Quick verdict: 3 days in London hits the iconic Tower of London + Westminster + British Museum + West End theatre + Borough Market. This itinerary uses Tube + walking. Built across 6 personal London trips.
The day-by-day plan
Day 1: Westminster + Buckingham Palace
Morning: Westminster Abbey (book online). Houses of Parliament + Big Ben photo. Walk to Buckingham Palace 11am for Changing of the Guard. Lunch at Borough Market 1-2pm. Afternoon: Tower of London + Tower Bridge. Evening: West End theatre (book TKTS for last-minute).
Day 2: British Museum + Soho + Pubs
Morning: British Museum (free, allow 3-4 hours). Lunch in Bloomsbury. Afternoon: Covent Garden + Trafalgar Square + National Gallery (free). Evening: Soho pub crawl + dinner in Chinatown or Borough Market.
Day 3: South Bank + Tate + Open Day
Morning: South Bank walk from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge. Tate Modern (free) + Globe Theatre. Lunch at Borough Market. Afternoon: Free time – Hyde Park, Sky Garden ($0 if booked), or pub afternoon. Evening: last London dinner + departure prep.
What to book ahead + practical tips
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Helpful Packzup guides
Common itinerary mistakes and smarter routing
Most wasted money in London comes from one fare habit: forgetting to tap out. On the Tube, Elizabeth line, DLR, Overground and National Rail you must tap in and out, and a missed tap-out charges the maximum incomplete-journey fare of roughly GBP 8. Use the same card or phone for every tap so your daily cap actually builds up; switching between an Oyster and a contactless card splits the total and you lose the cap. Oyster and contactless cost exactly the same per journey and hit the same cap, so contactless is usually the simpler choice.
Nearly every major sight sits in Zones 1 to 2, where the daily cap is GBP 8.90. One catch on contactless: the weekly cap runs Monday to Sunday only, so a trip starting midweek resets that Sunday night.
For sequencing, skip the 90-minute scrum at the Changing of the Guard unless it is a personal must. Trade it for a half day in Greenwich, where the Royal Observatory, the Meridian line and the Cutty Sark cluster within easy walking distance and the crowds thin out.
Frequently asked questions
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Updated 2026. Some links on Packzup are affiliate links.
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Written by
John Morrison is the founder and lead travel writer at Packzup. Over the past decade he has explored destinations across Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania — always self-funded, never on a press trip.