Five nights in one hotel, and a city you can mostly walk. Westminster and the Tower, the museums and the parks, one day out to Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath, and a last morning on the market stalls.
FromUS$665per person, twin share — five nights' hotel with breakfast, the guided days, the Windsor and Bath excursion. Compare the three hotel tiers
Fly in and out of Heathrow (LHR). If your ticket routes through Gatwick, Stansted or Luton instead, tell us — the transfer is longer and priced differently, and Luton in particular is an hour and a half from the centre.
Confirmation
Book at least 14 days before departure. London hotel rates move fast and the Bath excursion has fixed capacity. We confirm within 24 hours of your deposit, and refund in full if we cannot secure your dates.
London is a walking city with a very good transport network underneath it, so this plan assumes about five kilometres a day on foot with the Underground filling the gaps.
The trip at a glance
London
Days 1–3 · 5 nights
01
Arrival
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Arrival in London AT LEISURE
Arrive at Heathrow. Make your own way in — the transfer is not included; central London is 24 km east and takes 45–75 minutes by road.
Check in and rest. Most long-haul flights land in the morning and the room may not be ready until two — the hotel will hold your bags.
Late afternoon around Westminster: Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament from the outside, the Abbey, Whitehall, and Westminster Bridge for the classic view back at the tower.
Dinner nearby. London kitchens close earlier than you expect — many stop serving at 21:30 on a weeknight.
Your guide will confirm the next morning’s start at check-in. Day 2 begins at 09:00 at the Abbey.
02
Westminster
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Kings, Bunkers & the Tower AT LEISURE
Westminster Abbey at opening. Coronations since 1066, seventeen monarchs buried in it, and Newton and Darwin a few metres from Chaucer.
The Churchill War Rooms next — the cabinet bunker, left as it was when the lights were switched off in 1945.
East to St Paul’s: Wren’s dome, which held through the Blitz. The Whispering Gallery is 257 steps; the outside gallery at the top is 528 and worth the legs.
Afternoon at the Tower of London — a fortress begun in 1078, the Crown Jewels, and a Yeoman Warder tour included in the ticket that is much better than it sounds.
Finish at Tower Bridge as the light goes. It is not London Bridge, which is the plain grey one upriver and a permanent disappointment to visitors.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
The British Museum, Tate and the National GalleryFreeLondon's great museums charge nothing. In winter they are also warm and half empty, which is the whole argument for coming then.
Paid attraction entry£100–140 across the tripIf you do the Tower, St Paul's and the Abbey. Budget it as one figure.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
03
Museums
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Museums, the Palace & the West End AT LEISURE
The British Museum first thing — eight million objects and free since 1759. Pick three rooms rather than trying for all of it; Sutton Hoo and the Assyrian reliefs are quieter than the Rosetta Stone.
Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard, which runs on set days at 11:00 and is cancelled in heavy rain. Get there by 10:15 for a usable spot.
Lunch and an afternoon around Covent Garden — the old market building, the piazza performers, and the Opera House on the corner.
Evening in Soho and the West End. If you want a show, tell us when you book and we will hold seats; same-day tickets exist but rarely for the thing you actually wanted.
The State Rooms at the palace only open in summer, roughly July to September. Outside that you see the outside, and the guard is the event.
Windsor, Stonehenge & Bath
Day 4 · day trip
04
Day out
Show route
Out of the City GUIDED
Early start west to Windsor Castle — nine hundred years inhabited, the largest occupied castle in the world, with St George’s Chapel in the lower ward.
On to Stonehenge on Salisbury Plain. Raised in stages from around 3000 BC; the sarsens came twenty-five kilometres and the bluestones some two hundred, from Wales.
You view the circle from a path around it, not from among the stones. Inner-circle access exists but only outside normal hours, and it books months ahead.
Afternoon in Bath: Georgian terraces in honey limestone, the Royal Crescent, and a Roman bath house still fed by the same hot spring after two thousand years.
This is a twelve-hour day and about 400 km of driving. It is the standard way to see all three, but if you would rather do one of them slowly, say so and we will rebuild the day.
In your price today — with your guide
Windsor, Stonehenge, Bath & the Roman Baths
The Thames & Departure
Days 5–6
05
The river
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Greenwich & the South Bank AT LEISURE
Down the river by boat to Greenwich — the Observatory on the hill, the Cutty Sark in dry dock, and the meridian the world sets its clocks by.
The river bus is the best transport in London, and an Oyster or contactless card gets a discount on it. Sit outside even when it is cold.
Back upriver for Borough Market, trading on the same ground since at least 1276. Busiest Friday and Saturday, and lunch there is better than most restaurants.
Tate Modern next door: a converted power station, free to enter, with a terrace looking straight at St Paul’s across the Millennium Bridge.
Walk the South Bank west as the light goes — book stalls under Waterloo Bridge, the concert halls, and the skyline from the far side of the water.
Add to this day — approximate gate prices
West End theatreFrom about £20Book aheadLong-running musicals start nearer £18–23, and box-office day seats go for £20–30 on the morning. Midweek is consistently cheaper than Saturday night. Worth booking before you fly for anything you actually want to see — the good seats go weeks ahead.
We can book any of these with your tour. Tell us which you want when you confirm and the tickets travel with your documents.
06
Departure
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Portobello & Departure AT LEISURE
Breakfast, check out, and leave your bags with the concierge.
Portobello Road for the last morning — two miles of antiques, fruit stalls and pastel terraces through Notting Hill.
Saturday is the antiques market and by far the busiest day. Any other morning is quieter, cheaper and a good deal more pleasant to walk.
Transfer to Heathrow. Allow 3 hours for a long-haul departure, and check your terminal — the five are far apart and moving between them takes twenty minutes.
Claiming VAT back? The UK ended tax-free shopping for visitors in 2021, so there is no refund to claim at the airport. Budget accordingly.
Your Hotels
Five nights, in one hotel, with daily breakfast. London rewards a central base more than most cities — the difference between zone 1 and zone 3 is an hour a day of your holiday, and it is the main thing separating these tiers.
Comfort · 3–4★
Zone 1 or the near edge of zone 2, always beside a tube stationBloomsbury, Paddington, Victoria or Southwark. Rooms in this bracket are small by international standards — that is London, not the hotel — but breakfast, a lift and a 24-hour desk are all included and you are ten minutes from everything.
Deluxe · 4–5★
Covent Garden, South Kensington or Marylebone, with room to unpackA proper full-service hotel in a neighbourhood worth walking home through. This is the tier where the room stops being a compromise and the location still puts you inside the ring of things you came to see.
Luxury · landmark 5★
Mayfair, Knightsbridge and the river addressesThe names people know, with the service and the bar to match. In a city where you will be out from nine until nine, the difference this tier buys is mostly the last hour of the day — but that hour is worth a lot after 20,000 steps.
You will know exactly where you are staying before you pay a balance. We name the property in your confirmation, in writing, as soon as the room is held — and if it is ever unavailable for your dates we substitute at the same tier or better, never below it.
Restaurants worth trying
Breakfast is in the price. Every other meal is yours to choose, so here is where we would eat. We do not arrange any of these and you would pay for them yourself. They are simply places we rate, near where the trip goes. Tick any you like and they appear on the map.
Suggested, not included. Opening hours and prices are theirs, not ours — and a place that is busy at eight will be busy whether or not you booked through us.
Tour Price
All prices are per person, twin share, in US dollars — the figure below is what you pay us. Travelling alone is possible; the single supplement covers sole use of the room.
Hotel tier
Per person, twin share
Single supplement
Comfort — 3–4★ central, twin share
from US$665
+US$400
Deluxe — 4–5★, twin share
from US$1,235
+US$825
Luxury — landmark 5★, twin share
from US$1,665
+US$1,150
Included
5 nights' accommodation with daily breakfast, in the hotel tier you choose · guided days on Days 2 and 3 · the full-day Windsor, Stonehenge and Bath excursion with entry to all three · English-speaking guide
Not included
Airport transfers, which we exclude on every tour to keep the headline price honest — we will quote them with your booking · Attraction entry in London — the Tower of London is about £35, Westminster Abbey £30, the Churchill War Rooms £32; the British Museum, Tate Modern and the National Gallery are free · West End theatre tickets · international flights · the UK ETA or visa · lunches and dinners · travel insurance · tips
How the flexi tour works. Choose any departure date and a hotel tier → we confirm availability and the exact price within 24 hours → pay a deposit to hold it → your final documents and vouchers arrive by email a week before you fly. There is no group to join and no fixed departure day.
Seasonal pricing. The figures above are low and shoulder season, roughly November to March excluding Christmas. June to August costs substantially more and books out earliest; the week before Christmas is dearer still. London in winter is cold and dark by four, but the museums are free, empty and warm, which is not nothing.
Budget separately for: London attraction entry of roughly £100–140 per person if you do all of them, West End theatre from about £20, the UK ETA at £20 where required, international flights, lunches and dinners, and travel insurance.
Start your booking
Tell us who you are and when you want to go.
We’ll reply within a business day with the price and what’s available.
A deposit holds it, and comes back in full if we can’t get your dates.
✓
That is with us
If you do not hear from us, email
info@dltravel.net and we will pick it up.