Introduction
Hey everyone, and welcome back to another article. In today’s episode, I’ll be highlighting everything you possibly need to know when visiting London, England, from how to get there, where to stay, all the best attractions to see, and also tips on saving money and navigating around the city. With that said, Backpack Greeno provides a comprehensive guide to London, England.
How to Visit LONDON in 2025
London Tourism Overview
Being the largest city in the United Kingdom, London is an extremely popular place to visit for tourists around the world. In 2023, over 19 million tourists visited London, and that number is expected to grow this year as well.
Best Time to Visit
Considering this popularity, various factors come into play when determining the best time to plan a trip to the city. The peak tourist season in London typically occurs in the late spring to summer months when temperatures are at their highest. However, during this period, expect crowds of tourists and elevated prices for flights, hotels, and Airbnbs, along with limited availability.
To avoid the crowds and high costs, a more favorable time to visit is from March through May and September to October. These periods offer milder temperatures, smaller crowds, and generally lower prices. For budget-conscious travelers, January, February, or November during the offseason presents an opportunity to save with the lowest yearly prices.
Keep in mind that visiting during these months requires packing warm clothes. Regardless of when you decide to go, it’s advisable to bring an umbrella, as London experiences steady rainfall throughout the year, with the highest levels during the winter months.
Getting to London
When trying to book a flight into London, you’ll probably realize that there are multiple airports to choose from. Given how large London is, they actually have six different international airports scattered across the city. The largest and most common one to fly into is London Heathrow (airport code: LHR).
Despite all of them being pretty far away from the center of London, they do have direct train, tube, and bus lines that run to and from the airports. In the video description below, I’ll put a link to this government transport site which provides all the options of transportation for each of their airports. Referencing the site will ensure you know exactly where you need to go once you land.
Where to Stay
When deciding where to stay in the city, opting for a location near Central London is ideal. Neighborhoods like Soho, West End, and Mayfair are centrally located and close to everything, but tend to be more expensive and popular.
For those of you on a budget, exploring options outside of Central London is the better choice. Doing so allows you to save money, and you can easily jump on a train or bus to quickly travel to Central London and explore. Consider areas like Kensington, north of Soho, or south of the river towards Brixton.
Of course, when searching for places to stay, I always recommend using the following resources: Airbnb, Hotels.com, Booking.com, and Hostelworld. I always reference each of these options to ensure I find the best place possible at the best price.
Top Attractions
London truly has an endless variety of attractions to see for all types of visitors. If you’re looking for some inspiration on things to do, here are some of our favorite places we visited during our last trip.
Big Ben & Parliament
Up first on the list is Big Ben. The Big Ben clock tower is one of London’s most iconic landmarks, situated at the Houses of Parliament. In 2012, the structure was renamed to the Elizabeth Tower in honor of Queen Elizabeth II during her Diamond Jubilee year, marking 60 years of her reign.
The commonly known nickname “Big Ben” is not actually referring to the clock tower but to the enormous 13-ton bell housed inside. While they do offer tours to climb the 334 steps, these are only limited to UK residents and are often booked out many months in advance. Also, at the top of each hour, you can hear the clock tower’s bell chiming, so make sure to time your visit.
Buckingham Palace
Another popular place to visit in London is Buckingham Palace. The palace has served as the primary residence of reigning monarchs since Queen Victoria’s time. The palace also plays a central role in hosting official events, ceremonies, and representing the monarchy in various capacities.
Parts of the palace are open to the public, typically during summer months while the king or queen is away at their official residence in Scotland, known as the Palace of Holyroodhouse. If you haven’t seen it yet, be sure to take a look at our latest video showcasing Scotland, which features the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh.
Victoria Memorial & Parks
In the immediate vicinity of the palace, you can easily visit a few more places on our list of best things to do. Right across from the palace, you’ll find the Victoria Memorial. This is a beautiful structure that was built between 1906 and 1924. The memorial features a large fountain and is crafted from white marble, featuring a golden statue of Queen Victoria.
Next to the Victoria Memorial, you’ll find St. James’s Park on one side and Green Park on the other. Both of these parks are fantastic spots to hang out and have lots of shaded areas. St. James’s Park even has some handy public restrooms and a food stand where you can grab a coffee or snack. These are great places to take a relaxing walk, have a picnic, enjoy the wildlife, and say hello to the oddly friendly squirrels.
Westminster Abbey
The next place I’d like to mention in our list of best things to do in London is to make a visit to Westminster Abbey. This huge Gothic building serves multiple purposes as a royal church, a place of worship, and a site of coronations and royal weddings. It has been the final resting place for numerous British monarchs, who are often buried in intricately designed tombs and memorials.
Inside, you’ll also visit the renowned Mary Chapel, which is this beautiful room that serves as the burial place for Queen Mary I and II. Pro tip: Make sure to buy your tickets online ahead of time, as the waiting queue to buy tickets in person is very, very long.
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Another great place for you to visit in London is St. Paul’s Cathedral. This massive building was built following the Great Fire of London in 1666 and still holds services to this day. This is an awesome place to visit, and it’s technically free to enter just to get a look. However, if you want to walk around inside and explore the main area, the crypt, and climb to the rooftop, you’ll have to pay a fee.
The cathedral’s design was inspired by St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City, which is ever so apparent in the massive ceilings and dome shape. While the crypt wasn’t anything special, if you’re planning on visiting, absolutely make a trek up to the rooftop because the views are totally worth it.
Tower Bridge
Up next on our list is the famous Tower Bridge. This is one of the most globally recognized landmarks and is an iconic symbol of London, which connects the borough of Tower Hamlets to the City of London. The bridge was completed in 1894 and is even equipped with a raising mechanism to allow boats to pass by.
On the bridge, you can also stop by the office and pay to climb up to the top-level walkways to get a better view of the city and explore the other exhibits inside.
Tower of London
Right across from Tower Bridge, you’ll find the Tower of London. This historical fortress dates back to the 11th century and was built by William the Conqueror. Since then, it has served as a royal palace, prison, and royal treasury.
Today, you can enter and walk around the walls and different areas of the fortress, exploring the many different museums and exhibits. Although some of them felt more catered to children, our favorite was the Royal Crown Jewels exhibit. You’re not allowed to take photos or videos inside, but let me tell you, the collection in there is out of this world.
There are many different crowns, scepters, and jewelry from past kings and queens inside. They also have on display the Cullinan I and Cullinan II diamonds, which are the two largest colorless cut diamonds in the world, with a combined weight of just under 850 carats. These are found in the Sovereign’s Scepter with Cross and the Imperial State Crown.
This exhibit is hands down worth a visit to the Tower of London, even if you don’t explore anything else within the fortress. Tickets can be bought in person right across from the entrance at the ticket offices for £33.60.
London Eye
If you’re planning to visit London, another great place to visit is the London Eye, also known as the Millennium Wheel. This 443-foot Ferris wheel is one of the largest in the world. The ride itself takes approximately 30 minutes and has plenty of space inside each of the observation pods to walk around and get a view of the city.
The London Eye Ferris wheel is the number one most visited attraction in all of London. With this in mind, it’s best to buy your tickets on the official website in advance and show up early, since there can be very long queues to get on board.
British Museum
The last place on our list that I’d like to mention is the British Museum. This museum is completely free to enter and is a must-see in London. This museum houses over 8 million works of art and artifacts from all over the world, and it’s one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in existence. This museum is truly amazing, and it’s one of the biggest I’ve ever visited.
Money-Saving Tips
Before visiting London, if you’re planning on exploring as much of the city as possible, there are a few tips you should know in advance to save money.
London Pass
Up first is the London Pass, the sightseeing pass that offers visitors access to a wide range of attractions and activities in London for the fixed price of the ticket. It provides admission to over 90 popular attractions, including museums, historic sites, tours, and landmarks across the city.
What makes this unique is that this pass is backed by a savings guarantee, meaning that if the total price of individual tickets you purchase don’t exceed the cost of the London Pass, they’ll refund you the difference.
Now, looking into the cost of it, if you’re visiting London for only 1 day, the £80 or so is rather steep and would require you to explore all day long to really get your money’s worth. However, if you’re staying for more days, the pass ends up making more and more sense.
Oyster Card
Another way you can save money in London is by picking up an Oyster card. This is a contactless card you can scan as you board public transportation within the greater London area. The Oyster card is a popular purchase for tourists, as it can provide savings on transportation and also on attractions, restaurants, and shops if you show your card as well.
To load money onto it, you can simply go online and recharge your card. And if at the end of your trip there’s unused money, you can simply turn in your card and get that amount refunded back.
Transportation Tips
To wrap up the video, I have a few quick tips on navigating around the city.
Public Transport
Like previously mentioned, you’ll most likely find yourself on various types of public transportation as you travel around London. If you’re trying to get on a train or bus and don’t have an Oyster card or ticket with you, you can simply just scan your credit card (assuming it has an RFID chip).
Because we didn’t know about the Oyster card during our stay, we just tapped our credit cards and went on our way. However, if you’re traveling with others, each person will have to scan with a unique card.
Using Google Maps
Another tip when trying to figure out which bus or train routes to take is to simply use Google Maps. This will show you exactly what bus or train you have to board and what stop you have to get on/off at. It also shows the stops in between, so you can keep track of exactly where you are and how many stops you have left.
While trains usually come and go frequently and on time, we found that sometimes the time displayed on Google Maps wasn’t correct for buses, as oftentimes buses do run into traffic and come late. So if you’re trying to arrive to, say, a dinner or an event on time, do take this into consideration and maybe leave earlier or try a taxi or an Uber instead.
Underground Trains
The final tip I have for you is that when trying to take the underground trains, make sure you have the exact route pulled up on Google Maps before going down into the train station. Since they’re deep underground, there will be zero reception despite having SIM cards.
This will prevent you from potentially missing your train because you’re trying to decipher the complex train route maps found on the wall. This happened to us on more than one occasion, so it’s best to have it up ahead of time to avoid any stress.
Closing
A special thanks to everyone who has made it to the end of this article. I hope this guide on visiting London, England, helps you in one way or another to plan your next trip to the UK. Please feel free to leave any questions or thoughts in the comment section below, and I’ll address them as soon as possible.
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