Most three day London itineraries are a list of famous names in an order that makes no geographical sense. You end up crossing Zone 1 four times a day and spending your trip underground.
This one is built the other way round: one part of the city per day, walkable within itself, with every venue and price checked against what the place publishes about itself. Much of it is free, because in London the free half is the better half.
First, the question underneath the question.
How many days do you actually need?
Three days covers central London properly. You will see the river, the City, the West End and one green space, and you will eat well four or five times.
The fourth day is the one that changes the trip, because it is the first one you can spend outside Zone 1 without feeling you are missing the centre. Richmond Park, Greenwich, Hampstead and the neighbourhood restaurants are all fourth day things.
Two days is a trip to the West End with a view attached. Five or more and you should stop planning and start living here for a week, which is a different and better way to use London.
Day one: the City and the river
Everything today is within about twenty five minutes on foot, end to end.
Morning: the highest free view in London
Horizon 22, Level 58 of 22 Bishopsgate. Free. Weekdays it opens at ten and runs to six, Saturday to five, Sunday to four. There is no time limit once you are up, so this is not a twenty minute stop unless you want it to be.
Book the free timed ticket, but know that a QR code outside the entrance lets you book on the spot if there is capacity. Do not arrive with luggage: nothing over 58 by 45 by 25 centimetres gets through security and there are no lockers.
Late morning: the Monument, if you like stairs
Seven pounds now, and the cash only rule has gone. It was four fifty and cash in hand until recently; the price is now 7 pounds for adults, 3.50 for children and 5.30 for students and over sixties, and tickets are bought at the door on the day. Wren’s column stands sixty one metres from where the Great Fire started and it is 311 steps to the top. Two things to plan around: it shuts for an hour at one o’clock, and in term time school groups can block admission between ten and half eleven from Monday to Thursday. Skip it if the queue is long: you have already had the better view for nothing.
Lunch: Borough Market, but sit down off it
Walk south over London Bridge. The market is the best place in London to buy food and one of the worst to eat a meal, so buy at the stalls and eat properly one street back.
Hawksmoor Borough on Winchester Walk does three courses for thirty pounds at lunch, which is the cheapest serious steak south of the river. Padella’s pasta starts at nine fifty if you will accept the queue, and Brindisa’s counter states that walk ins are always welcome, which makes it the reliable unbooked option. The Borough Market guide has all of it.
One warning: the full market does not trade every day. Our market guide has the day by day pattern.
Afternoon: the George Inn
Set back off Borough High Street through an archway, which is why people walk past it. The only Grade I listed pub in London, owned by the National Trust since 1937. What survives is about a third of the original coaching inn.
Evening: Sky Garden
Sky Garden is free until 6pm on weekdays and 9pm at weekends, on a booked ticket valid for an hour, and its bars run to midnight, or one in the morning on Friday and Saturday. That late licence is the reason to save it for the evening rather than duplicate Horizon 22 in the afternoon.
The ticket is the hard part: free timed tickets are released weekly, up to three weeks ahead, and they go. Book this before you fly.
Day two: the West End
Today you barely need the tube at all, which is the real argument for staying central.
Morning: a Japanese breakfast, then a free museum
Koya on Frith Street serves breakfast from ten, from 12.60 for tamago gohan up to 21.90 for the full set with a pot of hojicha. It is walk ins only and there is no better value breakfast in Soho.
Then the free museums, which are the backbone of any London trip and cost nothing at all.
Lunch: the set menu loophole
This is the single best value trick in London eating. The expensive rooms nearly all have a cheap entrance at lunch and they do not advertise it.
Roka on Charlotte Street does five courses plus a robata main for 39.50, and unusually it runs at dinner as well as lunch, Monday to Friday. There is a premium version of the same menu at 49.50 with black cod, beef fillet or lamb cutlets in place of the robata choice. Read the small print before you order: choosing the vegetarian robata option adds 9.30 rather than saving you money. The set menu guide covers the pattern across the city.
Afternoon: walk Soho and Covent Garden
They are adjacent and the whole point is that you do not plan it. The Soho guide covers which places take bookings and which have quietly become tourist infrastructure. Covent Garden is the calmer half.
Early evening: Gordon’s Wine Bar
On Villiers Street, trading since 1890 and describing itself as London’s oldest wine bar. The candlelit cellar is what everyone comes for, and the only reliable way to get a table in it is arriving early, because it has been first come first served for a hundred and thirty five years.
One current caveat: their homepage now says one area can be reserved while their contact page says no reservations at all. Ring and ask. The kitchen stops an hour before the bar does. The wine bars guide has the rest.
Dinner: something with no booking
Kiln on Brewer Street takes no reservations whatsoever, but they will take your number and message you when a table frees, so the wait is not spent standing outside. The kitchen runs to eleven, Monday to Saturday. The Thai guide covers the alternatives, including the one open until quarter past midnight.
Day three: get out of Zone 1
Pick one. Both are free, both need no ticket, and both are better than anything you will pay for today.
Option A: Hampstead Heath
Parliament Hill has the best free view in London, with no ticket, no gate and no closing time. The Heath also holds the only swimming in this guide that is open every day of the year, Christmas Day included. The parks guide has the detail.
Option B: Richmond Park
King Henry’s Mound in Pembroke Lodge Gardens is a Bronze Age burial mound with a tree framed sightline to the dome of St Paul’s, ten miles east. The Royal Parks state that the view is protected and that no new building may impede it. It is one of very few views in England that planning law exists to defend. The Richmond Park guide covers the gates and the deer.
Evening: eat in a neighbourhood
Having come this far out, do not go back into the middle for dinner. Islington has the Sunday roast that runs until nine when almost every other roast in London stops at five. Marylebone, Notting Hill and Shoreditch are the other three worth the journey.
What this costs in transport
8.90 pounds a day, at most. That is the daily pay as you go cap for Zones 1 and 2, the same figure at peak and off peak, however many journeys you make. Buses cap separately and lower at 5.25, with a flat 1.75 fare and no zones.
Use the same card every single time. A phone on Monday, a watch on Tuesday and a plastic card on Wednesday reads as three separate travellers and none of them caps. The fares guide explains the rest.
Practical notes
Book Sky Garden before you fly. It is the only thing on this itinerary with a ticket release that can defeat you, and it goes three weeks out.
Read last orders, not closing time. This is the most common way to arrive somewhere in London and not get fed. Several kitchens on this page stop one to two hours before the room does.
Carry a card and some cash. Almost everything is cashless. The Monument is the exception and takes cash only.
Do not leave your phone on the table. The Metropolitan Police’s own advice, and the most relevant line of it for a trip spent in bars and restaurants. Our safety guide covers the rest of what they publish.
If it rains, nothing here is ruined. The wet weather guide has the indoor half, and on the thirty year averages you will meet rain on roughly a quarter to a third of days whatever month you come.
Everything dated or priced here was checked against each venue’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Confirm before you travel.
Where to go next
When to come and where to stay are the two decisions that sit above this itinerary, and whether the London Pass is worth it is the one most people get wrong.
For the individual days: the best views, Borough Market, Soho and the parks.
If you have a weekend rather than three days, things to do in London at the weekend.
Questions we get asked
How many days do you need in London?
Three covers central London properly: the river, the City, the West End and one green space. The fourth day is the one that changes the trip, because it is the first you can spend outside Zone 1 without feeling you are missing the middle, which is when Richmond Park, Greenwich, Hampstead and the neighbourhood restaurants become possible.
What should you do on your first day in London?
Start high and free. Horizon 22 on Level 58 of 22 Bishopsgate costs nothing, opens at ten and sets no time limit on your visit. Then walk south over London Bridge to Borough Market, buy at the stalls and eat one street back, and finish at Sky Garden, free on a booked ticket until 6pm on weekdays and 9pm at weekends, with its bars open later.
Is 3 days enough for London?
For the centre, yes. Three days gets you the City and the river, the West End, and one park or heath, without crossing Zone 1 more than you need to. What three days does not get you is the neighbourhoods, which is where London is actually best, so if you can add a fourth day, spend it outside Zone 1.
How much is transport for 3 days in London?
At most 26.70 pounds a person, because the daily pay as you go cap for Zones 1 and 2 is 8.90 and it applies at peak and off peak alike. Buses cap separately and lower at 5.25 a day with a flat 1.75 fare and no zones. Touch in and out with the same card every time or the capping will not recognise you.
What can you do in London for free?
Most of the best of it. Horizon 22 and Sky Garden are both free viewing platforms, the national museums are free, Parliament Hill on Hampstead Heath has the best free view in the city with no ticket at all, and King Henry’s Mound in Richmond Park has a legally protected sightline to St Paul’s ten miles away.
What is the best area to base yourself in London for 3 days?
Somewhere central in Zone 1 or Zone 2, because both share the same 8.90 daily fare cap so Zone 2 costs nothing extra. Marylebone is the best all round choice, central enough to walk into the West End and quiet enough to sleep in. Soho and Covent Garden are better if you want to walk everywhere and do not mind noise.
Do you need to book attractions in London in advance?
Sky Garden yes, absolutely, because its free tickets are released weekly up to three weeks ahead and they go. Horizon 22 is worth booking but also offers an on the spot QR code if there is capacity. The free museums, Parliament Hill and King Henry’s Mound need nothing at all. Restaurants are the things most worth booking early.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 103 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
