Having grown up in the 90's Laura and I still were within the target age group of people to originally get swept up into the world of Harry Potter when the books were first released. Being both a huge fan of the source material and of movies, in general, it was all but a done deal to visit the Harry Potter Studio tour when we went through England in September.

From the research done before our trip we saw that the number one thing to account for when wanting to visit the studios is to pre-purchase your tickets. In most situations in fact its the only way to experience it, so don't be those people and just show up day of because it is quite a journey to get to it.

The trip out from London takes about 1 hour by train and then from there you need to queue up for a special bus to take you the rest of the way, roughly 10 minutes. On the morning that we arrived there was a queue roughly 15-20 minutes just to get on the bus so if you are planning on going in the busier times, keep this in mind. Once inside and through security you are met with a fantastic dragon skeleton hanging in the foyer. Watching everyone come in you can see they all have the same awestruck expression on their faces. At this very moment, you should know you are in the wrong place if you have no love of Harry Potter. Flanking the giant skeleton on the wall are the GIANT faces of all of the main cast.

When you book your tickets you will have a timeslot in which you may enter. There are options to purchase an audio guide (we eventually did and sort of regretted it) but no one will be leading you through the tour after the first few portions so you can visit the rooms at your own pace and trust me, there is a lot to see. I don't want to spoil the experience talking about each room so here are some of my favorite photos from the day:

This experience was one of the coolest out there, hands down. Between snacking on Butterbeer, flying on a broomstick (I put my all into it and sadly was too cheap to buy the footage), walking down Diagon Alley, having a dragon attack inside Gringotts and seeing the full scale model of Hogwarts, the Harry Potter Studio Tour will go down as one of the top highlights of our trip. The one souvenir that everyone (even Laura) could agree with left tucked under Harry's arm - the 4th HP book The Goblet of Fire.

-Jonathan