How to Spend a Week in London: A One-Week London Itinerary for First-Timers

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Planning a trip to London? This is a great itinerary for a first-timer’s visit to this beautiful and historic city! This London itinerary includes tips on where to stay, what to do on your visit to London, and most importantly, where to eat!

London is definitely a city after my travel-loving heart! It’s a city full of life and history, and has such a mix of culture when it comes to people, food, art, and architecture. Truth be told, a city like London could never fully be explored in a week (or even two weeks, or three!). In fact, I bet some people who have spent their whole lives in London could undoubtedly find something new on occasion.

This was our first time in London, so everything was exciting to me. Heck, I fell in love with this city early in the week! When we stepped out of our hotel on our second evening, the streets were wet after a light rain had fallen. Our neighborhood was quiet at that hour, the sun was just starting to set, and the clouds were clearing to reveal the last bit of blue skies for the day. The smell of fresh rain permeated the air and as we walked down to the pub for dinner, I just admired the visual beauty that London is.

Me (to my husband): I love this city!
Him: You say that about every new city…
Me (to myself): Touché

But really, I don’t say things like that unless I really mean them. I just allow myself to embrace a new destination. Sometimes I fall madly in love, and sometimes it takes some work to get to know a place. I fell for London immediately. Yes, it’s a big city. It’s bustling, it’s noisy, and it’s crowded. But, there is so much to this city! To be able to peel it back, layer by layer, is such an exciting thing to me.

Though we only had a mere week to explore, I put together a pretty solid London itinerary for first-timers. It worked out really well for us!

I’ll be very candid here when I say there are a TON of London itineraries floating around the internet. A simple Google search will lead you to an overwhelming amount of options. This very itinerary was the product of scouring dozens of different posts that popped up when researching our trip! However, everyone’s experience is going to be different. We are going to see different sights, eat different foods, and meet different people.

This is how we spent one week in London.

Our Travel Details

• Month Traveled: May (week of Memorial Day/Bank Holiday). We were so lucky with the weather in May! It was warm and only rained one day the entire time we were in England!
• Airline & Flights: Direct flight from SFO to Heathrow on Virgin Atlantic. It was nice not to have a layover; however, even though we upgraded to extra legroom seats, the long flight was not the most comfortable on Virgin.
• Transportation: We used Uber & prearranged airport transfers and bus tours. There is no sense in renting a car if you’ll be staying in the city most of the time!

Where to Stay in London

We chose to stay at the Apex Temple Court Hotel in the Temple neighborhood of London. This neighborhood is just outside the west side of the City of London area in the heart of the legal neighborhood.

Why we chose the Apex Temple Court:

• Location: The Apex Temple Court is within a good proximity of activities and sights to the west, like Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square, and also to the east, for sights such as St. Paul’s Cathedral, Borough Market, Tower Bridge, etc.
• Room/Bed Sizes: We like our space, and king-sized beds! It’s harder to find larger rooms in Europe, especially ones that come with king-sized beds. If you like a lot of space and/or are traveling with a very tall person, you can’t go wrong here.
• Budget: Depending on the season, you can get a room in the $200/night price range. This is awesome considering the class of the hotel, its amenities, and the amount of space you get in your rooms!

To read my detailed review on our stay, check out this post.

Apex Temple Court
1-2, Serjeant’s Inn
London EC4Y 1AG, UK
https://www.apexhotels.co.uk/apex-temple-court-hotel

One-Week London Itinerary Summary

• Day 1: Arrive in London; Check into hotel; Explore Trafalgar Square/Covent Garden on Foot
• Day 2: Explore on Foot: London Eye, Parliament/Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, National Gallery
• Day 3: Explore on Foot: Notting Hill; Pub Hopping; Afternoon Tea at Egerton House Hotel
• Day 4: Day trip to Warner Bros. Studios (Harry Potter Studio Tour)
• Day 5: Explore on Foot: St. Paul’s Cathedral, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern Museum, Borough Market, Tower Bridge
• Day 6: Day trip to Stonehenge & Bath
• Day 7: Explore on Foot: Shoreditch Neighborhood, BrewDog Tap Houses, Tower of London

book london activities with get your guide!

Tips for Foodies

If you are looking for more detail on food, check out my London Food Diary: Eating Our Way Through London! Because we are very much into food when we travel, I like to provide a lot of details, photos, and feedback about all the different foods we eat. You’ll find addresses and website links in that post as well. Here’s a quick list of my favorites before I get into the day-by-day fun:

• Borough Market (Turkish delight, vegan burgers, seafood, exotic meats, and cider!)
• The George Pub on Strand (best fish & chips we’ve ever had)
• Gordon’s Wine Bar in Westminster (great stop to kick up your feet, snack on tapas and a cheese board, and indulge in some good wine)
• Earl of Lonsdale in Notting Hill (sticky toffee pudding with custard is to die for)
• BrewDog Shoreditch/Tower Hill (best beers we had in London & eclectic food options, including lots of vegan offerings)
• Indian City in City of London (delicious Indian food and friendly staff)

Day 1 in London – Get Your Bearings

Itinerary Highlights

• Arrival to London
• Check into the Apex Temple Court Hotel (maybe take a power nap)
• Snack and brewskies at the Temple Brew House
• Walk through Covent Garden and Trafalgar Square
• Dinner at Chambers Restaurant at hotel

Our first day in London was partially a travel day, as we arrived from an overnight flight from the U.S. Since we still had some daylight, we showered, took a quick power nap (well, at least my husband did), and headed out to explore some nearby neighborhoods.

We didn’t plan on walking several miles that day after a long flight, but what can I say, I’m an overachiever! Plus, the weather was beautiful and I didn’t want to waste the blue skies.

We grabbed a snack and some beers down the street from our hotel at the Temple Brew House, and set off to explore the Neal’s Yard area of Covent Garden. Although Neal’s Yard was a wee bit crowded, it was absolutely beautiful and very colorful.

We walked by Admiralty Arch and through Trafalgar Square past the National Gallery. Everyone was out in full force enjoying the sunshine in the square! I felt so happy to be soaking up the sun right alongside everyone else! Such a great welcome to the city.

There really is so much to see just walking the streets of the city. If you are a fan of European architecture, you will not be missing out here!

For dinner, we headed back to our hotel area in search of something nearby. However, we ended up eating at our hotel restaurant since there weren’t too many restaurants open near us at that time. The cons of staying the legal/financial district! Nothing to complain about though since we had a delicious meal of crab linguini and lamb with cherry tomatoes!

Miles walked: 4.64

Day 2 in London – Walk, Everywhere

Itinerary Highlights

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Walk along River Thames (snap a pic with a red phone booth!)
• Frozen Yogurt at Snog Froyo
• Self-guided walking tour past the London Eye, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey & Buckingham Palace (exterior only)
• Explore National Gallery Museum (free entry)
• Late lunch at Gordon’s Wine Bar
• Dinner at The George Pub closer to hotel

We had another beautiful day of weather in London and set out to explore London to the west. After our hearty breakfast at the hotel, we headed down to the River Thames. We walked along the river, crossing over to see the London Eye, grabbed some froyo from the hot pink Snog Bus, and then set off to get some beautiful views of the Parliament Building.

Unfortunately, during our visit, Big Ben was completely scaffolded for the years-long restoration. I guess we’ll have to plan another visit! Not sad about that.

Westminster Abbey & Buckingham Palace

We then crossed the Westminster Bridge to admire the Parliament building up close, along with Westminster Abbey. We didn’t want to wait in line to get into the Abbey…and let me tell you, that line was LONG! I would recommend booking tickets here ahead of time or a guided tour so you can skip that insanity. Still a beautiful spectacle from the outside.

We then made our way down to see the exterior of Buckingham Palace (because you just have to right?) before circling back to central London to find a bite to eat.

National Gallery

We also popped in to the National Gallery to check out some paintings. My main motivation was to see Bathers at Asnières by Georges Seurat – one of my favorite French impressionist painters! Not being a huge art fan, my husband rested his feet a bit while I circled around the Gallery looking at all the beauties, including works by Van Gogh.

Entry into the National Gallery is FREE (as is the case with many museums in the city). So, if you are on a budget, museum hopping is a great addition to your itinerary.

Gordon’s Wine Bar & The George

After, the museum, we ended up at Gordon’s Wine Bar which was such a perfect respite after walking all day. We shared a bottle of wine while we sat out on the terrace, enjoying the sunshine and snacking on cheese, bread, tapas and a hot dog.

After the wine bar, we took a little time back at our hotel to rest our feet and have a drink before popping down to The George Pub where we had the best fish and chips of all time! I know it’s a bit cliché to get fish & chips in England, but it’s just one of those things you’ve got to do. The George delivered a large portion of hot, crispy fish and thick-cut salty chips. It was amazing. Not a bad way to end day two!

Miles walked: 8.62

Day 3 in London – Tea Time!

Itinerary Highlights

• Breakfast at the hotel
• Early lunch at Earl of Lonsdale Pub in Notting Hill (sticky toffee pudding!)
• Explore Notting Hill neighborhood on foot
• Churchill Arms Pub
• Afternoon Tea at the Egerton House Hotel

Notting Hill in the Rain

Day 3 didn’t quite go as I had planned. The weather decided to take a turn for the worse and the skies conjured up quite the thunderstorm. On our Uber ride over to Notting Hill, the rain started dumping buckets! When we got to Portobello Road, we ducked into the first place we could find – a no-frills pub called the Earl of Lonsdale.

Thankfully, as we sat trying to patiently wait out the rain, we had the pleasure of consuming a plate of warm sticky toffee pudding with custard. You guys, I’ve never had sticky toffee pudding before so I didn’t know what to expect. I’m pretty sure this is in my top desserts of all time! Holy moly! New mission: always scour the menu for said dessert and compare to the Earl of Lonsdale.

Unfortunately, the rain did not let up and my Notting Hill Instagram dreams were dashed. Not just dashed, but stomped on and utterly crushed in a big, muddy puddle! No pretty pastel homes for me. We didn’t have room in the schedule to make it back to Notting Hill this trip, but you can guess what’s going on the itinerary for next time!

The Most Beautiful Pub in London

Onward we went to our next destination! We braved the rainstorm and walked all the way from Notting Hill to the Churchill Arms Pub. Really not sure what we were thinking there. We definitely should have hailed a cab, as we were soaked by the time we reached the pub. At least we were welcomed with the sight of the most beautiful pub in London!

Pro Tip: One umbrella really does not serve two people well in a thunderstorm! Bring an extra, just in case London’s unpredictable weather rears its ugly head.

Afternoon Tea at Egerton

After we had a little bit of time to dry off and throw back some pints, we hailed a ride to afternoon tea over at the Egerton House Hotel. I wanted to have at least one proper tea in England, and wanted to find a place that had a decent vegan or vegetarian afternoon tea.

As luck would have it, I found this lovely little boutique hotel serving up options for all kinds of diets. Egerton serves traditional tea for omnivores, vegan/vegetarian/gluten-free options, and even a doggy afternoon tea for all your furry friends.

We were so stuffed after our tea, we practically had to roll down the hallway of our hotel to make it to our room. We spent the rest of the evening sipping on cocktails from our hotel bed, watching some highly entertaining British television!

P.S. – I wrote up a more detailed post on our Afternoon Tea experience at the Egerton House Hotel here.

Miles walked: 3.4

Day 4 in London – You’re a wizard, Harry!

Itinerary Highlights

• Day trip to Warner Bros. Studios in Leavesden for the Harry Potter Studio Tour
• Dinner at Adore Remo closer to hotel

The Harry Potter Studio Tour is a must for any Harry Potter fan! We took the prearranged “tour” with Golden Tours (booked through Viator), which seemed like the easiest option. This tour included entry tickets and a bus ride to the Leavesden studio, which was about an hour ride from London thanks to traffic.

The studio tour itself is mostly a self-guided experience and traveling with Golden Tours gives you about 3.5 hours to explore on your own. I felt that was plenty of time to see everything!

At the studio, you’ll have the chance to see many different sets and set pieces, props, costumes, artwork, and models. You will even have a chance to sample the famous butterbeer! I personally enjoyed the butterbeer and wished I had also tried the ice cream.

Even though we booked a morning tour, we didn’t get back to London until late in the afternoon due to traffic, so this pretty much took up the whole day. Totally worth it for all the cool HP stuff we got to see! I wrote a pretty extensive and detailed post about our experience here if you want some ideas on including this in your own itinerary! *Warning, there are lots of spoiler photos!

Dinner this night was at a little Italian place around the corner from our hotel called Adore Remo. We had a delicious baked eggplant parmesan and some tasty authentic Italian cocktails (Negronis and an Aperol Spritz anyone?).

Miles Walked: 2.62

Day 5 in London – That’s not London Bridge!

Itinerary Highlights

• Breakfast at Pret a Manger near St. Paul’s Cathedral
• Self-guided walking tour past St. Paul’s Cathedral & across the Millennium Bridge
• Explore Tate Modern Museum (free entry)
• Lunch at Borough Market (self-guided food & beer tour)
• Tower Bridge Experience
• Happy Hour at Be At One
• Dinner at Indian City

This was probably our favorite day we spent in England! Generally, our favorite days when traveling are the ones spent wandering around a new city without any constraints. When you have no tours, appointments or reservations to make, it’s very freeing!

This was another day full of walking! And while we didn’t get the clear blue skies like some of the other days, the weather was kind to us and kept the rain at bay. I did carry around my umbrella unnecessarily again just in case.

We went on a self-guided walking tour past St. Paul’s Cathedral, and then across the Millennium Bridge. Harry Potter fans will recognize this bridge from the Half-Blood Prince film destroyed by those pesky Death Eaters.

Tate Modern Musings

Just across the bridge, we came upon the Tate Modern Museum that houses a variety of “interesting” modern works of art. My art professor in college had a favorite painter. His name: Mark Rothko. I never understood the fascination and still don’t.

Modern art in general really isn’t my thing though; however, I still at least find a lot of it fascinating and thought-provoking (thoughts such as, “What the f*ck is that really supposed to be anyway?” generally come to mind).

And how about this one? As my friend Deborah would say, you could file this under “Things that make you go, huh?”

And then there’s the Lobster Phone by Salvador Dali, who believed that lobsters and telephones had strong sexual connotations. Okay, so maybe I’ll admit that modern art can actually be quite interesting. I mean, I saw it, I analyzed it, and I’m sharing it – so it must have made some kind of memorable impression on me!

The Tate Modern also offers FREE admission, so there’s no harm in checking it out, even if you think modern art isn’t your thing!

Borough Market

After the museum, we were ready for some grub. We headed over to Borough Market which was my favorite food experience of our entire trip! There’s something to be said about walking through an open air market, having your choice of countless different cuisines to sample. It’s a great place to find a cheap and delicious meal as well!

We shared a spicy vegan burger, some hard ciders, and my husband got adventurous and tried some exotic meat, including camel, llama, crocodile and kangaroo!

One pleasant surprise for me were the bites of Turkish Delight. I wish I could go back in time and fill up a whole bag! I’m not a huge sweets person, but these were just perfection in not only flavor but also texture. Definitely magical! I’m no longer surprised why the White Witch enticed the Pevensie children with it in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Again, you can read more details on our food experiences in this post.

The Tower Bridge Experience

To cap off our ambitious day, we sauntered over to the Tower Bridge – one of the most iconic landmarks that people often associate with London! Commonly mistaken as the much uglier “London Bridge,” the Tower Bridge was built in the late 1800’s and really is a beauty to marvel at.

We bought tickets for the “Tower Bridge Experience,” which included entrance to the top portion of the towers and the walkways in between them, as well as a tour of the engine rooms below.

Part of the walkways above are made of glass so you can see the lower part of the bridge and the river below. And of course, you know, mirrors above so you can take photos like these!

It was pretty neat to be able to get a look at the engine rooms also.

After our day on foot, we were ready for a drink and found a cool spot called Be At One, which is actually a chain bar! I’ve heard of chain restaurants, but never a chain bar. Turned out to be the perfect spot for happy hour – and we got there just in time before the after-work rush!

If you’ve got *good* 80’s music playing and are serving up two-for-one drinks, you’ve pretty much won our hearts over. Three rum punches later…

We eneded our day at an Indian restaurant called Indian City, since we had really been craving some good Indian food all week. I won’t rehash what I already wrote in our foodie blog post, but I will say that aside from the amazing food, we had such a great human experience that night. It definitely made me appreciate London’s multicultural existence and reminded me of why travel is such an important part of our being.

Miles Walked: 6.64

Day 6 in London – The Mystery of Stonehenge

Itinerary Highlights

• Day Trip to Stonehenge & Bath
• Thai food and pints at The Raven for dinner

Stonehenge Day Tour

Stonehenge – the history mystery! We could not go all the way to England and skip seeing Stonehenge. I found a reasonably-priced tour with Day Tours London (also booked through Viator) that included a trip to Stonehenge, a drive through the English countryside, and a stop off in Bath.

Both Stonehenge and Bath are UNESCO World Heritage sites! Not that I’m checking off some list of UNESCO sites, but if you are, you can kill two birds with one stone on this tour.

Was it cool to see Stonehenge in person? Absolutely! Is it magnificent? Well, not really. I mean, visually, it’s a bunch of rocks. The more intriguing things to me are thinking about how they got there in the first place (physically), and what they were actually used for! Everything is really speculation and pieced together off the bits of history people can pull together. Unless Bill and Ted want to take us on a journey in their time machine, it will likely forever remain a mystery.

Beautiful Bath

After Stonehenge, we were off to the old city of Bath for a couple hours of exploring (and lunch!). Bath really is a beautiful city, but I found it to be a little overcrowded (likely thanks to it being a pretty popular tour stop) and there were many retail shops that I didn’t feel belonged in such a historic place.

I’d love to be able to go back to Bath and spend a little bit more time in the city – maybe even a weekend – so that I can get a better feel for it.

Pub & Rugby Time!

I did kind of love that the tour ended with a drop off in West London at the Stamford Brook Station (traffic reasons – i.e. getting back into Central London during rush hour is no joke). The Raven pub is located just across from the station, and I suggest paying it a visit before making your way back to your hotel or next activity in London.

It was such a chill spot where we had some pints (and wine), excellent Thai noodles, and kicked back and watched some rugby. I’ll say it a hundred times – I love London pubs!

For a more detailed rundown of our day tour to Stonehenge & Bath, check out this post: Checking Stonehenge off the Bucket List – with a side of Bath.

Miles Walked: 5.37

Day 7 in London – The Wind Down

Itinerary Highlights

• Breakfast at hotel
• Self-guided walking tour through Shoreditch Neighborhood
• Lunch at BrewDog Shoreditch
• Tower of London (self-guided tour)
• Beer pit stop at BrewDog Tower Hill
• Dinner at The George Pub (again) closer to hotel

It’s hard to believe how fast a week flies by! When you are busy exploring a new place, one can tend to get a little tired. Perhaps even catch a travelers cold…which is exactly what happened to me. It actually happens to me a lot – probably from the stress of traveling (yes, it does get stressful!), or even just being in a new environment and being more active than normal.

So, on our last day, we didn’t have much planned other than to walk around a bit more and tour the Tower of London.

Shoreditch Neighborhood

We started our day in the Shoreditch neighborhood, wandering past murals and various food shops. This is totally the Portland of England: street art, amazing food around every corner, and lots of hipsters!

I’m a huge fan of street art and the vibrant visuals it can bring to a neighborhood.

Tower of London Tour

The Tower of London has some pretty cool bits of history, though since I wasn’t feeling so well, I probably did not enjoy it as much as I could have. It was pretty mesmerizing to see all the Crown Jewels on display (photos are not allowed), and we really enjoyed the White Tower with the many types of armor and weapons on display.

I was kind of sad to read about the history of keeping exotic animals at the Tower in cramped zoo-like conditions. They really did not know how to care for a these animals properly, and a lot of them died as a result. You can find a few sculptures throughout the tower that serve as a reminder. Woe is me, to be an animal lover!

We toured the entire tower on our own without an audio guide. There are many informational placards throughout the tower itself so the audio guide wasn’t necessary for us.

Pro Tip: Be mindful about timing to see the Crown Jewels. The line to get in can be pretty long at times. When we visited, the sun was beaming down and we didn’t want to wait for 30+ minutes in that heat. So, we went up into the White Tower and ended up back at the entrance to the building with the Crown Jewels just before closing and didn’t have to wait in line at all!

Purchase tickets online through this link.

As a final farewell to this great city, we ended up back at The George Pub on Strand for a last supper of fish and chips. Hey, what can you do when something is just that good?

Miles Walked: 4.91

Tips for Travel to London

• Currency: Pound sterling – £
• Driving: Driving is on the left side of the road, with the driver’s seat on the right side of the car!
• Street Crossing: Look in the proper direction when crossing the street! If you aren’t from a country where cars drive on the left, you’ll want to be mindful of which direction cars are coming from. Thankfully, the streets are painted with “Look Left” and “Look Right” signs everywhere to help us foreign folk in line.
• Tipping: Tipping is a bit confusing in London. A few things I’ve read say that 10 to 15% is acceptable at restaurants, yet we had tips refused when eating out at certain places. Some establishments will add on a service charge to your bills, in which case tipping is not necessary. We did make sure we left a nice tip for our tour guide and bus driver on our day trip to Stonehenge, however. Spending a whole day leading a busload of people around is hard work! Being from the U.S., it’s hard for us not to tip for services so we definitely did it where we felt it was appropriate.

I hope you enjoyed this extremely long summary of our one-week London itinerary! There are so many things that I’d love to come back and see on a return trip someday (Big Ben (uncovered)); Notting Hill (not in a thunderstorm); Westminster Abbey (not just the outside), etc.).

As I mentioned at the outset of this London itinerary post, exploring a city like London takes a lot of time, but it is time well spent. I loved each and every moment of our time there!

If you’re heading off to London soon, let us know in the comments! If you’ve been to London before, what were some of your favorite spots?

Read Next:

• Checking Stonehenge off the Bucket List (with a side of Bath)
• Harry Potter Studio Tour with Golden Tours
• Eating Our Way Through London
• Checking In: Apex Temple Court Hotel in London
• Afternoon Tea at the Egerton House Hotel

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