London, UK
Free museums, West End theatre, and 300 languages. June and September are prime; December sparkles.
Best time to visit
Weather by month
Cost
Serves travellers at Backpacker→Ultra-luxury level. Typically around $250 a day on the ground.
Ranges are typical costs, not quotes. Check the real price before you book.
What's on
Wimbledon June
The Championships
Notting Hill Carnival August
Europe's biggest street festival
Worth knowing
The Underground, the buses and walking, in that order. A car is a liability: the congestion and emissions zones cover the centre and parking is worse than the charges.
getting around · editorial
Heathrow is closest and sits on the Underground. Gatwick, Stansted and Luton are each a thirty to fifty minute express train into different central stations. City airport is on the DLR and nearest of all.
getting there · editorial
The national museums are free but their special exhibitions are not, and the free ones still want a timed ticket at peak times. Tube lines and rail routes close at weekends for engineering work, so check before building a Sunday around one.
know before · editorial
Contactless covers everything, including buses, which take no cash at all. Tipping is modest: service is often already added in restaurants, and nobody tips in a pub.
money · editorial
There is no bad month, only wet ones. Christmas Day shuts the entire transport network, and the school half-terms and summer holidays put an hour onto every attraction queue.
when not to go · editorial
Bloomsbury and the South Bank for museums and walking, Soho and Covent Garden for theatre and noise, Shoreditch and Hackney for east London evenings, South Kensington for the big museums and quiet streets, Greenwich or Hammersmith for space and a longer ride in.
where to stay · editorial
Quests
Icon
Tower Bridge
Cross it on foot. The bridge everyone calls London Bridge is not this one.
Big Ben and Westminster
The bell has the name; the tower is Elizabeth Tower. Stay for a full hour chime.
London Eye
Thirty minutes for the full turn. Go on a clear day or do not go.
Buckingham Palace
The flag flying tells you whether the monarch is at home. The central gate is the spot.
British Museum
The covered Great Court on its own is worth the admission — which is free.
Camden Market
A maze of old stable sheds. Go in from Chalk Farm Road.
See
Go into the British Museum and look at one thing only
Eat
Eat a sunday roast in a pub, on a Sunday
Fish and chips wrapped in paper
Standing up, with malt vinegar. Sitting down is not the same.
Curry on Brick Lane
Some of the best Indian food in the world is served in London, and that is no accident.
A pint in a corner pub on a Thursday
Genuinely warm beer. Drink one before judging.
Moment
Walk the South Bank from the Tate to Borough at dusk
Parliament Hill at dawn
The whole city skyline at once, and almost nobody awake.
An evensong choir in any old church
Free to enter, almost every day, and almost nobody knows.
Trail
The Thames on foot, Tower Bridge to Westminster
Five kilometres along the south bank, no rush, ten bridges on the way.