London In A Day | The Ultimate Guide

London was first settled by the Romans in the first century and eventually grew to be the capital of a world empire shaping western history. Now it's a world class city full of mega monuments and millions of travelers visit this place every single year. So you're probably wondering where to even start planning a trip to London and what not to miss. Before we get started, subscribe and smash that bell so we can keep bringing you great content. London is a city that's old, proud and never boring. Rarely sunny skies, black cabs and centuries of stories laid in stone and street noise. This is your first day, the ideal one. We'll lay it out, the rest, that's your adventure. I'm Angel Castellanos for The Tour Guide and today I'm going to give you the formula of how to have an epic time right here in London. We're hitting the big stuff. Westminster Abbey, soaked in royal drama. The Tower of London, where power played dirty and heads were chopped off. St. Paul's Cathedral still standing after the Nazis tried to destroy it. We'll walk through Whitehall, heavy with history and show you a better way to catch the changing of the guard. Then it's on to real London. Covent Garden, Soho, Seven Dials. Lively, weird and endlessly alive. We'll nod to the royals because we love the crown just as much as everybody else. So we're headed to Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. But after all that history and crowds and wandering, the payoff? A proper pint with locals, pub food that actually matters, Indian cuisine that hits hard, afternoon tea without the pretense, cocktails and bars worth finding. This is London in a Day, a guide and blueprint. The rest is up to you. London is in South East England and was founded by the Romans in the first century. Getting to London is straightforward because there are so many easy transportation connections. London officially has six international airports. The two main airports for travellers from North America are Heathrow and Gatwick. Heathrow is west of central London and Gatwick sits 30 miles south of the city centre. Heathrow is London's main gateway. It's busier, it's bigger with around 80 million passengers each year and the most non-stop flights from North America. Gatwick is smaller, handling about 45 million passengers annually. The quickest and easiest way to get from the city centre to Heathrow or vice versa to get into the city is by taking the Heathrow Express. It's a 23 minute train that goes direct to the city centre or directly to the airport. Book tickets online or through the app for the best possible pricing. It's a private train that runs from Heathrow to the city centre in about 15 minutes. You'll pay a premium for this non-stop service but it's ideal for solo travellers and travellers who are mobile or packing light. The new Elizabeth Line on the Metro, which they call the Tube there, is much cheaper, takes 27 minutes and also stops throughout the city centre. The London Metro, commonly known as the London Tube, is one of the best in the world so it's super easy to get around the city. This is the latest addition to that system. It's called the Elizabeth Line and it opened in 2022 and you can now take this line to Heathrow Airport and to Windsor Castle. For families, small groups and overpackers, the easiest option is to arrange a driver or take a taxi, which will take you directly to your destination but is much more expensive. Remember, taxis from the airport don't have a fixed rate in London like they do in Paris or Rome. If you're trying to get between London and Paris, the pro move is to take the Eurostar. The journey time is 2 hours and 18 minutes and it sure beats going to the airport and having to go through airport security. It's a downtown to downtown connection so you're already in the middle of the city and my advice is that you actually book directly with Eurostar. You're going to get the best deals and some of their online pricing. Wherever you land, the Tube ties it all together. It's fast, efficient and the only way to move through this beast of a city. London is so big, it can take 2 hours to cross the whole city on the Tube. London is a massive city, no doubt about it, but the most efficient way of getting around is by using the extensive metro system called the Tube. You're never too far away from a Tube stop so getting around London is super easy this way. Getting a ticket to the London Tube is pretty easy because you don't actually need a physical ticket. You can easily just tap your credit card or tap your phone to get in and if you're using the same payment method, you'll never be charged more than a day's pass for the London Tube. I didn't grow up in a city with an efficient metro system so I had to learn this trick the hard way. When a train pulls up, make sure that you have the etiquette to let people off first before you get on. In a country where tea is part of the fabric of society, I struggle to find a good cup of coffee and coffee generally sucks here in London. Don't worry, I got you because there are a few exceptions. Monmouth Coffee is one of them. They serve a great espresso and all your favorite coffee drinks. So you can come, you can order with confidence and know that the coffee doesn't suck. Let's start where it all happens, the historic core, Westminster. This isn't just a neighborhood, it's where kings, queens and prime ministers have played their high stakes games for centuries. You've got Westminster Abbey, the country's most famous church and the site of every coronation since 1066. Right next door, the Palace of Westminster, better known as the Houses of Parliament with a photogenic clock tower we all incorrectly call Big Ben. A short walk up Whitehall, you'll hit the Churchill War Rooms where Britain's most famous prime minister saved Western civilization during World War II. Keep going and you'll land at Buckingham Palace, the home of the monarch and a place where tourists gather for the changing of the guard. St. Edward the Confessor, the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings, built the Palace of Westminster here in 1045 to oversee the construction of the new abbey. And it became the primary residence of the medieval kings of England for the next 500 years. The last king to live here was King Henry VIII when he moved out in 1529 for better accommodations at Whitehall. We know this place today as the Houses of Parliament, divided between the House of Commons and the House of Lords with, of course, the iconic Big Ben. If you want to start the day inside Westminster Abbey, be there at 9.30am when it opens. It's quieter, the air is still thick with centuries of coronation and you'll beat the masses. Then step outside and cross Parliament Square and snap a pic of Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, the 19th century neo-gothic behemoth where British politics happens. Royalty is a combination of myth and reality. William Shakespeare famously called this island the Sceptered Isle of Kings. And if you're going to come to one location in London to find out about royal history, it's got to be Westminster Abbey, where all the monarchs have been crowned since 1066. It's time to step into Westminster Abbey and it's like walking into the soul of a nation. Towering gothic arches, sunlight hitting the cosmody floors just right, the coronation chair, battered, historic, still sacred. Henry VII's chapel drips with detail and is one of the finest examples of gothic perpendicular in the whole country. Here lie queens, rivals, saints and poets. Elizabeth I next to Queen Mary because history loves irony. And in the cloister, finally, some peace. To make things easy, heavy hitters like Westminster Abbey are included in our London in a Day tour. Our guides bring these mega monuments to life and you'll come home with stories to tell. Check out the link in the description for more. If you time it right, 10.30am at Buckingham Palace or 11am at Whitehall, you'll witness one of Britain's most choreographed traditions, the changing of the guard. It's part pageantry, part military exercise and entirely designed to remind the world who's in charge here. The changing of the horse guard at Whitehall is quieter and often less crowded. A walk you should consider taking here in London is a walk down a street called Whitehall. It ascends from Trafalgar Square all the way to the Houses of Parliament. It gets its name from a palace that stood right here. And King Henry VIII took that palace over and it became a residence of the monarchs in the 16th and 17th century. Now this street is full of different monuments and government buildings. The Prime Minister lives right over there at number 10 Downing Street. And the only remaining part of that palace is right over there. It's called Banqueting House. We're on January 30th, 1649. The only king to ever be publicly executed, King Charles I was beheaded. Every day there's a changeover of shifts and the King's Guard personnel switches over in a ceremony we know as the changing of the guard. It happens every day here in London at 11 a.m. And one of the places that you can watch it is right in front of Buckingham Palace. You should be at the Victoria Memorial no later than 10 a.m. to get a good spot. But my favorite place is right here at Whitehall at the Horse Guards Parade watching the Household Cavalry which is the King's Mounted Bodyguard. They perform a spectacular ceremony right here at 11. And you should definitely stand back from the horses and respect the active military personnel. The London food scene has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. Not only can you get different foods from all over the world but now you can get really fresh ingredients, carefully prepared organic food. And you can eat in pubs, you can eat in restaurants or really cool brunch spots just like this. I'm in the Seven Dials neighborhood at Neal's Yards. This is a dish by 26 Grains. It's their spicy eggs. And I love coming here for a quick casual meal. By the way, all the places that we've eaten at and shown you here in London are not sponsored. We've paid for every single meal. So now you're getting the honest truth. The first record of Covent Garden dates back from the 1200s. And this is actually the first public square in all of London. The market that we see today dates back from the 17th century as a fruit and vegetable market. Today, this is such a chill place to shop, to eat, to hang out. That's exactly what I'm going to do. Soho is located in central London and it's one of those places that has cleaned up its act over the years. It still retains its kind of grungy feel so it's not completely gentrified. So you can come here at night for some great energy. There's great cocktail bars here and you'll definitely have a good time. For a coffee, check out Bar Italia. It isn't trendy, it's timeless. Since 1949, it's been slinging strong espressos with zero pretense. You go there first thing because it wakes you up right away with caffeine, grit and a little slice of real London. For a lot of people, this is ground zero for Royal London and rightly so. Buckingham Palace is the main residence of the monarch here. And so many scenes have played out right here in the 20th century. But the history goes way back. It was actually purchased by King George III as a present to his new wife, Queen Charlotte. And in the 19th century, Queen Victoria became the first monarch to actually live there because she couldn't escape Kensington Palace fast enough. Her son, Edward VII, took it from a Victorian home to an actual palace. He undertook heavy renovations. He tore down this part of the street and made a huge mall, which we know today from the coronations and different funerals. And the inside was completely renovated, making it a true palace that we know today. You can actually tour the inside and see it for yourself. It's only open during a limited time of year, late in the summer. Tickets are in high demand, so you definitely have to book well in advance. There's also different memorials and monuments all over London. And the one right behind Buckingham Palace at Hyde Park Corner has a massive arch called the Wellington Arch. It was built to honor the Duke of Wellington, who finally beat Napoleon in 1815 at the Battle of Wallerloo. Right across the street is his home called the Apsley House, which was actually gifted to him by a grateful nation and the monarch. And the official address is No. 1 London. One of the unique things about London is the amount of green spaces throughout the city. You have Green Park, St. James' Park, and the biggest and baddest is Hyde Park. It's 350 acres of green space, paths. It's dog-friendly. There's lakes. And you can just have a nice time enjoying the sunshine when the sun is actually out. On the west side, you have the Palace of Kensington. And right next to it, you have one of the best playgrounds in the city if you have kids, the Princess Diana Memorial Playground. There are 10 palaces scattered throughout London, but the easiest to visit and most approachable to travelers has to be Kensington Palace. It's hard to overstate the importance of this particular palace in central London. It's been a royal residence for 300 years and was renovated by one of the most famous architects of all time. Queen Victoria was born here and ascended to the throne here. And for a generation, we know it as the place where Diana, Princess of Wales, lived and where Prince Harry and Prince William grew up. You can easily tour the palace, check out the rooms, check out the exhibitions, and even have afternoon tea right here. Princess Alice was the sixth daughter of Queen Victoria and was an artist. So in 1897, for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, she sculpted this beautiful statue of her mother to not only commemorate her birthplace here in 1819, but her long reign as queen. Queen Victoria also ascended to the throne right here at Kensington Palace. And this is definitely one of the top things that you should check out, not only in Hyde Park, but also adjacent to the palace. So the thought of afternoon tea is a little daunting, but if you're going to have afternoon tea here in London, you might as well have it inside of a palace. England's fascination with tea really started in 1662 with the wedding of Catherine of Burgundy to King Charles II. She introduced this new drink to English society and the East India Company knew they had customers. So they brought back all the tea from the East. And in the 19th century, Lady Bedford, the Duchess of Bedford, lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria, decided to snack in the afternoon along with her tea. And that started to take off in polite society as well. So now we have afternoon tea. And typically when you have an afternoon tea, it comes with a three-tiered tray just like this. You can have a simpler version called a cream tea, which is simply tea and a piece of cake. But this is the whole shebang here. So typically you're going to have finger sandwiches, egg and watercress, smoked salmon, cucumber, and the second tier, you're going to have scones, clotted cream and jam. And on the third tier, you're going to have really good-looking desserts. Next we're headed to one of the greatest buildings in the whole city of London, one that arose from the ashes of the Great Fire of 1666 and constructed by one of the greatest architects of all time. It's also home and the final resting place to a pantheon of British heroes and where a ton of historic British events took place. You step inside St. Paul's Cathedral and the city outside just disappears. The dome? Massive, perfect, unapologetically grand. Wren built this after the Great Fire of 1666. London burned and this rose from the ashes, not just as a church, but as a flex. It took 35 years to build. Wren never saw it fully completed, but they say when he died, they buried him in the crypt and left a plaque in Latin that simply says, if you seek his monument, look around you. During World War II, bombs fell all around. Entire blocks were flattened, but somehow St. Paul's remained. People took that as a sign, a city under fire, refusing to fall apart. Under this dome, thousands come each day, some looking for God, some just for a moment of quiet. But either way, you leave a little different than when you walked in. St. Paul's Cathedral is the final resting place to so many famous historical characters and some of the greatest military heroes in British history, like the Duke of Wellington and Horatio Lord Nelson, who beat Napoleon at the Battle of Trafalgar and famously died there. Your ticket can include access to the crypt, which is downstairs, and definitely worth checking out. Now we're going to check out one of the most important sites in London. It's an 11th-century castle and royal palace that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it tells the stories, legends, of not only London, but of the Septured Isle of Kings. This is the main event, the Crown Jewels. Hit this first. The line's like Disneyland, and no, you can't skip it. Show up before 10 a.m. or after 4.30 if you want a fighting chance. Inside, you'll see the Royal Regalia, still used in coronations. Crowns, orbs, scepters, all glittering, all priceless. The King's Scepter holds the world's largest cut diamond, 530 carats, and yeah, that's the Koh-i-Noor over there. 106 carats of controversy. Some say it's cursed for kings. This is the famous Traders' Gate, and something that you definitely have to check out when you're here. It's been called the Traders' Gate since the 1600s because people who were meant to be executed here at the Tower were brought up the River Thames to this particular gate, up the stairs, and onto the execution area. These guys, they're called the Yeoman Warriors, but everyone knows them as the Beef Eaters. The name? From beef-heavy rations they used to get paid in. They once guarded prisoners and the Crown Jewels. Now, they guard stories. All of them are retired military, serious credentials only. You'll spot them in dark blue and red trim with CR on their chest, careless wrecks, for King Charles III. On big occasions, they switch to red. These days, they lead tours instead of patrols. And honestly, you want to hear what they got to say. Don't miss an opportunity to hear the fascinating stories about the Tower from the Beef Eaters themselves. Check out our website and links below for exclusive tours with the Beef Eaters. According to the Yeoman Warriors, one of the most famous legends here at the Tower of London has to deal with these characters right behind me, the Ravens. And legend has it that if the Ravens were to ever leave the Tower, the White Tower would crumble and the Kingdom would fall. And that comes from the time of Charles II and the Ravens have been protected ever since. At the center of it all is the White Tower, 90 feet of stone and muscle, built in 1077 by William the Conqueror to lock down his grip on the newly conquered England. Inside, armor, weapons, and stories soaked in blood. You'll see King Henry VIII's actual armor because, of course, he had to have his own suit. And tucked inside, a rare 11th century Norman chapel that somehow survived it all. Quiet, ancient, and absolutely worth your time. One of my favorite pubs along Fleet Street is called the Old Bank of England. They serve all the great classics, like steak and ale pie, fish and chips. They have handful cask ales, and it's in a traditional old bank that's now been converted into a pub and restaurant. You gotta check it out. I'm gonna go in now for my steak and ale pie. It is really super hot. I'm gonna throw on some of this mash on top of here. Oh my gosh, look at that gravy. I'm loving this. The crust is super thick. It's a water crust, so it's gonna be nice and hearty. Got chunks of steak, a little bit of veg inside of there. Washed down with a beer. Can't complain. Oh yeah. Now we're in London. Pubs are an important part of British society, and here in London, the local is everyone's neighborhood living room. And if you miss the opportunity to visit a pub, you're missing an important part of decisive life here in the city. They come in all different shapes and sizes, but you have to be careful with the ones that are owned by big corporations but look old. There are still plenty of independently owned pubs that serve excellent handful pints, and some are historic and date back to the 17th century. Cheers. I brought you to one of my favorite pubs here on the west side of London. It's a place where I've celebrated my birthday, where I bring friends and family when they're in town because it's such a classic pub without being touristy or tacky. I love the dark wood interiors, the Victorian era nooks and crannies, and they serve one of the best handful cast ales all over London. The food is absolutely delicious, and if you come here to eat, you will not be disappointed, and I highly recommend that you check this place out and book a table for Sunday roast. London was the center of a world empire, so you're gonna find a variety of different places to eat here in the city. One of the most popular types of food here is Indian, and one of the great classic British dishes of all time is chicken tikka masala. So I'm having lunch here at Dishoom, which is a pretty popular chain here in London because they serve elevated Indian food. It's gonna be a mix of locals and tourists enjoying all the great dishes that they have to offer here. The vibe is very fun, and you're just gonna have a good time here enjoying these delicious dishes. So I ordered quite a variety of dishes, so you can see how amazing the food is here at Dishoom. So I have their house black doll, some paneer masala, some chicken tikka, rice, naan, started with some samosas. I mean, this is just a banquet of amazing Indian dishes. The notion that food sucks in England is an old-fashioned way of thinking. So if you're looking for a great place to eat, don't worry, we got you. There's plenty of great options listed on our website of all the places that we love eating at here in London. Mercato Mayfair is a food hall inside a deconsecrated church. Yeah, pews are out, bao buns are in. It's like a Singapore night market hijacked the Church of England. Dumplings, tacos, craft beer, all under stained glass. It's weird, it's loud, it's really fantastic. Great food, zero pretense, and the kind of scene where nobody cares what you're wearing as long as you're eating well. London is home to some of the top cocktail bars in the world, and inside of Brown's Hotel, you have Donovan Bar. And I love coming here for Negroni because Salvatore Calabrese is one of the top moustologists in the world, and he brought forward the modern Negroni. And this is such a cool, chill place. You want to come here, have an aperitivo. It's run mostly by Italians. Maybe that's why I love it. Cheers. So another option here in Mayfair is the Connacht Bar inside of the Connacht Hotel. And again, you're going to get expertly crafted drinks because this is one of the top cocktail bars in the world. The service here is superior, and they even served me a really nice welcome drink. They make something like this every single day. They serve it with their guests, and you're going to get small little aperitivo snacks to go with your drink. Can't be beat. Well, it's time to say goodbye and have a pint here from one of my favorite pubs in London, the Lemon Flag, which dates back from 1623 and where Charles Dickens himself used to drink. I'm Angel Castellanos for The Tour Guide. Don't forget to comment, like, and subscribe, and smash that bell so you can find our next video. Happy travels. Cheers.