London 5 Day Itinerary

We’ve decided to break up our itinerary postings to area specifics instead of our whole trip, hopefully this would help others combine a journey of their own together. Below is what we did for the London Area:

DAY 1: London
We arrived in Central London via Heathrow Connect around 1:00pm. After picking up our Oyster card that’s loaded with a 7-Day Travelcard (zone 1-2) at the Paddington Station, we checked into our hotel by the Old Street Tube Station in Zone 1.

Before our departure, we extensively researched and listed separate ticket prices of all the attractions we’d like to see on an Excel spread sheet. Then we compared it to the price of  the line-skipping-convenience London Pass and the price of the paper 7-Day Travelcards BOGO Offer. London Pass won, hands down! We set off to fight our jet lag by walking around London visiting the free museums and to buy our London Pass at the Leicester Square location.

  • Leicester Square
  • National Gallery
  • Trafalgar Square
  • Big Ben and Houses of Parliament at night
  • Westminster Bridge & admire the iconic London Eye (keyword: admire)
  • Waterloo Station
  • Golden Jubilee Bridge
We had dinner around Covent Garden.

DAY 2: London
We set off to explore London bright and early this day, because we woke up around 6am anyways due to our jet lag. After breakfast around Old Street, We activated our London Pass and visited the following:

  • Westminster Abbey
  • St. James’s Park
  • Changing of the guards by Victoria Memorial at Buckingham Palace
  • Wellington Arch
  • Harrods
  • Royal Albert Hall
  • Albert Memorial
  • Kensington Gardens
  • Peter Pan Statue
  • Hyde Park
  • Oxford Street
  • Oxford Circus
  • Piccadilly Circus
  • British Museum
  • The British Library
  • Platform 9-¾, King’s Cross, St. Pancras Station

While at the station, we picked up train tickets for our Windsor & Salisbury trip the next day.

  • Euston Road
  • 221B Baker St (Sherlock Holmes)
  • Regent’s Park

We went back to Covent Garden for Dinner then visited Lamb & Flag Pub (One of the oldest pubs in London) for some drinks.

DAY 3: Windsor & Salisbury
Areas outside of London such as Windsor and Salisbury are easy to get to via public transit and a nice break away from the urban city. We hopped on a train and left London early to be one of the first people to enter Windsor Castle while the crowd is at its minimum.

  • Windsor Castle
  • Bought tickets to the Stonehenge Tour on the bus
  • Stonehedge
  • Old Sarum
  • Exploring the town of Salisbury
  • Salisbury Cathedral

DAY 4: London
If it wasn’t for the London Pass, we would have never visited the Little Venice neighborhood and cruised through the canal that ended up at Camden Market/Camden Lock Market. It’s included, so why not!? What an interesting activity it ended up to be.

  • Little Venice
  • Jason’s Original Canal
  • Camden Market Area
  • HMS Belfast
  • City Hall
  • Tower Bridge
  • Tower of London/ Jewel Tower
  • The Fire Monument (with a view of The Gherkin)
  • Bank of England
  • Thames River Boat Cruise (included, what a surprise)
  • Benjamin Franklin’s House (We stumble upon it, a total waste of time)

DAY 5: London
We slept in this day and left the hotel around 10:30am. After a quick breakfast from Sainsbury’s, we visited the following:

  • St. Paul’s Cathedral
  • Tate Modern
  • Shakespeare’s Globe
  • Borough Market for lunch
  • London Bridge Experience (included so why not)
  • Churchill War Rooms
  • Household Cavalry Museum
  • 10 Downing Street
  • Guards Museum
  • Chinatown

DAY 6: Goodbye and Early flight to Edinburgh
We said goodbye to London around 5:00am and took a night bus to Earl’s Court. From there, we caught the EasyBus to Gatwick Airport and arrived in Edinburgh via EasyJet around 10am.

Let the Scotland fun begin~

London HMS Belfast, Tower Bridge to the right and Tower of London to the left.

4 responses

  • Beverley on
    Reply

    Do these itineraries exhaust you? It seems like a lot of activity each day! How long does it take you to recupe when you return?

    • Frank on
      Reply

      Not at all. Most of the days we are done by 5-6pm, After dinner, we will be back in the hotel relaxing and planning for the next day and prob. fall asleep by 10pm. Most of the time we ran out of things to do so we just sit and watch people at random public spaces with pastries or bakeries. Keep in mind though, we are young and energetic.

      • Beverley on
        Reply

        Thanks for the reply. My husband and I are young(ish!), and we are pretty energetic when we travel. We love to hike and walk when we can. We also like our down time, so upon further clarification, your schedule sounds perfect. We, too, love to sit and enjoy watching the local life with a good cup of coffee or an apertif. We just might have to try one of your itineraries. 🙂

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