London Itinerary 5 Days: Best Culture, Food & Fun Route

Two of those days are flexible. The Tower day and the neighbourhood day swap freely, because both run on foot and neither depends on a booking. The out-of-town day is the one to plan around, because it starts early and comes back late.

Each day owns one part of the city, and the order matters more than the hours you spend in each stop.

Day 1: Westminster and the Royal Quarter

Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey sit within a few hundred meters of each other, so this day starts here and stays on foot. From Parliament Square you walk up Whitehall past 10 Downing Street and the Mounted Horse Guards, cut through St James's Park, and finish at Buckingham Palace.

The Changing of the Guard pulls the biggest crowd of the day, so if you want a view of the ceremony rather than the backs of other visitors, claim a spot at the rail before the ceremony starts. Westminster Abbey is the stop to slow down for, and Trafalgar Square is the other sensible start point if you would rather join a walking tour and let a guide carry the history.

Rain does not cancel this day. St James's Park is the part that suffers, so on a wet morning, shorten the Abbey visit and keep the walk short.

Day 2: The British Museum and St Paul's

Give the British Museum a full morning. It is the kind of collection that swallows three hours before you notice, and autumn is when museums roll out their new exhibitions, so check what is showing before you fix the day.

St Paul's Cathedral sits a short ride east and closes the afternoon nicely. On a wet day those two buildings fill the whole day between them, and on a bright one the walk back along the river is worth the extra hour.

Watch the pace on this one. Both stops are indoors, and both ask you to stand and read, so do not stack a long evening on top of them if you are travelling with kids or older parents.

Day 3: The Tower of London and the River

Start at the Tower of London, the castle on the north bank of the River Thames that has served as a palace, an armoury, a treasury and a prison, and where the crown jewels are still on show. Tower Bridge comes next, and the riverside path between the two is the stretch of London that photographs best.

For the afternoon, cross the river and keep walking. The South Bank puts the water on one side and the city skyline on the other, and the riverside walk carries you through both.

If you have to cut something from the day, cut the river walk rather than the Tower. The castle is what people remember afterwards, and the path will still be there tomorrow.

Day 4: One Day Out of the City

Save a day for the loop everyone asks about. Stonehenge is the piece that still puzzles historians, and Windsor Castle, Bath and the Cotswold villages sit along the same run of road, which is why they work as one trip rather than three.

That day tour starts and finishes in London, runs from $224 per person, and takes in UNESCO World Heritage sites along the route, so nobody in the group has to drive.

Do you need the coach? Not if you would rather keep the day for the city. The trade is straightforward: you give up one London day and gain three places you would otherwise never reach without a car.

Day 5: Loose Ends and Neighbourhoods

Day 5 is the flex day, and it fills fast. The London Eye on the South Bank gives you a panoramic view over the river, and The View from The Shard is the other high point, a viewing platform with a full 360-degree sweep of the rooftops.

Harry Potter fans should hand this day to the Warner Brothers Studio Tour instead, walking through Diagon Alley, Dumbledore's office and the Gryffindor common room, past props such as Harry's Nimbus 2000 and Hagrid's motorcycle.

If that sounds like too much queuing, stay in the neighbourhoods. Notting Hill and Hampstead feel more local than the centre, Greenwich Park is the summer picnic spot, and Madame Tussauds covers a wet afternoon if you have kids with you.

Eating in London goes better when the meal sits where you already are, because the good clusters are spread across the city. The food stops fall on days you are already walking.

• Chinatown, on Day 1. The walk from Whitehall to Buckingham Palace leaves you close enough to finish with a proper meal there, and it is the stop most people never plan for.
• Borough Market, from autumn on. This is seasonal cooking in its plainest form, and it suits a cold afternoon far better than a hot one.
• Camden and Shoreditch, in summer. Street food markets and summer fairs run through the warm months, and the eating carries on into the evening in both neighbourhoods.
• A 14th-century pub, on the Day 4 loop. The out-of-town day breaks for lunch in a pub that has been serving since the 1300s, which beats a service station every time.

Two practical tips: Eat either side of the lunch rush, and pick one market per trip rather than three, because the stalls are generous and your appetite runs out before they do.

Evenings decide whether the week feels rushed or relaxed, so treat them as the flexible half of each day. What is open depends on the season, and a little planning saves you a wasted night.

From autumn onwards the West End theatre season opens, which is the easiest good night out in the city. Pick a show for your least tiring day rather than your first night, when jet lag is still winning. The same months bring the twilight walk past the illuminated Tower Bridge, and an evening walking tour if you would rather hear tales of horror and unsolved mysteries than watch a curtain go up.

Summer pushes everything outdoors. Rooftop bars look out over the London Eye, the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre runs its season, and the daylight lasts long enough to see the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey on the way home.

Winter answers with the things July cannot give you: ice-skating at Somerset House, the Christmas lights along Oxford Street, and a hot drink beside the decorated tree in Trafalgar Square.

Rain needs one decision from you. Which day can absorb it without losing anything? Give that day the Victoria and Albert Museum or the Tate Modern, where the rooms stay quiet once the winter chill sets in.

London transport has a worse reputation than it deserves, and the rules fit on the back of a ticket.

Pay with a contactless debit or credit card, a phone wallet, or an Oyster card, which is a reloadable smart card that covers buses, the Underground, the Docklands Light Railway and London Overground. Whichever you use, you tap in and out at the readers, and the daily cap usually works out cheaper than buying single tickets as you go.

Cash is the one gap. Buses do not take it at all, so keep a card or a phone handy and stop worrying about change.

The other thing to know is that the walking between stops adds up, so keep the sights within one part of town and let the Tube carry you across the long hops. If the walking is the part you would rather skip, a London tour hands the routing, the timing and the queues to someone who does it every week.

Five days in London works when you settle the shape first: how many days stay in the centre, how many leave it, and how much of each evening you spend out.

Then the days in and out. What do you want from the week, new ground or a slower pass through streets you already know? Five days takes one day beyond the city or none at all, and it does not stretch to two. Keep that day out if the answer is new ground, because the centre days do not lean on each other and nothing else has to move.

Culture and food follow one rule apiece. One heavyweight indoor sight a day, with something outdoors straight after it, because the reading is where a schedule starts to slip. On food, decide which two meals you care about before you arrive and let the rest happen near wherever you end up.

So if something has to be traded away, trade a second ticketed attraction before you trade a day of walking, and give up the fixed plan before you give up the evening you were looking forward to. Fix the two days that matter most, keep one night clear for whatever the day turned into, and treat the rest as movable. That is what keeps a week of culture, food and evenings from feeling like a timetable.