6 Day London Itinerary and Budget Breakdown
Today, I'm at my home base in Louisville, Kentucky, and I'm recently back from my adventures in London, England. So, what did I do there and how much did it cost? Let's take a look at my London itinerary and what I spent!
I'm going to break down the cost of my trip and share my London itinerary with you, so you can use my budget travel tips to have an amazing vacation in London of your own.
Day 1
We’re going to begin at the beginning with Day 1. I landed in London in the morning, and I didn’t want to lose any time in the city, so my itinerary for London began there and I got off the plane knowing I had to get to my first London attraction in just a few hours.
I really wanted to make the most of London. So, the first thing I did after I got my luggage was to head straight to the hotel, which was actually attached to the airport.
I got on the Heathrow Express and headed straight from the airport to Paddington Station, which is probably what you will also do if you arrive in London at Heathrow. The Heathrow Express costs about $25 per person, and the price varies daily by at least a little because it’s based on the British pound and the not the American dollar. The exchange rate fluctuates frequently, so 25 British pounds is not always the same amount in US dollars.
I really wanted to ride one of the London black cabs, so I next hopped on a cab to go to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which was the first attraction I saw in London and which is an absolutely enormous museum.
The cab ride cost me $35, which was way over my projected budget of $15 for that cab ride. I obviously had a problem doing the math on that but if you are better with numbers than I am, you can look at the rate for London’s cabs online. They go by zones and I thought I had it figured out, but I did not.
So, we’re already over budget. Luckily, the V&A is a free museum, so no harm there. Also, I wanted to grab a sandwich at the Cabmen Shelter right next door to the museum but it was closed, so I also saved money here. I’m going to keep having problems staying fed in London, so just a heads up there.
I was supposed to take a $5 bus to my next location. I took a $22 cab instead. Long story, but anyway, it’s time to head to Oxford Street. This is the center of London’s fashion scene and it’s where you will find the famous Selfridge’s department store, which I was totally excited to see.
It’s also free to walk around on Oxford Street and I definitely recommend it, but be prepared for it to be very crowded.
I stopped to get something to eat at Market Halls next, which is a really cool covered market that I recommend. I covered it in my video about London cheap eats and I spent $23 here. I had planned to spend $8.
I was on foot from here, so no more big cab costs. I went into London’s Soho area to get some pizza. Soho is very trendy and cool, but there are affordable places to eat here and I went to a pizza parlor that was very highly reviewed.
Hated it. I really didn’t like it. And I consider pizza to be a real marker for the overall food of any place I visit, so I was really off to a bad start with British food here. I thought the pizza would cost about $18 and it was $23, so I was pretty close.
I took a long subway ride back to my hotel for $8 and that was the end of my first half day in London. It cost a grand total of $141, which was well over my budget of $100.
Day 2
For my first full day in London, I really wanted to do some classic tourist type stuff. So, I started the day with a double-decker bus tour of the city. You can learn a lot more about that experience in my blog about the top 8 things to do in London.
So after spending $26 on the Heathrow Express, I walked over to Hyde Park to get on the bus. The bus tour was included with the London Pass, which I got into a ton of detail about on my blog about top 8 things, so definitely check that out to learn how to save a lot of money if you’re going to be visiting a lot of London attractions like I did.
I took the bus all around the city and got off the bus at Buckingham Palace. From here, I walked over to Hyde Park and checked out the attractions in the park. Hyde Park is really awesome and it’s free and I highly recommend it. I walked over to a Sainsbury’s right by the park to take advantage of their cheap lunch deal. The details about that are in my cheap eats blog, but what you need to know is that it cost me a little less than $5. I ate in the park, so this was a really great cheap lunch experience.
After the park, I took a short cab ride for $5 to the pier to get on a river boat. The boat ticket was also part of the London Pass, as was my entrance fee into the Tower of London, which is where I rode the boat to. I took the tour here and it was amazing. Definitely make time to visit the Tower of London while you are here.
I visited the famous and super trendy Borough Market next for ice cream, which you can learn more about in my video about London Markets. This was $5 and it was totally worth it.
I did two self-guided walking tours the rest of the afternoon. First, I went around and looked at the ruins of the old Roman wall, which was built around the year 76 when the Romans founded the city. They called it Londinium and they started building roads and walls everywhere, because that’s how the Romans were.
It was actually really cool to see the ruins because they’re just right there. They aren’t fenced off, there’s no security guard staring at you. I literally walked into an opening in the wall and stood there and it was really amazing.
I also did a walking tour of Whitechapel, which is where Jack the Ripper once stalked the streets. My audio tour of Whitechapel is available in my London playlist. It’s got a map and all that, so you can see my route through Whitechapel.
I stopped at the Ten Bells Pub to get a burger and a pint. As an American, I’m obligated to get a burger everywhere I go and the Ten Bells is known for having good burgers. I did not fully agree with that, but it’s fine and it cost me just under $20, which was just a little bit over my $18 budget.
I took the Heathrow Express back to the hotel for $32 and I took a lot of cabs on this day. Like a lot, a lot. I spent $138 on cabs. So not budget friendly. This is a real learn from me by not repeating my mistakes type of situation. This put me at a huge $231 for the day, way over my $85 budget.
Day 3
My next day in London was a day I actually left London. I did some day trips outside of the city and went to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge,, and Bath, England, with a stop along the way at a really nice little English village.
This whole day was part of a package deal that cost me $210 for everything, including admission to the Castle and Stonehenge and the cost of lunch and traveling to all these places. I had to get to Victoria Coach Station to meet the tour bus, which cost me $22 in subways and busses.
I did spend an additional $6 on a fancy coffee at Windsor Castle and ended up spending $7 extra on lunch, and I spend $43 in Bath. That was admission to the Roman baths. I bought one of the famous Bath buns and I got myself something to drink there. I did an entire video about my trip to Bath because it’s a really awesome place, and you can find out more about the Roman baths and the bun and everything they’ve got there.
I had dinner that night at a very nice pub for $16, which was actually under budget. I planned on $22. The pub was very close to the bus station and it has the very British name the Stanhope Arms. Super nice place, affordable, highly recommend.
It cost me $27 to get back to my airport by the hotel at the end of the night. Which brought my total on the day up to $121, not including the cost of the package I spent, so pretty expensive day. It was also like double my budget, which was $60.
Day 4
My next day in London was the day I went to Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard, which is a very popular thing to do here and which is free. I was running late, so I spent $26 on the Heathrow Express
I went to the Guards Museum right after seeing the changing of the guard. This is a small attraction that is dedicated to the history of the guards and it’s actually pretty interesting. It’s also free with the London Pass.
So is the King’s Gallery at Bunchingham Palace, which is the next attraction I visited. This is an exhibit inside the palace that showcases some of the royal family’s extensive art collection.
I walked over to Westminster Abbey next, one of my most highly recommended attractions in London. I stopped at Strutton Ground Market on the way and got some really, really good food, which ironically was not British food. It was delicious and affordable and I recommend this market if you’re looking for some non-London food street food. I spent $12 here, which was under my budget of $15.
High tea at Westminster Abbey was expensive, but I wanted to do a high tea and sometimes, it’s okay to spend a little more on something special. It was $65 and that is service for two people. They don’t do a service for solo people, which is clearly discriminatory.
I visited St. James Park next, which is free and which is home to the King’s pelicans. I walked around London a bit at this point and passed through the famous Trafalgar Square, stopped to see Cleopatra’s needle and looked at some other landmarks on my way to the Courtlaud Gallery. This is an art gallery with a famous Van Gogh self portrait that I wanted to see, and it was free with my London Pass.
Things kind of fell apart a bit on this night. Some things went awry, which does happen when you’re traveling, and after I had a pint at the Coach and Horses pub, which I had to visit because that is such a super British name and which cost $6, I ended up getting dinner with Uber Eats because things went sideways and I also ended up spending a ridiculous $130 on cabs because I got lost at once point and some other stuff happened and it was a whole entire thing, so it cost me $26 to get back to the hotel after I saw the Graffiti Tunnel and the Globe Theater.
I didn’t go inside the Globe, but I did get to see the outside and it was amazing. The Graffiti Tunnel is a super cool free attraction and you should definitely go see that. I talk about that a lot more in my blog about the Top 20 free things to do in London. I also rode the London Eye on this day, which was a long time in line.
I ended up spending a shocking $265 on this day, which totally fried my budget of $130.
Day 5
My next day in London was when I went to the British Museum, which I made a video about with a complete walkthrough if you’d like to learn a lot more about what’s happening here. It cost $26 for me to get to the museum, which is free to see. I had lunch for just under $20, which was a little bit over my $15 budget.
I went to the British Library next, which is a surprisingly cool free attraction, and after that I got a cup of coffee for $7 at King’s Cross Station, which is a famous train station in London. It’s actually a shopping area as much as anything, and there are lots of little attractions and points of interest here. It’s really not like any other train station.
From here, I went to Madam Tussauds, the wax museum, which was free with the London Pass and which ended up being one of my favorite London attractions. I took a lot of fun pictures here. It’s definitely worth seeing.
You can also find 22 Baker Street right down the road from the wax museum. This is where Sherlock Holmes famously lived in the stories and it’s the location of his museum today. There’s also a big statue of him here.
And for the record, no he wasn’t a real person. He’s just a character in a series of stories written by British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was quite good friends with the magician Houdini, which isn’t related to anything but I think it’s really fun.
I had tea time at the Waterside Cafe in Regents Park. The park is free and it’s really super beautiful and has some historic statues and cool stuff, so it’s definitely worth visiting. The neighborhood around it is also really pretty. My treat in the park was $12, which was under budget because I thought it would be $15.
Next, I went to Camden Lock Market, which is really one of the coolest places I saw in London and which I highly recommend just for walking around and seeing London’s more underground culture. This is a really great shopping and eating area as well, so you can do it all here.
I went to Abbey Road next. This is where the Beatles recorded songs at Abbey Road studios and where the famous crosswalk from the Abbey Road album cover is located. This was a really, really fun time. It’s also free to walk across a street and take a picture, and you know we love free stuff here.
I rode the tube for $4 to the Duke of Clarence, which is a more upscale pub and which is super nice. Dinner was $25, which was under ny $30 budget and which was super affordable for such a nice place. They have a seasonal game menu and all of that.
Okay. So things went awry again on this night. I can’t really get into it, but I ended up spending about $70 on travel at this point until I finally landed at the hotel. All I can say is, keep track of all of your stuff while you are on vacation. And bring a little extra cash, a little more than you think you need, in case you need to pay a bribe and that’s all we’re going to say about that.
I spent $164 on the day, way over my budget of $95.
Day 6
For my last day in London, I started at Whitehall. This is a former palace of King Henry VIII and it’s currently where the British military’s headquarters are located. There is a changing of the guard ceremony here that showcases the cavalry division of the military. That’s the mounted division and the horses and the soldiers are very resplendent. This is a less crowded changing of the guard and Whitehall is very pretty. It’s also free, so of course I recommend it.
I spent $26 getting there and I spent more money on a cab going to the train station, because I did a half day trip outside of London on this day to go visit Henry VIII’s main palace, Hampton Court.
My train ticket was just under $20 round trip and I did an entire video about Hampton Court. There’s a lot going on here and it was one of the best attractions I saw, so I really recommend it. Henry VIII is England’s most infamous king and his palace is super extravagant. There are also extremely beautiful gardens all around the palace. Henry VIII was known for excess and his palace definitely reflects that, so visit Hampton Court.
I had lunch here in Queen Mary’s kitchen for $18, just a little over my $15 budget, and the admission to the palace was free with the London Pass. I then had a whole thing happen between the palace and Shoreditch, where I had a Sunday roast reservation, and you can learn all about that journey in my blog about the top 5 things I missed in London.
So my Sunday roast was $55, which was super, super expensive and over my budget of $35 but again, some stuff happened. There were also a lot of cabs involved that day, to the tune of $91 in travel costs including buses and tubes. This brought the day’s total up to $210, way over the planned $115.
My London Budget
Obviously, mistakes were made. I totally went over budget every day in London, by a lot. I didn’t get to do everything I planned, I didn’t get to eat a lot of stuff I liked but I did have the best time ever. Everything I saw was beautiful and I was completely thrilled by all the historic stuff I got to see every minute. Hearing Big Ben chime, being in the parks, walking around the city, seeing the cabs and the busses…all of it was just so amazing.
I visited a lot of museums and palaces and parks. I saw statues and paintings. I rode on the river, on a double decker bus, on the London Eye. I became a London street artist in the graffiti tunnel and I was super close to the actual coronation crown.
I love London. I would go back again and again. I would just eat food that’s not British food. I’m so sorry, London, I love you but I can’t get with your food.
So with hotel costs, which was included in the cost of my flight because I got like a bundled deal, with the cost of the London Pass and my day trip to Stonehenge, the total trip was $2480. That’s a one way plane ticket to London with a couple of changes starting in Louisville, Kentucky, in the U.S.
I also got traveler insurance, an esim for my phone and I had to pay the UK Visitor Visa fee, all of which added $146 to the trip total. This brought the cost of my week in London up to $2,626, which is high. You can actually do this trip as a solo traveler for around $2,000 if you budget better than I did and do a lot less riding around in cabs.
So at the end of this trip, I did come in over budget by a lot. I will take the chance to redeem myself in my next destination. Stay tuned to the channel for the rest of my London videos and join me on my next adventure, which I can tell you will be someplace else in Europe that’s very, very different from London.
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