Six days of London, and one of them belongs to Wiltshire.
Which Thames boat actually goes to Greenwich. Whether the Crown Jewels need the first slot. What the coach to Stonehenge and Bath really costs once lunch is in. Reviews of every tour you can book in London.
The Tower, the river, the studio tour and a coach west.
Four bookings a first London week is built around. What each costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The first morningTower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition TicketCrown Jewels and the White Tower on a timed ticket. The first slot of the day is the only one without a queue on the moving walkway.
02The hour on waterWestminster to Greenwich River Thames CruiseWestminster down to Greenwich on a working river service. Cheaper than the sightseeing boats and it passes the same bridges.
03The day at LeavesdenHarry Potter Warner Bros Studio TourThe Warner Bros. sets, an hour out by coach. Tickets are dated and released in blocks, so it is the one thing to buy before you fly.
04The day out westStonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from LondonStonehenge, Windsor and Bath in one long coach day. Leaves Victoria before eight and gets you back for dinner.
The best London day often ends in Wiltshire, Berkshire or Kent.
Everything below departs central London in the morning and has you back the same evening. Six kinds of day out, what it costs to get on the coach, and how far each one goes.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London
Stonehenge and BathTwo World Heritage sites and a pub lunch in between.
Windsor CastleThe oldest occupied castle anywhere, forty minutes out.
The CotswoldsHoney-coloured villages, a stream, and no coaches after four.
Oxford collegesQuads, the Bodleian, and the hall the film crews used.
Dover and CanterburyWhite cliffs, a Norman castle and the cathedral.
Harry Potter daysThe Leavesden sets by coach, or the city locations on foot.
All 622 guided days and day trips →
The Tower, the river, the pavement, and the counties past the M25.
The castle on the river, the boats that use it, the pavements the murders happened on, the film sets an hour north, the galleries that stay dry, and the counties the coach reaches by lunchtime.
The Thames is a transport network, and tourists are allowed on it.
Clipper services run downstream to Greenwich all day for the price of a sandwich. Above them sit the commentary cruises, the speedboats that open the throttle past Canary Wharf, and the bus-and-boat combinations that cover both banks in an afternoon.
What London sells out of first, from the Eye to Leavesden.
Every London review →The tickets and tours that move faster than everything around them, and what earns each one the slot.
1
The London Eye Entry Ticket
See London from 135 meters on the London Eye, with 30-minute rides, spacious glass capsules, fast-track options, and flexible cancellation.
From · $39
Read our review →
2
Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio Tour
from $117
3
Westminster to Greenwich River Thames Cruise
from $22
4
Magical London: Harry Potter Guided Walking Tour
from $20
5
Madame Tussauds London
from $36
6
Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from London
from $111
7
Warner Bros. Studio Tour with Transfers
from $144
8
Tower Bridge Entry Ticket
from $21
Whitechapel, the old pubs and the Shoreditch walls, with somebody talking.
All three look like ordinary streets until somebody tells you what happened on them. These are the routes that carry the most travellers, and what each one actually shows you.
The Ripper Walks
Almost nothing from 1888 survives above ground: the courtyards were cleared, the streets renamed, the buildings replaced twice over. The walk works because the guides carry the maps and the photographs and stand you on the exact spot anyway. They run after dark, they last about two hours, and the good ones are as much about Victorian poverty as they are about the murders.
- 1The Original Jack the Ripper Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 7,833 reviews
- 2London Jack the Ripper Guided Tour with Ripper-Vision★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 4,840 reviews
- 3Jack the Ripper Small Group Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 3,159 reviews
The Historic Pubs
A handful of London pubs predate the Great Fire, and a great many more are late-Victorian gin palaces with the mahogany and mirrors intact. A pub walk buys you the doors you would not push open on your own and a guide who knows which snug was a courtroom and which bar still has its snob screens. Half a pint at each stop is the usual arrangement.
- 1London Small Group Tour of Historical Pubs★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 10,422 reviews
- 2Stonehenge, Windsor Castle and Bath with Pub Lunch in Lacock★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 7,402 reviews
- 3Soho Music & Historic Pubs Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,993 reviews
The Street Art Walks
The walls off Brick Lane and Redchurch Street are repainted constantly, so no two of these walks see the same city. Guides tend to be painters themselves and can tell you who put a piece up, who buffed it and what the argument was. Some tours end with a can in your hand and a legal wall to use it on.
- 1Street Art and Graffiti Guided Walking Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 1,354 reviews
- 2London Bike Tour: Landmarks, Secret Gems, Pub Stop & Street Art★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 943 reviews
- 3Shoreditch Street Art Tour London★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 481 reviews
Four palaces, one crown, and a guard change that starts before you get there.
The State Rooms open for about ten weeks in late summer. The Jewels are open all year and busiest by eleven. Windsor is forty minutes out on the train from Paddington and quieter than either. The guard change is free and the good positions are gone by half past ten.
Every royal day out →
From a Thames river service to a private black cab: what a London day costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by price. A surprising number of the best London days come in under the cost of a theatre ticket.
Guided walks, cathedral and gallery entry, the river services and most of the single-attraction tickets.
The full-day standards: the coach west to Stonehenge, the studio tour with transfers, food walks and the afternoon-tea buses.
Private black cabs, small-group days to the Cotswolds and Highclere, and the early-access mornings before the gates open.
London rain is not a washout, it is a change of building.
It rains here on roughly one day in three, rarely all day, and the city is built for it. The great collections are free to enter and charge only for the guiding. Below Whitehall there is a bunker preserved as it was left. And the Underground goes almost everywhere you would otherwise walk.
Leavesden, the Jewels, the State Rooms and the stones: buy these first.
Most of this city can be arranged the night before from a pub table. These four run on dated tickets, seasonal openings and capped hourly entry, and none of them care when your flight lands.
- 01Harry Potter Warner Bros Studio TourStudio tickets are dated and released in blocks. There is no walk-up gate at Leavesden, and the coach from central London sells out alongside them.
- 02Tower of London and Crown Jewels Exhibition TicketThe Tower runs on timed entry and the Jewels are the longest queue inside it. The first slot of the morning is the one worth having.
- 03Buckingham Palace: The State Rooms Entrance TicketThe State Rooms only open to visitors for about ten weeks in late summer, on dated tickets. Outside that window the answer is the garden or the gates.
- 04Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, and Bath from LondonEntry to the stones is capped by the hour and the coaches leave central London before eight. Weekend departures go first.
By where you are standing
By kind of day — boat, walk, ticket or coach
Tower, Westminster, the river, then a day out west.
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