Guides
Practical answers for a London visit: what to tip, what a dress code actually requires, and which Tube lines run all night. Each one checked at the source.
Heathrow Charges £15 a Bag for the Day. An App Charges £1.90.
Two systems, both published, about tenfold apart. The staffed desks price per item and keep hours; the app networks use spare space in shops. And your own hotel will hold the bags free, which nobody selling storage will tell you.
Luton Airport Parkway Is Not Luton Airport. The Gap Costs £4.90.
The train is advertised from £10 and the real minimum is £14.90, because the station is 2.3km from the terminal and the DART between them is a separate fare. The coach is £7 and stops at the door.
The Wimbledon Ballot Has Closed. Centre Court Still Costs £15.
Returned Show Court seats sell inside the grounds at £15 for Centre Court and £10 for No.1 and No.2, every afternoon. That is one of five routes left for the 150th Championships, and the ballot was the least interesting of them.
Dropping Someone at Luton Can Cost £27. At Heathrow It Is £7.
Four London airports, four different prices, four different fines, and one identical trap: not one of them lets you pay at the airport, and you have until midnight the next day before it becomes £80 to £100.
The Congestion Charge Is £18. A Minute Later It Is £180.
£18 on the day, £21 within three days, £180 after that. The 100 percent electric vehicle discount has ended, the residents' discount closes to petrol cars in March 2027, and TfL admits search engines outrank its own payment page.
A Day Travelcard Costs £16.60. Tapping a Card Costs £8.90.
The weekly Travelcard and the weekly contactless cap are both £44.70, to the penny. TfL publishes the figures that prove it only inside a PDF, and its own Travelcard page twice tells you to use contactless instead.
The Santander Cycles Annual Pass Costs Half of Paying Monthly
£120 a year against £240 for twelve monthly passes, for exactly the same product. Plus the two places TfL contradicts its own pricing, and the six staffed hubs that close on a Friday.
Heathrow Express Costs £26. The Slow Train Costs £5.90.
Thirty five minutes separates the two trains and £20.10 separates the fares, which is £34.46 an hour for the hurry. Both numbers come from Heathrow's own site, on pages that never sit side by side.
Stansted to London: The Fare They Never Print Is About £23
Stansted Express publishes two discount percentages and no standard fare. Work both backwards and they land on the same number, five pence apart. Here is that number, and the rest of what four operators do not tell you.
Getting from Gatwick to London: Nobody Will Tell You the Price
Four operators sell this journey. Between them they publish one price and one journey time, and that time contradicts itself on the same page. Here is what is actually known.
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Questions we get asked
How much should you tip in London?
Check the bill first. Nearly every London restaurant above the casual end adds a discretionary service charge of 12.5 per cent, and some add 15. Where it is already on the bill you do not tip on top: that is not generous, it is paying twice, and no member of staff expects it.
What does smart casual mean in London?
No sportswear, no shorts, no ripped denim, no beachwear. Beyond that you have latitude. A collared shirt or fine knit, trousers or dark unripped jeans, and shoes that are not running trainers will clear every door that uses the phrase.
Does the Night Tube run every night?
No. Friday and Saturday nights only, on six lines: Central, Jubilee, Northern, Piccadilly, Victoria and Windrush. Assuming otherwise is the most common way to end up paying for a long taxi.