Dressed By Drake

After speaking about a smaller, charming city that I spent some of my winter break in I wanted to share my most recent spring break trip! Six of my closest friends and I planned this trip all the way back in October and it was so much fun! We spent eight nights in Shoreditch, London and also had the opportunity to take a day trip to Paris. Below are some amazing photos from the trip and some tips about traveling to these cities (especially if you’re on a budget like I know I am)!

Photos taken by me & Isabella Sardoni

First off I definitely recommend staying in an air bnb over a hotel (which most people seem to nowadays) because it is absolutely so much cheaper! We stayed in a two bedroom apartment that also had two couch beds and it was under $300 per person for the entire trip. Since we had such a large group of people it was difficult to find something large enough close to the inner center of the city so we stayed in an area called Shoreditch only around a 20 minute ride on the tube (the brits much cleaner version of the subway) and was a super cool and young area that kind’ve reminded me of the Lower East Side here in Manhatten. I also recommend finding your nearest grocery store and eating breakfast and dinner at home! It seriously saves you so much money only eating one meal a day out. We hit most of the typical tourist spots like Buckingham Palace and the London Eye, the Tower Bridge and Notting Hill. We also visited Camden Town, my absolute favorite area, that is full of a ton of great indoor and outdoor markets with really unique vendors. I also definitely recommend enjoying some afternoon tea, an English tradition. However, definitely be smarter than we did and book ahead as some places were booked until JULY! Also do your research because it tends to get pretty pricy.

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Photos taken by me & Elizabeth Mendez

On our fifth day of the trip we had the opportunity to visit Paris! We went via train and the tickets were about $130 round trip. Our train left at 5:45 AM (arriving in Paris around 9 AM) and the returning train left at 9 PM. Although waking up at THREE AM was kind’ve brutal it was definitely worth it to have the entire day there. We did manage to see quite a bit including the Louvre and Eiffel Tower, but I definitely recommend staying over a night because it’s such a long day and I definitely didn’t get to experience all that I’d hope to in one day. As for the food, the macaroons were to die for (somehow the Laudree in Paris is just ten times better than the one in NY, maybe it’s all in my head I don’t know) and yes I tried escargot (AKA snails for those who don’t know)! The escargot was absolutely amazing, although that’s probably because they drench it in pesto and garlic. Overall this trip was an amazing experience and I definitely recommend going to both places!