3 Days in London Itinerary

Last updated on May 23rd, 2025

Visiting London? In this guide we’re sharing our favorite sights, food, and things to do if you only have 3 days in London, as well as things to know before you go. Ready to get planning? Keep on reading!

During our UK adventure, the first stop was London, which has always been at the top of our travel list (you can read all about our trip here). And it lived up (and even exceeded) our expectations! The city was beautiful and full of very cool architecture, delicious coffee and food, and so much history!

We were only in the city for 2 days, but we managed to squeeze in tons of sights and fell in love with the city. Using our experience from our trip, lots of research, as well our list of things to do next time, we created this 3 days in London itinerary and travel guide that is perfect for first-timers to the city!

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The guide includes a mix of both free and paid attractions, many of which we visited ourselves—although we did not pay to go inside of every single one, some of them are great to just walk by and see!

It is also filled with lots of food options, tips on how to get around, suggestions of where to stay, and things that are good to know beforehand. We hope you enjoy your trip to London!

Table of Contents

3 Days in London Map

In this 3 days in London itinerary we’re sharing all of the must-visit sights, best local food, and things to do if you only have 3 days in London.

Looking for more ideas? Make sure to check out our “if you have extra time” section at the end of this guide!

Day 1 of 3 Days in London

Overview

Monmouth Coffee
Borough Market
The View from The Shard
Tower Bridge
Tower of London
St. Paul’s Cathedral
Shoreditch
Dishoom
Nightjar

Start the Day with Coffee

Kick off your London adventure (and beat jet lag!) with coffee at Monmouth Coffee right next to Borough Market. This cute and popular spot serves great coffee along with pastries from local bakeries. However it’s important to note that they do not offer paper cups, so you either need to plan to sit down and enjoy your beverage or bring a reusable cup to use.

Have Brunch at Borough Market

Spend a couple hours eating your way through Borough Market (The market opens at 9 AM Saturdays, 10 AM Sunday-Friday). This is one of Londons oldest and most popular markets in the city. It’s a place that the locals will visit to get their local produces and other groceries and is also a great place to visit as a tourist to get a great selection of local dishes! There are so many amazing vendors to choose from and we recommend trying as much as you can (come hungry!). Some good ones to check out are:

Get Incredible Views of London

See London from 72 floors up at The View from The Shard. Make sure to buy your tickets early, as the earlier you buy, the more you save!

Depending on how many attractions you plan on visiting during your 3 days in London itinerary, you should definitely consider getting the London Pass where you pay on price to see unlimited sights including the View from the Shard!!

See Tower Bridge

Walk across Tower Bridge and enjoy the views along the way. It’s one of the most iconic sights in London and a must-see during your 3 days in London itinerary.

You can walk across it for free of course, but to get the full experience, purchase a ticket to go up the towers and get even better views of the river and the city from the upper walkway. Tickets are £13.40, but are also included in the London Pass we mentioned earlier!

Visit the Tower of London

Learn some interesting history and see the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London. This 1,000 year old castle is full of history and is worth a stop during your 3 days in London itinerary if for nothing else than to see the Crown Jewels!

Adult tickets cost £34.80 but of course, this stop is also included in the London Pass! There is so much to see here, so plan on spending a good chunk of time at the Tower of London.

Walk by St. Paul’s Cathedral

Admire the beauty of St. Paul’s Cathedral. While you can purchase tickets to enter (or use your the London Pass), we recommend just seeing this sight from the outside. If you have extra time in your 3 days in London itinerary, then feel free to spend more time here though!

See the Murals in Shoreditch

Wander around the Shoreditch area and snap photos of the murals. This neighborhood is one of the trendiest in London, filled with coffee shops, cute stores, and tons of fun murals. Spend some time before dinner exploring this area and finding some awesome art.

Get Indian Cuisine for Dinner

Have dinner at Dishoom. If you didn’t already know, London is known for having some of the best Indian food in the world aside from India of course! This place is delicious and very popular–make sure to make a reservation in advance! We recommend the Chicken Ruby, Black Daal, Chicken Tikka, and their Chai.

Visit a Speakeasy!

After dinner, grab a drink at Nightjar or Happiness Forgets, two speakeasy bars in Shoreditch.

Day 2 of 3 Days in London

Overview

Regency Cafe
Over Under Coffee
Notting Hill
Hobson’s Fish & Chips
Kensington Palace
Hyde Park
Buckingham Palace
Trafalgar Square
National Gallery
Westminster Abbey
Palace of Westminster
River Thames
Lobos
La Gelateria

Start with Breakfast

Get a traditional English breakfast at Regency Cafe (Note: Cash only & closed on Sundays). Breakfast here is not only super authentic, it’s also incredibly inexpensive! Fill up here to fuel another great day of sightseeing on your second of 3 days in London itinerary!

Get Flat Whites

Grab coffee at Over Under Coffee or Arro Coffee. We highly recommend getting flat whites while in London, it’s what they’re known for. 🙂

Wander Around Notting Hill

Spend a couple hours walking around the colorful streets of Notting Hill. They have a fun market on Saturdays too!

Of course this area was made famous after the movie, Notting Hill, and you can find some of the filming locations throughout the area. But we especially love this area for the bright rainbow colored buildings. There’s tons of place to eat, shop and explore in the Notting Hill neighborhood.

Have FIsh & Chips for Lunch

While you’re exploring the Notting Hill area, be sure to grab lunch at Hobson’s Fish & Chips. For all of my fellow gluten free eaters, they have gluten free fish and chips for you too!

See Kensington Palace

Spend the rest of the afternoon experiencing some of London’s royal landmarks. First up: Kensington Palace! We recommend just walking by this spot and visiting the free gardens. But if you got the London Pass then you can use that here too!

Visit the Famous Buckingham Palace

Walk through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace. A 3 days in London itinerary would not be complete without a stop here! You can only go into the palace during a portion of the summer, when the royalty are not there, and select dates in the fall and spring. But even if you can’t or don’t want to go inside, it’s still so special to see from the front!

Spend Time in Trafalgar Square

Walk through the bustling Trafalgar Square. It’s a great place to sit and view the city. You can also visit the National Gallery for free here if you have enough time. Here you’ll see works from Monet, van Gogh, da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and more! It’s worth stopping in for a bit if you can.

Head to Westminster Abbey

Admire the beautiful architecture at Westminster Abbey (the beautiful church where Prince William and Kate were married) and the Palace of Westminster (aka Houses of Parliament). Both stops are free to visit if you have the time to explore!

Watch the Sunset over the river

Enjoy sunset along the River Thames. We recommend watching it from this spot.

Eat Dinner

After sunset, head across the River Thames for dinner. A few good options:

Lobos–Spanish tapas spot in Soho.
Honest Burgers–we saw so many of these around town and while it’s a chain, it’s supposedly really delicious!
NOPI–A Middle Eastern and Asian-inspired restaurant with sharing plates.

Finish the Day with Gelato

Treat yourself to some amazing gelato at La Gelateria.

Want to save some money on this tour or experience? Join Tripadvisor Rewards to earn 5% Trip Cash on any hotel or experience booking made in their app, which can be applied to future in-app bookings!

Day 3 of 3 Days in London

Overview

The Attendant
Regents Park
Primrose Hill
Camden Market
British Museum
Neal’s Yard
Covent Garden
Regent Street
Carnaby Street
Mother Mash
Cahoots

Have Breakfast Underground

Start your third of 3 days in London with coffee and breakfast at The Attendant. It’s a tiny coffee shop in a former underground bathroom…super unique! We suggest getting a small breakfast to save room for Camden Market. 🙂

Visit Regents Park

Walk around Regents Park and hike up to Primrose Hill. Regents Park is a great place for anyone to enjoy, but especially wonderful for families! There’s tennis courts, cricket ground, playgrounds and the London Zoo here as well! Plus a lake and beautiful gardens to wander through. Once you make it up to Primrose Hill, you’ll see why we sent you here. The views of London are amazing from this spot.

Have Lunch at the Camden Market

After working up an appetite, eat more food and explore Camden Market (Opens at 10:30 AM). Some of the best stalls in the market to try out:

Go to a Museum

Visit one of London’s many museums. We visited the British Museum (free), but the Museum of London (temporarily closed) (free) and Churchill War Rooms look really interesting too!

Explore Covent Garden

Wander around Covent Garden, a super cool area with restaurants and shops. And despite the name, NOT a garden at all! Explore the adorable and colorful Neal’s Yard within Covent Garden. This area is picture perfect and home to many of the great shops and restaurants.

Walk Along Regent Street

Walk down one of our favorite streets in London, Regent Street. Make sure to take a classic tourist photo in the phone booth while you’re there!

Get Dinner and Drinks on Carnaby Street

Finish off your 3 days in London itinerary by grabbing dinner on Carnaby Street. We recommend getting meat pies or bangers and mash at Mother Mash. It’s a British staple! After dinner, finish the night with drinks at Cahoots.

If you have extra time…

If you have more than 3 days in London and need ideas for things to do and places to eat, we’ve got you covered!

FOOD

COFFEE

Kaffeine
Drury 188-189
Coffee, Cake & Kisses
Exmouth Coffee
Bloomsbury Coffee House
Afternoon tea at Claridge’s or Sketch

ACTIVITIES

If you’re in town on a Sunday, then explore the Brick Lane Market (Sundays only)
Eat and shop at the Boxpark in Shoreditch
Visit Daunt Books
See London from new heights at the Sky Garden
Take a ride on the London Eye–We recommend going super early to avoid the crowds!
Watch a football game!
Go see one of the many shows in London’s West End
Walk down Abbey Road
For the Harry Potter fans, check out the Warner Bros. Studio Tour
See the canals in Little Venice
Go window shopping at the beautiful Harrods department store
Visit more museums–British Museum (free), Museum of London (temporarily closed) (free), Churchill War Rooms, and the Natural History Museum (free)

Tips for visiting 3 days in London

There are a few things that we learned before and during our trip that will help make your trip go smoothly:

Buy an adapter before you go! Also, make sure your hair dryer and straightener (and other electrical items) are dual voltage. We took this hair dryer and this straightener with us during the trip and they worked great!
If you’re staying at Airbnbs and need somewhere to store your bags, then we recommend checking out Radical Storage and LuggageHero. We used both services while in London and they were convenient and safe!
Get Pound sterling from your bank before you go. It’ll both save you from having to find a place to exchange money and save you fees!
Multiple places closed earlier than they were supposed to. For example, the British Museum says it closes at 6 PM, but they kicked us out of exhibits at 5:30 PM, so plan accordingly!
Restaurants and coffee shops open up later on the weekends. While this is relatively common in the US too, we thought we’d point it out because there were a couple occasions where we really wanted coffee, but the places we wanted to go to weren’t open yet, even at 8 AM.
10-15% seems to be the standard when it comes to tipping and some restaurants add on a 12.5% service charge (make sure you review your bill!). We had a couple situations where there was no tip line on the receipt and we had to use cash if we wanted to leave a tip.
We highly recommend getting an international phone plan (or a SIM card), it’s worth every penny. We purchased AT&T’s International Day Pass in advance, but hoped to not use it most days and rely on Wifi instead. Although we tried our hardest, it was much easier to get around using data and saved us a lot of headaches!
There was no AC in our Airbnb in London, which we hear is common since the temperatures never get too warm. However, during our visit it was pretty hot, so it was a bit uncomfortable.

When to visit London

We visited London in August and despite London’s reputation of being rainy, we had sunshine the entire time! The daytime temperatures were super warm (it hit the 90’s, which we weren’t expecting and we think was unusual for the city), but minus a little bit of humidity and sweating, the weather was perfect.

The summertime is definitely the peak time to visit London, as the temperatures are warmer, so the crowds were a bit large at times during our trip. But we expect crowds in a large city, so it didn’t bother us at all. However, the prices were a tad higher as well, which is something to keep in mind if you plan to visit during the summer.

Winters tend to be cold and rainy, so unless you really don’t mind the weather, it may not be the best time to visit for your first trip. However, Christmas in London is very magical, so if you’re able to time your visit with their Christmas markets, it would definitely make up for the weather!

If you want slightly warmer weather and less crowds than the summer, fall and spring can be a beautiful time to visit London. However, you may deal with more rain than the summer, so be prepared!

If do you visit in the rain, then we think it would only make the trip feel more London-y…just make sure to pack an umbrella or rain jacket!

Getting to London

London is home to two airports: Heathrow Airport (LHR) and Gatwick Airport (LGW), both of which are international airports with many flights around the UK, Europe, the US, and more!

We flew into Heathrow during our visit to London, which is the larger of the two airports, and is located about 16 miles west of the city. Depending on where you’re staying in London, you can take the tube (underground trains) the entire way to your accommodations or take a combination of both the tube and a bus, which will take about 40-50 minutes.

When we visited Italy, we flew into Gatwick for a quick layover, but we have never visited London from Gatwick. Gatwick is located about 28 miles south of the city and has a train (the London Victoria or the Thameslink) that can take you into the city in about 35 minutes.

We had a great experience at both airports. They had great lounges (read how we get access to lounges here), which is an important factor for us, at both airports and the easiness to get into the city from both makes either airport a great option when visiting London.

Getting Around London

When we visited London, we either walked, took the bus, or took the Tube (underground trains) all around London. We never once took a taxi, which saved us a ton of money. To figure out which was the best option to get around, we used Google Maps and never had any issues.

After you land in London, we highly, highly recommend getting an Oyster card and using that to get around the city. It will make it easy to hop on busses and trains without worrying about getting a ticket!

You definitely do NOT need a rental car for exploring this 3 days in London itinerary, however, if you plan to explore the rest of England then you can rent a car from here once you’re done in London and explore!

Tip: Double decker busses are super fun to ride on and a great way to see more of the city. Book a 1-3 day hop-on-hop-off bus ticket here! Make sure you sit on the top floor in the front for the best views! 🙂

Where to Stay in London

London is known for being a very expensive city and lodging is no exception! We chose to book an Airbnb during our trip and found the prices to be much cheaper than hotels and we felt that we got a more local experience.

Warning: there was no AC in our Airbnb in London, which we hear is common since the temperatures never get too warm. However, during our visit it was pretty hot, so it was a bit uncomfortable. So make sure to check if your hotel or Airbnb will have AC if you’re visiting in the summer and are concerned about being a bit warm!

During our visit, there were a few areas that we really liked and would be a convenient spot to stay at during the city: Notting Hill, Chelsea, Shoreditch, Soho, Mayfair, and Fitzrovia.

Since getting around London is super easy, even if you stay a little out of town, you can still get into town pretty quickly. Below are some VRBO recommendations in the neighborhoods we mentioned above.

Notting Hill: 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Chelsea: 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Shoreditch: 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Soho: 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom
Fitzrovia: 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom

If you’d prefer to stay in a hotel, then we recommend checking out the The Westminster London, Curio Collection by Hilton, Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, or the Club Quarters Trafalgar Square for more affordable prices in the city.

Looking for more things to do in the UK?

1 Day in Edinburgh
4 Days in the Scottish Highlands

Planning a trip to London?

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3 Days in London Map