Clink78 in King’s Cross London was one of my very first hostel reviews on this blog. So when Clink Hostels got together with Hostel Advisor to film their new Youtube guide, ‘9 Things To Do in King’s Cross: London’ I was exited to spend the day exploring with them!

Psst… the video is no longer available online. But you can still read about all the cool things to do in King’s Cross London with Clink Hostels below!

A Day Filming: ‘Things to do in King’s Cross’

As I was coming up from the South Coast, just over an hour’s train ride from London, I missed out on the first two locations. But when I met up with Emma and Barbara in King’s Cross they were raving about the clothes they’d tried on in the boutique charity shop, Fara, and their breakfast at Nivens.

Still, I hadn’t missed all the fun as we still had seven more places to visit on our list of things to do in King’s Cross! First up was my very first trip to Camden Passage…

Screenshot from ‘9 Things to do in the King’s Cross area: London‘

Now I spend plenty of time in London, but often in the same areas. So Camden Passage was a new location for me to explore.

The first place that caught my eye was the book stall above – I picked up an original Penguin guide to yoga from the 1920s! But as the old English cobbled stones wound their way between terraced streets inspired by the style of architect George Dance the younger, the trend for antiques magnified with the increase of shop window displays and retro clothing rails.

After tearing ourselves away from the period style white lace items that would make perfect beach cover ups for trips to the English seaside, we made our way to Regent’s Canal. But by this time I was craving coffee so we made a pit stop for takeaway cappuccinos as CrepeAffaire. This isn’t in the video but I quite liked the coffee so thought I’d add an extra recommendation!

And look how much the caffeine boost brought out our best selfie smiles…

Screenshot from ‘9 Things to do in the King’s Cross area: London‘

Regents Canal was a complete surprise to me. My dislike of the busyness and stress-fuelled London lifestyle had prevented me from following a lot of University friends to the capital after graduating from university. I’m a South Coast girl and I need the open ocean, not the tube.

So following the Clink Hostels team along the quiet towpath, teeming with ducks rather than hurried Londoners, at just the right moment when the sun began to shine through the clouds, gave a serene break from the madness. The canal is simply beautiful.

But we didn’t relax completely! We were on a mission after all to find you the best things to do in King’s Cross and that meant hunting down one of the coolest second-hand shops I’d ever set foot in.

Word On The Water is London’s Bookbarge – a narrow boat that has been converted into a second-hand bookshop and floats along by the side of the towpath to welcome book lovers and, it seems, folk music lovers too!

But whilst you can nourish the mind with books, it’s a little harder to nourish the body. Which meant it was time for lunch!

Our hunt for food took us first to Stable Street to check out the Kerb Street Food stalls and then to Granary Square. The girls and I got unlucky – on our day of filming the spring sun decided to hide out behind rainclouds so the Clink team went back another day to feature the incredible street food stalls on offer at Kerb.

However, our bad luck with the weather gave us the perfect excuse to try out Dishoom at King’s Cross. This was the best part of my day and trust me when I say there is a whole blog post coming soon on the wonders that they serve up at this incredible tribute to the old Irani cafés of Bombay.

Heading back towards Regents Canal, we swapped Dishoom’s award winning cocktails for a calm after-lunch drink at Canal 125. With a small terrace overlooking the waterside and a huge fireside lounge area where you can chill with friends, it’s a wonder we left at all after our long day of walking!

But we did leave for our final spot on our list of things to do in King’s Cross… and I’m so glad we did because we finished the day in Bounce! Beautifully named, Bounce is the home of ping pong! Seriously, the flagship store in Farringdon is just a 20 minute walk from Clink78 and Clink261 hostels and stands on the very same spot on which ping pong was invented in 1901!

Here’s Matt, one of the staff members from Hostel Advisor finally stepping out from behind the video camera to thrash us all at ping pong…

The day in King’s Cross with Clink Hostels and Hostel Advisor went so quickly – and showed me just how much there is to do in the area that surrounds the two London Clink Hostels! I know there’s a few things on this list I’ll be returning to explore more of at a later date.

I’d like to thank Clink Hostels for inviting me along to spend the day with them, but as always opinions are honest and my own. I’d also like to thank Hostel Advisor for putting up with all the stupid faces I always pull in front of your cameras – good job editing them out 😉