I recently returned from a girls trip to London with my best friend. We left our nine children at home and had a wonderful time enjoying everything London has to offer. Even better, there was no whining about tired legs or boring museums. To top it off, we spent a whopping $360 per person on flights and hotels! Let’s recap how we booked it and what we did while there.

Flights

This trip all started because of two things. First, Virgin Atlantic switched to dynamic pricing, which meant that award flights were available for just 9,000 points from the West Coast (and 6,000 points from the East Coast). Second, there was a 40% transfer bonus from Chase to Virgin Atlantic, which meant that we only needed to transfer 13,000 points to book round-trip flights.

So this is exactly what we did. We flew from LAX to LHR for 18,000 points (but only had to transfer 13,000 because of the transfer bonus) and $360 per person in taxes and fees. It’s worth noting that flight taxes when returning from the UK are very high. Our outgoing taxes were just $70, but the returning taxes were $290. One way to avoid this is to make London your first stop on a European trip, then take the train or a cheap intra-Europe cash flight to a different destination and fly home from there.

These cheap economy flights are only available from select U.S. airports:

• Atlanta (ATL)
• Boston (BOS)
• Las Vegas (LAS)
• Los Angeles (LAX)
• Miami (MIA)
• New York (JFK)
• Orlando (MCO)
• San Francisco (SFO)
• Seattle (SEA)
• Tampa (TPA)
• Washington D.C. (IAD)

These same airports also offer Upper Class tickets starting at just 29,000 points from the East Coast. Virgin’s Reward Seat Checker is incredibly helpful for finding the cheapest dates for both economy and Upper Class.

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Hotel

As with many of our trips, we chose a Hyatt property. We stayed at the Great Scotland Yard Hotel and loved it. The location cannot be beat; it’s in Westminster and is within walking distance of many of the most popular things to see and do.

We booked the hotel for a total of 112,000 points for four nights. We transferred the points from Chase to Hyatt. The cash rate was $2,500 for those same four nights. I don’t know about you, but I definitely cannot pay over $600 per night for a hotel room! I’m forever thankful for the magic of points.

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Recommended cards for a trip to London

So, how do you go about earning all of the points to book flights and hotels for your own trip to London? To start, focusing on flexible points is key. This gives you options for different airlines and hotels. Each of the four major banks has different partners (with some overlap between banks). You can learn more about each bank’s transfer partners here.

Virgin Atlantic is a transfer partner for all four major banks, so you can earn points through various cards. Here are my top recommendations:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
• Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
• Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card
• Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card
• The Platinum Card® from American Express
• American Express® Gold Card
• The Business Platinum® Card from American Express
• American Express® Business Gold Card

Hyatt is only a transfer partner with Chase, so you can earn points through the top two cards listed above. Furthermore, you can earn points with the following two cards, as long as you also have one of the top two cards listed above, which allows you to transfer your points.

• Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
• Ink Business Cash® Credit Card

Chase’s trio of business cards is one of the main ways we regularly stock up on Chase points, which can then be transferred to Hyatt. Before you think, “I don’t have a business, so I can’t open business cards”, just know that business cards are actually easier to qualify for than you might think!

Lastly, you can earn Hyatt points through Hyatt’s two co-branded cards:

• The World of Hyatt Credit Card
• World of Hyatt Business Credit Card

There are other co-branded hotel cards that earn points for other brands, like Hilton, IHG, and Marriott. You can check those out here.

<All information about Chase Sapphire Preferred®, Ink Business Preferred®, Cash®, and Unlimited® Credit Cards, and The World of Hyatt Credit Card, and World of Hyatt Business Credit Card has been collected independently by The Traveling Hansens. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.>

Recommended activities for a trip to London

We focused on activities that our kids might find boring. We both love history and literature, and no trip to London is complete without activities related to both.

Here’s what we did:

• Sunday Roast (can be found at many restaurants and pubs around London)
• Westminster Abbey
• Walk by Buckingham Palace
• Fortnum and Mason afternoon tea
• St. James’s Park
• Churchill War Rooms
• Ate at Steak and Co. (Delish!)
• St. Paul’s Cathedral (This wasn’t my favorite stop. I wouldn’t make it a priority.)
• Walk across Millennium Bridge (featured in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince movie)
• Borough Market
• Victoria and Albert Museum (free)
• Hyde Park
• Kensington Gardens
• Sky Garden (We thought this was very overrated.)
• Charles Dickens Museum
• National Portrait Gallery (free)
• Moulin Rouge in the West End
• Ate at Dishoom (This is a top recommendation for Indian food from many other travel bloggers. I thought it was good, but nothing special.)

Other top recommendations for things we’ve done on previous trips or plan to do in the future:

• Warner Bros Studio Tour- Harry Potter
• Buckingham Palace tour (open for six weeks during the summer)
• Tower of London
• Tower Bridge (often mistakenly called London Bridge)
• Science Museum (free)
• Natural History Museum (free)
• London Transport Museum (free)
• National Gallery (free)
• London Zoo
• Camden Market
• Other West End shows – Wicked, Lion King, Back to the Future, Matilda, Hamilton, etc.

There are so many wonderful things to do around London, you could spend many days there and not run out of options. We had three full days, with travel days on either side, and felt that was a good amount. However, we definitely could have added on another day or two! Thankfully, we had both been there before and were able to skip some of the other major sights. Four to five days is a perfect amount of time to do most of the major things.

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Wrapping Up

This girls trip to London was a needed break from the chaos of the end of the school year. We got to enjoy a city we love, eat yummy food, see amazing historical sights, and there wasn’t a bit of whining or complaining to be found. The fact that we were able to do it for just $360 per person was icing on the cake.