This blog post covers many of the major locations to visit in London. It’s meant as a grab bag rather than a specific itinerary.

Overview: Sights and activities around London

Duration: 1-7 days. This blog is presented as a collection of activities from multiple trips to London

Locations visited: Tower of London, Big Ben, London Eye, British Museum, Football Stadium, and more

How to get there: Fly into London Heathrow Airport (LHR); take the train or Uber/taxi to the city. It can take up to 1.5-2 hours to get from the airport to Central London depending on traffic, so plan accordingly.

How to get around: Walking, London Underground (aka the Tube), Uber/Taxi

When to go: Summer has the best weather, but London is fairly mild year round. The winter days are shorter and more gloomy.

Future trips: Borough Market, Regent Park, explore more bars and restaurants, including the Top of the Strand Rooftop Bar

*Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, as seen from the London Eye*

A few general notes on London:

London has a great public transportation system with the London Underground. It’s clean, safe, and reliable, unlike many other subway systems.
Petty theft and pickpocketing are incredibly common. Hold your phone securely with both hands when using it on the street. Do not leave your phone on the table at a restaurant or bar, and always keep your bag secured, even when sitting down.
London is a fairly early-night city compared to much of Europe. “Going out” starts around happy hour and often wraps up before midnight.
Pub and bar culture is big. Be sure to check out a few traditional London-style pubs. If you’re around on the weekend, Sunday Roast is a classic British meal served at many pubs and restaurants.

Bus Tour

I’m always a huge fan of the double-decker hop-on/hop-off buses as an introduction to a large city. The London tour is no different; you’ll spend a few hours to a half day (depending on the loop size) getting a guided overview of the city. Personally, I like to sit on the bus for the entire loop to get a full overview—and to get the best seats. I return to the main points of interest later in the day or the following day. The bus also provides a relaxing experience if you’ve been running around sightseeing. When available, I tend to take Big Bus Tours.

Tower of London

One of London’s most iconic tourist locations, the Tower of London was originally constructed between 1050 and 1100 and sits on the north side of the Thames River. Since then, it has served as a royal residence, fortress, prison, and the Royal Mint.

Today, you can explore the main White Tower and its museum of military equipment. The outer fortifications and buildings are also accessible. One of the main attractions is the Crown Jewels. The experience is now more controlled, but when I first visited ~15 years ago, the collection was more extensive, and visitors could wander more freely and take photos.

Visiting the Tower of London requires a ticket and an entrance fee

London Eye

London’s most popular modern attraction, the London Eye, is a Ferris wheel on the south side of the Thames River. It has 32 pods and takes 30 minutes for a full rotation, offering plenty of time to take photos of Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the City of London.

Lines can be long depending on the time and ticket type. Nearby, you’ll find coffee shops and attractions like the London Dungeon and the Aquarium. Be sure to walk along the waterfront before or after, and cross Westminster Bridge to see Big Ben and Parliament up close.

Big Ben & Houses of Parliament

Across the river from the London Eye, Big Ben (technically the bell; the clocktower is Elizabeth Tower) is London’s most iconic landmark. It’s part of the Houses of Parliament, which includes the House of Lords and the House of Commons.

For most visitors, this is a photo-stop rather than an in-depth tour. Limited tours of Big Ben and Parliament are available, but they book out months in advance and are only available at certain parts of the year.

Westminster Abbey & St. Margaret's Church

Westminster Abbey, built around 900 AD, has hosted every coronation since 1066 and many royal weddings. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and requires a ticket to enter. Nearby, St. Margaret’s Church (dating from 1523) sits on Parliament Square.

British Museum

The British Museum is England’s most famous museum and one of the largest in the world, with over 8 million pieces. It focuses on art, culture, and human history. Highlights include the Rosetta Stone, sculptures from the Parthenon, and the Assyrian Balawat Gates. It’s a good place to spend a few hours to half a day. The museum itself is very well curated, with a tasteful layout, good flow, and the right amount of “stuff” in any given room.

The British Museum, like all public museums in England, is free to visit; however, you can purchase skip the line tickets, or tickets to their special rotating exhibits.

Hyde Park & Kensington Palace

Hyde Park, one of London’s largest parks, spans 350 acres and was once a royal hunting ground, and is adjacent to the Mayfair neighborhood. Today, it’s great for walks, bike rides, and concerts. The southwest area features the Serpentine Galleries, Princess Diana Memorial Fountain, and the Albert Memorial.

On the western end, Kensington Palace has housed British royals since 1689, including Prince William and Kate Middleton. Parts of the palace are open to the public.

Buckingham Palace

Buckingham Palace is the primary royal residence in London and a major tourist attraction. The iconic Changing of the Guard ceremony happens multiple times per week around 11 AM, drawing large crowds. During select summer dates, visitors can tour the opulent State Rooms, offering a glimpse into royal life.

Thames River Boat

There are multiple boat tours down the Thames River, generally starting near the Tower of London or Big Ben. Oftentimes, if you book one of the bus tours, you’ll receive free entry to the boat tour. These provide a new vantage point of London from the Thames and offer unique views of Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Big Ben, and the Houses of Parliament, along with all the sights in between. Boats leave every 15-30 minutes and take about 30-45 minutes to sail down the river. I highly recommend taking one if you have extra time (and a free ticket).

Fashion and Textile Museum

One of London’s more boutique museums, the Fashion and Textile Museum focuses on rotating exhibitions of fashion in London. In addition to the museum, there’s a textile workshop, a printing studio, and a gift shop. It takes about an hour to go through the museum at a leisurely pace. The area has lots of cute coffee shops and restaurants, and nearby is the White Cube Bermondsey modern art gallery.

Shopping in Mayfair & Knightsbridge

If you’re looking for designer shopping, check out Mayfair and Knightsbridge, which are east and south of Hyde Park, respectively. Mayfair has many individual stores, especially on Bond Street and Mount Street. Around the holidays, many of the stores put significant effort into decorating their storefronts.

Knightsbridge hosts famous department stores such as Harrods and Harvey Nichols, along with individual stores for a variety of brands. Unfortunately, the UK discontinued its VAT tax refund for non-European citizens.

Natural History Museum

Another one of London’s famous public (and free) museums, the Natural History Museum contains exhibits related to geology, dinosaurs, mammals, botany, and mineralogy. It’s located in South Kensington, near some of the other museums. Highlights include Hintze Hall, which features a blue whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling, the Dinosaur Gallery, The Vault (gemstones and minerals), Earth Hall, and the Wildlife Photography Exhibit. The museum, which opened in 1881, also contains specimens collected by Charles Darwin.

When I visited the museum midday in August, it was fairly packed, especially in the main areas. It was easy to get lost—not in a good way—especially off the main Hintze Hall. There were multiple exhibits I kept trying to find, but for the life of me, I could not figure out how to get to them, and I pride myself on being good with maps and directions. Additionally, only parts of the museum were air-conditioned, which made the experience in the summer significantly less pleasant. All in all, I didn’t find the museum to be all that special compared to other natural history museums, such as the ones in New York or Houston.

Victoria and Albert Museum

Also located on Museum Row in South Kensington, the Victoria and Albert Museum focuses on art and culture throughout the centuries and across the world. It’s well put together and has unique exhibits ranging from European rooms and objects (1600-1800), Britain through the ages, and the Near and Far East to sculptures and more specialized collections, such as research casts of famous sculptures and temples, fashion, ironwork, jewelry, photography, silver, stained glass, and contemporary glass. The museum can be a bit confusing and easy to get lost in, but each exhibit is well-constructed and unique.

It feels like an art museum, only better and more engaging.

Like all public museums in England, this one is free to enter, except for special exhibitions that require a ticket.

National Gallery & Trafalgar Square

Finishing up with London’s popular museums, we have the National Gallery, located on Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster. It houses European paintings from the 13th to the 20th century and includes works by da Vinci, Van Gogh, Monet, and Rembrandt among its 2,300 pieces. Some of its most famous works include:

Van Gogh’s Sunflowers
Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks
Monet’s Water-Lily Pond
Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire
Caravaggio’s Supper at Emmaus

The National Gallery is fairly compact and can be toured in 1-3 hours. I found the style of the artwork to be fairly similar, meaning you’re likely to either greatly enjoy it or quickly get bored, depending on your opinion of European paintings from the given timeframe. It’s significantly less diverse than the other museums on the list.

As mentioned, the gallery sits on Trafalgar Square, a public square built in the early 19th century. The square commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, in which the British Navy defeated the French and Spanish during the Napoleonic Wars.

Premier League

If you’re visiting between August and May, consider checking out a Premier League football (aka soccer) game to experience a common British pastime. You can buy tickets to see one of the local London clubs—Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham, Brentford, Crystal Palace, West Ham, and Fulham—or watch the game at a bar. Most games take place on Saturday and Sunday afternoons or evenings. While in London, we went to Emirates Stadium to watch an Arsenal game.

Tower Bridge & London Bridge

London’s two most famous bridges over the Thames River are Tower Bridge and London Bridge, with Tower Bridge being the more iconic and most photographed of the two. Tower Bridge is next to the Tower of London and connects Tower Hamlets to Southwark. It’s free to walk or drive across, and there are great photo spots along the waterfront on both sides of the river. If you want to go up into the bridge’s towers and explore a small museum on the steam engines that once powered the lifts, you’ll need a ticket.

London Bridge, often confused with Tower Bridge, connects the City of London to Southwark. While bridges have existed at this location since the Roman Empire, the most recent iteration, completed in 1973, is a simple concrete and steel structure.

St. Paul’s Cathedral

A church has stood on the site of St. Paul’s since 604. The current building was largely constructed after the Great Fire of London destroyed the previous structure. For over 200 years, the cathedral’s dome was the tallest building in London, and it remains one of the largest domes in the world.

There is an entrance fee to the cathedral. Two of the highlights are the Dome & Whispering Gallery, which sits 257 steps above the church floor, where sound travels along the curved walls. If you continue to climb 528 more steps to the top of the dome, you’ll reach the Stone and Golden Galleries, which offer fantastic views of London.

Shoreditch

Shoreditch is an up-and-coming area of London that gives off a similar hipster/artsy vibe to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In Shoreditch, you can check out Whitechapel Gallery, a contemporary art gallery; Village Underground, which features murals and repurposed train carriages; and the Street Art Tour, which includes works by Banksy, ROA, and Stik.

While in Shoreditch, check out some of the famous food locations, including Boxpark, Spitalfields Market, and Dishoom.

This wraps up London - Happy Travels!

London - UK