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London · 3 days · 24 stops

72 Hours in London, Mostly on Foot

How to make 72 hours in London count: one walkable part of the city a day, the famous sights at the hour they're quietest, lunch where Londoners eat, and a free view for every sunset.

Haplo 14 min read Hours checked Sep 2026

The dome of St Paul's Cathedral and the towers of the City of London lit gold by the setting sun, seen from Waterloo Bridge across the Thames, with bare plane trees along the Embankment and moored boats below
The City of London and St Paul's from Waterloo Bridge at sunset · Photo: © User:Colin / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Three days is enough for London if you stop trying to cross it. Most first plans zigzag from the Tower to Buckingham Palace to the British Museum and spend half the trip underground. But the big sights sit in clusters, and each cluster makes a comfortable day on foot.

So this 3-day London itinerary takes one part of the city a day: Westminster and the West End, then Bloomsbury up to Primrose Hill, then the Tower, Borough and Bankside. Each day has one or two famous places, done at the hour they’re quietest or for free, and the rest goes to the places Londoners actually use: a 1946 caff, a Thai grill counter in Soho, fish and chips on Marylebone Lane, a galleried pub in Southwark.

We built it from London food and travel writers, the venues’ own sites and a handful of videos from people who live there, then checked every stop against its October 2026 hours. That turned up a few things worth knowing before you book: the Bayeux Tapestry is at the British Museum but sold out for the rest of 2026, the National Gallery’s Sunflowers and Hay Wain are away on loan, and the Regency Café has new owners.

We ran the plan through Bilbo, the trip planner we make, to put each day in route order and check every stop against its closing days. The maps below come straight from the app.

How to use it. Each day stays in one area and is walked end to end, with no Tube needed. Measured stop to stop in a straight line, the three days are 5.3, 5.5 and 6 kilometres, which comes to roughly 7 to 8 km a day on the streets, plus whatever you walk inside the museums. The plan is written for a Wednesday to Friday (14 to 16 October 2026), when everything on it is open and the Guards change on the first morning; the practical section at the end says what to swap on other days, and the sunset times are for those dates.

The plan at a glance

Three days, three walkable areas

Each day stays in one part of London and is walked end to end, with one or two big sights done early or for free and the rest of the day spent where Londoners eat, shop and walk.

  1. Day 1 · Wednesday Westminster to Covent Garden Westminster · St James's · Soho · Covent Garden · 8 stops
  2. Day 2 · Thursday Bloomsbury to Primrose Hill Covent Garden · Bloomsbury · Marylebone · Regent's Park · Primrose Hill · 8 stops
  3. Day 3 · Friday The Tower, Borough and Bankside Brick Lane · Tower Hill · Borough · Bankside · 8 stops

Best days: Wednesday to Friday as written. Other days need a swap or two, covered under The practical bits.

Bilbo's map of London with the three days drawn as colored routes: Day 1 in orange, Day 2 in blue, Day 3 in purple.
The whole trip, mapped in Bilbo
Day 1 · Wednesday · Westminster · St James's · Soho · Covent Garden

Westminster to Covent Garden

The royal half of London, done before the crowds arrive: breakfast in a 1946 caff, the Abbey at opening, the Guards from the street they actually march down, then a Thai counter in Soho, the National Gallery for free, and the river at sunset before dinner at London’s oldest restaurant.

Bilbo's map of Day 1 in London: eight numbered orange stops on a walking route, from Regency Café to Rules.
Day 1, mapped in Bilbo

  1. · Breakfast · Westminster

    Regency Café

    The Regency Café on a Westminster street corner: a black-tiled ground floor with REGENCY CAFE in white letters over both frontages and pink gingham half-curtains in the windows
    Photo: The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0

    A black-tiled corner caff from 1946, ten minutes’ walk from the Abbey, that has been a film set for everything from Layer Cake to Pride. Order the set breakfast: egg, bacon, sausage, beans or tomatoes, toast and a mug of tea. The two families who ran it for decades retired in 2024, and new owners reopened it with the same tiled front and the set breakfast still on the board.

    Local tip It’s a brisk, no-nonsense operation, so know your order before you reach the counter. The Abbey is a ten-minute walk north, and it pays to be at its door before 9:30.

    Cost
    Set breakfast about £10
    Hours
    Opens 7:00 Monday to Saturday; closed Sunday

    On TikTok: @topjaw Checked: Café site: hours and set breakfast, History and the 2024 change of owners

  2. · Icon · Westminster

    Westminster Abbey

    The north front of Westminster Abbey, with its Gothic spires and rose window, seen across a green lawn under trees, with St Margaret's Church to the left
    Photo: Sadrulk, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Every coronation since 1066 has happened here, and the Abbey is also the nation’s great burial place: Poets’ Corner, the Coronation Chair, the royal tombs behind the high altar. Be there for the 9:30 opening, before the tour groups, and about an hour covers the main circuit with the multimedia guide that comes with the ticket.

    Local tip Buy on the Abbey’s own website: those tickets can be upgraded at the desk to a free annual pass, so you can come back twice more, and third-party tickets can’t. It’s a working church, closed to sightseers on Sundays and sometimes at short notice, so check the day’s entry times first.

    Cost
    Adults £31; over-65s and students £28; children 6–17 £14
    Hours
    Wed 14 Oct: entry 9:30–15:30. Weekday entry is usually 9:30–15:30, with shorter hours on Saturdays and some other days; no sightseeing on Sundays
    Booking
    Buy ahead on westminster-abbey.org

    Checked: Official hours and prices

  3. · Ceremony · St James's

    The Changing of the Guard, from Birdcage Walk

    Buckingham Palace seen across the lake in St James's Park, framed by a weeping willow and spring trees, with the gilded Victoria Memorial to the right
    Photo: Tristan Surtel, CC BY-SA 4.0

    On Wednesday 14 October the King’s Guard changes at Buckingham Palace at 11:00, with the Band of the Welsh Guards. Most people press against the palace railings and see very little. Stand on Birdcage Walk outside Wellington Barracks instead: the new guard forms up there from about 10:30 and marches off with the band at 10:57, and you can walk alongside toward the palace. Then cut into St James’s Park, where the Blue Bridge gives you the palace across the lake.

    Local tip The old guard marches away from the palace at about 11:40. Guard changes at Buckingham Palace are on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (a Sunday parade at 10:00), so check the Household Division’s calendar that morning. St James’s Park’s pelicans are usually fed around 2:30 pm.

    Cost
    Free
    Hours
    Wed 14 Oct: new guard leaves Wellington Barracks 10:57, ceremony 11:00. St James's Park open 5:00 to midnight

    Checked: Household Division calendar, Troop movement times, Royal Parks: the pelicans

  4. · Lunch · Soho

    Kiln

    A narrow Soho room built around a counter facing the grills and claypots. The cooking is Thai and the produce is British, down to the farms and day boats named on the menu, and the plates are small, so order three or four between two. The claypot glass noodles with pork belly and brown crab are the dish to get.

    Local tip Kiln doesn’t take bookings: walk in soon after it opens at noon, and if there’s a wait they’ll take your number and text you. Most dishes contain pork or shellfish and some are very hot, so ask before you order.

    Cost
    Small plates about £4–15; claypot noodles £11.80; curries about £19
    Hours
    Kitchen Mon–Sat 12:00–23:00, Sun 12:00–21:00
    Booking
    No reservations; walk in

    Checked: Official hours and walk-in policy, Current menu

  5. · Wander · Covent Garden

    Neal's Yard and Seven Dials

    Neal's Yard in Covent Garden: old brick buildings with window frames painted bright blue, orange and green, and strings of lights across a blue sky
    Photo: Bex Walton, CC BY 4.0

    Ask Londoners which places are overhyped and Covent Garden’s piazza comes up fast, as it did in a City A.M. street interview. Walk five minutes north instead, to Seven Dials, where seven streets meet at a column carrying six sundials (the column itself is the seventh), and to Neal’s Yard, a courtyard of blue, orange and green shopfronts. Round the corner on Short’s Gardens, Neal’s Yard Dairy sells British farmhouse cheeses.

    Local tip Neal’s Yard Dairy takes cards only. For a coffee, Monmouth Coffee’s shop is a minute away at 27 Monmouth Street (Monday to Saturday, cards only).

    Cost
    Free to wander
    Hours
    Streets open all day. Neal's Yard Dairy Mon–Wed 11:00–18:00, Thu–Sat 10:30–18:30, Sun 11:00–17:00

    On TikTok: @city_am Checked: Neal's Yard Dairy hours, Monmouth Coffee hours, Seven Dials

  6. · Sunset · The Thames

    Waterloo Bridge at sunset

    Stand halfway across and London lines up on both sides: Westminster, the South Bank and the London Eye upstream, St Paul’s and the towers of the City downstream. It’s the view in the Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset, and a London creator says that even after 30 years, walking across it is still when the city feels best. The bridge was built during the Second World War largely by women, and for years it was called the Ladies’ Bridge.

    Local tip Sunset is at 18:11 on 14 October. Come half an hour before and stay until the lights come on, and bring a layer for the river breeze. Rules is a ten-minute walk away along the Strand.

    Cost
    Free
    Hours
    Open at all hours; sunset 18:11 on Wed 14 Oct (British Summer Time)

    On TikTok: @battylala Checked: The Ladies' Bridge and the views, Sunset time, 14 Oct 2026

  7. · Dinner · Covent Garden

    Rules

    The window of Rules at dusk, with RULES EST. 1798 in gold script on the glass and a glimpse of the red, gilded dining room behind
    Photo: Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0

    Thomas Rule opened it as an oyster bar in 1798, and it calls itself London’s oldest restaurant: red plush, brass and walls crowded with pictures. Come for the British dishes most places no longer bother with, like steak and kidney pudding, pies and oysters, and for game from the restaurant’s own estate in Teesdale when it’s in season. It isn’t cheap, but it’s the real thing.

    Local tip Book online. The dress code is smart-casual (no shorts, sportswear or joggers), tables go up to six, and after 7 pm children must be 10 or over.

    Cost
    Mains about £26–40; steak and kidney pudding £26.25
    Hours
    Open daily from noon until late
    Booking
    Book online; tables of up to six

    Checked: Official menu, Booking and dress code, History and the Teesdale estate

Day 2 · Thursday · Covent Garden · Bloomsbury · Marylebone · Regent's Park · Primrose Hill

Bloomsbury to Primrose Hill

One long walk north-west across the city: breakfast at Dishoom, the British Museum at opening, fish and chips and a free townhouse museum in Marylebone, then Regent’s Park and the view from Primrose Hill as the sun goes down, before a Greek neighborhood dinner.

Bilbo's map of Day 2 in London: eight numbered blue stops on a walking route, from Dishoom Covent Garden to Lemonia.
Day 2, mapped in Bilbo

  1. · Breakfast · Covent Garden

    Dishoom Covent Garden

    Dishoom’s evening queue is famous, but breakfast is its best meal and the easy one to get into. A London-based creator’s round-up of where to eat around Covent Garden calls the breakfast incredible. Order the bacon naan roll, made with Ramsay of Carluke’s smoked streaky bacon, and a house chai.

    Local tip Breakfast runs 8:00–11:45 on weekdays and you can book it (bookings for small groups stop at 6 pm). The British Museum is a 12-minute walk north.

    Cost
    Bacon naan roll £11.70; optional 12.5% service charge
    Hours
    Mon–Thu 8:00–23:00, Fri 8:00–midnight, Sat 9:00–midnight, Sun 9:00–23:00; breakfast until 11:45
    Booking
    Book online for breakfast; walk-ins welcome

    On TikTok: @lilypebbles Checked: Breakfast menu and times, Hours and booking policy

  2. · Free museum · Bloomsbury

    British Museum

    The British Museum's Great Court: a glass-and-steel lattice roof curving over the white drum of the old Reading Room, with visitors on the curving staircase and the courtyard floor
    Photo: Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0

    Free, enormous and busy, so don’t try to see it all: pick three rooms. The Rosetta Stone is in Room 4, the Egyptian mummies in Rooms 62–63 and the Parthenon sculptures in Room 18. The Bayeux Tapestry is on loan from France this year (Room 30, until July 2027), but tickets for the rest of 2026 are sold out, and part of the Sutton Hoo gallery (Room 41) is closed from 12 to 23 October.

    Local tip Book a free timed ticket, then try the back entrance on Montague Place, which usually has the shorter queue; the security check is the same at both. Leave big bags at the hotel: large bags and wheeled cases aren’t allowed in.

    Cost
    Free (special exhibitions extra)
    Hours
    Daily 10:00–17:00, Fridays until 20:30
    Booking
    Free timed ticket recommended; walk-ups admitted

    On TikTok: @orange.passport Checked: Official visit information, Bayeux Tapestry tickets

  3. · Lunch · Marylebone

    The Golden Hind

    Marylebone’s fish-and-chip restaurant since 1914. The order is simple: cod or haddock in batter, chips, mushy peas and tartare sauce, eaten at a proper table rather than out of paper. It’s about a half-hour walk west from the museum through Fitzrovia, which is exactly how long it takes to get hungry again.

    Local tip The lunch deal (regular cod or haddock, chips, peas and tartare sauce) is £21.95; ordering the fish on its own is £15.95. You can book online.

    Cost
    Cod or haddock £15.95–17.95; lunch deal £21.95
    Hours
    Mon–Sat 12:00–15:30 and 18:00–22:30; Sun 12:00–19:30
    Booking
    Online booking available

    Checked: Menu, hours and booking

  4. · Free museum · Marylebone

    The Wallace Collection

    A red-silk room at the Wallace Collection with Fragonard's The Swing in a gilt frame between two tall curtained windows, above an inlaid cabinet and two armchairs
    Photo: Geni, CC BY-SA 4.0

    A townhouse on a quiet square, left to the nation in 1897 with everything in it: French 18th-century paintings and furniture, Old Masters and a large armoury. The picture to find is Fragonard’s The Swing, the artist’s best-known painting. After the British Museum it feels like being let into a private house.

    Local tip It’s three minutes from the Golden Hind, and the museum has a café and restaurant if you want a coffee before the walk north.

    Cost
    Free
    Hours
    Daily 10:00–17:00

    Checked: Official visiting information, The Swing

  5. · Browse · Marylebone

    Daunt Books, Marylebone

    Inside Daunt Books in Marylebone: long oak galleries of bookshelves on two levels under a glass skylight, leading to an arched stained-glass window, with tables of books below
    Photo: Bex Walton, CC BY 4.0

    Built as a bookshop in 1912, with long oak galleries under a skylight and William Morris prints. The back room shelves books by country, guidebooks next to novels and history, which makes it the best-looking travel section in London. Marylebone High Street outside is a calmer place to shop than Oxford Street, ten minutes to the south.

    Local tip Walk to the far end and look back from the gallery for the view down the shop. Regent’s Park is five minutes north up the High Street.

    Cost
    Free to browse
    Hours
    Mon–Sat 9:00–19:30, Sun 11:00–18:00

    Checked: Official shop page, History of the building

  6. · Slow down · Regent's Park

    Regent's Park and Queen Mary's Gardens

    Beds of cream and pale yellow roses along a curving lawn path in Queen Mary's Gardens, Regent's Park, with big trees and a blue sky behind, photographed in early October
    Photo: Marathon, CC BY-SA 2.0

    Go in at York Gate, cross the lake and step into the Inner Circle, where Queen Mary’s Gardens hold about 8,000 roses; in a mild October some beds are still flowering. Then take your time walking north through the park to the canal and Primrose Hill beyond it.

    Local tip The Royal Parks publish a free, self-guided autumn walk through Regent’s Park to Primrose Hill; it’s worth having on your phone. The park gates close at 7 pm in October, by which time you’ll be on the hill.

    Cost
    Free
    Hours
    Park gates 5:00–19:00 in October (British Summer Time)

    Checked: Royal Parks: Regent's Park, 2026 opening times, Self-guided autumn walk

  7. · Sunset · Primrose Hill

    Primrose Hill

    Central London from Primrose Hill: people on the grass in the park below, trees and rooftops, and the skyline of the City and the Shard on the horizon under white clouds
    Photo: [Duncan] (duncanh1 on Flickr), CC BY 2.0

    A grassy hill 64 metres high with central London laid out to the south: the BT Tower, the Shard, St Paul’s and the towers of the City. It’s the sunset spot London-based creators come back to again and again, and on a clear evening the top fills up with people from the neighborhood.

    Local tip Sunset is at 18:09 on 15 October. Look for the William Blake line carved in the stone at the top. The hill stays open all night on weekdays, but closes from 10 pm to 6 am on Friday to Sunday nights until 8 November.

    Cost
    Free
    Hours
    Open 24 hours on weekdays; closed 22:00–06:00 on Fri, Sat and Sun nights until 8 Nov 2026

    On TikTok: @myperfectlondon Checked: Royal Parks: opening and weekend closures, The hill and the Blake inscription

  8. · Dinner · Primrose Hill

    Lemonia

    Primrose Hill’s neighborhood restaurant since 1979, family-run and Greek: meze to share, then charcoal-grilled pork souvlaki, lamb baked with green beans or keftedes. From Monday to Thursday a three-course set dinner costs £29.75, which is rare value this close to the center.

    Local tip Book by phone on 020 7586 7454. It’s four minutes’ walk from the top of the hill, and if you’re early, The Queens pub at No. 49 is on the way.

    Cost
    Set dinner £29.75 (Mon–Thu); meze from about £6
    Hours
    Dinner Mon–Thu 17:30–22:00, Fri–Sat 17:30–22:30 (last orders); Sunday lunch only
    Booking
    By phone: 020 7586 7454

    Checked: Official hours, 2026 set dinner menu

Day 3 · Friday · Brick Lane · Tower Hill · Borough · Bankside

The Tower, Borough and Bankside

The old city and the river: a beigel on Brick Lane, the Crown Jewels at opening, lunch grazing Borough Market, St Paul’s across the Millennium Bridge, and the free view from Tate Modern at sunset before a pint in London’s last galleried inn and pasta at Padella.

Bilbo's map of Day 3 in London: eight numbered purple stops on a walking route, from Beigel Bake to Padella.
Day 3, mapped in Bilbo

  1. · Breakfast · Brick Lane

    Beigel Bake

    Beigel Bake on Brick Lane: a narrow brick shopfront under a white sign reading BEIGEL BAKE, BRICK LANE BAKERY, OPEN 24 HOURS 7 DAYS
    Photo: mike (mlcastle on Flickr), CC BY-SA 2.0

    A Brick Lane bakery that has baked beigels around the clock since 1974, about 7,000 a day. Get the hot salt beef, thick-cut, with mustard and a gherkin, or smoked salmon and cream cheese if it’s too early for beef. It’s one of the cheapest good breakfasts in London, and the queue moves fast.

    Local tip Make sure you’re at No. 159, under the white sign: the Beigel Shop at No. 155 is a separate business. From here it’s about 30 minutes’ walk south through Spitalfields and Aldgate to the Tower, which opens at 9:00.

    Cost
    A few pounds; salt beef is the priciest thing on the menu
    Hours
    Open 24 hours, 7 days a week

    On TikTok: @visitlondon Checked: History, The Beigel Shop at No. 155 (OpenStreetMap)

  2. · Icon · Tower Hill

    Tower of London

    The White Tower at the Tower of London: pale stone walls and battlements with four corner turrets topped by lead cupolas and weathervanes, a Union flag flying above
    Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 4.0

    Nearly a thousand years of palace, fortress and prison, and the Crown Jewels. Historic Royal Palaces says the Tower is quietest after midday, but if you’re there at the 9:00 opening, go straight to the Jewel House before the tour groups arrive, then join one of the Yeoman Warder tours, which are included in the ticket. Allow two to three hours.

    Local tip Buy tickets from Historic Royal Palaces (hrp.org.uk) rather than resellers; they’re also sold on the day. The last Yeoman Warder tour leaves at 15:15 and the last entry is 16:30.

    Cost
    Adults £37 (£40.70 with donation); children 5–15 £18.50
    Hours
    Tue–Sat from 9:00, Sun–Mon from 10:00, until 17:30; last entry 16:30
    Booking
    Book online with Historic Royal Palaces, or buy on the day

    Checked: Official tickets and prices, Official opening times

  3. · Walk · Tower Bridge

    Tower Bridge and the river walk

    Walk across Tower Bridge on the road deck, which is free (the high walkways and glass floor are a paid exhibition), then turn right along the south bank past HMS Belfast to London Bridge. Borough Market is just beyond it, about 20 minutes on foot.

    Local tip The bridge still opens for tall ships about 800 times a year, and the lift times are posted on the Tower Bridge website; none was scheduled for 16 October when we checked.

    Cost
    Free (the Tower Bridge Exhibition charges)
    Hours
    Open at all hours

    Checked: Official bridge lift times

  4. · Lunch · Borough

    Borough Market

    Food stalls under the green iron roof of Borough Market, with signs for paella and oysters and a lunchtime crowd queuing at the counters
    Photo: Peter Trimming, CC BY-SA 2.0

    London’s best-known food market, under iron-and-glass roofs beside London Bridge. Don’t sit down, graze. One of the most-watched guides to the market, by a London food creator, starts by pointing out that it’s about much more than the chocolate strawberries. The classics are the Black Pig’s slow-roast pork ciabatta, Kappacasein’s raclette and toasted cheese sandwiches, and a doughnut from Bread Ahead.

    Local tip Kappacasein trades only Thursday to Saturday, and the whole market is closed on Mondays. The market’s own site says Saturday afternoons are the busiest; a Friday lunch is calmer.

    Cost
    Pay as you go, stall by stall
    Hours
    Tue–Fri 10:00–17:00, Sat 9:00–17:00, Sun 10:00–16:00; closed Monday

    On TikTok: @eatingwithtod Checked: Official opening times, Kappacasein trading days

  5. · Icon · City of London

    St Paul's Cathedral

    Walk west from the market along Bankside, past Southwark Cathedral and Shakespeare’s Globe, and cross the Millennium Bridge straight to Wren’s cathedral. The ticket includes the crypt and the three dome galleries: 257 steps up to the Whispering Gallery, 528 to the Golden Gallery at the very top, with the City spread out below.

    Local tip Last entry for sightseeing is usually 16:00. If you’d rather not pay, Choral Evensong at 17:00 is free (on Friday 16 October it’s sung by the Vicars Choral); you stay seated for the service, and it ends in time to cross back for sunset at the Tate.

    Cost
    Adults £27 (£29.70 with donation); services free
    Hours
    Sightseeing Mon–Sat from 8:30, last entry usually 16:00; no sightseeing on Sundays
    Booking
    Book sightseeing tickets online at stpauls.co.uk

    Checked: Official opening times, Official prices, Service schedule to 24 Oct

  6. · Sunset · Bankside

    Tate Modern and the Level 10 view

    St Paul's Cathedral's dome rising above the north bank of the Thames, seen from Tate Modern, with the Millennium Bridge crossing the river in the foreground
    Photo: Coat of Many Colours, CC BY-SA 3.0

    A power station turned into Britain’s national museum of modern art, free apart from the big exhibitions. Walk through the Turbine Hall, give the collection an hour, then take the lift to Level 10 of the Blavatnik Building, where the café looks across the river to St Paul’s and the Millennium Bridge. On Fridays it stays open until 9 pm, so you can watch the light fade and the city switch on.

    Local tip Sunset is at 18:07 on 16 October. While you’re up there, join Padella’s virtual queue on the Dojo app (it opens for remote sign-ups at 17:15), then walk the 15 minutes back to Borough.

    Cost
    Free (major exhibitions ticketed)
    Hours
    Sun–Thu 10:00–18:00; Fri–Sat 10:00–21:00

    Checked: Official opening times, The Level 10 view

  7. · Pint · Borough

    The George Inn

    The George Inn in Southwark: a white-painted building with two tiers of wooden galleries and hanging flower baskets above a cobbled courtyard with barrels and benches
    Photo: Matt Brown, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

    The last galleried coaching inn left in London, rebuilt after the great Southwark fire of 1676 and now owned by the National Trust. Charles Dickens knew it and mentions it in Little Dorrit. Have a pint in one of the old bars while Padella’s queue works its way down.

    Local tip The cobbled courtyard is walk-in only; tables inside can be booked. Padella is two minutes away.

    Cost
    Pub prices; food served until 22:00
    Hours
    Mon–Wed 11:00–23:00, Thu–Sat 11:00–midnight, Sun 11:00–23:00
    Booking
    Courtyard walk-in only; inside tables bookable

    Checked: National Trust, Pub hours, History

  8. · Dinner · Borough

    Padella

    A pasta bar on the edge of Borough Market since 2016, with the pasta rolled by hand in the window. Share two or three plates: the pici cacio e pepe and the pappardelle with eight-hour beef shin ragù have been on the menu since the first day, and no pasta dish costs more than £16.50.

    Local tip There are no bookings. Join the virtual queue on the Dojo app from 17:15, or at the door from 16:30 (groups of up to six), and wait at the George until your table is called.

    Cost
    Pasta £9.50–16.50
    Hours
    Dinner Mon–Sat 17:00–22:30, Sun 17:00–21:00; lunch daily 11:30–15:45
    Booking
    No reservations; virtual queue via the Dojo app

    Checked: Official hours, menu and queue

Before you go

The practical bits

Which days this works on

It’s written for a Wednesday to Friday. Day 1 needs a Monday, Wednesday or Friday, the days the King’s Guard changes at Buckingham Palace, and never a Sunday, when the Abbey is closed to sightseers and the Regency Café is shut. Day 2 works Monday to Saturday (Lemonia serves only lunch on Sundays). Day 3 works Tuesday to Saturday, because Borough Market closes on Mondays and St Paul’s has no sightseeing on Sundays; only on a Friday or Saturday is Tate Modern open past sunset, so on other days watch it from the Millennium Bridge instead. Starting on a Thursday? Do Day 2 first, then Day 1 on Friday and Day 3 on Saturday.

Getting around

The days are built to be walked. When you do need the Tube or a bus, skip paper tickets and don’t bother buying an Oyster card: tap the same contactless card or phone in and out, and the fare is capped. In 2026 a Zone 1 Tube ride costs £3.10 at peak times (weekdays 06:30–09:30 and 16:00–19:00) and £3.00 otherwise, and a whole day in Zones 1–2 is capped at £8.90. Buses are £1.75, with unlimited bus changes within an hour, capped at £5.25 a day. Use one card or device all day (not your phone for one trip and your watch for the next), and keep other cards away from the reader. Drinking alcohol on the Tube and buses has been banned since 2008.

Book these ahead

Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London on their own websites, St Paul’s if you want to climb the dome, a table at Rules online and one at Lemonia by phone. The British Museum’s free timed ticket and a breakfast table at Dishoom are optional but save queuing. Don’t plan on the Bayeux Tapestry: tickets for the rest of 2026 are sold out, the next batch (for January to March 2027) goes on sale on 21 October, and tickets are named to the booker, so avoid resellers.

Money and tipping

Cards and phone payments work almost everywhere, and some shops, Neal’s Yard Dairy among them, take nothing else. Most sit-down restaurants add a 12.5% service charge to the bill. It’s optional, you can ask for it to be taken off if the service was poor, and by law all tips must be passed on to staff, so there’s no need to leave anything on top. Nobody expects a tip for a drink ordered at a pub bar.

Tourist traps and manners

Stand on the right on Tube escalators and walk on the left. Leicester Square and the streets around it are lined with chain restaurants and souvenir shops; Soho, Seven Dials and Borough are all a short walk away. Queue for everything, and let people off the train before you get on.

Tap water is free

Any pub, bar or restaurant licensed to sell alcohol in England has to give you free drinking water if you ask; it’s one of the mandatory conditions of every alcohol licence. Ask for tap water, or you may be offered a bottle.

The free views, and the two you have to book

This plan uses three views that need no ticket: Waterloo Bridge, Primrose Hill and Tate Modern’s Level 10. Two higher ones are also free but must be booked: the Sky Garden at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street (weekdays 10:00–18:00, with tickets released up to three weeks ahead) and Horizon 22 on Bishopsgate, the highest free viewing gallery in London (weekdays 10:00–18:00).

Straight from TikTok

Three videos worth watching first

@eatingwithtod · 5.3M plays A London food creator's guide to Borough Market beyond the chocolate strawberries: the cheese stalls, the doughnuts and the smaller kitchens. Watch on TikTok ↗ @topjaw · 207K plays What a full English at the Regency Café looks like, and why you should know your order before you reach the counter. Watch on TikTok ↗ @visitlondon · 217K plays Behind the counter at Beigel Bake, open around the clock, with its two best-sellers. Watch on TikTok ↗

How we made this

We started from the problem most first-time visitors have with London: too many famous things, spread too far apart, for three days. So we split the city into three areas you can walk, gave each day one or two big sights done at their quietest or for free, and filled the rest with places Londoners actually use. To find those we read London food and travel writers and the venues' own sites, and watched a few dozen TikToks, mostly from creators who live in London; eight of them shaped the plan, and each is linked on the stop it informed.

In late September 2026 we checked every stop for the actual dates, 14 to 16 October 2026: opening days and hours, prices and booking rules, from each place's own website or official listing, and from OpenStreetMap and Wikipedia where a small place has no site of its own. Several things had changed since the videos were made: the Regency Café has new owners, the Bayeux Tapestry is at the British Museum and sold out for 2026, and the National Gallery's Sunflowers and Hay Wain are away on loan. Sunset times are for those dates, before the clocks go back on 25 October. Photos come from Wikimedia Commons and are credited below. Hours and prices still change, so check before you go.

Then we ran the plan through Bilbo, the trip planner we make. It put each day's 8 or so stops in route order and checked every one against its closing days, with nothing clashing and nothing scheduled on a day it's shut. The maps are screenshots of that plan in Bilbo.

Photos come from Wikimedia Commons and are credited below. Bilbo is made by Haplo, which also publishes this blog.

Photo credits