Places like Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London might be on your London trip itinerary (and that’s OK, in moderation), but that doesn’t mean you should skip exploring all the local hotspots the city has to offer. If you’re organising an adventure over to this side of the world, planning is key in making sure you really make the most of your time here. That’s why we’ve put together this article about the major mistakes people make when planning their London itinerary. Read on to make your own itinerary foolproof and make sure you don’t fall into any of these tourist traps.
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Not planning by area
This is one of the most important points on our list of major mistakes people make when planning their London itinerary, as it will save you a lot of time spent trekking all over the city. You might be tempted to plan your trip to tick off all the sights in just a couple of days, but it’s better to plan your days by area. This way, you don’t spend loads of time travelling when you could be using that time to see more of the local side of the city. Our carefully curated itineraries can help with this. They’re broken down into days and areas, so you can tick off seeing as much as possible without wasting time travelling all over or seeing mediocre sights.
Assuming you can walk everywhere
Since over 47% of London itself is green space, walking through the city is a delight and is easy to do if the areas you want to explore aren’t too far apart. However, saying that, London isn’t small and you shouldn’t assume you can just walk everywhere. Otherwise, you could spend hours navigating your way around the city and getting from A to B. If you do want to explore on two feet, you can choose just one or two nearby areas so that you can walk to each place you want to visit and soak up the city sights, such as Soho and Mayfair or Kensington and Notting Hill, but we have loads more recommendations in our itineraries. Make sure you pack some comfy shoes for this, as you’ll be racking up the step count in no time, regardless of whether you’re walking around or taking public transport.
Not checking travel distances and timings before you set off
Even if places look close together on the map, London is still huge – 36 miles (58km) huge – so it’s always worth checking your route and distance between places before you set off. The CityMapper app and Google Maps are both super handy ways to determine how long it will take you to get to each thing you want to do. When you’re checking timings and distances ahead of time, make sure you adjust for the time of day you’ll be travelling because the journey duration will differ based on what time it is. It might be rush hour, which means it’ll take longer on public transport (between 06:30 and 09:30 and between 16:00 and 19:00). If it’s pretty late or early in the day, trains and buses also run less frequently, but the apps can help with this information, or you could purchase one of our itineraries where we’ve already done all the research for you.
Sticking to the tourist areas
Sure, you’ve got to tick off seeing Big Ben and Buckingham Palace, but the worst thing you could do on a trip to London is limit yourself to the most touristy areas. London is one of the most exciting and activity-packed cities in the whole world, brimming with so many exciting things to see and do that you wouldn’t find in a regular guidebook (but you would find in our itineraries). For this reason, don’t limit yourself to the tourist areas, as you won’t see the best local side of London. The main tourist areas generally include anywhere central, like Piccadilly Circus, Soho, The West End, etc. We have an article about the top places to stay in London for a local experience, which goes into a bit more detail about the best areas to stay that aren’t so touristy. We also have our Casual Tourist Guides, a series of guides that help you to explore the stuff around the city that Londoners love but tourists often miss out on.
Packing too much into one day
We get it—you want to see it all, but packing too much into one day will not only leave you exhausted, but it’ll also mean you don’t get to really experience the things you are doing, as you’ll probably be rushing through them. You’re better off picking a few things you really want to do and doing them properly so that you can really enjoy the things you have chosen to do without feeling burnt out at the end. Luckily, we’ve done the work for you, and we curated a bunch of itineraries that are full of local recommendations that won’t leave you feeling exhausted at the end of your trip.
Not researching where to eat and drink
London has some of the best restaurants and bars in the world – we’re spoilt for choice. But it also means the city is saturated with equally terrible places to eat and drink, just waiting for unsuspecting tourists like you, so it’s important to do your research on where you plan to eat before you arrive to avoid falling into the trap of eating somewhere expensive that’s also really bad (and there are many). Generally, we say to avoid restaurants near the main attractions, like the Tower of London, Piccadilly Circus, and the Natural History Museum, for example. It would be such a shame to end up eating in average places when the options here are world-class… you just have to know where to go.
Not booking restaurants in advance
Following on from this, the best and most popular restaurants get booked up super fast, so we highly recommend booking as many of the restaurants you want to visit well in advance if you can. Otherwise, you might not get a chance to try them. There are a few things that are better to book before you arrive if you don’t want to miss out, and we go into more detail about this in our Bookings and Tickets Tracker, which can be found in all of our London itineraries and our tourist guides. This handy tracker tells you which places we recommend need to be booked or reserved in advance and how to book, all while keeping track of it all once you’ve done the booking and buying.
Paying too much for the Heathrow Express
If you’re flying into London from another continent, you’ll likely be flying into Heathrow Airport. This is London’s biggest and busiest airport, and there are plenty of ways to get into the city, which we go into more detail about in our article on how to get from your London airport to the city centre. However, if you’ve already figured out your route and are planning on taking the Heathrow Express train, which is the fastest way to the city centre, then you can get a cheaper ticket if you book it in advance here. It’s the most expensive way to get to the city centre from Heathrow, but the time it takes makes it popular. Expect to pay around £25 each way or £37 roundtrip at the airport. Or if you book online more than 90 days in advance, it will cost around £15 each way.
Sticking to the touristy areas for shopping
If you plan to do a shopping trip while you’re in London, don’t be tempted by the bright lights of Oxford Circus and places like Westfield. These are filled with high street chains stocked with fast fashion and are soulless. London has many excellent boutiques and independent shops where you can browse and pick up a unique gift, and many of them are listed in our itineraries. Our favourite areas for this kind of thing are Coal’s Drop Yard, Shoreditch, Brick Lane and Notting Hill. We also have articles about where you can find some of the best secondhand shops in London and where to go thrift shopping in London.
Now that you know these mistakes people make when planning their London itinerary, you might want some local guidance on where to go and what to do during your own trip. We’ve compiled a bunch of handy guides filled with local recommendations to help you plan. Take a look at them all here.
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