London

London is a collection of villages that grew into each other, and it still behaves like one. There is no single centre: the government quarter, the financial City, the theatre district and the museum quarter are separate places with separate characters, linked by an underground railway that most visitors spend a surprising amount of time on.

The practical consequence is that London rewards depth over coverage. Two or three areas walked properly in a day will tell you more than six landmarks reached by tube.

London has an unusually generous cultural offer: the British Museum, the National Gallery, Tate Modern, the V&A and the Natural History Museum all admit visitors to their permanent collections without charge, which changes what a modest budget can do here.

It is also a city where two thousand years of history sit in plain view — a Roman wall, a Norman keep, Georgian terraces and a glass tower within a few streets of each other — alongside one of the most genuinely international populations of any capital.

• The British Museum. Free entry to the permanent collection. Too big to do in one go; the Assyrian reliefs, the Egyptian galleries and the Enlightenment room are a coherent first visit.
• Walk the South Bank from Westminster to Tower Bridge. Continuous riverside path, with Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe and Borough Market strung along it.
• The Tower of London. Nearly a thousand years of continuous use as fortress, palace and prison. The Yeoman Warder tours are included and are the best way to see it.
• A park at scale. Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens together, or Hampstead Heath for the view back over the city from Parliament Hill.
• Theatre in the West End or at the Globe. The Globe's standing tickets in the yard are the cheapest seats in London theatre and the most memorable.
• Greenwich. The Royal Observatory, the Maritime Museum, the Cutty Sark and the best long view of Canary Wharf: reachable by river boat, which is the way to arrive.
• A market morning. Borough for food, Columbia Road for flowers on Sundays, Portobello for antiques on Saturdays, Maltby Street for a smaller version of Borough.

May, June and September are the best months: long daylight, gardens at their peak, weather at its most cooperative. June has the longest evenings of the year, with light well past nine.

July and August bring the biggest crowds and the highest accommodation rates. November to February is dark by mid-afternoon and often grey rather than dramatically cold, but it is the cheapest period and the museums, theatres and pubs are the indoor city at its best. Rain is possible in any month and is usually light and intermittent rather than a day-ender — carry a jacket rather than rearranging plans.

South Bank, Southwark and Bankside put you on the river with walking access to a great deal, at better value than the West End.

Bloomsbury is central, quiet, full of Georgian squares and next to the British Museum and the Eurostar terminal at St Pancras. Covent Garden and Soho are for people who want to walk home from the theatre and do not mind noise.

South Kensington suits museum-focused trips and families. Shoreditch and Hackney are cheaper, later and further east. Paddington and Victoria are transport-convenient and unremarkable, which is sometimes exactly right.

Rooms are small by international standards and older buildings often lack lifts; check before booking with heavy luggage.

Westminster: Parliament, the Abbey, Whitehall and the parks; the ceremonial city.

The City of London: the financial district, Roman remains, Wren churches and the Barbican; dead at weekends, which is when it is most interesting to walk.

Soho and Covent Garden: theatre, restaurants, bars, and the densest street life in the centre.

Notting Hill and Ladbroke Grove: pastel terraces, Portobello Road, and the carnival in late August.

Shoreditch and Spitalfields: street art, Brick Lane's curry houses and bagel bakeries, converted warehouses.

Camden: markets, music venues and the canal towpath walk to Little Venice.

Greenwich: maritime history, the park and the meridian, across the river to the southeast.

Hampstead and Highgate: village streets, the Heath, and the best view back over the city.

Use a contactless bank card or phone on the Underground, buses, Overground, Elizabeth line and most trains in the city — tap in and out at the gates and the system charges the correct fare and applies daily and weekly caps automatically. There is no need to buy a separate visitor card for most trips.

Two points that catch people out. Buses are tap-in only and do not accept cash at all. And on the Underground you must tap out as well as in, or you will be charged the maximum fare.

Buses are slower than the tube but show you the city; the river boat services are a genuine commuter network as well as a view. Walking is often faster than the tube between adjacent central stations — Leicester Square to Covent Garden is famously a shorter walk than a ride.

From the airports: the Elizabeth line and Heathrow Express serve Heathrow, Gatwick has frequent mainline trains, and Stansted and Luton have express coaches and trains. All are far cheaper than a taxi.

London's own food is pub food done properly — a Sunday roast, pies, fish and chips — and its real strength is everything else: Bangladeshi, Nigerian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Caribbean and Sichuan cooking, usually best outside the centre.

Useful habits: in most pubs you order and pay at the bar rather than waiting for service, and tipping in pubs is not expected. In restaurants a service charge is commonly added to the bill; if it is there, you do not need to tip again. Markets — Borough, Maltby Street, Brixton, Southall — are the efficient way to eat well without booking.

Afternoon tea is a formal, booked occasion at hotels and a much cheaper everyday thing elsewhere; both versions are real.

Oxford or Cambridge: college quadrangles, museums and punting on the river, each about an hour out by train.

Windsor: the castle and the park, forty minutes by train and the easiest of all.

Bath: Roman baths and Georgian crescents, around ninety minutes by fast train.

Brighton: the seafront, the Lanes and the Royal Pavilion, about an hour south.

Canterbury or the Kent coast: cathedral city and beaches, reachable on the high-speed line from St Pancras.

Book long-distance rail tickets in advance where you can: walk-up fares on British trains are substantially higher than advance ones.

London is expensive for accommodation and for eating out, and unusually generous otherwise. Permanent collections at the British Museum, the National Gallery, Tate Britain and Modern, the V&A, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum are free — special exhibitions are not. Parks, markets, churches and the whole walkable centre cost nothing.

Where money goes: hotel rooms, West End theatre in good seats, the paid attractions (the Tower, St Paul's, the Shard, the London Eye), and restaurant bills once a service charge is added. Transport is moderate and capped daily, which makes a heavy tube day cheaper than it looks.

Tap out on the Underground. Forgetting is the single most common and most expensive visitor mistake.

Stand on the right on escalators. The left side is for walking and people will say so.

Look right before crossing: traffic comes from the opposite direction to most of the world, which is why it is painted on the road at major junctions.

Book timed entry for the Tower, St Paul's, Westminster Abbey and the towers and wheels; free museums generally do not need it, but their special exhibitions do.

Buy rail tickets early for day trips beyond the city; advance fares are a fraction of the on-the-day price.

Do not rely on the tube for short hops. Central London stations are often five minutes apart on foot and twelve minutes apart via an interchange.