5 Things You Should Know if You’re Traveling to London for the First Time

Last year Alaska Airlines announced they would be offering nonstop flights to London in 2026.

This may have got your ideas sparking to book a trip sometime soon.

Maybe you've never been to London and have always wanted to visit. Check out all of the landmarks like Big Ben, Tower Bridge, and all of those spots you see in movies.

If you're thinking about going to London here are 5 things you should know that should hopefully set you a little more at ease about booking your trip.

You Will Need a Travel Visa to Visit UK

This is something new, but not a problem. You'll need to get a travel visa in visiting London and anywhere in the UK.

Watch out for scam sites that offer travel visas as, even though they may work, the cheapest and quickest is from the UK government themselves. Download the UK ETA app, take a photo of your passport and selfie against a white background, pay the nominal fee (it was about $20-$25) and you'll be approved in minutes.

You Probably Won't Need Cash

Although, yes, it's always good to have a little cash on you, most places in the UK and London especially, everywhere should accept your US credit card. Best of all, it'll convert it for you. So many places accept your card or cashless options if you use your phone or smart watch to tap. Definitely takes the guess work out.

And if you're thinking you might need cash to tip, UK is one of the countries that is tip-less as people pay wages well enough to not need to tip. You can tip, but it's not the norm.

Underground subway system too scary? Uber works, too

The underground works as well, and we'll cover that next, but if you just need to get somewhere specifically and don't wanna bother with The Underground, your same Uber app works in the UK exactly the same. Definitely comes in handy.

Uber Eats, too!

Same with Uber, if you wanna stay in the hotel for the next as you don't wanna deal with their traffic, you can also order food off the same Uber Eats app.

Easy Way to Use the Underground

If you've looked up several tour guide videos on YouTube and they all say to use some metro card for the easiest way to save money, but maybe you just want to use the Underground once or twice that wouldn't necessary need the use of some fancy secondary card, your credit card will also work.

You simply scan your card on the way in (you'll see others doing this, too), the turnstile will open for you. go to where ever you want to go, then you scan the same card on the way out and it'll calculate from where you started to where you ended instantly. It's pretty neat and a lot cheaper than Uber.

UK is a magical place full of history and I hope you get a chance to visit. Hopefully these tips will ease your mind enough.