Visit London

Author

London Tourism Office

Published

November 1, 2026

Welcome to London, a city of free museums, royal palaces and riverside walks along the Thames.

London in numbers

import pandas as pd

attractions = pd.read_csv("data/attractions.csv")
top = attractions.loc[attractions["visits_2025"].idxmax()]
top_name = top["attraction"]
top_visits = f"{top['visits_2025']:,}"
total_visits = f"{attractions['visits_2025'].sum():,}"

Most visited in 2025: the Natural History Museum (South Kensington), with 7,116,929 visits. London’s ten most visited ALVA member attractions drew 39,692,434 visits in 2025 (source: ALVA, Visits made in 2025, retrieved 2026-10-30).

Horizontal bar chart of 2025 visits to ten London attractions, longest bar at the top: the Natural History Museum is highest and Royal Museums Greenwich lowest.
Figure 1: Visits in 2025 to London’s ten most visited ALVA member attractions. Source: ALVA, retrieved 2026-10-30.

Five sights to start with

  1. British Museum
  2. Natural History Museum
  3. Tate Modern
  4. National Gallery
  5. Tower of London

Getting around

  • 🚇 Tube
  • 🚌 Bus
  • 🚲 Santander Cycles

Plan your visit

Plan your route with the TfL Journey Planner.

Big Ben's clock tower (Elizabeth Tower) and the Palace of Westminster against a blue sky.

Big Ben in the sun. Photo: John Dillenbeck, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tip from a local: many of London’s big museums have free general admission. Booking a free timed ticket online can save you time in the queue.

Sights at a glance

Photo Sight Area Price band Nearest tube More
The British Museum’s Great Court glass roof British Museum Bloomsbury Free Tottenham Court Road Read more
The Natural History Museum’s empty Central Hall Natural History Museum South Kensington Free South Kensington Read more
Tate Modern’s brick chimney Tate Modern Bankside Free Southwark Read more
The glass dome of the National Gallery’s entrance hall National Gallery Trafalgar Square Free Charing Cross Read more
A turret of the White Tower Tower of London Tower Hill Paid Tower Hill Read more

“Free” means free general admission; some special exhibitions charge.

Photos, via Wikimedia Commons: British Museum, Mike Peel (CC BY-SA 4.0); Natural History Museum, Julian Herzog (CC BY 4.0); Tate Modern and National Gallery, Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0); Tower of London, Dietmar Rabich (CC BY-SA 4.0). Full credits: images/ATTRIBUTION.md.

Before you go

[ ] Contactless card or Oyster card
[ ] Free museum tickets booked
[ ] Comfortable shoes and an umbrella