Give London four days and walk the centre in slices. Devote one to the City and the Tower, one to Westminster and the South Bank, one to the museum quarter in South Kensington, and one to a market and a neighbourhood you have never heard of. The national museums charge nothing for their permanent collections, so the budget goes on food, theatre and the two or three ticketed sights that genuinely earn it.
London is not one city and never pretends to be. The square mile of the City empties at the weekend, Soho fills, and the villages the map calls boroughs each run their own high street and their own accent. The useful strategy is to stop trying to see it all: pick two areas a day and walk between them.
Nearly a thousand years of fortress, prison, mint and palace on one riverside site, and the most complete surviving eleventh-century fortress palace in Europe. Arrive at opening and go straight to the Crown Jewels before the queue forms, then double back for the White Tower and the wall walk. The Yeoman Warder tours are included and are the best hour of the visit.
Eight million objects and a glass-roofed Great Court that works as a landmark in its own right. Entry to the permanent collection costs nothing, which changes how you use it: come twice for an hour each rather than once for four. The Egyptian and Assyrian galleries draw the crowds, so start upstairs and work down.
The coronation church since 1066 and the burial place of monarchs, poets and scientists, packed into a space that rewards looking up. It forms a UNESCO World Heritage site with the Palace of Westminster next door. Come on a weekday morning, and check the day's services first: the abbey closes to sightseers around them.
A wholesale market since the middle ages and now the most serious food hall in the city, sitting under the railway arches beside Southwark Cathedral. Weekdays are for buying (cheese, bread, produce). Saturday is for eating standing up and accepting the crush. Go hungry and skip breakfast.
A decommissioned power station turned into the best-sited modern art museum in Europe. The Turbine Hall installation is the reason to check what is on before you go, and the Blavatnik Building viewing level puts the river and St Paul's in one frame. The permanent collection is free.
Wren's dome survived the Blitz and still sets the shape of the City skyline. The climb matters more than the floor: the Whispering Gallery, then the Stone Gallery, then the Golden Gallery at the top for the best view of the river bend. It is a working cathedral, so sightseeing hours are shorter than you expect.
Created in 1759, inscribed by UNESCO in 2003, and home to more than 50,000 living plants, the largest and most diverse botanical collection anywhere. It is a half day rather than an afternoon: the Palm House, the Temperate House and the treetop walkway are spread across 300 acres. Best in late spring, when the whole place is doing something.
A faithful reconstruction of the open-air playhouse, a few hundred metres from where the original stood. Standing in the yard as a groundling is the cheapest ticket in London theatre and by far the best way to see it: no roof, no seat, and the actors working the crowd. The outdoor season runs through the warmer months.
Eight hundred acres of unmanicured heath in north London, which is exactly what separates it from the royal parks. Parliament Hill holds the protected view south over the whole skyline, and the swimming ponds run year round for people who mean it. Walk up from Hampstead village and come down through Kenwood.
Longitude zero, fixed here as the world standard in 1884, on a hill above the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage site. Come by river rather than rail: the boat down from Westminster is half the point, and the observatory, the Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum sit within ten minutes of each other at the far end.
A riverside tavern in Wapping with a flagstone floor and a terrace over the Thames at the point where the tide turns.
A Bloomsbury Victorian with its etched snob screens still in place, which is rarer than it sounds.
An Arts and Crafts interior of marble, mosaic and bronze monks, squeezed onto a triangular corner by Blackfriars station.
Ale and cider only, no food beyond a pork pie, and usually somebody at the piano by the evening.
A narrow Covent Garden bar with stained glass, a rotating cask list and standing room out on the pavement.
A single east London street that becomes a wall of plants on Sunday mornings and nothing at all the rest of the week.
Antiques at the Notting Hill end on Saturdays, food and general goods further north during the week.
A dense square of restaurants, theatres, record shops and drinking dens between Oxford Street and Chinatown.
Furniture trade, then galleries, now bars and restaurants. Best on a weekday, when it goes back to being a working district.
Pastel terraces, the Portobello market and the carnival in August. Quieter and more residential than the films suggest.
A village high street a block from Oxford Street, with independent shops and the calmest good restaurants in central London.
The most changed neighbourhood in south London: galleries, a rooftop bar in a car park, and Rye Lane doing what it always did.
Medieval street plan, Italian delis, design studios and St. JOHN. Dead at weekends, which is part of the appeal.
College quads, the Bodleian and the Ashmolean, roughly an hour by train from Paddington or Marylebone.
The other one: flatter, more compact, with punting on the Cam behind the colleges. Under an hour from King's Cross.
Marching bands and floats from Piccadilly to Parliament Square.
Chinatown and Trafalgar Square host the largest celebration outside Asia.
Greenwich to The Mall. The 2026 race ran on 26 April.
The Royal Hospital grounds turn into show gardens for a week.
The King's Birthday Parade on Horse Guards, held on 13 June in 2026.
Grass-court tennis in SW19, with a public ballot and a daily queue.
Eight weeks of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, with standing tickets each night.
Europe's largest street carnival over the August bank holiday, 30 and 31 August in 2026.
The main hub, 23 km west. The Elizabeth line reaches Paddington in around 25 minutes and carries on across the centre; the Heathrow Express is faster and costs more.
The three outlying airports, each served by a dedicated express train into Victoria, Liverpool Street and St Pancras. Budget 30 to 50 minutes on the train plus the transfer at the airport end.
The terminals fan out to the rest of Britain, and Eurostar runs to Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam from St Pancras. Book long-distance tickets in advance.
Beef or lamb, roast potatoes, gravy and a Yorkshire pudding, served in pubs from lunchtime until it runs out.
Battered cod or haddock with thick-cut chips. Salt, vinegar, no ketchup.
Eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, mushroom, tomato and toast. Built to cover the whole morning.
Minced beef pie, mashed potato and parsley liquor. An East End trade now down to a handful of shops.
Invented in Britain, refined in curry houses, and the dish that best explains modern British food.
Brick Lane, at any hour, with mustard and a pickled cucumber. The queue moves fast.
Scones with clotted cream and jam, finger sandwiches, and an argument about which goes on the scone first.
Broken meringue, cream and strawberries. Summer, and no more complicated than it looks.
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