The Best Things to Do in London (2026)

The big sights. These six are the London most people picture, and most of the paid ones cost £27 to £40. Two a day is plenty. Start with the Tower of London: a castle, a royal palace and a prison over nearly a thousand years, and the home of the Crown Jewels. The Yeoman Warders (the Beefeaters) lead the tours, and they're the best part. It's the one paid sight I'd put first on any first trip.

Price: £38 adult from 1 October 2026 (£37 until 30 September). Allow: at least two hours; the site says an hour for the Crown Jewels alone. Book: online ahead and go at opening. Tube: Tower Hill (District, Circle). The drawback: some rooms are closed for conservation, and the cobbles are hard work with a stroller.

Westminster Abbey is where English monarchs have been crowned since 1066, and where many are buried, along with Newton, Darwin and a whole corner of poets. The included multimedia guide keeps it moving. For the building without the ticket, come to Evensong, usually 5pm on weekdays: it's a free service, sung by the choir, and the cheapest way to hear music in the building.

Price: £32 adult (one child included); services free. Allow: 1.5-2 hours. Book: on the Abbey's own site, which lets you upgrade to an annual pass free. Closed to sightseers on Sundays. Tube: Westminster (Jubilee, District, Circle).

St Paul's Cathedral is Christopher Wren's masterpiece, and the ticket includes the crypt and all three dome galleries. The climb is the reason to pay: 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery, 528 to the Golden Gallery at the top, with the whole City below you. If stairs are a problem, the Sky Garden gives you the height for free.

Price: £27 adult, Monday to Saturday. Allow: 1.5-2 hours with the dome. Book: online for the fastest entry. No general sightseeing on Sundays (dome galleries only, until 25 October 2026). Tube: St Paul's (Central).

Buckingham Palace works two ways. Changing the Guard is free and happens at 11am on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, with the dates varying, so check the Household Division calendar the day before. The State Rooms open only in summer: the 2026 season ran 9 July to 27 September at £33 in advance (£37 on the day), and 2027 dates aren't announced yet. Out of season the only way in is a £100 guided tour on selected dates.

Price: free outside; State Rooms £33 in summer. Allow: 45 minutes for the guard; two hours or more for the State Rooms. Book: advance tickets save £4. Tube: Green Park (Jubilee, Piccadilly, Victoria). Honest take: the crowd at the railings is deep, and you'll see more of the band from the Mall.

Tower Bridge is free to walk across, and for most people that's enough. The paid exhibition takes you up to the two high-level walkways, 42 metres above the Thames, with glass floors, and down to the Victorian engine rooms. Check the bridge lift times on its site if you want to see the road rise for a ship.

Price: from £18 adult online; crossing free. Allow: 1-1.5 hours. Book: online, up to eight weeks ahead; the queue is outdoors. Tube: Tower Hill (District, Circle). Do it the same morning as the Tower of London next door.

The Houses of Parliament have two very different ways in. The paid tours run on Saturdays, and on weekdays only when Parliament is in recess. The free one is the public gallery: queue at the Cromwell Green visitor entrance and watch a real debate in the Commons or the Lords. Big Ben has its own separate tour at £55, and it isn't on the standard one.

Price: guided tour £40 adult online (£43 on the day), audio tour £31; the galleries are free. Allow: 90 minutes for a tour, plus 20 minutes for airport-style security. Book: online ahead. Tube: Westminster (Jubilee, District, Circle).

The free outdoors. London's Royal Parks are free, most open their gates at 5am, and they're big enough to feel like a break from the city. St James's Park is the one you'll cross anyway, between Westminster and Buckingham Palace. The pelicans are the draw: there have been pelicans here since 1664, a gift to Charles II from a Russian ambassador, and they're fed every day, usually around 2.30pm.

Price: free. Allow: 30-45 minutes. Tube: St James's Park (District, Circle). Walk the lake path rather than the Mall; it's the prettier way to the palace.

Hyde Park runs into Kensington Gardens, and together they make the green line from the West End to the South Kensington museums. Use it as the walk between sights rather than a destination: Hyde Park Corner to the museums is about a half-hour on foot.

Price: free. Allow: an hour or two. Tube: Hyde Park Corner (Piccadilly) or Marble Arch (Central). Skip it in heavy rain; the museums are the better plan then.

Greenwich Park is the best half-day out of the centre. The park is free, the view from the hill by the Royal Observatory takes in the whole Docklands skyline, and the National Maritime Museum and the Queen's House at the bottom are free too. The Observatory, where you can stand on the Prime Meridian, and the Cutty Sark clipper ship are the paid extras.

Price: park and two museums free; Royal Observatory £24 adult until it closes on 2 November 2026 (a joint ticket with the Cutty Sark is £38 until then); Cutty Sark £22. Allow: half a day. Getting there: the river boat out (below) and the DLR back from Cutty Sark station.

Museums and galleries. The national museums are free, and they're some of the best in the world. The British Museum is the one I'd never skip: the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures, the Egyptian mummies and the Sutton Hoo treasure, all under one roof and all free. Don't try to see it all. Pick three galleries and leave.

Price: free (paid exhibitions extra). Allow: 2-3 hours. Book: a free timed ticket; without one, entry depends on capacity. Fridays run to 8.30pm. Tube: Tottenham Court Road (Central, Northern) or Holborn (Central, Piccadilly). No wheeled suitcases.

The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square holds Western painting from the 1200s to 1900: Van Gogh's Sunflowers (on loan to Philadelphia until 11 October 2026), Turner, Constable, Titian. It's free and central, so drop in for an hour between other sights rather than making it a whole morning. One caveat: building work runs until 2028, so some rooms are closed and some paintings have moved.

Price: free. Allow: 1.5-2 hours. Book: a free ticket speeds entry; walk-up is fine. Open to 9pm on Fridays. Tube: Charing Cross (Northern, Bakerloo) or Leicester Square (Northern, Piccadilly).

The V&A is the museum of design and decorative art: fashion, jewellery, furniture, ceramics, the cast courts full of plaster copies of famous sculpture. It's the one to choose over the Natural History Museum if you're travelling without children, and its garden café is a good place to stop.

Price: free, no booking needed. Allow: about two hours. Open to 10pm on Fridays. Tube: South Kensington (District, Circle, Piccadilly).

Tate Modern fills an old power station on the South Bank with modern and contemporary art. The Turbine Hall alone is worth walking into. Then take the lift to the Level 10 café for a free view straight across the Millennium Bridge to St Paul's.

Price: free for the collection; big exhibitions are paid. Allow: 1.5-2 hours. Open to 9pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Tube: Southwark (Jubilee) or Blackfriars (District, Circle). Pair it with Borough Market, a short walk east along the river.

Churchill War Rooms is the underground bunker where Churchill and his cabinet ran the Second World War, left much as it was when the lights went off in 1945, with a museum of his life attached. It's the paid museum I'd pick over the others in Westminster. It's underground, so skip it if tight spaces bother you.

Price: £34 adult (to 31 March 2027). Allow: 1.5-2 hours. Book: online; the site says it's quietest after 3pm. No suitcases. Tube: St James's Park (District, Circle) or Westminster.

Views. London has few natural high points, so height is worth paying for once, and there's a free option too. The London Eye gives you a slow 30-minute loop over Westminster and the river. It's the right choice for a first visit or with children. The price is the catch: £29 online at the cheapest and £39 walk-up, and at busy times you can queue 45 minutes on top.

Price: from £29 adult online, £39 walk-up. Allow: 30 minutes on the wheel, plus up to 45 minutes' queue at busy times. Book: online and early, as prices rise with demand. Closed all of January. Tube: Waterloo (Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern).

The Sky Garden is the free view: a glass-roofed garden at the top of a City skyscraper, with an open terrace looking over the Tower, and the Shard across the river. It's my pick of the views for value. The catch is the booking: free tickets for each week are released every Monday morning, three weeks ahead, and weekend slots go fast.

Price: free. Allow: an hour (tickets are valid for one). Book: three weeks ahead; bring photo ID if you look under 25. Tube: Monument (District, Circle).

The View from The Shard is the highest, with an open-air skydeck on Level 72. Go at sunset and stay as long as you like. If the day turns grey, the View Guarantee gives you a free return ticket. Check the calendar before you plan around it: it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays through September and October 2026.

Price: from £28 (varies by date and time). Allow: about an hour. Book: online for a sunset slot. Tube: London Bridge (Northern, Jubilee).

Primrose Hill is the free view locals use: a grassy hill at the north edge of Regent's Park, looking south over the whole skyline. Bring a coffee and go late afternoon. It's a short walk from London Zoo and Camden Market, so fold it into either.

Price: free. Allow: half an hour. Tube: Chalk Farm (Northern).

Markets and food. A London market is the cheapest good afternoon in the city. Borough Market is the food one: cheese, bread, oysters, and street-food stalls for lunch, under the railway arches by London Bridge. It's closed on Mondays, and Saturday lunchtime is packed, so a weekday morning is the time to come.

Price: free to browse. Allow: an hour or so. Hours: Tuesday to Friday 10am-5pm, Saturday 9am-5pm, Sunday 10am-4pm. Tube: London Bridge (Jubilee, Northern). For a sit-down meal, see the best restaurants in London.

Camden Market is the big, noisy one: vintage clothes, street food from everywhere, and the canal running through it. Come for the food and the people-watching rather than the souvenir stalls, which repeat themselves. Walk the Regent's Canal towpath out of it for a quieter half-hour.

Price: free to browse. Allow: 1.5-2 hours. Hours: daily 10am-7pm. Tube: Camden Town (Northern).

Columbia Road Flower Market runs on Sundays only, a single East End street filled with flower stalls and traders calling out prices. It's small, so an hour is enough, and it's my pick for a Sunday morning. Pair it with Brick Lane and Shoreditch afterwards.

Price: free to browse. Allow: an hour. Hours: Sundays from 8am until about 3pm. Getting there: Hoxton (Overground), seven minutes' walk.

Portobello Road Market is Notting Hill's long street market, open daily, but Saturday is the day: that's when the antiques arcades open, and the whole road fills. Walk it from the Notting Hill Gate end.

Price: free to browse. Allow: 1.5-2 hours. Hours: daily 8am-7pm; antiques arcades Saturdays only. Tube: Notting Hill Gate (Central, District, Circle).

A proper old pub. The George Inn in Southwark is London's last remaining galleried inn, owned by the National Trust and still a working pub. It was rebuilt after a fire in 1676, and Dickens knew it well enough to mention it in Little Dorrit. Sit in the yard under the wooden galleries with a pint. It's a pub first and a monument second, so expect a pub menu, not a museum.

Price: free to enter. Allow: an hour. Tube: London Bridge (Jubilee, Northern), two minutes from Borough Market.

Experiences. A West End show is the thing I'd book before anything else in London. The Official London Theatre Ticket Booth (still known as TKTS) on Leicester Square sells same-day and advance tickets for West End shows, some discounted and some at full price. For the biggest musicals, book online weeks ahead instead.

Price: varies by show. Allow: an evening. Hours: Monday to Saturday 10.30am-6pm, Sunday 11am-4pm. Tube: Leicester Square (Northern, Piccadilly). Skip the unofficial ticket shops around the square.

A boat on the Thames is the best way to see the river. The Uber Boat by Thames Clippers is a commuter service: pick it up at Westminster Pier and ride east past the South Bank, St Paul's and under Tower Bridge to Greenwich. Sit outside at the back for the view.

Price: Westminster to Greenwich £13.50 adult online or in the app (£17.70 at the pier), or by contactless £11.40 off-peak and £13.70 peak (weekends are peak all day), fares that change after 31 October 2026. Day ticket £29.30 online. Allow: 23 minutes from Tower Pier to Greenwich, longer from Westminster. Tube: Westminster (Jubilee, District, Circle).

Kew Gardens is the great botanic garden in west London, with Victorian glasshouses, the Treetop Walkway 18 metres up in the canopy, and space to walk for hours. Give it half a day. Go on a Tuesday for the £10 ticket.

Price: £25 adult online (£28 at the gate) until 31 October 2026, then £17 online; £10 online on Tuesdays until 29 December. Allow: half a day. Tube: Kew Gardens (District line and Overground).

The Warner Bros. Studio Tour is where the Harry Potter films were made, with the real sets, costumes and the Hogwarts model. It's outside London near Watford, so it takes most of a day. For fans, it's worth it. For anyone else, it's a lot of money and travel time you could spend in London.

Price: £58.50 adult for 2026 dates, £61 for 2027 dates. Allow: most of a day. Book: online only; there are no tickets at the door. Getting there: train from Euston to Watford Junction (about 20 minutes), then the shuttle bus included with your ticket.

With kids. South Kensington is the answer: three free museums side by side. The Natural History Museum is the one children ask for: the dinosaurs, and Hope, a 25-metre blue whale skeleton hanging in the main hall. It's free, and at weekends and in school holidays a free ticket guarantees you entry. For a base within walking distance, see the best family hotels in London.

Price: free. Allow: 2-3 hours. Hours: daily 10am-5.50pm; closed Friday 9 October 2026. Tube: South Kensington (District, Circle, Piccadilly), via the pedestrian subway.

The Science Museum is next door and works for older children: space, flight and engines. The paid Wonderlab gallery, with live science shows, is the highlight for most families. Unlike its neighbours, it asks every visitor to pre-book a free ticket.

Price: free; Wonderlab from £13.50. Allow: about two hours, more with Wonderlab. Tube: South Kensington (District, Circle, Piccadilly).

ZSL London Zoo in Regent's Park is a solid half-day with children. It's also expensive for a family of four, so it's worth it only if they'll use the whole day. Book online before 10am on the day, pick an off-peak date, and walk up Primrose Hill afterwards.

Price: adult online £27.70 off-peak to £34.50 peak; child from £19.40. Allow: 3-4 hours. Hours: 10am-5pm until 23 October 2026, then 10am-4pm. Tube: Camden Town (Northern), a 16-minute walk.