Getting around

Use the Tube, Elizabeth line, Overground, DLR and buses, with Citymapper, Google Maps or TfL Go for live routing. Walk short central hops instead of diving into stations: Covent Garden–Soho, Westminster–Trafalgar Square, Borough–South Bank and much of the City are faster and better on foot. Pay consistently with one contactless card or one phone/watch per person; it automatically applies caps, including a £8.90 Zones 1–2 daily cap and £5.25 bus cap. Black cabs are reliable and accessible, but traffic and rideshare surges make cars poor at peak times; never take an unbooked minicab. Do not rent a car: parking, traffic, camera enforcement, the £18 Congestion Charge and ULEZ make it an expensive self-inflicted problem.

When to go

Late April–May and mid-September–October are the sensible choices: mild weather, decent daylight and less of the summer crush. Summer brings long evenings and events but high hotel prices, school-holiday queues and occasional heat in a city with patchy air-conditioning; Notting Hill Carnival makes west London difficult over the late-August Bank Holiday. Winter can be good value in January and early February, but it is dark, damp and prone to Christmas/New Year engineering disruptions.