Day 1 — Westminster & the South Bank
Start at Westminster: the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Book the Abbey in advance if you want to go inside — it's one of the busiest sights in the city. Walk through St James's Park to Buckingham Palace and catch the Changing of the Guard if the schedule lines up.
Cross to the South Bank and walk east from the London Eye to Tate Modern (free) and Shakespeare's Globe. Dinner around Borough Market or Bermondsey, which has a strong cluster of independent breweries and bars.
Day 2 — The Tower, the City & Shoreditch
Book the Tower of London for opening time to beat the queues. The Crown Jewels, the White Tower, and a Yeoman Warder tour are worth the full two hours. Walk Tower Bridge, then loop into the City to see St Paul's Cathedral and, if you're up for the climb, the views from the Whispering Gallery.
Afternoon and evening: Shoreditch and Spitalfields. Brick Lane for curry and bagels, the street art around Shoreditch High Street, and one of the city's best concentrations of independent bars for the evening.
Day 3 — Museums & Notting Hill
Morning at the British Museum — free, and easily worth two to three hours for the Rosetta Stone, the Parthenon Marbles, and the Egyptian galleries alone. If you have a second museum in you, the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square is a five-minute walk and equally free.
Afternoon: Notting Hill. Portobello Road Market for antiques and vintage clothing, then a slow walk through the pastel-coloured residential streets south of the market. Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens are a short walk east if you want green space before dinner.
Day 4 — Greenwich & the River
Take a Thames Clipper boat from central London down to Greenwich — the most scenic way to get there and part of the experience in itself. Greenwich is compact and rewarding: stand on the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory, walk the deck of the Cutty Sark, and take in the view over the Old Royal Naval College from the top of Greenwich Park.
Greenwich Market, in the middle of town, is smaller than Borough or Camden but excellent for lunch — a good mix of street food and craft stalls.
Return by boat as the light drops for a good view of Tower Bridge and the City skyline from the water. Evening free for whichever part of the city you've liked best so far.
Day 5 — Windsor Castle Day Trip
Windsor Castle, the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world, is a straightforward half-day trip: trains run regularly from London Paddington (via Slough, roughly 40–50 minutes) or from London Waterloo direct to Windsor & Eton Riverside (about an hour). It's still an official royal residence, and the State Apartments, St George's Chapel (burial place of several monarchs, including Queen Elizabeth II), and the Changing of the Guard ceremony inside the castle grounds are all open to visitors.
The town of Windsor itself is small and pleasant — a walk along the Thames, a look at Eton College across the river, and lunch in one of the pubs near the castle walls make for an easy, unhurried final day.
Return to London by early evening for a final dinner — Borough Market's restaurants, a Soho theatre district spot, or wherever in the city you've been drawn back to.