What London costs

London is a city where culture is free and the bed is not. Five great museums charge nothing, so the whole budget comes down to three lines: the room, the food and the €10 daily transport cap. Below is what a day actually costs, in three profiles.

Everything is per person per day, for two sharing a room, in season, in euros at the ECB rate. Flights and trips out of town are not included, nor is the airport transfer, and there is no city tax in London.

Budget — about €63–76 a day

A dorm bed in zone 1 or 2, breakfast from a supermarket, the lunch Britain calls a meal deal (sandwich, snack and drink at Tesco or Sainsbury's, €4.60–4.95), dinner in a pub or off a market stall, one paid ticket across three days — the Tower — and everything else free.

Where to stayThe price of a bed drops the moment you cross the river:Where to stay in London →

Mid-range — about €214 a day

A three-star double, breakfast standing up, a pub lunch with a drink, dinner out without wine, all the main tickets spread over three days and the daily transport cap. This is the profile of most people who come for a long weekend and want everything on the plan without counting every euro.

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Comfortable — about €339 a day

A four-star in zone 1, both meals sitting down, a cab when it rains, a guided tour instead of a plain ticket and wine with dinner.

Day tripsA day out of town changes the bill — in both directions:Day trips from London →

Where the money actually goes

• Tickets bought in advance. A paper ticket costs more than the same journey on a bank card, and an Oyster card is a separate purchase. A contactless card or a phone does all of it with nothing bought, and stops charging when the daily cap is reached.
• The 12.5% service charge. Restaurants almost always add a 'discretionary service charge' of 12.5%. The word discretionary is not decoration: if the service disappointed you, ask for it to be removed and it comes off without argument. In a pub, where you order at the bar, you don't tip at all.
• Paying in euros at the terminal. When the card machine asks whether you want euros or pounds, always choose pounds. The merchant's conversion (DCC) is three to seven per cent worse than your bank's rate, on every single bill.
• The bureaux de change on Oxford Street. '0% commission' means the profit is in the rate. Cash machines are better, a card is better still; London barely uses cash any more.
• The Heathrow Express out of habit. Fifteen minutes to Paddington costs €30 bought on the day; the Elizabeth line takes half an hour for €18 and carries on through the centre without a change, while the Piccadilly line is the slowest and cheapest. The Express only beats the Elizabeth line as a fixed-date ticket bought a month ahead.

Hidden gemsThe best things in London have no ticket anyway:London free and empty: a 35th-floor glasshouse and a sarcophagus →

What is free

• The permanent collections of the big museums: the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the V&A, the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, the Queen's House and the Wellcome Collection. Temporary shows inside them are ticketed.
• Sir John Soane's Museum, 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields: an eighteenth-century architect's house turned museum, Wed–Sun 10–17, free; you can book a timed slot, or walk in when there's room.
• Viewpoints: Sky Garden on a free booked ticket, the One New Change roof terrace opposite St Paul's, the tenth-floor viewing level at Tate Modern, the hill in Greenwich and Primrose Hill.
• Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace and Horse Guards, every royal park, Hampstead Heath and the Thames path from Westminster to Tower Bridge.
• Churches at service time: Westminster Abbey and St Paul's charge €36 and €31 for sightseeing, but Evensong costs nothing — you sit rather than tour.
• Water: drinking fountains stand in the parks and stations, and any pub will fill your bottle from the tap for nothing if you ask.

Taxes, tips, cards and visas

The 20% VAT is inside every price you see, and unlike Rome or Prague there is no city tax per night. Tipping is contextual: 10–12.5% in a restaurant if service isn't already on the bill, nothing in a pub, round up for a cab driver. Cards work everywhere, buses included — they have taken no cash at all since 2014. Check the visa before anything else: depending on your passport, the United Kingdom asks either for an ETA or for a full Standard Visitor visa at €157 for stays up to six months, with a biometrics appointment and three weeks or more of waiting in season. If you need the visa, treat it as a fixed cost of the trip, like the flight.

Does the London Pass pay off?

The London Pass covers over a hundred and ten attractions and advertises up to 50% off. The arithmetic is simple: the five biggest museums are free anyway, so the pass only works if you do two or three paid things every day — say the Tower (€43), St Paul's (€31) and a river cruise. For anyone doing two paid sights across three days, as in our plan, single tickets are cheaper. If you do buy it, plan the days in advance; an hour spent queuing is what kills the saving.

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