4 Day London Itinerary

Visiting London but only for a few days? There are so many activities, restaurants, and historical sights it can be easy to get overwhelmed. With only four days in the city, I wasn’t sure that I would be able to see much of it. But with careful planning and the help of Google Maps I was able to cross everything off to my list! Here are is my foolproof 4 day London Itinerary for your next trip to this amazing city.

Where to stay

If you want to get the most out of your short time in London, I suggest staying in Mayfair, Soho, or Westminster. These locations are the most central and are all within walking distance of many popular attractions. I stayed in Mayfair right beside Hyde Park and found that it was the perfect central location!

Before you go…

Before our trip, I made a list of all of the places we wanted to see and marked them on google maps. This allowed me to group activities and restaurants together in order to make our days more efficient. After that, it was easy to put together an itinerary and look up walking routes or tube rides. I highly suggest taking the time to do this before your next trip.

Many of the high end restaurants require you book ahead, so having a set schedule makes it easier to place reservations and/or order tickets for certain attractions. For most of our sight seeing we used the London Pass. There are many conflicting reviews regarding the pass, but we felt we got our money’s worth in the 4 days we were in London. We used it for 8 attractions (Warner Brothers Studios, Windsor Castle, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abby, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral) and were able to skip many of the lines.

Day 1:

1. Brunch at Farm Girl Cafe
2. Afternoon exploring Portobello Road and Notting Hill
3. Late Lunch at Daylesford Cafe
4. Dinner at Sketch London

Day 2:

1. Warner Brothers Studio Tour
2. Windsor Castle

Both the studio and Windsor are outside of the city, so we decided to group these two activities together. We took an uber from Mayfair (it is far less expensive than a taxi) and another Uber to Windsor. Inside the castle there is plenty to see. My favorite activities were the tour of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, The Apartments, and the Top of the Tower tour. From the tower you can see the entire London skyline in the distance on a clear day. It also overlooks the Queen’s quarters, and the River Thames. There are plenty of places to grab a bite to eat at Windsor, as noted in my previous blog post here. From there we took the Train back to Paddington Station and walked back to Mayfair.

Day 3:

1. Big Ben
2. Westminster Abby
3. Buckingham Palace
4. Kensington Palace
5. Gordon Ramsey Restaurant

We woke up early on day 2, grabbed a quick bite to eat at a local cafe, and arrived at Big Ben before 9am. From there we visited the Palace of Westminster and Westminster Abby, both of which were provided on our London Pass. After the tour of the Abby we walked to Buckingham Palace and ended with a walk through Hyde Park to see Kensington Palace.  During our visit, Kensington Palace had an exhibition highlighting many of Princess Diana’s famous dresses. After the Palace tour we took an Uber to the Gordon Ramsey Restaurant for dinner. While it is certainly expensive, this was by far the best meal I’ve ever had!

Day 4:

1. The London Eye
2. Brunch at Aquashard
3. Tower Bridge
4. Tower of London
5. St. Paul’s Cathedral
6. Peggy Porschen Cakes

Our final day in London was certainly heavy on the walking. We left our hotel in Mayfair early in the morning to make a 10:30am brunch reservation at Aquashard (which you can read about here). The walk took us along the Thames and a glimpse of the London Eye. After brunch we walked to Tower Bridge, where we used our London Pass to take a tour of the Bridge and the Machine Room. We then made our way across the river to the Tower of London, where we spent a few hours exploring the grounds and the Royal Jewelry Collection.

From there we made our way over to St. Paul’s Cathedral, one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen. Known as The Church of England, St. Paul’s is best known for its dome which is among the highest in the world. Be sure to “Climb the Dome” to the very top of the Cathedral, where you will be able to see some of the most breathtaking views of London 365 feet in the air. The day ended with a cupcake from the Instagram Famous Peggy Porschen Cakes!

Four days isn’t a lot of time in a city this big, but I left London feeling like I squeezed everything out of it that I could! Whether you follow this same itinerary or some sort of variation of it for your next trip to this amazing city, know that it is possible to see a lot in a short amount of time.

Have you ever been to London? What was your favorite tourist attraction and restaurant?

xx Kelly