Hogwarts castle | rainbowgloss

Last Christmas my boyfriend got me tickets to go to the new Harry Potter tour as I love Harry Potter, but as it’s near London and I live in Leeds, it was a bit tricky trying to find a good time to go so I decided in the end to go for my birthday!

I ended up booking the actual date about 2 months in advance and was glad I didn’t leave it any later as dates and times book up quickly!

So we made our way to outer London where the tour was and read that there’s a shuttle bus that takes you but it’s only once every half an hour!! As we were running a bit late there was no way we had time to wait for the bus so we ended up getting a taxi! It’s about 15 mins from the nearest train station so you definitely want to get there early in order to not miss your time slot!

It was pretty packed inside – alot busier than I though! But as soon as you arrive outside everything is Harry Potter!!

The gift shop is to the right when you walk in and although I was super tempted to go inside I thought I should wait until the end as I didn’t want to be carrying things around with me! The queue is quite long and we had to wait at least 20 minutes to get in…you get to see the cupboard under the stairs though while you wait…

Now when you go in the outer holding room as I called it, you get to see a mini video then you go through to the cinema room bit where there’s a massive screen and they show you a little film. Unfortunately me and my bf were a bit slow at getting seats and had to sit apart from each other – so be quick at getting seats, people are a bit dog eat dog there!

Once the little film is over the screen actually lifts up to reveal the doors to the Great Hall! Exciting!!

One thing that annoyed me was that the tour guide, who only goes with you into the Great Hall kept getting in the way of all my photos! I would’ve liked pictures of the giant door without her standing in the way! Oh well..

The doors open and you get to see the Great Hall which is actually big, but a lot smaller than you see it in the films, but still there’s a lot of detail everywhere!

There’s also mannequins with the 4 houses and their uniform..

Ravenclaw

Slytherin

Hufflepuff

Gryffindor – plus Neville’s famous cardigan!

At the top table there’s all the teachers costumes too..

After the Great Hall you walk through to the main bit and see all the props and this is where there’s so much to see!

Starting with the ice castle …

Sadly you couldn’t touch anything, but it still looked cool..

Oh I love the beauxbatons uniform! I would’ve loved to wear that to school everyday!

More costumes from the films – I love Luna’s tinsel dress!!

Some of Umbridge’s school rules – there’s a whole wall full of them!

The Gryffindor boys bedroom ..

It was a bit hard to get a full shot of the whole boys bedroom as it quite wide but still exciting to see each of their beds (you can even see the west ham scarf on Dean Thomas’s bedside table!)

The Gryffindor common room..I personally would’ve loved to see the Slytherin common room too. but I guess as it only features in the one film, it probably wasn’t a fixed set..

So much detail in the whole room – apparently that portrait in the background of the witch with the cat is a young Professor Mcgonagall!

At the top you can see the christmas jumpers Mrs Weasley knitted for Harry and Ron in the first film!

Dumbledore’s office..

The entrance to Dumbledore’s office..

One of the smaller props on display..

The potions classroom..

Lot’s of portraits that hang in the Hogwarts corridors..

The entrance to the chamber of secrets.

The Weasley’s kitchen and living room..

Inside Hagrid’s hut..

One of my favourite sets just because its so pink!!.. Umbridge’s office..

Ministry of Magic..

The black family tree..

More small props..I loved this bit as there was so much to see and everything was so detailed as well..

After all this it goes to the outdoor set and this is where there’s more interactive stuff to see!..

The knight bus..

me and my bf got to ride in Hagrid’s bike (I got the side car!)

Also here there’s a little shack that sells butterbeer! I’d definitely recommend atleast giving one a try even though they are a bit expensive! It tastes quite odd, in my head I’d imagined they tasted like melted Werther’s originals, but they taste quite butterscotchy at first but after a few sips it does lose it’s flavour and it just tastes like fizzy water! I’m thinking the white frothy bit on top is actually what gives it the sweet flavour..

Too many people standing in the way of No.4 Privet Drive to get a good picture..

Pieces from the giant chess set..

Now one of the best parts… DIAGON ALLEY!

Ollivanders…

I loved these paper model buildings..

Hogwarts model..

The finale: HOGWARTS CASTLE…

The lights go down every few minutes and the lights inside the castle go on…

It then goes through to a wand room where each box is labelled with a different persons name..

then the ultimate GIFT SHOP..

Chocolate frogs!! (yes they were a bit expensive – everything in the gift shop was, but it’s all part of the experience!)

I loved the Slytherin stuff, the one thing I was definitely going to buy was a Slytherin scarf, only problem was I couldn’t decide which one..

In the end I got the one with the snake on that said Slytherin as I thought that was the original one, but now I kinda wish I’d gotten the other one as that one is more practical! Oh well..

All in all I loved the tour! There was so much to see and so much I wanted to buy too! You definitely need a good 3 hours to have a good look at everything.. I mean if your only going to go once you don’t want to rush your visit!

I took over 500 pictures and these ones on here are just a few of my best favourite pictures so don’t forget your camera! I’d love to go back again as theres probably some things I missed that I’d like to see again!

Here’s the things I bought from the gift shop..