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I just returned from an incredible four days in London with my 13 year old daughter and I cannot wait to share my perfect London Four Day Itinerary with you. We definitely need to go back, there is so much to do, but we really maximized our time and saw and did as much as possible in four days in London! I also think a trip to London is a great trip with teens and/or as a mother – daughter trip. Keep reading for my perfect London Four Day Itinerary.
The Perfect London Four Day Itinerary – London with Teens
Baby girl had a few days off between school ending and camp starting. My son still had a few more days of finals, so we decided to ditch the boys and do a mother – daughter trip. Of course my daughter wanted to return to Paris (our long weekend in Paris was not long enough) but I had been there just last summer on my Regent Seven Seas Cruise, so I wanted to visit somewhere I had not been in a long time. The last time I had been to London was in 2001!
Our other recent mother – daughter trips included a 3 night sailing on the Royal Caribbean Liberty of the Seas and a 3-night sailing on the Disney Wish, so it was definitely time for a land based trip.
With five nights to travel and four nights in London, I wanted to maximize our time and see as much as possible.
Where to Stay in London
I think part of what helped us maximize our time was staying in a central location to be able to walk places. London is big and spread out, so it’s hard to stay somewhere which allows you to walk EVERYWHERE, but staying central will maximize your time in seeing the main sites.
We stayed at the Clermont Charing Cross which is right at the Charing Cross station. Here you are close to all the Broadway shows, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, multiple museums, the London Eye and the tube is right there.
The Clermont Charing Cross was fantastic – really nice rooms, a great breakfast, and a nice restaurant on site. There is also a coffee shop, and the rooms came with a complimentary mini bar, snacks, waters, and a Nespresso machine.
Other London hotels we recommend to our clients – Park Plaza Westminster, Trafalgar St James, or Conrad London, there really are so many great hotels for every travel style and budget.
How to Get Around London
Being able to get around quickly/efficiently will help maximize your time on a four day London itinerary.
On arrival and departure, I had airport transfers arranged. You can take public transport to or from Heathrow, or Gatwick, but having a driver waiting with a sign when you get off an overnight flight is key! That way you can sleep a little more on the ride into town.
And speaking of rides, do plan for traffic all around the city. That might impact your decision on how to get around.
Otherwise, point to point we tried to walk as much as possible, and opted for Uber instead of cabs or the Tube. I like Uber in Europe because I don’t have to worry about getting ripped off and you can anticipate the fare and pay with your credit card.
Taxis in London are plentiful, and easy to hail. They also fit up to five passengers.
We did ride the city bus (red double decker) as part of one of our tours and you can easily pay with a contactless credit card. You don’t need a travelcard or oyster card. The busses are cool and iconic but do get stuck in the traffic.
Lastly the Tube is easy to navigate, google maps is a great resource for planning your route. You can also pay with a contactless credit card, but most tube lines are not air conditioned, so do factor that into your decision.
The Perfect London Four Day Itinerary
We left New York JFK on a Tuesday night. I opted for a late flight (departing New York at 10:30PM) because I find the later the flight, the more likely I am to sleep on the plane.
Which we did. I was asleep before we even took off. I woke up and it was an hour to London. We landed around 11am, and got off the flight, through customs and to our driver rather quickly.
We arrived at our hotel around 1pm, and luckily, our room was ready (I always request an early check in for my guests). We unpacked, freshened up a bit, and headed out to grab some lunch. We walked over to Nando’s in Covent Garden, for a quick delicious lunch.
Then it was time to officially start sightseeing! I had purchased London Eye, skip the line, flexible time tickets for our arrival day. I knew that would give us something to do, but not tie us down to a time if we were delayed or tired.
I also recommend the fast track ticket, as you will get put right into the shorter queue.
This was also a great activity to do on day 1, since you get a great overview of the city.
After our ride, we walked around the shops in that area, and then over the Westminster Bridge, past 10 Downing Street, and back to our hotel to shower and get ready for dinner.
The first night, we had dinner at Circolo Popolare – this is a big Mamma restaurant and I had eaten at one of their outlets in Paris (Pink Mamma). Highly recommend this restaurant and you do need to make reservations exactly 30 days in advance.
After dinner, we did pop into some shops and went out for dessert (Amorino for crepes for baby girl) – It’s hard to go to bed too early the first night with the time difference, but we did manage to go to bed around midnight.
Perfect London Four Day Itinerary: Day 2
The first morning in Europe is tough – definitely set an alarm as to not oversleep. I had a tour planned for 11am, which forced us to get up and moving, but was not too early.
I booked the Churchill War Rooms for an 11-1130am entry time. They were pretty strict in only admitting folks during their booked entry time.
This was my number 1 must do in London and it did not disappoint! You get an audio guide and can go through the rooms at your own pace. It took us two hours to go through everything, with a stop at the café for a drink.
Our next ticket was for 2 – 230pm at the Westminster Abbey (again prebook the tickets, so you don’t have to wait in the long line) so after Churchill War Rooms, we headed out to find a café for lunch. We ended up at a great Italian restaurant a few blocks from Westminster Abbey and had a lovely lunch while it down poured (the only rain on our trip).
We then walked back to the Church for our timed entry and did get another audio-guide. What a great day of learning.
Westminster Abbey took us about an hour to go through. From here, we called an Uber and headed out to Harrod’s to do some shopping! All we ended up buying was a Paddington Plush (he is everywhere and crazy enough Harrod’s had the best price of all the souvenir shops). We ran out of time, as we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.
We had a quick dinner at a pub near the hotel, and went to bed fairly early.
London Perfect Four Day Itinerary: Day Three
For this day I did book an early (830am start) tour – to see the Crown Jewels and Tower of London. It was so worth it to go early, because there was no wait to see the Crown Jewels.
The first part of this tour was a historical walk around the Tower’s exterior with a guide. He brought us into the Tower to meet our beefeater, who took us around the inside of the Tower.
Upon completion of that part of the tour, we got to tour the Crown Jewels exhibit on our own.
This tour lasted 90 minutes and I highly recommend it.
After the tour, we took some photos of the Tower Bridge, and grabbed another Uber back to our hotel. We had to freshen up for our afternoon high tea!
I booked a 1pm High Tea at the Savoy hotel – which was right down the street from our hotel. I wanted a high tea that was fancy, and the Savoy has a vegetarian menu (for me) and kids menu ( for my daughter). Worth noting they also have a completely plant based high tea menu!
This experience was definitely a trip highlight. We had tea (obviously!) and my menu started with some sandwiches and savory bites, and ended with a huge tower of treats! Baby girl had a smaller version – some sandwiches, and then a bunch of sweet treats!
We loved this and I highly recommend.
Since I wasn’t sure how we would be feeling after the high tea, I did not plan anything for that evening. I would have liked to have seen a Broadway show but my daughter was adamant she did not want to do that.
After a nap (we got up early!) we walked over to Covent Garden to some of the shops – this area is a great vibe, tons of shops and restaurants, although the shops all closed around 7 or 8pm, which I thought was early.
Since we had a big lunch, we grabbed take out and took our food back to our room to watch Paddington on Netflix in prep for our next day’s tour!
Perfect London Four Day Itinerary Day Four
When we arrived in London, I had left this last day open, because I knew we would see things along the way that we wanted to do on our last full day. I had tentatively planned to go to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, but they don’t have it on Saturday AND we realized there is a once a week Paddington Bear Walking Tour that we wanted to sign up for!
We took an Uber up to Paddington Station to meet our tour. This was a fantastic walking tour, not only of the Paddington Film filming locations, but also of this area of London. We got to see the neighborhoods around Paddington Station, Little Venice, and then took the bus over to Notting Hill to see the antique shop prominently featured in the Paddington films.
The Paddington tour lasted three hours, and ended on Portobello Road in Notting Hill. Here we spent some time walking around (the outdoor market was going on), had lunch, and then walked back up to Notting Hill Gate.
From here we hopped another Uber back to our hotel, and went to freshen up before our last London dinner.
For our last night, I booked a reservation at the Sea Containers hotel. This hotel is located on the South Bank of the Thames, and has the most gorgeous views. We had a lovely dinner, then it was time to retire for the evening. We did watch Paddington in Peru (the newest and third film in the series).
On our last morning, we enjoyed one last breakfast at our hotel and took our private transfer back to Heathrow.
There is still so much we want to see and do in London, so we will definitely be back. Some sites we did not have time for – more time at Buckingham Palace ( we only did a drive by), day trips to Bath/Windsor Castle/Stonehenge/Greenwich, Museums (so many museums, I had wanted to go to the Tate Modern, London National Gallery, British Museum, Natural History), Ride the London hop on, hop off bus, the Thames River cruise, Borough Market, Selfridges, etc!
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