Getting your bearings before you book anything
London is not one neighbourhood and not one airport. The city splits into districts that each reward a different kind of day: Westminster for the palaces and Parliament, the City for the Tower and the old financial square mile, South Bank for the riverside museums and theatres, the West End for shows and shopping, Bloomsbury for the British Museum, and Kensington-Chelsea for the free national museums and the big parks. This page is the hub — for street-level detail, opening hours and specific attraction advice, use those district pages rather than expecting all of it repeated here.
Two things trip up almost every first-time visitor, and neither is trivial. First, London has no single airport: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City are five separate airports on five separate sides of the city, each with its own dedicated rail link. Second, the weather is temperate and changeable all year — there is no dry season and no wet season the way there might be in a tropical destination, just a lot of grey sky and a coat that’s rarely wrong to pack, whatever month you land.
The five airports, and how each one connects to town
Booking a “London” flight tells you nothing about which side of the city you’ll land on. Plan the ground transport before the flight, not after.
| Airport | Code | Side of London | Fastest rail link | Typical time to central London |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heathrow | LHR | West | Elizabeth line / Piccadilly line / Heathrow Express | 35–55 min |
| Gatwick | LGW | South | Gatwick Express | 30–45 min |
| Stansted | STN | North-east | Stansted Express | 45–55 min |
| Luton | LTN | North | Luton DART + Thameslink | 40–50 min |
| London City | LCY | East | DLR | 25–35 min |
None of these is “the London airport.” A cheap flight into Stansted and a hotel booked near Heathrow adds a couple of hours and an extra rail fare that a lot of itineraries never account for — check which airport your flight actually uses before picking a neighbourhood to stay in. Full transfer options, including which trains take luggage more comfortably, are covered on the airport transfers guide; a first landing checklist is on from Heathrow to central London.
Getting around: Oyster, contactless, and the cap that actually applies
Inside London, you tap in and tap out with either an Oyster card (a rechargeable card, deposit-free since 2023) or a contactless bank card or phone. Both work across the Tube, buses, the DLR, the Overground, the Elizabeth line and most local trains within the city, and both apply an automatic daily and weekly fare cap — the system tracks your taps and stops charging once you’d have paid more than the cap for the period, so there’s no need to calculate the cheapest ticket yourself.
That TfL fare cap is not the same thing as the contactless payment limit set by your bank (currently £100 per tap, a rule about a single transaction, not about how many journeys you take in a day). Confuse the two and you’ll wrongly assume a big travel day is going to cost more than it will — TfL’s cap has no ceiling on the number of trips, only on the total fare. A side-by-side breakdown is on Oyster card vs contactless payment, and the wider network — Tube, bus, Overground, river boats — is covered on getting around London.
One more habit to adopt on day one: the UK drives on the left. It rarely matters for a Tube-based itinerary, but it matters the moment you cross a road on foot without checking, or if a day trip involves a rental car. Driving in London itself is generally not worth it — congestion charging, parking and one-way systems make the Tube and trains the practical choice, and almost every excursion below runs by rail rather than road. More on this on driving in London and the UK.
Entry rules: the ETA, not to be confused with your transport card
Most visitors, including EU nationals, now need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) approved before departure — a different thing entirely from Oyster or contactless, which only pay for journeys once you’re already in the country. The ETA is requested solely through the official gov.uk/eta site; third-party sites that charge a “processing fee” for the same form are not the source to use. Irish citizens are exempt under the Common Travel Area. Full detail, including who needs one and current timelines, is on UK ETA and entry rules for London.
Weather: temperate and changeable, not tropical
London’s climate doesn’t split into a dry season and a wet season — rain is spread fairly evenly across the calendar, and grey, overcast days show up even in July. Average temperatures run from around 8°C in January to about 23°C in July, with a lot of the year sitting in between. Layers and a light waterproof do more work here than one heavy coat, and no month can promise a guaranteed blue sky. If you’re weighing month against month, best time to visit London breaks down the trade-offs, and London in winter and London in summer go into each half of the year.
What costs money, and what doesn’t
The UK’s currency is the pound sterling (GBP), never the euro — cards and contactless are accepted almost everywhere and cash is genuinely rare now, but every price on this page and elsewhere on this site stays in pounds rather than a euro conversion that would only add confusion. National museums — the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the V&A, the National Portrait Gallery — are free to enter for their permanent collections; it’s the temporary exhibitions and the ticketed attractions (the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour) that charge, and most of those are worth booking ahead rather than queuing on the day.
Tipping isn’t obligatory. Many restaurants already add a 12.5% service charge to the bill — check before adding more — and pubs don’t expect a tip at the bar. For exact current ticket prices, check the relevant GetYourGuide or Viator listing or the attraction’s own site rather than treating any figure here as fixed; prices move, and a page that quotes an exact number today is often wrong within the year. A fuller cost breakdown, including a realistic daily range, is on money, tipping and costs in London, with a tighter version on London on a budget and a free-entry shortlist on free things to do in London.
Seeing the palaces and the river without repeating a full itinerary here
The Palace of Westminster, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Downing Street sit within walking distance of each other, and a guided introduction covers the history that’s easy to miss walking past on your own — a half-day option is the Royal London morning walking tour, or a fuller version with more sites is the Royal London grand tour. Full detail on that area, including how to time it against the Changing of the Guard, is on the Westminster page and the royal London tours guide.
South Bank, on the river’s south side, groups the London Eye, Tate Modern, Shakespeare’s Globe and Borough Market — see the South Bank page rather than a repeat list here. The Tower of London and the historic financial square mile sit east of Westminster, on the Tower and City page, with Tower Bridge next door. For theatre, shopping and the West End’s own museums and food scene, the West End page is the place to plan from, and Bloomsbury covers the British Museum’s neighbourhood in more depth.
Film locations, for a different kind of London day
Beyond the palaces, London has its own screen-tourism trail — locations used across decades of film and TV, from Diagon Alley stand-ins to more recent productions. A guided film walking tour covers several of these on foot in central London, and fans specifically chasing wizarding-world locations can pair it with a guided Harry Potter tour through the city before deciding whether the full studio experience out at Leavesden — a separate half-day trip, not a central London stop — is worth adding. More on both in Harry Potter locations in London and London: film & music tours.
Beyond the centre: Greater London and the day trips
Greater London extends the map without leaving the transport network: East London’s markets and street art, Camden’s canal-side market, Greenwich’s observatory and the meridian line, Richmond and Kew’s gardens and Hampton Court, and the Warner Bros. Studio Tour out at Leavesden, which is a working film-studio visit — sets and props from the Harry Potter productions — not a ride-based theme park. All of these stay reachable by Tube, Overground or river boat rather than requiring a car; see Greater London for the full breakdown.
Further out, four groups of day trips leave from four different London stations, and each one is genuinely a different kind of day. West from Paddington: Windsor’s inhabited castle and Eton across the river, Oxford’s independent colleges and nearby Blenheim Palace, the Cotswolds’ honey-stone villages spread across several counties (not one village to visit), and Stratford-upon-Avon for Shakespeare’s birthplace — see Windsor, Oxford & the Cotswolds.
Also west, but further out and toward Wiltshire and Somerset: Stonehenge’s prehistoric stone circle and Bath’s Georgian streets and Roman Baths, roughly two hours from London — see Stonehenge & Bath. North from King’s Cross: Cambridge’s colleges and river punting. South from Victoria: Brighton’s seafront and the Sussex coast. And Canterbury’s cathedral city sits toward Kent — see Cambridge, Brighton & Kent for all three. A practical overview of which trains go where is on day trips by train from London stations.
Planning basics that don’t fit anywhere else
London runs on GMT through the winter and switches to British Summer Time (UTC+1) from late March to late October — worth checking against your own clock rather than assuming a fixed offset year-round. Electrical sockets are 230V, type G, so a UK adapter is non-negotiable for most visitors from outside the British Isles. The emergency number is 999 (112 also connects). Tap water is safe to drink everywhere in the city, no bottled-water workaround needed. For a first structured plan, how many days in London and where to stay in London are the two most useful starting points, and London travel mistakes to avoid collects the errors that show up most often in trip reports.
London FAQ: airports, money, weather and getting around
Does London have one main airport?
No. Five airports serve London — Heathrow (west), Gatwick (south), Stansted (north-east), Luton (north) and London City (east) — and each has its own dedicated rail link, so “the London airport” isn’t a useful phrase. Check which one your flight actually lands at before booking accommodation or ground transport.
Is the pound or the euro used in London?
The pound sterling (GBP) is the only currency; the UK is not in the eurozone. Cards and contactless payment are widely accepted, but any price quoted in euros for a London booking should be treated as a conversion, not the real charge.
Do Oyster and contactless have the same £100 limit as my bank card?
No. The £100-per-transaction contactless limit is set by banks and applies to a single tap anywhere, including outside transport. TfL’s own fare capping on Oyster and contactless is a separate system that automatically limits your total daily and weekly transport spend, with no cap on the number of journeys you take.
Is London’s weather ever predictable?
It’s temperate and changeable rather than seasonal in the dry/wet sense. Expect anywhere from 8°C in January to around 23°C in July, rain spread across the year, and overcast skies even in the warmer months — a light waterproof is a better bet than betting on sunshine.
Are the national museums really free?
Yes, for their permanent collections — the British Museum, National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the V&A and the National Portrait Gallery all charge nothing to enter. Temporary exhibitions and ticketed sites like the Tower of London or the London Eye are separate, paid attractions.
Do I need a visa or an ETA to visit London?
Most visitors, including EU nationals, need an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) approved before travel, applied for only through gov.uk/eta. Irish citizens are exempt. This is unrelated to Oyster or contactless, which only cover payment for journeys once you’ve already arrived.
Can I see Oxford and Cambridge on the same day trip?
Not sensibly. They’re two separate universities in two separate cities, roughly on opposite sides of London, each needing its own day if you want to see the colleges properly rather than rush through both.
Do I need a car in London or for day trips?
Not for the city itself — the Tube, buses and river boats cover it, and driving in central London adds congestion charges and parking hassle. Almost every day trip on this site, from Windsor to Stonehenge to Cambridge, runs by train rather than requiring a rental car; the UK also drives on the left, worth remembering if you do rent one.
