London

Europe's largest city, London has over 7 million inhabitants, and is roughly 50 miles (80 km) across. Fortunately for the visitor, however, most of the main attractions are central, and transport by bus and tube is easy to get to grips with. The river Thames, London's raison d'être and running through its heart, helps to make sense of the city's geography. Whatever you like to do, London offers an enormous choice. The traditional tourist attractions - Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London and the British Museum - together with all the pageantry, are reason enough to come and visit. But to these can be added exciting developments which sprang into being at the dawn of the new millennium, and which have given a new buzz to the city. The British Airways London Eye, the world's largest ferris wheel, and the Tate Modern art gallery, in particular, have helped to bring the South Bank of the river to life.
You need to allow plenty of time to see London properly, as well as money - like most capitals, London has many ways of parting you from your cash. If the pace, and expense, seem to be getting too frenetic, you are never far away from one of the great parks and quiet, leafy squares that can provide havens of tranquillity in the midst of this busy city.Take time, too, to explore the back streets with their beautiful and varied architecture, and you will discover what Londoners already know, that it is these quiet parts, still almost village-like, which have the strongest charm.

Must See/Do

• Stroll the South Bank from Westminster Bridge to Tower Bridge
• Take an open-top bus tour, or ride a double-decker
• Get the view of views from the London Eye
• Watch the buskers at Covent Garden
• Picnic or listen to a brass band in St James's Park
• Join a themed walk (choice of many each day)
• Browse Portobello, Spitalfields and Brick Lane street markets
• Take a boat trip to Greenwich or Hampton Court
• Art highlights:Tate Modern,Tate Britain and National Gallery
• Take in a West End play or musical, or Shakespeare at Shakespeare's Globe

Food and Drink

London's fast-changing food scene is as varied and exciting as any capital city's. The most comprehensive guide to it all is the Time Out Guide to Eating and Drinking in London, sold in newsagents (magazine format). You will find queues almost everywhere in central London on Friday and Saturday nights, so go early, or book. Apart from restaurants, cafés - many part of international chains - have recently sprung up everywhere: among the best are Aroma, Caffè Nero, and Pret à Manger. For lunches, some of the museums and galleries offer a very high standard of food, whether you want a coffee and croissant or a full hot meal - recommended are Tate Britain and the National Gallery. Many big department stores have excellent cafés (John Lewis, Oxford St, Dickens and Jones, Regent St, and the most famous of them all, Harvey Nichols Fifth Floor Café). You can buy good sandwiches and other takeaway snacks from Boots, Marks and Spencer (M&S) and British Home Stores (BHS). S & M (Sausage and Mash) Cafés make good stops for market browsers, 268 Portobello Rd and 48 Brushfield St, near Spitalfields Market, serving good, simple British food all day seven days a week for an average price of £8. The food stalls at Borough Market are high-class standard, with plenty of picnic items to graze on. There are many good cafés in Museum St in Bloomsbury, handy for those heading for the British Museum. Of the restaurant chains Pizza Express, with a range of pizzas, pasta and salads, and Wagamama, serving Japanese noodles canteen style, offer reasonably priced food. If searching out a particular cuisine, specific areas of London are the best bet. The French quarter of South Kensington (around Bute St) is a good place to find authentic French cuisine, while Chinatown (around Gerrard St and Wardour St north of Leicester Sq.), is a good place to browse for Peking-style, Cantonese and dim sum dishes. Behind Euston station, Drummond St has several restaurants with an exciting range of southern Indian food (including vegetarian) at ridiculously low prices.

Shopping

Oxford Street (tube: Marble Arch/Bond St/Oxford Circus) is where all the big names have their flagship stores. Regent Street has more upmarket clothing plus Liberty (famous for its Liberty print fabrics) and Hamleys (five floors of toys). For those with serious money, or aspirational window shoppers, New Bond Street and South Molton Street house world-leading fashion designers. In Knightsbridge, Harrods and Harvey Nichols are two of the classier department stores; Harrods' Food Halls are renowned for selling just about everything, in a splendidly luxurious setting. Covent Garden's pedestrianised piazza - a former fruit and vegetable market - has a quirky mix of shops and stalls selling clothing, crafts and bric-à-brac, with street entertainment thrown in. Covent Garden's side streets are well worth exploring for designer fashion plus Stanford's (12 Long Acre), probably the best map and travel guidebook shop in the world. One of the best street markets to head for is Spitalfields (opposite Liverpool St station), a friendly place to browse for clothes, crafts, records and organic foods, which is less commercialised and crowded than the famous Camden Markets (north of Camden Town tube). Portobello Road Market extends from Notting Hill Gate tube station (just follow the crowds); there's a general market during the week, but Saturday is the time to come, when from early in the morning onwards there's a huge number of stalls selling antiques and second-hand bits and pieces. Brick Lane Market, held in atmospherically decaying East End streets on Sunday morning near Aldgate ast tube, is totally fascinating or repulsive, according to your point of view: it's London's biggest and most thickly characterful market, with some appalling junk on offer, but also bargains among the general household, food and second-hand stalls (much more genuine than nearby Petticoat Lane Market, which has become something of a tourist trap). Farmers' markets are a fairly recent phenomenon; tel: (020) 7704 9659, www.lfm.org.uk.

Events and Festivals

Innumerable special exhibitions and events, from royal pageantry to the Notting Hill Carnival in late August, take place throughout the year. These are listed in Time Out and other weekly listings magazines; London's daily paper, the Evening Standard, also has a good listings supplement every Thursday.

Entertainment and Nightlife

Going out after dark is half the point of being in London: few other cities have such a rich choice of entertainment, from pub theatre, drag acts and comedy clubs to world-class opera, dance and classical music. If you have time to plan, book ahead. For those lastminute decisions, however, there are some excellent bargains to be had. Unsold tickets are often sold off cheaply within an hour or so of the start of the show. The half-price ticket booth in the clock tower on Leicester Square (open Tues-Sun 1200-1830) sells same-day theatre tickets. Major venues for concerts include the Barbican Centre, Silk St (tel: 0845 120 7550; www.barbican.org.uk), the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore (tel: (020) 7589 8212; www.royalalberthall.com), and the Royal Festival Hall complex on the South Bank (tel: 0870 380 0400; www.rfh.org.uk). For theatre there's the Royal National Theatre (South Bank; tel: (020) 7452 3000; www.nationaltheatre.org.uk). Smaller theatres, clubs and venues all over London are the setting for a very lively alternative arts scene. Listings magazines such as Time Out carry exhaustive details of what's going on, week by week.