Visit London: Royal Landmarks & Riverside Icons

Nine hundred years of royal history sit within a couple of miles of each other. See the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, watch the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, and stand under Elizabeth Tower where Big Ben strikes the hour. Westminster Abbey has crowned every English monarch since 1066, and St Paul's Cathedral rewards the climb up to the Golden Gallery with a view straight down the Thames.

London has one of the best answers anywhere to free things to do. The British Museum, the National Gallery, Tate Modern, the Natural History Museum and the V&A all charge nothing for their permanent collections, so you can drop in for an hour without planning a whole day around it. Smaller museums are worth the detour too, from Sir John Soane's crowded townhouse to the Sherlock Holmes Museum on Baker Street.

Borough Market is the obvious first stop for food, but Broadway Market, Maltby Street and Spitalfields all run on their own days and draw fewer visitors. For green space, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens run together into one long walk, Regent's Park holds London Zoo, and Greenwich pairs its park with the meridian line. The Thames Path along the South Bank links the London Eye, the National Theatre, Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe in about half an hour on foot.

Around 40 theatres cluster in the West End, and day seats or lottery tickets often bring the price well under face value if you turn up in the morning. After the curtain, Soho keeps serving late, Shoreditch and Dalston carry the nightclub crowd through to the early hours, and rooftop bars in the City open up views of the Shard. Live music runs from the Royal Albert Hall to basement venues in Camden.

This is the easiest base for a first visit to London. The West End theatres, Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Chinatown and Leicester Square are all within a ten-minute walk, and Oxford Street and Carnaby Street handle the shopping. Covent Garden's covered market and street performers draw the crowds by day; Soho takes over after dark, which is worth knowing if you want a quiet room.

East London's creative quarter, where Victorian warehouses now hold galleries, record shops and coffee roasters. The street art changes month to month, with Banksy pieces among the murals around Rivington Street and Hanbury Street. Brick Lane covers curry houses, vintage clothing and the Sunday market, and the bars around Old Street stay open long after the Tube stops.

Pastel terraces, garden squares and the Saturday antiques stalls on Portobello Road make this the postcard version of west London. Kensington next door holds three of the city's biggest free museums side by side, plus Kensington Palace and the long green stretch of Hyde Park. The August Carnival turns the whole area into a two-day street party.

A single riverside walk on the south side of the Thames takes in the London Eye, the Southbank Centre, Tate Modern, Shakespeare's Globe and Borough Market. It's flat, car-free and lined with food stalls and book stands, which makes it the best stretch in London for families. Cross Tower Bridge or the Millennium Bridge and you're back among the City's landmarks in minutes.

We recommend: London City in 3 days

We recommend: two days on the landmark route

We recommend: the low-cost route through the city

We recommend: five days with two out of the city

About 40 minutes from Paddington or Waterloo, and the easiest big day trip from London. Windsor Castle is still a working royal residence, so you get the State Apartments, St George's Chapel and the Changing of the Guard, with Eton and a stretch of the Thames on the doorstep.

An hour from Paddington. Christ Church, the Bodleian Library and the Radcliffe Camera sit within a few streets of each other, and most colleges open to visitors for a small fee. Small enough to cover on foot in a day, with punting on the Cherwell if the weather holds.

Around 50 minutes from King's Cross or Liverpool Street. King's College Chapel and Trinity's Great Court are the set pieces, and the Backs are best seen from a punt. The Fitzwilliam Museum is free, which makes this one of the cheaper days out of London.

Ninety minutes from Paddington and worth a full day. The Roman Baths and the Georgian sweep of the Royal Crescent are the reason most people come, along with Bath Abbey and the Jane Austen connections. The whole city centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

There's no direct train, so take the 90-minute service from Waterloo to Salisbury and pick up the Stonehenge Tour bus, or book a coach trip from London that often bundles Windsor or Bath into the same day. The stone circle is around 5,000 years old.

Under an hour from Victoria for pebble beach, the pier and the Royal Pavilion's Indian-inspired domes. The Lanes are packed with second-hand shops and small restaurants, and the seafront is a change of pace after a few days of London traffic.