3 days in London

3 days in London is enough for the sights most people come for if you give each day one part of the city: Westminster first, then the Tower and the river, then the museums. You walk from one stop to the next and take the Tube once or twice a day.

This is the plan as we built it in Traypass for a sample trip in mid-November. We land at Heathrow the afternoon before day 1 and fly home the morning after day 3, so the app’s screens count five days: our day 2 is its day 3. The prices were checked on October 22, 2026.

Tube, per day

£8.90

The most you pay in zones 1–2 with contactless

Westminster Abbey

£32

Adult ticket, audio guide included

Tower of London

£38

Adult ticket, Crown Jewels included

The big museums

Free

British Museum, National Gallery, Tate Modern, Natural History Museum

Day 1: Westminster, St James’s Park and the river

Start at Westminster Abbey at 9:30 a.m., when it opens to visitors. It is a working church: closed for sightseeing on Sundays, with last entry at 3:30 p.m. on weekdays (3:00 p.m. on Saturdays). The £32 ticket includes the audio guide; book it online, as few are sold at the door.

Ask Traypass to plan the day and it suggests one stop at a time. It called this day “Abbey, palace and the river” and put the Abbey first. Tap the check mark to keep a stop, or the X to skip it.

Ian Branch · Unsplash

From the Abbey, walk through St James’s Park to Buckingham Palace, about 15 minutes along the lake. The Changing of the Guard is at 11:00 a.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in October and November, and can be canceled in heavy rain. That is why this plan gives the Abbey an hour: leave at 10:30 a.m. and you are at the railings by 10:45. The palace’s State Rooms only open in summer, so in November you see it from the gates.

Antonio Vivace · Unsplash

After lunch, walk up The Mall to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, which is free and open until 6:00 p.m. (9:00 p.m. on Fridays). Two hours is enough for Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, Holbein’s The Ambassadors and the Turners. Then walk down Whitehall to Westminster Bridge: in mid-November the sun sets around 4:10 p.m., and Big Ben and Parliament light up behind you as you cross to the London Eye. Tickets start at £29 online and cost £39 at the ticket office.

Day 2: the Tower of London, Borough Market and Bankside

Be at the Tower of London when it opens: 9:00 a.m. from Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 a.m. on Sundays and Mondays in November. Go straight to the Crown Jewels before the queue builds, then join a Yeoman Warder tour (the last one leaves at 2:30 p.m.). The adult ticket is £38.

Each morning of the trip, Traypass opens on that day: what comes next, how long it takes to get there from your hotel and the free time between stops.

Juhi Sewchurran · Unsplash

Cross Tower Bridge on foot (free) and follow the river west to Borough Market for lunch. It is closed on Mondays; the rest of the week it opens at 10:00 a.m. (9:00 a.m. on Saturdays), so on a Monday eat at the Tower and save the market for another day.

Cody Martin · Unsplash

From the market it is a 10-minute walk along Bankside to Tate Modern, which is free: see the Turbine Hall and the views from the upper floors. Cross the Millennium Bridge to St Paul’s Cathedral. Tickets are £27 and last entry is usually at 4:00 p.m., so on this plan you see it from outside; to go in, visit it before Tate Modern. In the evening, see a West End show: book ahead, or try the TKTS booth in Leicester Square for same-day discounts.

Akhil Pawar · Unsplash

Day 3: the British Museum and South Kensington

The British Museum opens at 10:00 a.m. and is free; book a timed ticket (also free) on its website to skip the queue, and leave large bags at the hotel, since they are not allowed. Two and a half hours covers the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon sculptures and the Egyptian galleries.

Rabih Ramadan · Unsplash

Covent Garden is a 15-minute walk south: have lunch in the market hall or around the piazza. Then take the Piccadilly line from Covent Garden to South Kensington for the Natural History Museum (free, open until 5:50 p.m.). The V&A (Victoria and Albert Museum), across the road, is free too and stays open until 10:00 p.m. on Fridays. Finish with dinner in Soho.

Maksim Shutov · Unsplash

Getting around London

Tap in and out with a contactless card or your phone: it costs the same as an Oyster card, and the daily cap means you never pay more than £8.90 a day for the Tube in zones 1–2. Buses are cheaper, and you can change buses as often as you like within an hour for one fare.

Peak fares apply on weekdays from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. and 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. From Heathrow, the Piccadilly line is the cheapest way in (about £4–6) but takes about an hour.

Where to stay for 3 days in London

Stay central so you can walk back to your hotel at night. Covent Garden and the Strand put Westminster, the West End and the river within 20 minutes on foot; our sample trip stays at the Strand Palace Hotel. Bloomsbury is quieter and next to the British Museum. The South Bank and Southwark are good for the river and Borough Market.

Before you go

Visitors who don’t need a visa, including EU (except Irish), US and Japanese citizens, now need an electronic travel authorisation (ETA) to enter the UK: it costs £20 and lasts two years (or until your passport expires), and you apply on gov.uk or in the official UK ETA app. Airlines check it at check-in.

Book the Abbey, the London Eye and any show a few days ahead. In Traypass, bookings like these become tasks with a date, listed before departure next to the ETA and the online check-in for your flight.

In November, expect highs of about 11°C (52°F) and rain on one day in three, so pack a rain jacket, a warm layer and comfortable walking shoes. The Traypass packing list adds a UK (type G) plug adapter for you.

Your three days in the app

Add your flights and hotel to a trip and Traypass lays them out in order, with each day planned stop by stop. The itinerary planner builds the days with you, and the Today screen shows the next stop and how to get there.