LONDON · ENGLAND
The crown, the river, and the days out.
Royal palaces and the Tower, cruises down the Thames and open-top buses, ghost walks and old City pubs, and the great day trips out to Stonehenge, Bath and the Cotswolds.
Only here
Three things you can only do in London.
Castles, museums and river cruises turn up in every city break. The working Crown Jewels, the real Harry Potter sets and the Changing of the Guard belong to London alone.
The Crown
The Crown Jewels
The working royal regalia sits behind armoured glass inside the Tower of London, watched over by the Yeomen Warders who still live within the walls. The Imperial State Crown, the Sovereign's Sceptre with its 530-carat diamond, and a thousand years of coronation history, all held in the same fortress that has guarded them since the Conqueror.
- 1 Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition Ticket
- 2 London Sightseeing Tour: Guard Change with Tower of London Option
- 3 London: Tower of London Entry & Beefeater Private Audience
The real sets
The Making of Harry Potter
The films were shot at Leavesden, just north of the city, and the studio is now a walk through the actual sets. Stand in the Great Hall, walk down Diagon Alley, ride the Hogwarts Express from Platform nine and three-quarters. Every prop and panel is the real thing, kept exactly as the cameras left it.
- 1 From London: Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour
- 2 Magical London: Harry Potter Guided Walking Tour
- 3 London: Warner Bros. Studio Tour with Transfers
Household Division
Changing of the Guard
On the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, the Old Guard hands the monarch's protection to the New in a piece of ceremony that has run in some form since 1660. Bearskin caps, a regimental band, and the household cavalry in the road. A guide gets you to the right railings before the crowd builds ten deep.
- 1 Buckingham Palace: The State Rooms Entrance Ticket
- 2 London: Buckingham Palace & Changing of the Guard Experience
- 3 London Sightseeing Tour: Guard Change with Tower of London Option
The one everyone books
Start with the London icon everyone books first.
If you have a single afternoon in the city, this is where most first-time visitors begin.
The classics
London's Most Popular Tours & Tickets
The London Eye, the Tower, the Warner Bros. studio and a cruise down the Thames. The experiences most visitors book first.
Where to begin
The London trips worth planning around.
A cruise down the Thames, a day out at Stonehenge, the studio where they made Harry Potter, the open-top bus loop, a guided walk and the Tower. The handful of trips most London visits are built around, and the best way to do each.
First-timer's question
See London by bus, by boat, or on foot.
Three ways to take the measure of the city. The open-top bus for the whole map, the river for the landmarks, a guided walk for the corners in between. Most first-timers do all three.
The collections
The world's treasures, and most of them are free.
No other city keeps this much under one roof. The Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon marbles at the British Museum, Van Gogh and Turner at the National Gallery, the blue whale and the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum, design and jewels at the V and A. A guide turns an overwhelming collection into the dozen things you actually came to see.
Read the guide: London's best museum tours →The river
The city is best read from the water.
London grew up along the Thames, and the river still threads past nearly every landmark worth seeing. Westminster and the Eye, the South Bank, the Tower and Tower Bridge, then out to maritime Greenwich. Glide it by day, or sail under the lit bridges after dark.
Thames cruises & boat trips →After dark
A darker city comes out after sunset.
When the crowds thin and the lamps come on, the East End fills with the ghosts of Victorian London. A guide walks you through the real Whitechapel streets where Jack the Ripper struck in 1888, past haunted pubs and old burial grounds, with the case files and the folklore that still divide the experts.
- 1 London: The Original Jack the Ripper Walking Tour
- 2 London Jack the Ripper Guided Tour with Ripper-Vision
- 3 Ghost, Ghouls and Gallows Tour : Guided Tour with Boat Ride
Royal London
A thousand years of crown and ceremony.
No city wears its monarchy like London. The Crown Jewels behind armoured glass at the Tower, the guard changing on the forecourt of Buckingham Palace, the coronation chair at Westminster Abbey, and Windsor Castle a short ride west. A guided ticket skips the queues and joins up the thousand years of history between them.
Start at the Tower of London →Beyond the city
England's best days start in London.
Stonehenge for the standing stones. Windsor for the castle. Bath for the Romans. The Cotswolds for the villages. Oxford for the colleges. And the Warner Bros. studio for the wizards.
By activity
Or pick how to spend the day.
A river cruise if you want the skyline. A guided walk if you want the backstreets. The open-top bus if you want all of it at once. Ripper lore, old pubs, museums and the rest in between.
Plan it
Three perfect days in London.
First time in the city? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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