A first-time London itinerary — 1, 2 or 3 days, in the right order

How to plan a first trip to London

The rule that makes a London itinerary work: one area per half day. Central London’s big sights sit in three clusters — Westminster, the Tower and the City, and South Kensington’s museums — joined by the river. Crossing between them can eat half an hour or more each time, so plan your days around the clusters, not a list.

The timings below use opening hours checked on 21 October 2026. Two fixed points shape everything: Westminster Abbey is open to sightseers Monday to Saturday (9.30am–3.30pm on a typical weekday), and the Changing the Guard runs at 11:00 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays this autumn.

The ranges add up the Abbey (£32), the Tower (£38), Tower Bridge (£18), St Paul’s (£27), and optionally the London Eye (from £29 online), a boat (£10–£18) and an evening walk (about £16–£22); the top of the 3-day range includes the Studio Tour package (from about £90).

Tours that fit this itinerary, checked today

London: Westminster to Greenwich River Thames Cruise

• 4.5★ 25,690 reviews
• 1 - 2 hours

from £18

See on GetYourGuide

London: Big Bus Hop-on, Hop-off with Optional River Cruise

• 4.2★ 5,139 reviews
• 1 - 2 days

from £32

See on GetYourGuide

London: Westminster Abbey, Big Ben & Buckingham Guided Tour

• 4.8★ 4,016 reviews
• 3 - 4 hours

from £33

See on GetYourGuide

London: Ultimate One-Day Tour with Tower, Abbey & Cruise

• 4.7★ 95 reviews
• 8 hours

from £95

See on GetYourGuide

Prices and ratings checked 21 Oct 2026; they change daily.

One day in London

Weekday, Monday, Wednesday or Friday:

• 10.30am — Buckingham Palace for the 11:00 guard change. Watching is free.
• 11.45am — walk through St James’s Park to Westminster; lunch on the way.
• 12.45pm — Westminster Abbey (£32, about two hours). General admission ends at 3.30pm, so don’t arrive late.
• 3.15pm — Westminster Pier. Cruise east past the South Bank and St Paul’s to Tower Bridge (from about £14) or take the Uber Boat (£9.90–£11.90, contactless).
• 5pm — walk back along the South Bank, or ride the London Eye (from £29 online; the rotation takes about 30 minutes) before it closes.

Prefer a guide? The Westminster, Big Ben and Buckingham walk (3–4 hours, 4.8★, from about £33 for the city-tour option) covers the morning; the one-day guided tour with the Tower, the Abbey and a cruise (about £95, 8 hours) covers the whole day.

Two days in London

Day 1 — Westminster and the South Bank. As the one-day plan. On a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday, skip the guard and start at the Abbey at 9.30am, then walk Whitehall to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery (free, 10am–6pm).

Day 2 — the Tower, Tower Bridge and the City.

• 9am — Tower of London at opening (9am on the weekday we checked; £38). The Yeoman Warder tour is included; Historic Royal Palaces recommends two to three hours and says it’s quieter after midday — so either go at opening or after lunch.
• 12pm — Tower Bridge (£18, about an hour): the walkways with glass floors and the Victorian engine rooms. Open 9.30am–6pm.
• 1pm — lunch on the South Bank, then walk west along the river past the Globe and Tate Modern (free).
• 2.30pm — St Paul’s Cathedral (£27) via the Millennium Bridge. Sightseeing is Monday to Saturday from 8.30am, last entry usually 4pm, and the dome galleries close to new climbers at 4.15pm — so don’t dawdle over lunch.
• Evening — a guided walk. Jack the Ripper is the classic, from about £16–£22 for two hours; Harry Potter locations or a pub walk if ghouls aren’t your thing. See our walking tours guide.

Three days in London

Days 1 and 2 as above. Day 3 — choose one:

• Museums and Greenwich. Morning at the Natural History Museum (free, 10.00–17.50) and the V&A next door (free, Fridays until 22.00), or the British Museum (free, 10.00–17.00). Afternoon on the river to Greenwich — the Westminster to Greenwich cruise is from about £18, the Uber Boat £11.40–£13.70.
• The Harry Potter Studio Tour. A full day out of London — about seven hours with coach transfers, from about £90. Our Studio Tour guide compares coach, train and private transfer.
• Out of town. Windsor is the easiest half-day trip; Stonehenge, Bath or the Cotswolds make for a long full day. Compare them in our day trips guide.

If you’d rather see more ground on day 3, a bike tour (3.5 hours, from about £39) covers the parks and palaces in a morning, and a hop-on hop-off bus strings the main sightseeing areas together in an afternoon.

Where tours earn their place

A guide is worth paying for where the stories matter more than the sight: inside the Abbey, at the Tower (already included as the Yeoman Warder tour), and on evening walks where there’s nothing to see without one. Everywhere else — the museums, the parks, the river — you can do it yourself. For private guides who’ll run a day around your family’s pace, see our private tours guide; for every format side by side, London tours compared.