How to Plan the Best London Girls’ Trip

 

Planning a girls’ trip sounds easy until everyone starts having an opinion.

One person wants shopping. Someone else wants a nice dinner. Another has already found six places on TikTok that apparently cannot be missed. Then somebody says they don’t mind what everyone does, which usually means they’ll have an opinion later. Give everyone a couple of things they really want, leave some gaps in the schedule and see what happens. That’s how you sort that.

London is pretty good for that sort of trip because you can change the mood of the day without travelling very far.

Pick the Right Area to Stay

Where you stay makes a bigger difference than people think.

London is huge, and spending an hour getting somewhere isn’t particularly exciting when you’ve already been walking around all afternoon.

For a girls’ trip, I’d look at areas like Mayfair, Soho, Covent Garden, Marylebone or somewhere around South Kensington, depending on what you actually want to do.

Mayfair works well if the trip is leaning towards nice restaurants, shopping and dressing up for the evening. Soho is for the cafés and shops — think more daytime activities. Covent Garden is another easy option, especially if theatre or sightseeing is on the list.

Don’t choose a hotel purely because somebody said it’s beautiful.

Check where it actually is.

That’s the boring bit that saves you time later.

Don’t Schedule Every Minute

This is where group trips can go wrong.

Someone makes a spreadsheet.

I’ve seen it.

9:00 breakfast. 10:15 shopping. 12:30 lunch. 14:00 museum. 16:00 coffee. 18:00 back to hotel. 19:30 dinner.

Looks organised.

Probably feels like military training by Saturday afternoon.

I’d have one or two proper plans each day and leave the rest open. London gives you plenty to stumble across anyway.

You might walk past somewhere interesting. Somebody might find a shop they want to spend an hour in. Maybe lunch takes longer because nobody is in a rush.

Let it happen.

Start With a Good Breakfast

You need breakfast anyway, so there’s not much point rushing it. Find somewhere comfortable, order something you actually want, and sit down for a bit. Have a coffee, talk, take your time. There’s no reason the first meal of the day needs to be treated like something you have to get out of the way. Then you’ve got that post-meal period where people start figuring out what they feel like doing.

Someone will mention a shop.

Someone else will suddenly remember a restaurant they wanted to try.

Then a plan comes to life. Way better than staring at Google Maps.

Give Shopping Its Own Time

If you want to shop, give yourself proper time for it. If one person wants clothes and another is more interested in jewellery, just split up for a bit. Someone can grab a coffee while the others shop. Meet up later and carry on.

Honestly, that’s probably healthier than four people standing around while one person tries on twelve dresses.

Plan One Really Good Lunch

Lunch is where I’d spend a bit more money.

Not necessarily on the most expensive restaurant you can find. Just somewhere you actually want to sit in.

A good lunch can turn into the middle of the trip rather than another thing to tick off.

Maybe you order dessert.

Maybe somebody orders another drink.

Maybe you sit there talking for two hours and completely forget what you were supposed to do afterwards.

That happens.

Central London restaurants settings are easily as exciting as the food. Of course, not all restaurants, but plenty. For a girls’ trip, that’s not a bad thing. Take the photos, dress up a little, enjoy the fact you’re all actually together.

You don’t need to rush out because the next booking is waiting.

Do Something That Isn’t Shopping

This is easy to forget.

If the whole trip becomes shops, restaurants and the hotel, somebody will eventually say, “Should we actually do something?”

So put one different thing in there.

A museum.

A gallery.

Theatre.

Afternoon tea.

A walk through one of London’s parks.

Even a boat ride if the weather isn’t completely terrible.

You don’t have to be massively interested in art to enjoy a museum. You can walk through, find a few things you like and leave.

Nobody is testing you afterwards.

Get Dressed for One Evening

There should probably be one night where everyone actually makes an effort. Put some music on. Take your time getting ready. Someone will almost certainly be late.

That’s part of it.

Then head out for dinner.

Mayfair works particularly well for this because there are plenty of places where you can go from dinner into the rest of the evening without having to cross London.

And this is one area where I’d actually make a reservation.

Four hungry people wandering around looking for a table isn’t quite the glamorous evening anyone had in mind.

Entertainment and Night Activities: Tape London

If you want the evening to carry on after dinner, Tape London is one option to consider.

It’s in Mayfair, so it can fit fairly easily into a night already centred around the area. You don’t have to spend the evening travelling from one side of London to another.

The atmosphere depends on what’s happening that night, which I think is better than knowing exactly what the evening will feel like before you’ve even arrived.

Start somewhere you actually like.

See how you feel.

You can always decide later.

Leave Time for the Random Stuff

This sounds vague because it is.

London is full of these little interruptions. Some are brilliant. Some are completely forgettable. You can’t really know which is which until you go in.

Keep the Last Day Easy

Don’t plan your biggest day for the morning you have to fly home.

You’ll be tired by then.

Keep the final morning fairly slow.

Breakfast.

A final walk.

Maybe one last bit of shopping.

Then back to the hotel.

The last day doesn’t need to compete with the first two.

In fact, it’s usually nicer when it doesn’t.

Take More Photos Than You Think You Need

This sounds obvious.

Still worth saying.

Don’t only take the polished group photos.

Take the stupid ones too.

Someone eating breakfast with their hair everywhere. The receipt from an expensive lunch that everybody complained about afterwards. A blurry photo taken at midnight because nobody could hold the phone still.

Those are usually the pictures people actually send around later.

The perfect ones go on Instagram.

The rubbish ones end up in the group chat for years.

Don’t Try to Make It Perfect

You’ll have your lows.

Somebody will forget something at the hotel.

It’ll probably rain when nobody has an umbrella.

Someone will get the wrong Tube.

Whatever.

That’s a London trip.

The best girls’ trips aren’t necessarily the ones where everything went exactly according to plan. They’re the ones where everybody had enough freedom to enjoy themselves and there was enough time for something unexpected to happen.

Plan the hotel.

Book the important dinner.

Sort your night plans.

Then leave some space around all of that.

You might discover that the part everyone talks about afterwards wasn’t the restaurant you spent three weeks researching.

It was the hour you weren’t planning at all.