AN AFTERNOON IN NOTTING HILL | LONDON

One of my New Years resolutions this year was to 'up my blogging game', meaning that I wanted to not necessarily change the content of my blog but add to the content of my blog - I don't want my blog to be super generic and, you know, basic. I've been wanting to write about a few different topics and themes on my blog - one of those being travel. I absolutely adore travelling and visiting new places and I really want to incorporate more of that into my blog, so that leads me to here, right now.

You may already know that I do currently live in London as I am studying at university here and I've been thinking; I literally live in one of the most famous cities in the world, why haven't I done something on my blog to do with that? I've been coming to London for years and they've been fairly frequent trips, too. I've done the majority of the basic tourist things in London and everyone knows what they are. What people don't necessarily know are the areas in London that are perhaps not as famous or, maybe they know the areas but don't know about the gems that are there. This is where I come in - I'm starting this lil London series on my blog. This is where I'm sharing my top picks of places to go, eat and visit within the city and kind of being your virtual tour guide in terms of the best spots in the city and sharing my tips and so on - you get my gist. Anyway, welcome to post number one in the series - all about the lovely area of Notting Hill.

Where? 

Notting Hill is situated in West London, within the borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

Travel

For me, the easiest way to travel in London is by tube. Notting Hill's main tube station is Notting Hill Gate, which is served by the Central, Circle and District lines - if you're unsure about which lines these are, the Central line is the red one, Circle is the yellow one and the District line is the green one.

Obviously, some of you may not want to use the tube system but, have no fear, I've got you. If you're planning on travelling to Notting Hill via bus, you can visit the Plan a journey page on the TfL website.

Famous for ...

You may have heard of Notting Hill for various reasons, here are a few:

• Notting Hill Carnival - the annual carnival takes place every August Bank Holiday (on the Sunday and Monday) and is pretty much iconic.
• Notting Hill (the movie), starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. 
• Portobello Market - again, iconic. The market is located on Portobello Road and has everything from food to antiques. 

Must See

Portobello Road Market - duh. The market runs every day except Sunday but the busiest day is primarily Saturday, Friday being the second busiest. The market is full of stalls with all different kinds of goods - food, antiques, fashion, gifts et cetera and is definitely worth a visit if you find yourself in the area.

For the best Instagram snaps:

Come on, Notting Hill is famous for it's super bright and colourful houses - you'd probably be silly to pass that Insta opportunity up!

To Eat and Drink 

Notting Hill is full of cute little cafes and independent businesses so, instead of going to a chain restaurant, why not pop into somewhere a lil more unique? Somewhere I am yet to visit but would really like to try is Farm Girl Cafe  - the menu looks great and their Instagram is gorgeous!

When to go

As I've mentioned, Saturdays are the busiest day and there is a full market on Portobello Road so if that's on your to-do list then I would probably advise you to visit on a Saturday. For your Instagram snaps, it may be better to go fairly early in the day to avoid crowds but, again, this is completely down to personal preference. One thing I do recommend doing, though, is visiting on a dry day - I recently visited on a rainy Saturday and it was kind of difficult to manoeuvre through the crowds with umbrellas and so on. Notting Hill is a beautiful area anyway but there's just something about a lack of rain that makes everything better.

My Verdict

Okay, this won't be a surprise to anyone whose actually read this post but I definitely recommend visiting Notting Hill. It's a lovely area and, despite the hustle and bustle of Portobello Road, it's actually surprisingly quiet and peaceful in other areas - a nice escape from busy Central London. I can't wait to pop back sometime during the Spring.