A one-day itinerary for London
How to get the most out of just 24 hours in London
Doing London in just one day takes full-throttle sightseeing. No, you won't get to spend nearly enough time at each sight, but at least you'll get a good taste of the best London has to offer.
Get up early and be at the Tower of London before it opens 9am (it helps to buy skip-the-line tickets ahead of time) so you can get on the first Yeoman Warder tour of this bastion of London's Middle Ages.
Time: 110 min. (The tour lasts an hour. Budget another 30 minutes to tour the White Tower, and 20 minutes for the Crown Jewels.)
Transit: District or Circle to Tower Hill.
The ancient Thameside castle at the heart of London, where London began, ravens roam, and Yoeman Warders guard the Crown Jewels
Head to the famed Westminster Abbey to pay homage to the British monarchs, English poets, and other notables buried inside.
Just before or after your visit (depending on how hungry you are), grab some lunch on the go. I recommend a quick sandwich at the kiosk by the Abbey's West Towers, though if you need a sit-down break, take 30 minutes to dine in the Abbey's Cellarium.
Time: 90 min. (70 min. for the Abbey, 20 min. for lunch. Not really enough time in Westminster, but we have a lot to do today.)
Transit: District or Circle to Westminster.
London's great Gothic abbey is packed with the tombs and monuments of British monarchs and some the world's most famous playwrights, poets, scientists, and other notables
Make sure you hop the Tube at Westminster station so you have a chance to see the iconic Elizabeth Tower of the Parliament building—which most people call "Big Ben" (technically, that's just the name of one of the bells inside the tower). Once the bells are chiming again (scheduled for summer 2021), stick around long enough to hear it to ring the hour with its famous Cambridge Chimes tune.
Time: 10 min.
Transit: Walk.
London's iconic exclamation point, the clock tower housing Big Ben, sprouts from the honey-hued complex of be-spired 1840 buildings where British Parliament meets (and you can attend sessions)
Make your way to the British Museum. You'll only have time for the highlights—Rosetta Stone, Egyptian mummies, Elgin Marbles, etc.
Time: 105 min. (Budget 75 minutes for the collections, and another 15 minutes at the awesome museum shop.)
Transit: District or Circle to Embankment, then Northern to Tottenham Court Road.
One of the greatest museums on the planet, a repository of astounding artifacts from throughout human history all around the globe, from the Rosetta Stone to the Parthenon Marbles to an Easter Island moai and much, much, much more
Walk though the Covent Garden neighborhood to the north side of Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, filled with Old Master paintings.
Time: 90 min.
Transit: Walk. (You could take the Tube—Northern to Charing Cross—bit it's not far, and you really should see some of London's streets.)
England's greatest repository of Old Masters paintings, with works by Leonardo, Botticelli, Rembrandt, Monet, Degas, and more
Have an early-ish dinner, then spend the evening doing whatever floats your boat (some ideas are below)
Time: 90 min.
For your evening plans, choose one of the following:
Sorry. Nothing fits that criteria.
Option 1: Attend a play or a show.
Option 2: Indulge in a pub crawl (an early play may leave you time to pub-crawl a bit afterward).
Option 3: Just drink in the street acts and nighttime crowds milling around Leicester Square, Piccadilly, and Covent Garden.
A bustling plaza of buskers, tourists, theatre-goers, and pub crawlers at the heart of London's West End
Since this itinerary takes into account travel time (walking, taking the Tube, driving, whatever):
- The times in grey circles are the times by which you need to start moving in order to go to the next stop.
- The times in blue circles are the times by which you should arrive at that stop to begin the fun.
- Viator.com - Best one-stop shopping site for all sorts of activities, walking tours, bus tours, escorted day trips, and other excursions. It is actually a clearinghouse for many local tour companies and outfitters, and since it gets a bulk-rate deal on pricing (and takes only a token fee for itself), you can actually sometimes book an activity through Viator for less than it would cost to buy the same exact tour from the tour company itself. (I once booked a Dublin pub crawl via Viator and later discovered that I saved about $1.50; also, the tour turned out to be sold-out, and they were turning away the folks in front of me in line, but since I had a pre-booked voucher I got in.)Partner
- Londonwalks.com - Since the 1970s, the gold standard in city walking tours and museum tours—and cheap, to boot. Just meet your guide at the appointed time and place (usually a Tube stop), pay your £10 (students or over 65s are £8; under 15 free), and prepare for a good two hours of amazing cultural insight and historic anecdotes. If you plan on taking three or more walks, buy a "Frequent London Walker" card for £2 from your first guide, then each subsequent walk costs £8. They also run popular excursions outside London for £18. Note that the fee just covers the guided tour; you pay for any admissions (or, for excursions, travel expenses) yourself.
- Contexttravel.com - This bespoke walking tour company doesn't even call its 200 tour leaders "guides." It calls them "docents"—perhaps because most guides are academics and specialists in their fields: history professors, archeologists, PhDs, art historians, artists, etc. Groups are miniscule (often six people maximum), and most docents can be booked for private guiding sessions as well. They aren't always the cheapest tours, but they are invariably the best. People rave about Context.Partner
- City-discovery.com - Chief rival to Viator (though with a less spiffy interface and often sub-par text descriptions), representing many of the same tours (at the same prices). However, it also seems to cover more destinations, especially secondary ones. When it comes down to it, City-Discovery and Viator have maybe 70% the same inventory, but then 30% will be completely different (some Viator has City-Discovery does not, other vice-versa) so it pays to check through the offerings from both.Partner
- Visitlondon - Official tourism information site for London.
- Londonpass - Sightseeing and transport discount pass.Partner
- Londontown.com - Excellent independent tourism office and online guide to London.
- Timeout.com - Premier events, theater, and cultural happenings guide (plus food and drink) for major cities. In the U.K, covers London, Edingburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, and Bristol, and Brighton
- Cityoflondon.gov.uk - The City of London has its own tourism site—and the only sizeable info kiosk in the center of London. they're also the only ones who will answer the phone.
- London Evening Standard - London's top free local paper has good events and restaurant listings
- Where London - This is that events guide and mini-guidebook magazine you get free in mide-range hotels all aroudn the world. Covers the top stuff, and current events, but a distant second to Time Out.
- Visitgreenwich.org.uk - Covering the semi-independent Royal Borough of Greenwich—part of Greater London, but really a (well worthwhile) daytrip in its own right.
