London Sightseeing Recommendations
 

My girlfriend and I are going to London for about 4 1/2 days in April. We arrive on Sunday at 2:30PM (duly jet-lagged after coming from LAS) and plan to take Eurostar to Paris on Friday. We will probably find a hotel in City of London. One thing I know we want to do is go to the theater twice, and that looks relatively doable. In general we will take the tube, not for convenience but as part of the sights to see.

What else should we plan? We just want to do the basic touristy things but I don't know which ones require admission, tickets, what tours are worth the money and which are scams. We don't mind paying a reasonable amount of money, just don't want to get fleeced.

In no particular order:
1. One thing I'd recommend, if you want to see London by the river, is simply to take a ferry. https://www.thamesclippers.com/plan-...rney/route-map
2. Broadway market is, in my opinion, less touristy and less of a rip-off than Borough market.
3. Try and see if the Bishopsgate 22 viewing area is available (it's for free but you have to book on its website, if you google it's easy to find). Beats the Shard observation deck as you can see the Shard and not see Bishopsgate 22, which is a plus.
4. One place I'd recommend paying for is Kew Gardens, especially if the weather is nice.
5. I don't know what interests you and so on, but - hotel-wise - I think the City (i.e. the so-called square male) doesn't have that much on offer. Immediately to the north of that area are Shoreditch, Hoxton, Dalston and so on. While not exactly the cleanest part of town, they're very vibrant, safe, have great restaurants and decent hotels (there's a Citizen M, art'otel, a couple of Montcalm). All within walking distance from the City, and a leisurely stroll from St Paul's.
6. If the weather is beautiful and you want to see the views, head over to Alexandra Palace or Parliament Hill. Beats the Eye.
7. I personally wouldn't bother with Regent's Street, Oxford Street or Piccadilly, unless you have a burning desire of going there.

Basically public museums such as the British Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and the V&A are free except for some special exhibitions.

But really the only way to see if a place is free or not is to look at that attractions website.

Generally London is great for free sightseeing as most of the highlights can be seen without having to pay.

You should do most of your touring on foot, the city is very walkable and you can make use of the wonderful Royal Parks for greenery and scenery.

As above, almost all museums and galleries are free save for special exhibitions. The top ones not already mentioned include Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Natural History Museum and Science Museum, but there are many more depending on what you’re into. A significant exception is the London Transport Museum which is chargeable, but well worth considering if you’re a bit of a transport geek, as many on here are!

The one other sight I’d recommend paying for is the Tower of London. It’s a unique place with lots of history, you can do a tour with a yeoman there if you like, or just wander around yourselves.

You might also consider St Pauls or Westminster Abbey if you enjoy cathedrals, both are chargeable I believe, but you can appreciate the architecture from outside.

Tours-wise, there are various free walking tours but they do expect tips. These can be quite fun for trivia but aren’t necessary. I would advise against a bus tour - you will pay a lot to be stuck in traffic with other tourists. Instead you can hop on any normal double-decker bus at any point for £1.75. Sitting on the top deck is still a must-do and will give you a feel for the city’s vibe at the time - Saturday night will be very different to Tuesday morning rush hour, for example…

Re theatres, two shows is certainly doable. Perhaps go for one at a classic theatre (mostly around Leicester Square/Covent Garden), and for the other see what’s on at the National Theatre. That puts on excellent shows, often has reasonably priced tickets and is an institution in itself. The new Bridge Theatre is also worth a look. For summer I would recommend the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park, but that won't be open in April.

Finally note that the ‘City of London' refers to the area including St Pauls and the business district slightly to the east of the ‘centre’ . The centre, so to speak, is typically referred to as the West End - historically part of the City of Westminster, but if you hear ’the City’ that means the City of London. Both are great areas to base yourself and proximate to each other, but not to be confused.

Nothing to add except to say, have a fab time, London truly is one of the best cities in the world.

Just to add to the above…

Battersea Power Station - a lift up one of the chimneys gives great views across London.
ABBA Voyage - great show if you’re into that
Walking - just spend a day walking around with no plan. You’ll come across lots of good places for a drink/food. Maybe start around Regents Park and head back towards The Thames.

I was in the same situation some years back and told my GF that I wanted to see the Cabinet War Rooms. Her reactions, in four stages:

The day before: "Enjoy yourself, dear. I'll find something to do."
On the morning: "Nothing else really calls to me. I might as well go along."
After lunch on the South Bank, chatting with people at the next table who had just been: "I might actually enjoy that."
After we had seen it: "I had no idea it would be so fascinating!"

It's not free, but it's worth it.

Yes. Yes it is.

Just a quick note/ The " City of London" is the very small financial district that has very little there.

The buses are pretty easy to navigate and you'll see much more of the sites than using the tube. I love sitting on the top of a double decker bus and sightseeing when I worked in London. Saw so many great buildings and sculptures I never would have noticed walking or certainly not on the tube.

Maybe look at TodayTix is a great site to get last minute tickets at discount prices.

Go to the Natural History Museum and the British Museum. Both are free and you can book your free tickets in advance on the official websites.

As others have said, walk. If you are a transport geek then the tube is fascinating, but if you just want to sightsee walking is by far the best way

City is an odd choice mid week for a tourist, its the financial district and whilst there are things to do and its ultimately well connected you'll be paying a premium but getting on the tube to go most places. "London" that most people think of is actually the City of Westminster which is the political and cultural part. These are two of the 32 boroughs that make up the whole of Greater London

Most others have covered off the basics, but there are literally hundreds of museums, art galleries and many more historic buildings, parks, places of interest. There's a reason why the Lonely Planet guide to London is 50% bigger than the one for New York. You'd need to specify a much tighter view of what interests you for people to give any form of concise answers.

As to rip offs...

• Pedi-cab, they are well known tourist trap and most dont read the pricing properly (often £5/person/minute or more) then argue with the guy when their 10 minute cycle down Oxford Street comes to £150 for the three of them.
• London is generally expensive, for the UK but there is a vast spread of prices available, the same glass of wine can cost you £10 or £100 depending on the venue, in some cases the venue may be worth the premium but others are just ripping off tourists; same for less expensive things like a "Mr Whippy" ice cream is £3 in our local park (zone 2 London) but can be £10 in tourist areas in summer.
• Cup game - often seen on the bridges and dont know how people keep falling for it. Guy with 3 cups and a ball, guess which cup the ball is under to double or triple your money. Always a shill or two in the crowd who win a few times betting £20-£50 a go before a tourist or 3 then lose £100 in under a minute. They are good at getting people to keep doubling down to get them to win their money back which they never will
• All major cities and tourist areas have problems with pickpockets etc but London has a bit of an endemic problem with phone snatchers at the moment, just be aware of your surroundings when holding your phone and in particular when on the edge of the pavement (aka sidewalk) etc where a person on an electric bike could easily go past, grab it out your hand and be off in seconds

Even as a Londoner of 10 years I sometimes still just go for a wander, particularly through less often trod back streets (in major areas) and come across historic buildings, specialist shops or bars etc.

It’s somewhat to very likely the OP doesn’t mean the City of London.

I took husband on his first visit (my...3rd?) to London in 2016. We rented a place so no help on hotels. Walked & tube everywhere (we visited in January, had proper clothing, no worries at all for us - though we did not visit any gardens...Next time ;-) My favorite places were the Churchill war rooms/museum, British Museum (pick a handful of priority things to see or it's overwhelming - that's what I do for all museums) and Tower of London. We walked across a few bridges, we did visit Borough market (oysters! and cheese! and friends who wanted to visit their favorite mushroom vendor ;-) V&A is top of my list for my next visit. We downloaded walking tours from the Rick Steves website and did most of those over our weeklong visit.

for anybody confused about the "City of London" vs London ...

For a first time in London I'd suggest one of the hop-on, hop-off bus tours for the first day. You'll see everything, can stop to visit a specific location if you wish and get a once over on the big sites.

Second day I would start at Westminster near Big Ben and take a boat ride down the Thames to visit the Tower of London then in the afternoon go to the British Museum. A pub lunch at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese is another suggestion. Remember in UK pubs there is usually no table service and you get your drinks at the bar. Food is ordered at the bar and brought to you.

Third day I'd suggest the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum which is nearby, a visit to Kensington Palace and a walk about Hyde Park. If art is more to your taste replace the aforementioned with visits to the National Gallery and the Tate Modern.

If shopping is your thing Regent Street, Piccadilly, Old Bond Street, Oxford Street, Carnaby Street, Harrods, Fortnum and Mason, Borough Market are interesting places would easily take up your fourth day.

The only thing I've ever been disappointed in was the London Eye. Long line, high price and views that were not spectacular.