Five days in London: Westminster, the Tower, and the West End

Five days is enough to see London properly if you stay in London. This itinerary skips Windsor, Oxford, and every other excursion and spends the whole time on Westminster, Tower of London and the City, and the West End, with a stop in South Bank along the way. That focus buys something a rushed week rarely gets: a booked West End show and a genuinely free evening.

Book the show on day one, ideally before you land. Big-name musicals sell out weeks ahead for popular time slots, and the difference between booking early and booking on day three can be the difference between front stalls and no seats at all.

Before you go: booking order matters

Two things need sorting before day one starts, not during it.

The West End show. Decide which night you want and book it the moment you land, or before you leave home. Evening performances run six or seven nights a week with a matinee on Wednesday or Saturday at most theatres, so a Tuesday or Thursday evening is usually the easiest slot to find.

Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London. Both cap daily visitor numbers and both get busy from mid-morning. An entrance ticket bought in advance skips the ticket-office queue; it doesn’t skip security, but that’s a shorter line.

Day 1: Westminster and royal London

Start in Westminster, the seat of both government and monarchy in one square mile. The Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (the tower, officially the Elizabeth Tower) sit on the river; Westminster Abbey, where coronations have taken place for almost a thousand years, is a short walk away.

Westminster Abbey rewards more time than most visitors give it — the tombs and memorials inside cover eight centuries of British history in a single building. An entrance ticket to Westminster Abbey gets you past the ticket window and into the nave with a self-paced audio guide.

Walk on to Buckingham Palace for the late-morning Changing of the Guard, which runs on published days (not daily, and not at a fixed time every day — check the schedule before you plan around it). Downing Street is nearby but viewed from behind railings; there’s no public access.

For an overview that ties Westminster to the rest of royal London in one guided morning, a guided Royal London Grand Tour covers Buckingham Palace, Westminster, and Whitehall with a guide who explains what you’re looking at rather than leaving you to a leaflet.

Spend the afternoon at St James’s Park or Hyde Park if the weather holds — London’s parks are free and central, which is more than can be said for most of the city’s paid attractions. Read the Westminster and royal London guide before you go for opening hours and the guard-change schedule.

Day 2: Tower of London and the City

Head east to Tower of London and the City. The Tower is a working medieval fortress, not a stately home — cross Tower Bridge to see it from across the river before you go in, since the view from outside is arguably better than most of what’s inside.

Inside, the Crown Jewels are the main draw and also the main bottleneck: arrive at opening time or expect a slow-moving queue by mid-morning. The Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) run free guided tours included with entry and are worth timing your visit around. A private guided tour of the Tower of London is the better option if you want to move at your own pace rather than with the general crowd.

The City, London’s historic financial district, sits right next to the Tower — a square mile of Roman and medieval street patterns wedged between glass office towers. St Paul’s Cathedral is the obvious stop if you have an hour to spare; the Monument (to the Great Fire of 1666) is a quieter, cheaper alternative with a climb and a view.

Full details on ticket options, queue times, and what’s actually worth the entry fee are in the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels guide.

Day 3: West End and the show you booked on day one

This is the day the whole itinerary is built around. Spend the morning in the West End itself — Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, and Covent Garden for street performers and market stalls, then Oxford Street or Regent Street if shopping is on the list.

Break up the afternoon with something other than more walking. A London film walking tour covers locations used in well-known British and international productions around the West End and Covent Garden, and works well as a lower-effort afternoon before an evening on your feet at the theatre.

In the evening, go to the show you booked. If that show is a long-running family musical, a West End ticket to The Lion King is one of the more reliable options for a first-time visitor, though the West End changes its programme regularly — check what’s actually running before you commit to a title. Doors typically open 30–45 minutes before curtain; arriving right at showtime with no interval routine planned means eating in the theatre bar at theatre prices.

The West End theatre tickets guide has a fuller breakdown of booking windows, matinee days, and how far ahead the biggest shows sell out.

Day 4: South Bank and a free afternoon

South Bank sits across the river from Westminster and the City, and it’s the natural fourth-day stop: less walking between sights, more sitting by the water. The London Eye, Tate Modern, and Shakespeare’s Globe are all within a twenty-minute walk of each other along the riverside path, and Borough Market is worth an hour around lunchtime for food stalls rather than souvenirs.

Tate Modern’s permanent collection is free, like every national museum in London — it’s only the temporary exhibitions that charge. If a river view appeals more than a gallery, a Thames cruise covers the same stretch of riverbank from the water; the Thames river cruises guide compares the hop-on-hop-off options against a straight point-to-point sightseeing cruise.

This is also the day to leave genuinely unplanned. Five days with three full sightseeing days and one dedicated to a show leaves one afternoon that should stay open — a pub, a park bench, or simply walking without a destination. The London pub culture guide is a reasonable way to fill an unstructured evening if the weather turns, which in London it often does.

Day 5: Loose ends and departure

Use the last day for whatever got squeezed out — a museum in Bloomsbury or Kensington that didn’t fit earlier, a return to a market that was too crowded the first time, or simply more time in Westminster if the guard-change didn’t line up with day one.

If you haven’t already, this is also the day to check your onward transport. London has five airports, not one, and they’re on opposite sides of the city — confirm which one you’re flying from and book your train or Elizabeth line journey with enough buffer that a delayed Tube doesn’t turn into a missed flight. The getting from Heathrow to central London guide covers the busiest of the five, and the tube, bus, and boat guide covers the rest of the network for whichever airport applies to you.

Planning notes for this itinerary

Day	Focus area	Roughly how long
1	Westminster and royal London	Full day
2	Tower of London and the City	Full day
3	West End, plus evening show	Full day into evening
4	South Bank, free afternoon	Half day plus open time
5	Loose ends, departure	Half day

Typical costs for this route, in GBP, per person, before food:

Item	Rough range
Westminster Abbey entry	£30–£35
Tower of London entry	£35–£40
West End show ticket	£40–£150+, depending on seat and title
Oyster or contactless travel, 5 days	£45–£55, capped automatically
Thames cruise	£15–£25

Treat all of these as ranges, not fixed prices — check the current fare on the booking page before you pay, since ticket prices at London attractions change more than once a year.

None of these five days needs a car. Everything here sits on the Tube, bus, Overground, or DLR network, and you’ll cover most distances faster on foot or by Tube than you would driving and parking in central London.

Five days in London: frequently asked questions

Is five days enough for London without any day trips?

Yes, for the areas in this itinerary — Westminster, Tower of London and the City, and the West End, with a stop in South Bank. It’s not enough to also fit in a day trip to somewhere like Windsor or Oxford; that needs a sixth or seventh day.

Do I need to book the West End show before I arrive?

Not strictly, but popular titles and prime evening slots (Friday and Saturday especially) sell out days or weeks ahead. Booking on day one at the latest, or before you fly, protects your seat choice and the date you actually want.

Which day should I do the Tower of London?

Early in the trip, ideally day two, so a queue or a closed section doesn’t force a reshuffle of the rest of your schedule. Arrive at opening time for the Crown Jewels if you want to avoid the longest queue of the day.

Is a car useful for this itinerary?

No. This route stays inside London, where the Tube, bus, and DLR cover every stop, and driving in central London means congestion charges and difficult parking for no real time saved.

What if it rains for most of the five days?

Plan for it rather than around it — London’s weather is changeable in any season, with rain spread through the year rather than concentrated in a wet season. Museums (all free to enter), the West End show, and covered markets like Borough Market give you full days that don’t depend on clear skies.

Do I need cash for this trip?

Barely. Cards and contactless payment are accepted almost everywhere in London, including on the Tube and buses, where contactless taps are simpler than working out individual fares.

Is the Changing of the Guard worth building day one around?

It’s worth seeing if the schedule lines up, but it doesn’t run every day and the time can shift, so check the current schedule before committing your morning to it rather than assuming it happens daily at a fixed hour.

Should I buy a London Pass or similar attraction pass for five days?

Work out the maths for the specific attractions on this list before buying any pass — Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London are the two paid entries here, and a pass only pays off if you’re visiting enough paid sights to clear its cost, which this itinerary, with its national museums and free parks, may not do.