity before our afternoon train to Cheltenham. But not wanting to waste a sunny winter day in London, we ended up on a bench in Kensington Gardens chatting, sipping tea and pointing out dogs in cute sweaters.

It was the perfect way to spend my final few hours in London.

Instead of rushing around or standing in lines with other tourists, I got to enjoy the company of my friend in one of the city’s nicest parks watching London life pass us by.

Looking back on my January 2023 London trip, I can see how a regular traveller may think I missed out. I didn’t visit the Tower of London, ride the London Eye or step into a single museum. I only saw Big Ben from the viewing deck at Sky Garden, the one touristy thing I did do.

I spent most of my time chatting with friends in coffee shops, sitting in parks and seeing musicals – things you could do in any city with a Starbucks and a theatre.

But to me, those things are quintessentially London! Chatting with Holly and Ollie (and hearing their awesome British accents!), catching up with Mireille because London is an easy train ride from her home, and having my pick of musicals for £30 per seat because the West End is lousy with incredible talent – that’s London.

Even sitting in parks and coffee shops in London felt different than it would have back home. My walks through the city took me past Borough Market, Tower Bridge and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. All things I got to do again with my baby in London a few years later!

I sat in parks while overlooking Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. And I got to pick up a pack of Cranberries in Coats from every Pret a Manger I walked into – which is worth the trip to London for me!

And even if my experiences in London wouldn’t make it onto anyone else’s list of top things to do in the city, that doesn’t make them any less valuable to me.

Part of the joy of revisiting a city so many times is finding the things you love to do there, like seeing musicals and popping into every Pret you pass. It’s the ability to slow down, embrace a more local side of life and remember what makes London magical to me (including the magic of London at Christmas!).

The towers, the palaces, the museums – they’re not going anywhere! I’ve been to many of London’s top sights and I’m sure I’ll visit them again in the future. I would highly recommend them. But they’re not what’s going to keep me coming back to London time and time again.

I’ll return to London to catch the sun twinkling on the Thames, to hear the tube lady say, “Mind the gap between the train and the platform,” to buy every kind of pre-made sandwich available at the corner coffee shop, to sit in parks, to catch up with friends, to try new restaurants, to realize there are so many streets in this sprawling city I have yet to walk down yet, and, of course, to see another musical (or four!).