Useful tips

Correct as of the end of 2026. Entry rules and fares change, so check the official sources named in each section before you travel.

Sort out your ETA before you book

Most visitors now need an Electronic Travel Authorisation to enter the UK. The ETA applies to visa-exempt travellers, including citizens of the EU and EEA, the United States, Canada, Australia and around eighty other countries. British and Irish citizens are exempt, as is anyone who already holds a UK visa or settled status.

It costs £20 per person, including babies and children, lasts two years or until your passport expires, and covers unlimited visits of up to six months. Since February 2026 airlines and train and ferry operators must check for one before you board, so without it you will not travel.

Apply through the official UK ETA app or on gov.uk. Most applications are approved within minutes, but allow three working days. Be wary of look-alike websites that appear in search adverts and charge a mark-up on the government fee.

Paying for transport: use contactless

Tap in and out with a contactless bank card, Apple Pay or Google Pay, and the system works out the cheapest fare for you, with automatic daily and weekly capping. It covers the Tube, buses, trams, the DLR, the Elizabeth line, London Overground and most National Rail services in London.

An Oyster card does exactly the same job at exactly the same fares, but carries a non-refundable card fee of around £10, so for most visitors it is the more expensive option. Oyster is worth having in two cases: if your bank charges a foreign transaction fee on every tap, which can wipe out the saving, or if you are travelling with children aged 11 to 15, who can get a half-price Young Visitor discount that contactless cannot carry. Children under 11 travel free with a paying adult.

Two things to remember. Use the same card or device for every journey in a day, or the system will treat them as separate cards and you will lose your cap. And London buses take no cash at all, so contactless or Oyster is the only way to board. Bus journeys have their own cheap flat fare, and the Hopper fare lets you change buses as often as you like within an hour for a single charge.

Mobile phones and data

The UK sits outside the EU’s free-roaming zone, so European visitors are not automatically covered by their domestic allowance. Some European operators include the UK at no extra cost; many charge a daily fee or apply tighter data limits. Check your own provider’s terms before you fly rather than assuming, because the rules vary from network to network.

For visitors from outside Europe, standard roaming rates remain expensive, and you can be charged for receiving calls as well as making them.

The simplest fix is a travel eSIM, which you buy and install online before you arrive, usually for somewhere between £5 and £20 depending on how much data you need. Most phones sold in the last few years support dual SIM, so your home number stays active for calls and texts while the eSIM handles data. If you would rather have a physical SIM, the major UK networks and several cheaper providers sell prepaid packages at airports and on most high streets.

Whatever you choose, download offline maps for London before you set off. It saves data, and it means you are not standing on a street corner staring at your phone, which brings us to the next point.

Stay safe

London is a safe city overall, and violent crime against visitors is rare. The realistic risk is theft, and specifically phone snatching, which has become a genuine problem in central London.

The pattern is consistent: a rider on an e-bike, bicycle or moped comes along the pavement or the kerbside, grabs a phone out of a raised hand and is gone in a second. The hotspots are exactly where visitors congregate, including Oxford Circus, Regent Street, Soho, Covent Garden and the exits of major stations such as King’s Cross, Euston and Liverpool Street.

The advice from the Metropolitan Police is to look up and look out:

• Put your phone away before you leave a station rather than checking it the moment signal returns, which is the single most predictable visitor behaviour and thieves know it.
• If you need to use your phone in the street, step away from the kerb and stand with your back to a wall or shopfront.
• Keep it in an inside or zipped pocket when not in use, not a back pocket or an open bag.
• Never leave a phone, wallet or camera on a table in a pub, café or restaurant, even for a moment.
• Note down your IMEI number before you travel. If your phone is taken, your network will need it to block the handset.

The usual sense applies elsewhere: watch for pickpockets in crowds, carry limited cash, and don’t leave a bag unattended anywhere, which will also trigger a security alert. If something does happen, call 101 for non-emergencies or 999 in an emergency, and get a crime reference number for your insurer.

Explore green London

London has more green space than most major capitals, and its parks vary enormously in character. Several of the best are away from the centre and worth the journey.

Hampstead Heath is a large piece of genuine countryside on a hill in north London, with superb views across the city from Parliament Hill and three open-air swimming ponds that operate year-round. Richmond Park is the largest, a former royal hunting ground with roaming red and fallow deer and excellent cycling. Greenwich Park combines a steep hill, the Royal Observatory and the best single view of the City and Canary Wharf. Regent’s Park is formal and Victorian in flavour, near Baker Street, with rose gardens and an excellent open-air theatre that runs from late spring to September. Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens together form a huge open space right beside the West End. Wimbledon Common is wild and open, next to a picture-perfect village. And there are the tree-lined garden squares of Bloomsbury and Finsbury, many of them open to the public.

Walk when you can

One of the best things about London is how quickly the character changes from one neighbourhood to the next: the City and Spitalfields, or Bloomsbury, Mayfair and Soho. Travel entirely underground and you miss all of it.

London is a big place, but a great many of the major sights are within easy walking distance of each other. The classic mistake is getting off at Covent Garden station to visit Covent Garden. It is one of the busiest and most awkward stations on the network, with lifts rather than escalators and frequent queues, and almost every station within two stops is a ten-minute walk away. Leicester Square and Holborn are both better choices.

The same applies to Camden. Get off at Chalk Farm and walk down to the markets rather than using Camden Town station, which is often exit-only on busy weekend afternoons.

Don’t sweep through the sights

Plenty of people come to London and spend the whole trip rushing between attractions without really seeing any of them. Pick fewer things, and give yourself time to sit in a pub, walk along the river or wander a neighbourhood with no particular destination. You will come away with a much better sense of the place.

Free in London

Some of the best things in London cost nothing. The permanent collections of the national museums are free to everyone, every day: the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the Wallace Collection and Sir John Soane’s Museum among them. Almost every historic church is free too.

Two caveats. Special temporary exhibitions inside these museums are ticketed separately, usually £12 to £25. And several of the busiest, the British Museum in particular, ask you to book a free timed entry slot online, which is worth doing at weekends to skip the queue. Donations are suggested but genuinely optional.

The National Gallery is running a year-long bicentenary programme through to spring 2027, with free late openings and events.

Look right or look left

In the UK, cars drive on the left, which catches out almost every visitor at least once. Cross at designated crossings, wait for the green man, and take note of the “look right” and “look left” markings painted at kerbs in central London.

Traffic is not just cars. Cycle lanes run along many central roads, often separated from the pavement by nothing more than a painted line, and e-bikes, delivery riders and rental scooters move faster and more quietly than you expect. Look both ways at cycle lanes before stepping out, especially when getting off a bus.

A few other practical notes

London is close to cashless. Cards are accepted almost everywhere, including market stalls and small cafés, and many venues no longer take cash at all. You will rarely need to visit a cash machine.

Tap water is safe and free, and restaurants must provide it on request. Refill points are widespread if you carry a bottle.

Tipping is not obligatory. Most restaurants add a discretionary service charge of 12.5% to the bill, which you can ask to have removed if you were unhappy. There is no need to tip in pubs when ordering at the bar.