This post is in collaboration with Hotels.com. The spending money was gifted by Hotels.com, but all views are my own.
One thing I love to do is to explore London. I’ve been in love with London for as long as I can remember and I honestly have no plans to move away. It’s busy, vibrant, unique and must on your travel list!
Whether you live in London, the outskirts of London or staying in a Covent Garden Hotel whilst on holiday, you should take the time to visit this beautiful area of London.
Nestled near Leicester Square, in the West End of London, Covent Garden offers an array of activities, shops, restaurants, bars and more to keep you entertained for several days.
I have to admit, I normally visit Covent Garden to spend my wages in the surrounding makeup stores so taking the time to explore the area was such a great decision as the area has so much to offer!
I took so many pictures this day, so please feel free to click on each photo for a closer look!
We started the day by taking a quick walk around the area after emerging from the underground station – by the way, DO NOT take the stairs up – ALWAYS TAKE THE LIFT from the underground, I took the stairs and I’m still trying to catch my breath a week later, 15 flights is NOT for the faint-hearted!
As we visited the weekend before Christmas, Covent Garden was decked out in beautiful Christmas decorations and lighting. Everywhere I looked something caught my eye but not in a suffocating, “do YOU know it’s Christmas,” kind of way, but in accents and unique decorations and bright colours. Nothing near overwhelming, it was a nice change from the highstreet’s approach of Christmas EVERYWHERE.
We then made our way to Boots, which had everyone’s favourite make-up brands including Fenty, Urban Decay and Benefit. I was also really happy to find a free water bottle refill station on the top floor, which is great if you’re having a full day out at Covent Garden.
From Boots, we made our way directly to Apple Market and the Piazza.
Previously a fruit and vegetable market, Apple Market now sells an array of handmade items alongside the Piazza, centred within the Market Building, which holds several restaurants including Buns and Buns and Shake Shack, however, we decided to make my way to Honest Burger to sample their Covent Garden burger. The Covent Garden burger is only available at the Covent Garden branch and my word, it was a DELICIOUS burger. The Covent Garden burger was brimmed full of flavour with a juicy beef burger paired with bacon, Waldorf slaw and chutney – just YUM! I would highly recommend it!
The restaurant itself was cosy but efficient and had great customer service to point where I felt like I knew the waiters and waitresses personally – they were so friendly!
Stuffed from lunch, we decided to walk around the area to see what was around. We walked past bars, contemporary coffee shops, more restaurants, stalls and a church.
Within the market, Covent Garden was decked out in full Christmas mode with a ginormous Instagram-ready Christmas tree!
One hidden gem we found was in a completely unexpected place – a shoe store!
From the outside, Melissa looked interesting but inside our expectations were blown away! Galeria Melissa is Melissa’s first European flagship store and unlike any shoe store you have ever visited. Right from the entrance, it looks more like a modern museum than a shoe store with shoes encased in perspex boxes floating from the ceiling whilst moving up and down, a digital screen wall and a stunning star-installation located in the basement.
From Melissa, we checked out a few of the pop-up shops, which Covent Garden have an abundance of. We passed a Huda Beauty pop-up, selling gorgeous Huda Beauty goodies in time for Christmas, various Christmas tree seller pop-ups and a Tiffany’s & Co. mini ice rink.
We also decided to visit the London Transport Museum. Now, I’m a native Londoner who commutes to work, so I spend most of my week on tubes or buses but I really have no insight into the history of buses or tubes. We skipped entering the actual museum but the gift shop kept us highly entertained. I was oddly drawn to scarfs and cushions in the iconic, slightly fugly but fashionable old seat prints. If you were born in the 80s or later, you’ll remember the patterns on the seats of the buses and tubes – clashing colours and geometric shapes. What a time!
Alongside the memorablia, there were prints, magnets, lights and other keepsakes.
From the museum, we went hunting for dessert and came across Milk Train. If you LOOOOVE ice cream, you’ll love Milk Train. This legendary cafe serves ice cream in cup and cones in the most indulgent way – with candy floss. I have to admit, I’m not a candy floss (cotton candy) fan at all, but as their milk ice cream isn’t overwhelmingly sweet, the candy floss addition works so well, and let’s face it, it’s a gloriously sinful treat. I chose to go for their At The Movies cone and it did not disappoint. I would 100% recommend!
After scoffing my ice cream, we went for a further walk back to the market to peruse the stores. Covent Garden has stores for everyone’s budget including luxury boutiques from Tiffany & Co, Burberry and Chanel to a Deciem boutique offering affordable skincare for all.
I popped into the Deciem boutique to see what I wanted to pick up. For those you who are new to Deciem, there are 5 brands under the name Deciem: The Ordinary, Hylamide, NIOD, Chemistry Brand and hif. The Ordinary offer the most affordable skincare products as well as a really good foundation for under £6. There was so much choice but in the end, I decided to try a cult product from Hylamide – the Pore Flush. I’ll keep you guys updated as to what I think about it but so far so good!
All in all, it was an excellent day out! I discovered so many new shops, bars, restaurants and fun things to do in Covent Garden. I would say this is definitely a place you should add to your wishlist if you’re looking for one place to shop, eat, drink and experience.
I can’t wait to explore more of my hometown!
Nat x