Best Things to Do in London

London has more to see than any first trip can hold. Mix a few of the big paid sights with the free ones, and leave room for a pub and a park.

1. The Tower of London. A Norman fortress, a royal prison and the home of the Crown Jewels. Book a timed ticket, arrive at opening and go straight to the Jewel House before the queue builds, then join a tour led by a Yeoman Warder.
2. Tower Bridge. Walk across it for free, then look back from the riverside path at Potters Fields, on the south bank. The paid walkways at the top have glass floors, if you want to watch the traffic below your feet.
3. Westminster. Parliament, Big Ben, the Abbey and the parade grounds, all walkable in a morning. Our Westminster guide has the route.
4. The British Museum. The Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures and Sutton Hoo, under one roof and free. See our museums guide for a plan.
5. The South Bank. The riverside walk from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge, past the National Theatre, Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe. It's the single walk we'd give to a first-timer.
6. St Paul's Cathedral. Christopher Wren's dome after the Great Fire. Climb to the Whispering Gallery and the outside galleries for a view across the City, or hear Evensong for free.
7. Borough Market. London's best-known food market, under the railway arches by London Bridge. Go hungry, and on a weekday rather than a Saturday, when the crowds are at their thickest.
8. Greenwich. The Royal Observatory and the Prime Meridian, the Cutty Sark and the view from the top of Greenwich Park. Take a river boat there and the DLR back.
9. The Sky Garden. A free public garden on the 35th floor of the "Walkie Talkie" tower. Free slots are released about three weeks ahead and go fast.
10. A West End show. Musicals and plays every night of the week. The TKTS booth in Leicester Square sells same-day seats for less.
11. Hampstead Heath. Wild, hilly parkland in the north, with a protected view from Parliament Hill across to St Paul's and the City.
12. A weekend market. Columbia Road's flower market in the East End on Sunday, or Portobello Road in Notting Hill on Saturday, its main day.
13. The Churchill War Rooms. The underground bunker where the wartime cabinet worked, left much as it was in 1945.

What we'd skip: the London Eye queue on a busy afternoon (the Sky Garden and Parliament Hill give you the skyline for nothing), Madame Tussauds, and Leicester Square itself, which is somewhere to pass through, not to stay.