1) Get the Oyster card before you leave
2) Buy your Heathrow Express train tickets before you leave (dirt cheap)
3) Book your Parliament tour ahead....And we combined a guided tour with tea at Parliament. Awesome.
4) Went to the Globe Theatre for Shakespeare and a London Theatre play...Book those now.
5) Take the train to Windsor to tour Windsor Castle & have a fun lunch at a pub.
6) Check out the WW2 Churchill bunkers. Fascinating.
7) If on a Sunday, check out the organ concert at Westminster Abbey....and tour the Abbey at a different time...And St Pauls. If you are Methodist, go to John Wesley's Chapel.
8) Go to one of the markets....Good food and all things British
9) Harry Potter fan? Go find platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station
10) Tower of London is a must. Look for the ravens.
11). Find an old pub (not hard)....order a pint and fish n chips
12) see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum (and other cool things)
13) Download the app for the Tube
For us, it was all about walking and taking the tube.....Prepare to be tired but keep moving...So much to see and so much history and experiences in London. Plan. Plan. Plan.
1) Heathrow Express to/from the airport
2) Oyster card & the tube, all the way. Download a digital map of the tube before you go so that you can quickly figure out which line goes where.
3) Tour Parliament (so cool), Churchill's WWII bunkers, British Museum, Walk past Buckingham Palace, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Walk along the Thames, Lunch at BlackFriar's, Tour St. Paul's.
Yes, all of that is doable in a few days. Just did it a few months ago.
Don't skimp on time at Tower of London. Probably my favorite place and always a place I wish I'd seen more of. DEFINITELY ensure that you take guided warden tour.
Westminster Abbey is cool if you want to swap that in. Perhaps swap for the Bunkers if you're more into really old history.
Trafalgar Square is nice at night if you've got some energy left.
London Eye is nifty but easily skipped if you're on a tight timeframe.
Plan you days before you go and BUY TICKETS FOR EVERYTHING IN ADVANCE. My brother missed out on both the bunkers and Westminster on his one trip to London due to two hour lines to get in.
4) Download Rick Steve's audio tours of Europe app. Its an app where you can then download specific audio guides for parts of London. Really awesome. Totally free. He politely encourages you to buy his books, but its witty and does an amazing job of bringing to life big attractions in ways that make them accessible for a tourist seeing lots of sites.
I wouldn't do the British Museum or Saint Paul's without it. You could spend hours wandering aimlessly through the museum. He takes you through many big items with good and fun descriptions in about 60-90 minutes.
Tower of London, Parliament, the Bunkers and Westminster Abbey all offer their own live tours or audio guides. The Parliament audio guide is particularly well done, definitely pay for guides at these locations. Tower of London warden tour is included free with admission.