import urllib2, pprint, xml.dom.minidom request = urllib2.Request('https://infoconnect1.highwayinfo.govt.nz/ic/jbi/SsdfJourney2/REST/FeedService/journeys') request.add_header('Username', 'AlistairE') request.add_header('Password', '********************') response = urllib2.urlopen(request) data = response.read() # data = '' f = open('/Users/Qrious2/Documents/Qrious/NZTA/test.txt', 'w') f.write(data) xml = xml.dom.minidom.parse(data) # or xml.dom.minidom.parseString(xml_string) pretty_xml_as_string = xml.toprettyxml() print(pretty_xml_as_string) f.close()