Welcome to London!

So you’ve moved to London, now what????

Hopefully, you’re phone is at the very least internationally unlocked. My advice, stop by the cell phone vending machine in the airport and grab a Pay As You Go (PAYG) Three (3) SIM card for around £20. Here’s the deal, you don’t know where you’re going to live, what carrier works where you live, or what carrier works where you work. I’m hoping you’re moving to London to take advantage of all the cheap travel around Europe. Three (3) offers free roaming in many European countries (even in the USA), so give them a try. If you plan to travel, they’re probably your best bet, so hopefully they’ll work well where you live and work. If you’re married or with a partner, have them grab a SIM from a different carrier so you can try two out at once. It’s often helpful when traveling to have multiple carriers to work with.

Pop your SIM into your phone and go download the CityMapper app. This single app made traveling around the city SO much easier. Then download the Uber app, as Black Taxis only accept cash and Uber is MUCH cheaper.

Next, grab an Oyster card. There’s a bunch of options for travel around London, but in most cases, you’ll need an Oyster card, so grab one at the airport. They’re used for London buses and the Tube. There’s no need to have obtained one before arriving in the UK.

Shopping:
Everyone will tell you to head to Oxford Street for everything. Well yeah, you can probably get everything there, but you don’t have to go there just to shop. While it is a fun adventure to be amongst the crowds, there’s shopping all over town, you just need to know where to find it. You’ll be amazed at how close some stores can be without even knowing they’re just around the corner, where as others are so very far away. Stores such as John Lewis and Harrods are the closest thing to a department store that you’re used to, with the price tags to match. BTW, TJ Maxx is called TK Maxx in the UK. I found that if you’re looking for home goods, be sure to verify the TK Maxx you’re heading to offers a home goods section (I used Google maps to do this), before showing up and finding that all they’ve got is clothing.

Groceries:
Londoners shop multiple times per week. If you’re accustomed to shopping weekly, this may come as a shock to your system. Most flats simply don’t have the space to store that much food and you won’t want to lug all those provisions home all at once. For those that want to simplify life a bit, stores such as Ocado offer home delivery. A good friend of ours when moving to the UK, made an order from one of these companies and they delivered a house full of groceries hours after they moved into their flat. Grocery stores come in all sizes, from little corner stores to full-sized grocers. Every store carries something a bit different, so I got in the habit of stopping in just to see what I could get at each store. You’d be amazed at the variability. BTW, most stores have at least one aisle devoted to grab-and-go sandwiches. In the US, I wouldn’t have dreamed of buying these, but in the UK, I found them quite tasty and reasonably priced. Give them a shot as I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Store names you might be looking for: Tesco, Aldi, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Partridges, Whole Foods plus your local corner shops.

I’ll edit this post to add some more tips shortly.