Castles in Kent, Iconic London, and Harry Potter Magic with my BFF

This summer, I was back in Ohio chatting with my best friend since I was five, Arielle, when she said she wanted to meet me somewhere this year on a trip. She applied for her passport and we decided we would meet in England since it was the only trip I was 100% sure of. Then she chose Ireland as another place to visit while she was over the pond (post on that coming next).

Ben and I went to St Ives for his family vacation, then Arielle came for the last week in England. We based ourselves in Tonbridge (Ben’s hometown in Kent) and took day trips to London. Basically, I figured that if we based ourselves in Kent we’d save money and she’d get to see “rural” England. We did a day trip to London with the intent to see the iconic sites in one day (achieved!) and then went back a second day to Watford for the WB Studios Harry Potter tour.

I considered writing a guide to how to see the best of London if you have only one day, but people have written about this to death and…