London has many big highlights to see such as Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, St Paul Chathedral, National Gallery and many more. If this is your first time to London definitely stay for at least 3 days to see all of them.

If you have decided to go outside London, and you should. At least on the last 2 days here’s my suggestions on where you can go.

Visit The City of Cambridge

Cambridge is a university city and the county town of Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom, on the River Cam approximately 89 km north of London. Cambridge has a population of 158,434 and around 30,000 are students.

Cambridge as a city became an important trading centre during the Roman and Viking ages, and there is archaeological evidence of settlement in the area as early as the Bronze Age. The first town charters were granted in the 12th century, although modern city status was not officially conferred until 1951.

About University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge is a collegiate research university in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Founded in 1209 and is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s fourth-oldest surviving university, as well as one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the world. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are jointly referred to as Oxbridge.

Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 semi-autonomous constituent colleges and over 150 academic departments, faculties and other institutions organized into six schools. All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college. Cambridge does not have a main campus, and its colleges and central facilities are scattered throughout the city. Undergraduate teaching at Cambridge is organized around weekly small-group supervisions in the colleges – a feature unique to the Oxbridge system. These are complemented by classes, lectures, seminars, laboratory work and occasionally further supervisions provided by the central university faculties and departments. Postgraduate teaching is provided predominantly centrally.

Top Things to Do

1. Pop inside King’s College Chapel
2. Go Punting. Splitting the city in two is the River Cam, which passes by some of the prettiest areas of the city like the city’s own water highway. Best of all, you can pop onto a punt and explore the city. Over the years, punting has become a proper institution and a great way to see inside some of the colleges right from the river itself.
3. See the Mathematical Bridge
4. See St. John’s College
5. Spot the Corpus Clock
6. See the View from Great St Mary’s Church
7. See the Bridge of Sighs
8. Find Christ’s College

I visited Cambridge on the weekend with Hubbie before he started his meeting on Monday. When we were getting married we used a picture taken from one of the college backyard during summer in our wedding invitation. We thought it would be nice to see if we could find that spot again.

We returned to London around 5ish in the evening and it was getting dark. We slept early that night due to jet lag. I could barely opened my eyes when we had dinner.

How to get here from London

1. Train
   Taking the train to Cambridge is more than twice as fast as traveling by car. King’s Cross is the station from which most trains depart for Cambridge, though some also leave from Liverpool Street Station. Between the two stations, there are trains departing every 10-15 minutes from 4:00 am until midnight. Travel time can take anywhere between 50 minutes – 1½ hours. The cost of the journey can fluctuate, but expect a price of at least £16-£25 return depending on whether you get a peak or off-peak tickets. Cambridge has two train stations: Cambridge and Cambridge North. Most of the bus services in the area operate from the main Cambridge station.
2. Coach
   There are several coach companies that offer services between London and Cambridge. National Express and Megabus, have coaches departing from either location every 1-2 hours throughout the day. Public coaches can take anywhere from 2 – 2 ½ hours to reach Cambridge from London. The price of the journey varies immensely depending on how far in advance you purchase your ticket. Tickets usually run from £5-£15 (depending on whether they are one-way or return) when you buy them ahead of time. Tickets purchased within a few days of the journey can be more expensive, whilst tickets purchased at least a week in advance are often much cheaper than the train.
3. Taking an organized Tour from LondonAn organized bus tour typically includes a return coach ticket, a free guided sightseeing tour, and potentially even entry to one or more popular attractions.

Bicester Village

Bicester Village is a designer outlet shopping centre on the outskirts of Bicester, a town in Oxfordshire, England. It is owned by Value Retail plc. The centre opened in 1995.

How to get here from London

1. Train
   Travel directly to Bicester Village Station in 46 minutes from London Marylebone Station with Chiltern Railway. Trains to Bicester Village depart from London Marylebone every 30 minutes with, on average, 36 trains per day on weekdays. The off-peak return London to Bicester Village train price starts from £28.00. Alternatively if you combined Bicester Village with Oxford, Chiltern Railway also has a train from Oxford which takes about 13 minutes and price is £3.20 one-way
2. Bus from Oxford
3. Stagecoach service from central Oxford, leaving every 15 minutes. For timetables and fares, call +44 (0)1865 772 250 or click here. If you travel from London, you can take the Oxford Tube from London and connect to Stagecoach Oxford’s S5 service to get to Bicester Village. If you buy an Oxford Tube Connector ticket you just pay your Oxford Tube fare.

We went to Bicester Village on Sunday which was definitely a highlight for me ❤️ Hubby decided that he’d go with me so I didn’t go crazy and bankrupting myself if I went alone to the stores. We split out when I entered Prada outlet. But when I finally came out carrying 2 big bags, Hubby decided from there on we would stick together to visit all the outlets 🤣

The perk of being 6 weeks preggy was Hubby didn’t complain at all when he had to carry all of my shopping bags. He even went inside Samsonite store and buy a new suitcase to carry all my stuff!

We caught the train back in the evening, dropped our stuff at the hotel and went straight to chinatown for dinner at Wong Kee. I love Wong Kee despite all the publication about rude staff, I think it was still the best and cheapest Chinese restaurant in London