London
Mayfair · Borough Market · Chelsea in Bloom
Estimated budget
£14k
2 travellers · full trip
Nine days in the city that contains more versions of itself than any other in the world. Mayfair in the morning light. Borough Market on Saturday before the tourists wake up. Richmond Park with deer moving through the mist. Rules Restaurant — the oldest in London, opened 1798 — where the game on the menu has come from the estate in Teesdale for 226 years. The V&A on a rainy afternoon. A Cotswolds day trip through the Oxfordshire countryside with pubs that predate the United States. And Claridge's throughout — the hotel that is as much a London institution as any of them, where the staff remember your name from your last visit and the breakfast room still feels like 1930.
Estimated budget
Estimated budget
From
£13,900
Estimates in GBP for two people. Final pricing depends on dates, availability, and preferences.
London
9 nights in London · England
Mayfair is the most concentrated square mile of luxury in the world — and also a navigable neighbourhood of art galleries, gentlemen's outfitters, covered arcades, and restaurants that have been feeding the city's influential for two centuries. The streets are Georgian. The plane trees are enormous. In May they are coming into full leaf and the light through them turns the whole district green-gold.
Where you're staying
Day 1
Arrival — Mayfair & The Connaught Bar
Arrive. Walk Mount Street. The Connaught Bar opened in 2008 and has been named the world's best bar three times since. The martini trolley comes to your table.
Heathrow Terminal 5
Brook Street, Mayfair
The Heathrow Express to Paddington takes 15 minutes; a taxi from Paddington to Claridge's takes 20 minutes. The alternative — private car door-to-door — takes longer but gives you the approach through Hyde Park and Mayfair.
Mount Street afternoon walk
Mount Street in Mayfair is the most beautiful Victorian commercial street in London — late-19th century terracotta facades, Goyard, Thomas Goode china, the Connaught Hotel at one end.
Mount Street, Mayfair
The Connaught Bar — martini trolley
The Connaught Bar under Agostino Perrone has been named World's Best Bar multiple times.
The Connaught Hotel, Carlos Place, Mayfair
Dinner — Scott's
Scott's on Mount Street is the oyster bar and seafood restaurant that has defined Mayfair dining since 1851.
Mount Street, Mayfair
Day 2
National Portrait Gallery & Rules Restaurant
The National Portrait Gallery reopened in 2023 after three years. In the afternoon, the covered Burlington Arcade. Evening at Rules — book the corner table in the downstairs dining room.
National Portrait Gallery — reopened 2023
The National Portrait Gallery reopened in June 2023 after a £41 million transformation by Jamie Fobert Architects.
St Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square
Burlington Arcade & Bond Street
Burlington Arcade is the oldest covered shopping street in the UK — 1819, Regency architecture, Beadles in top hats and frock coats who enforce the no-whistling and no-hurrying rules.
Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly
Dinner — Rules Restaurant
Rules opened in 1798 and has served every significant figure in British cultural life since — Dickens, Thackeray, H.G.
Maiden Lane, Covent Garden
Day 3
Borough Market & Tate Modern
Cross the river. Borough Market at 9am. The Tate Modern in the afternoon. Bermondsey Street for dinner.
Borough Market — Monday morning
Borough Market has traded on this site since 1014 — beneath Southwark Cathedral and the Victorian railway arches, the finest food market in Britain.
Borough Market, Southwark
Tate Modern — Blavatnik Building
The Tate Modern in the old Bankside Power Station is one of the great museum buildings in the world — the Turbine Hall alone justifies the visit.
Bankside, Southwark
Dinner — St. John Hotel, Bermondsey Street
Fergus Henderson's St.
Bermondsey Street, London SE1
Day 4
Cecil Court, Two Temple Place & Floris Jermyn Street
A day for the London that exists between the famous landmarks. Cecil Court for the morning. Two Temple Place (check for current exhibition). Floris Jermyn Street private appointment in the afternoon.
Cecil Court — antiquarian booksellers and map dealers
Cecil Court provides a covered specialist shopping environment with deep institutional history.
Cecil Court, WC2N 4HE (between Charing Cross Road and St Martin's Lane)
Two Temple Place — Astor's Victorian mansion
Two Temple Place earns its place by combining an extraordinary building with a genuinely surprising programming strategy — regional museum collections that London audiences would never otherwise encounter.
Victoria Embankment, Temple, WC2R 3BD
Floris Jermyn Street — private bespoke appointment
Floris private appointments are the insider Jermyn Street experience — the perfume equivalent of visiting the vineyard rather than the wine shop.
89 Jermyn Street, St James's, SW1Y 6JH
Dinner — The Marksman, Hackney Road
The Marksman represents the best of London's elevated pub culture.
Hackney Road, E2 8NA
London
9 nights in London · England
Mayfair is the most concentrated square mile of luxury in the world — and also a navigable neighbourhood of art galleries, gentlemen's outfitters, covered arcades, and restaurants that have been feeding the city's influential for two centuries. The streets are Georgian. The plane trees are enormous. In May they are coming into full leaf and the light through them turns the whole district green-gold.
Where you're staying
Day 1
Arrival — Mayfair & The Connaught Bar
Arrive. Walk Mount Street. The Connaught Bar opened in 2008 and has been named the world's best bar three times since. The martini trolley comes to your table.
Heathrow Terminal 5
Brook Street, Mayfair
The Heathrow Express to Paddington takes 15 minutes; a taxi from Paddington to Claridge's takes 20 minutes. The alternative — private car door-to-door — takes longer but gives you the approach through Hyde Park and Mayfair.
Mount Street afternoon walk
Mount Street in Mayfair is the most beautiful Victorian commercial street in London — late-19th century terracotta facades, Goyard, Thomas Goode china, the Connaught Hotel at one end.
Mount Street, Mayfair
The Connaught Bar — martini trolley
The Connaught Bar under Agostino Perrone has been named World's Best Bar multiple times.
The Connaught Hotel, Carlos Place, Mayfair
Dinner — Scott's
Scott's on Mount Street is the oyster bar and seafood restaurant that has defined Mayfair dining since 1851.
Mount Street, Mayfair
Day 2
National Portrait Gallery & Rules Restaurant
The National Portrait Gallery reopened in 2023 after three years. In the afternoon, the covered Burlington Arcade. Evening at Rules — book the corner table in the downstairs dining room.
National Portrait Gallery — reopened 2023
The National Portrait Gallery reopened in June 2023 after a £41 million transformation by Jamie Fobert Architects.
St Martin's Place, Trafalgar Square
Burlington Arcade & Bond Street
Burlington Arcade is the oldest covered shopping street in the UK — 1819, Regency architecture, Beadles in top hats and frock coats who enforce the no-whistling and no-hurrying rules.
Burlington Arcade, Piccadilly
Dinner — Rules Restaurant
Rules opened in 1798 and has served every significant figure in British cultural life since — Dickens, Thackeray, H.G.
Maiden Lane, Covent Garden
Day 3
Borough Market & Tate Modern
Cross the river. Borough Market at 9am. The Tate Modern in the afternoon. Bermondsey Street for dinner.
Borough Market — Monday morning
Borough Market has traded on this site since 1014 — beneath Southwark Cathedral and the Victorian railway arches, the finest food market in Britain.
Borough Market, Southwark
Tate Modern — Blavatnik Building
The Tate Modern in the old Bankside Power Station is one of the great museum buildings in the world — the Turbine Hall alone justifies the visit.
Bankside, Southwark
Dinner — St. John Hotel, Bermondsey Street
Fergus Henderson's St.
Bermondsey Street, London SE1
Day 4
Cecil Court, Two Temple Place & Floris Jermyn Street
A day for the London that exists between the famous landmarks. Cecil Court for the morning. Two Temple Place (check for current exhibition). Floris Jermyn Street private appointment in the afternoon.
Cecil Court — antiquarian booksellers and map dealers
Cecil Court provides a covered specialist shopping environment with deep institutional history.
Cecil Court, WC2N 4HE (between Charing Cross Road and St Martin's Lane)
Two Temple Place — Astor's Victorian mansion
Two Temple Place earns its place by combining an extraordinary building with a genuinely surprising programming strategy — regional museum collections that London audiences would never otherwise encounter.
Victoria Embankment, Temple, WC2R 3BD
Floris Jermyn Street — private bespoke appointment
Floris private appointments are the insider Jermyn Street experience — the perfume equivalent of visiting the vineyard rather than the wine shop.
89 Jermyn Street, St James's, SW1Y 6JH
Dinner — The Marksman, Hackney Road
The Marksman represents the best of London's elevated pub culture.
Hackney Road, E2 8NA
Cotswolds
Day 5 · England
The Cotswolds is 90 minutes from Paddington by train and belongs to a different century entirely — limestone villages built from the same honey-coloured stone the sheep grazed on, market towns that haven't changed their street plan since medieval wool trade, pubs with beams from the 16th century. Take one day for it.
Day 5
Bourton-on-the-Water & the Slaughters
Train to Moreton-in-Marsh. Driver for the day. Upper and Lower Slaughter, Bourton-on-the-Water, lunch at the Lord of the Manor in Upper Slaughter, back to London for 7pm.
Paddington Station
Moreton-in-Marsh
Great Western Railway Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh is 1 hour 40 minutes through the Thames Valley into Oxfordshire. A private driver from Moreton is the right way to move between villages — the lanes between the Slaughters and Bourton are too narrow for navigating while looking at the stone.
Upper & Lower Slaughter village walk
Upper and Lower Slaughter are two connected villages in the Windrush Valley that appear to have escaped every century since the 14th.
The Slaughters, Gloucestershire
Lunch — Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter
Lords of the Manor is the 17th-century rectory converted into a country house hotel in Upper Slaughter — the restaurant uses Cotswolds produce from within 20 miles and the kitchen has held a Michelin star for a decade.
Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire
Bourton-on-the-Water — afternoon
Bourton-on-the-Water is the 'Venice of the Cotswolds' — low bridges over a clear chalk stream running through the village centre, flanked by the Georgian stone buildings of a prosperous market town.
Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire
Cotswolds
Day 5 · England
The Cotswolds is 90 minutes from Paddington by train and belongs to a different century entirely — limestone villages built from the same honey-coloured stone the sheep grazed on, market towns that haven't changed their street plan since medieval wool trade, pubs with beams from the 16th century. Take one day for it.
Day 5
Bourton-on-the-Water & the Slaughters
Train to Moreton-in-Marsh. Driver for the day. Upper and Lower Slaughter, Bourton-on-the-Water, lunch at the Lord of the Manor in Upper Slaughter, back to London for 7pm.
Paddington Station
Moreton-in-Marsh
Great Western Railway Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh is 1 hour 40 minutes through the Thames Valley into Oxfordshire. A private driver from Moreton is the right way to move between villages — the lanes between the Slaughters and Bourton are too narrow for navigating while looking at the stone.
Upper & Lower Slaughter village walk
Upper and Lower Slaughter are two connected villages in the Windrush Valley that appear to have escaped every century since the 14th.
The Slaughters, Gloucestershire
Lunch — Lords of the Manor, Upper Slaughter
Lords of the Manor is the 17th-century rectory converted into a country house hotel in Upper Slaughter — the restaurant uses Cotswolds produce from within 20 miles and the kitchen has held a Michelin star for a decade.
Upper Slaughter, Gloucestershire
Bourton-on-the-Water — afternoon
Bourton-on-the-Water is the 'Venice of the Cotswolds' — low bridges over a clear chalk stream running through the village centre, flanked by the Georgian stone buildings of a prosperous market town.
Bourton-on-the-Water, Gloucestershire
London
4 nights in London · England
East London is where the city's creative energy lives — Spitalfields, Brick Lane, Columbia Road, Bethnal Green, the restaurants that the rest of the world's chefs come to eat at when they're in London. This is not a tourist circuit; it's the neighbourhood where the city is most honestly itself.
Where you're staying
Day 6
Spitalfields & Brick Lane — Sunday rituals
Sunday morning: Columbia Road Flower Market first, then Spitalfields Market. Bagel from Beigel Bake on Brick Lane — open since 1977, 24 hours. Evening at Lyle's.
Columbia Road Flower Market — Sunday morning
Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday morning is one of the great sensory experiences in London — a Victorian terrace street transformed into a hothouse by 60 flower stalls, the vendors shouting prices, the whole street smelling of cut flowers, the galleries and shops on the street open behind the market.
Columbia Road, Bethnal Green
Brockley Market — South London Saturday producer market
Brockley Market is the genuine community farmer's market that Borough Market references as its origin — small, local, unspectacular in presentation and very serious in produce quality.
Lewisham College car park, Brockley, SE4
Beigel Bake — salt beef bagel
Beigel Bake at 159 Brick Lane has been open 24 hours since 1977 — the last East London Jewish bakery, serving salt beef bagels at £4.50 and challah loaves on Sunday mornings.
Brick Lane, Tower Hamlets
Lunch — Rochelle Canteen, Arnold Circus
Rochelle Canteen is the insider London lunch pick — not because it's secret (Margot Henderson is well known in food circles) but because the format (ring a bell, door opens) guarantees that only people who know about it are there.
Arnold Circus, Shoreditch (E2 7ES)
Dinner — Lyle's
Lyle's in the Tea Building on Shoreditch High Street holds a Michelin star and regularly appears on the World's 50 Best list.
Shoreditch, London E1
Day 8
Richmond Park & Ottolenghi Islington
Richmond Park in the morning — 2,500 acres of medieval Royal hunting forest with 630 free-roaming deer. In the afternoon, Primrose Hill. Evening at Ottolenghi in Islington.
Richmond Park — morning walk with deer
Richmond Park is 2,500 acres of Royal hunting forest that has been inside London's boundary since 1637.
Richmond Park, Southwest London
Dinner — Ottolenghi, Islington
The Ottolenghi restaurant on Upper Street is the original — opened 2002, the full dining menu rather than the deli counter.
Upper Street, Islington
Wilton's Music Hall — evening performance
Wilton's pairs naturally with the Hackney Wick and Viktor Wynd Museum afternoon — all three share the East London quality of being entirely themselves without any performance of cultural cachet.
Graces Alley, Whitechapel, E1 8JB
Day 8
Richmond Park & Ottolenghi Islington
Richmond Park in the morning — 2,500 acres of medieval Royal hunting forest with 630 free-roaming deer. In the afternoon, Primrose Hill. Evening at Ottolenghi in Islington.
Richmond Park — morning walk with deer
Richmond Park is 2,500 acres of Royal hunting forest that has been inside London's boundary since 1637.
Richmond Park, Southwest London
Dinner — Brat on Redchurch Street
Brat is where London's food community eats when it wants to be proud of what the city produces.
Redchurch Street, Shoreditch
Wilton's Music Hall — evening programme
Wilton's is a genuinely extraordinary building and the East London cultural alternative to West End theatre.
Graces Alley, Whitechapel
P. Franco — natural wine bar, Clapton
P.
Lower Clapton Road, Hackney
London
4 nights in London · England
East London is where the city's creative energy lives — Spitalfields, Brick Lane, Columbia Road, Bethnal Green, the restaurants that the rest of the world's chefs come to eat at when they're in London. This is not a tourist circuit; it's the neighbourhood where the city is most honestly itself.
Where you're staying
Day 6
Spitalfields & Brick Lane — Sunday rituals
Sunday morning: Columbia Road Flower Market first, then Spitalfields Market. Bagel from Beigel Bake on Brick Lane — open since 1977, 24 hours. Evening at Lyle's.
Columbia Road Flower Market — Sunday morning
Columbia Road Flower Market on Sunday morning is one of the great sensory experiences in London — a Victorian terrace street transformed into a hothouse by 60 flower stalls, the vendors shouting prices, the whole street smelling of cut flowers, the galleries and shops on the street open behind the market.
Columbia Road, Bethnal Green
Brockley Market — South London Saturday producer market
Brockley Market is the genuine community farmer's market that Borough Market references as its origin — small, local, unspectacular in presentation and very serious in produce quality.
Lewisham College car park, Brockley, SE4
Beigel Bake — salt beef bagel
Beigel Bake at 159 Brick Lane has been open 24 hours since 1977 — the last East London Jewish bakery, serving salt beef bagels at £4.50 and challah loaves on Sunday mornings.
Brick Lane, Tower Hamlets
Lunch — Rochelle Canteen, Arnold Circus
Rochelle Canteen is the insider London lunch pick — not because it's secret (Margot Henderson is well known in food circles) but because the format (ring a bell, door opens) guarantees that only people who know about it are there.
Arnold Circus, Shoreditch (E2 7ES)
Dinner — Lyle's
Lyle's in the Tea Building on Shoreditch High Street holds a Michelin star and regularly appears on the World's 50 Best list.
Shoreditch, London E1
Day 8
Richmond Park & Ottolenghi Islington
Richmond Park in the morning — 2,500 acres of medieval Royal hunting forest with 630 free-roaming deer. In the afternoon, Primrose Hill. Evening at Ottolenghi in Islington.
Richmond Park — morning walk with deer
Richmond Park is 2,500 acres of Royal hunting forest that has been inside London's boundary since 1637.
Richmond Park, Southwest London
Dinner — Ottolenghi, Islington
The Ottolenghi restaurant on Upper Street is the original — opened 2002, the full dining menu rather than the deli counter.
Upper Street, Islington
Wilton's Music Hall — evening performance
Wilton's pairs naturally with the Hackney Wick and Viktor Wynd Museum afternoon — all three share the East London quality of being entirely themselves without any performance of cultural cachet.
Graces Alley, Whitechapel, E1 8JB
Day 8
Richmond Park & Ottolenghi Islington
Richmond Park in the morning — 2,500 acres of medieval Royal hunting forest with 630 free-roaming deer. In the afternoon, Primrose Hill. Evening at Ottolenghi in Islington.
Richmond Park — morning walk with deer
Richmond Park is 2,500 acres of Royal hunting forest that has been inside London's boundary since 1637.
Richmond Park, Southwest London
Dinner — Brat on Redchurch Street
Brat is where London's food community eats when it wants to be proud of what the city produces.
Redchurch Street, Shoreditch
Wilton's Music Hall — evening programme
Wilton's is a genuinely extraordinary building and the East London cultural alternative to West End theatre.
Graces Alley, Whitechapel
P. Franco — natural wine bar, Clapton
P.
Lower Clapton Road, Hackney
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