London

London for first-timers

London is a few dozen villages that grew together, so the first job is picking where to sleep and the second is learning the transit system, which beats anything most Americans have at home.

The center that most visitors use is compact. Westminster, Covent Garden, Soho, the South Bank and the City sit within a 2-mile (3 km) circle, and walking between them is often faster than going underground. The big museums cluster in South Kensington, the royal parks run in a green belt from Kensington Gardens to St James's Park, and the river ties the whole thing together.

Plan on four or five full days to see the headline sights without rushing, plus extra days if you want day trips to Windsor, Oxford, Bath or Cambridge. For the sights themselves, booking ahead and which passes pay off, see London sights. For pubs, markets, afternoon tea and curry, see London food and drink. For a show, see London theatre. London works in any season; May and September are the sweet spot, and when to go has the weather and dates. Americans need an ETA before flying; see entry rules.

Neighborhoods and where to stay

Location matters more than the hotel: a modest room five minutes from a useful Tube line beats a nicer one that adds 40 minutes to every day. London rooms run small and expensive by US standards, a "double" may mean one bed, and the "first floor" is one flight up.

Price tiers below are per night for two people. London runs high, and prices jump for major events, school holidays and summer weekends. For more on booking, see where to stay in the UK.

Rough hotel prices

Getting in from the airports

Most US flights land at Heathrow, some at Gatwick; nonstops and the eGates are on the flights page. Unless noted, every option below takes contactless, so you can tap through without buying a ticket.

Heathrow

Heathrow sits in Zone 6, about 15 miles (24 km) west of the center, and has three rail options.

• Piccadilly line (Tube): the cheapest, about £5.90 (about $8) to central London. It takes 50–60 minutes to Leicester Square, direct to South Kensington, Covent Garden, Russell Square and King's Cross, but has no luggage racks.
• Elizabeth line: about 30 minutes to Paddington and 35–40 to Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon and Liverpool Street, in air-conditioned trains with room for bags. Up to £15.50 (about $21) after the March 2026 rise.
• Heathrow Express: nonstop to Paddington in 15 minutes, every 15 minutes, from Terminals 2/3 and 5 (Terminal 4 passengers take a free transfer). Advance fares booked 30 or more days ahead start at £10 (about $13) one way; the standard single is £26 (about $35). Tapping contactless charges the full fare, so book ahead on the Heathrow Express site if you know your dates.

A metered black cab from Heathrow to central London often costs £100 (about $133) or more; a pre-booked car or Uber is usually cheaper. For a family of four with bags it can make sense; otherwise take the train.

Gatwick

Gatwick is about 30 miles (48 km) south. The Gatwick Express runs nonstop to Victoria in about 30 minutes; Southern trains reach Victoria in about 35 for less, and Thameslink runs through London Bridge, Blackfriars, Farringdon and St Pancras. Contactless works on all three. Check live departures on National Rail.

Stansted, Luton and London City

• Stansted: the Stansted Express runs to Liverpool Street in about 50 minutes; buy a ticket before you board, since tapping in with contactless or Oyster can bring a £100 (about $133) penalty fare, and booking ahead online is cheaper than buying on the day. National Express coaches are slower and cheaper.
• Luton: the Luton DART shuttle runs from the terminal to Luton Airport Parkway station (it charges its own fare), then trains run to St Pancras in roughly 25–40 minutes.
• London City: the small business airport in Docklands is on the DLR, about 20–25 minutes to Bank, at normal pay-as-you-go fares. If your flight from Europe lands here, it is by far the easiest arrival.

The Tube, buses and contactless caps

London's transit network, run by Transport for London (TfL), covers the Tube (11 lines), the Elizabeth line, the London Overground, the DLR in Docklands, trams in south London and about 700 bus routes. One payment works on all of it.

How to pay

1. Use a contactless card, or a phone or watch with Apple Pay or Google Pay; pick a US card with no foreign transaction fee.
2. Touch the yellow reader entering and leaving a Tube or rail station; on buses, touch in only.
3. Use the same card or device every time. A card and the phone wallet holding it count as two, and mixing them breaks your cap.
4. Each traveler needs their own card or device, and keep other contactless cards away from the reader ("card clash").

You do not need an Oyster card. TfL's own smartcard charges the same fares and caps, but a new one now costs over £10 (about $14), nonrefundable. It helps for children 11 to 15 on discounted fares or if your card charges foreign fees. Children under 11 ride free with a paying adult.

2026 fares and caps

TfL raised most Tube and rail fares on March 1, 2026, by up to 20p a journey, but froze the daily and weekly caps until March 2027. Once you hit the cap, the rest of that day's travel in those zones is free. Days run 4:30 am to 4:29 am; weekly caps run Monday to Sunday.

Single Tube fares in Zone 1 are £3.10 (about $4) at peak and £3.00 off-peak; a Zone 1–2 trip is £3.60 at peak and £3.10 off-peak. Heathrow Express fares are not covered by TfL caps.

Riding the Tube

Trains run from about 5:30 am to after midnight, every few minutes on central sections. Signs show line, direction ("eastbound") and end station. Stand on the right on escalators; Londoners take this seriously.

The deep, older lines (Central, Northern, Bakerloo and Piccadilly) have no air conditioning and get very hot in summer, so carry water. Many older stations involve long walks and stairs; all buses and the Elizabeth line are step-free, and the TfL Go app and step-free Tube map show which stations have lifts. The Overground's six lines now have names, such as Mildmay and Windrush, on maps and signs.

Buses

Buses are cashless: tap your card on the reader as you board at the front, and do not tap when you get off. The Hopper fare means one £1.75 (about $2.30) fare covers unlimited bus and tram journeys started within an hour of the first tap. Press the red bell before your stop. The top deck front seats make the cheapest sightseeing tour in town: route 11 runs from Liverpool Street past St Paul's, along the Strand and through Westminster to Chelsea, and route 24 links Camden with Trafalgar Square and Westminster. Night buses (N routes) run when the Tube is closed.

The Elizabeth line

The Elizabeth line, opened in 2022, is a fast, step-free east-west railway that runs from Reading and Heathrow through Paddington, Bond Street, Tottenham Court Road, Farringdon, Liverpool Street and Whitechapel, then splits to Canary Wharf and Abbey Wood in the southeast and to Shenfield in Essex.

It is purple on the Tube map and uses the same contactless fares, except that Heathrow journeys cost more. It is the quickest link from Heathrow to the West End and the City; Tottenham Court Road to Liverpool Street takes about five minutes.

Night Tube and getting home late

On Friday and Saturday nights, the Night Tube runs all night on the Victoria and Jubilee lines and most of the Central, Northern and Piccadilly lines, roughly every 10 to 20 minutes. Night fares are off-peak. Other nights, last trains leave central London around midnight to 12:30 am.

Lines often close for weekend engineering work, and Tube strikes have happened in recent years; both are announced on the TfL status page.

Walking and Santander Cycles

Central London rewards walking. The South Bank from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge is about 2.5 miles (4 km), an hour without stops. Westminster to Covent Garden takes about 20 minutes on foot.

Santander Cycles, the city's bike share, has thousands of bikes, including e-bikes, at docking stations across the center. Hire at a docking station with a bank card or the app, and return to any dock. A 24-hour day pass cost £3.50 (about $4.70) after TfL's April 2025 price change, the latest we could confirm, and covers unlimited rides of up to an hour each; going over an hour costs extra, and TfL's site has current prices. E-bikes cost extra, and helmets are not provided. The parks and the cycle superhighway along the Embankment are the easiest places to ride. Dockless e-bikes such as Lime cost more.

River boats

Uber Boat by Thames Clippers runs fast commuter catamarans every 10 to 20 minutes between piers including Westminster, Embankment, London Eye, Bankside, London Bridge City, Tower, Canary Wharf and Greenwich. It is the most scenic way to reach Greenwich, about 40 minutes from Westminster. Contactless works at pier readers.

Through the end of October 2026, a contactless single in the West or East zone costs £6.20–7.40 (about $8–10) and a Central zone single £9.90–11.90 (about $13–16), depending on the time of day (weekends count as peak), against £9.40 and £16.40 bought at the pier. Uber Boat says some fares drop for the winter from November 1, but it had not published the new prices when we checked, so treat these as a ceiling. A one-day hop-on, hop-off ticket costs £29.30 (about $39) online. Under-5s ride free. Check fares on the Uber Boat site.

Black cabs, Uber and minicabs

Black cabs are metered, wheelchair accessible and driven by people who passed "the Knowledge," a years-long test of London's streets. Hail one when the yellow TAXI sign is lit, or book through FreeNow or Uber; all take cards. Fares rise at night; a short hop across the West End often runs £15–20 (about $20–27). Rounding up or adding about 10% is the usual tip.

Uber, Bolt and FreeNow cars are usually cheaper, especially to airports. Minicabs must be booked through a licensed operator; never take a car whose driver offers you a ride on the street.

Do not rent a car for London. Central London charges a daily Congestion Charge, the ULEZ covers the whole city, parking is scarce and expensive, and the transit is better. See driving in the UK if you are collecting a car to leave the city.

Staying safe

The US State Department rates the United Kingdom at Level 2, "Exercise increased caution," because of terrorism. It warns that attacks could come with little warning at places such as tourist sites, transport hubs and big events; follow police instructions and watch the news. For the full picture, see safety in the UK.

The everyday risk for visitors is theft. London has a real problem with phone snatching by thieves on bikes who grab phones from hands on the sidewalk. Pickpockets work Oxford Street, Covent Garden, Leicester Square, Westminster and crowded Tube trains.

• Step back from the curb before you check your phone, and hold it with both hands or use a wrist strap.
• Keep bags zipped and in front of you on the Tube and in crowds; do not hang them on the back of a café chair.
• Walk past the shell game ("find the ball under the cup") on Westminster Bridge and the South Bank; the players and the "winners" work together.
• Ignore people with clipboards, petitions or friendship bracelets who stop you on busy streets.
• Late at night, use a black cab, a booked minicab or a ride-share app, never a street offer.
• In busy bars, keep your drink with you; drink spiking happens.

Call 999 (or 112) for police, fire or ambulance in an emergency, 101 for non-urgent police matters, and 111 for NHS medical advice. See health for what NHS care costs visitors. The US Embassy is at 33 Nine Elms Lane, London SW11 7US (phone +44 20 7499 9000); a lost passport is the main reason Americans need it.

What London costs

London costs roughly what New York does for hotels, a little less for eating out, and far less for museums, since the national collections are free. For the full picture of cards, cash and tipping, see money; for planning numbers, see the budget tool.

As a rough guide per person per day, excluding flights: about £100–150 (about $133–200) staying in a hostel or budget hotel, eating cheaply and leaning on free museums; £250–400 (about $333–532) in a mid-range hotel with a couple of paid sights and a good dinner; and £600 (about $800) and up in a luxury hotel with a show.

London does not add a visitor levy to hotel bills the way Edinburgh now does and Cardiff will from April 2027, though the idea has been debated; check your booking terms if you are reserving for 2027 or later.

Itineraries: three, five and seven days

These assume full days. Keep an overnight-flight arrival day light: drop bags, walk the river, and stay up until 9 pm. Book the Tower and Westminster Abbey ahead; see London sights.

Three days

1. Day 1

   Westminster to Covent Garden

   Westminster Abbey at opening, then Parliament and Big Ben. Walk through St James's Park to Buckingham Palace (the Changing the Guard is not daily), then up the Mall to the National Gallery. End in Covent Garden with dinner and a show; see theatre.

2. Day 2

   The Tower and the South Bank

   The Tower of London at opening, Crown Jewels first. Cross Tower Bridge and walk west: lunch at Borough Market (check its hours), the Globe and Tate Modern, then the Millennium Bridge to St Paul's. End with the London Eye at sunset.

3. Day 3

   Museums and parks

   Morning at the British Museum. Take the Tube to South Kensington for the V&A or the Natural History Museum, then walk through Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens to Kensington Palace or Harrods. Evening in Soho for dinner; see London food for picks.

Five days

Follow the three days above, then add:

1. Day 4

   Greenwich by river

   Take the Uber Boat from Westminster or Embankment to Greenwich. See the Cutty Sark and the Painted Hall, then climb the park to the Royal Observatory and the Prime Meridian (the Observatory closes for refurbishment from November 2, 2026, so check before you go). Return by DLR or boat.

2. Day 5

   Markets and the East End

   On a weekend, start at Columbia Road (Sunday) or Broadway Market (Saturday), then Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane for curry or a salt beef bagel. Afternoon at King's Cross and a Regent's Canal walk toward Camden.

Seven days

Add these two to the five days above:

1. Day 6

   A day trip

   Take the train to Windsor Castle (about 30–60 minutes depending on route), Oxford or Cambridge (about an hour), or Bath (about 1 hour 20 to 30 minutes from Paddington). Book train tickets ahead for the best prices; see day trips from London and trains.

2. Day 7

   Notting Hill, Kew or Hampstead

   On a Saturday, Portobello Road Market and Notting Hill. Otherwise Kew Gardens, or the Overground to Hampstead Heath for the view from Parliament Hill. End with a Sunday roast; see London food.