London holidays

This lively, multicultural, residential and business area borders Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and offers a good choice of mid-price and budget accommodation and restaurants. Plentiful shopping opportunities exist at Queensway and Oxford Street. The major South Kensington museums lie across Kensington Gardens. Paddington Station provides a gateway to towns in the west of England, including Oxford, Windsor, Bath and Bristol.

The University of London and the British Museum give Bloomsbury a bookish air. Charlotte Street offers good restaurants, while Tottenham Court Road has electronic stores to suit all budgets, and links to the 300 shops of buzzing Oxford Street. Trendy Soho is a few minutes away by foot. Full of local character, it offers interesting pubs, top restaurants, West End theatres and a rich, sometimes risqué nightlife.

London’s 21st-century waterside business district, Canary Wharf is best known for its cutting-edge architecture, including the 50-storey obelisk-shaped skyscraper, One Canada Square. Get there by the Docklands Light Railway, with elevated tracks giving wonderful views into a world of glass and steel. By contrast, historic Greenwich, home to the National Maritime Museum, is just across the Thames. A foot tunnel links the two.

Slightly removed from the main bustle, Chelsea has style, cachet, and a champagne-Bohemian atmosphere. Trendy King's Road is its main artery, featuring restaurants, speciality shops, and boutiques. Knightsbridge is even more elevated in shopping status—Harrod’s is its most famous and popular store.

South of London, Gatwick Airport has two international terminals connected by monorail. Frequent trains run from Gatwick station in the South Terminal to central London. The Gatwick Express operates every 15 minutes non-stop to London Victoria. Cheaper regional services also run to Victoria (via Clapham Junction), London Bridge, King’s Cross, Brighton and other southern England cities. There are coaches to destinations throughout the UK.

On the north bank of the Thames, residential Hammersmith retains a bustling, city-centre feel with high-street shops and offices. The area around the magnificent 19th-century suspension bridge is often busy with those visiting Hammersmith's riverside pubs, especially in April when the annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race passes by. Fulham’s main thoroughfare, the Fulham Road, is filled with smart bars, chic restaurants, and fashionable boutiques. The area is best known for Stamford Bridge, the home stadium of football team Chelsea FC.

Set on a hill surrounded by parkland, Hampstead is the most attractive (and desirable) of London’s villages. Blue plaques on buildings attest to such diverse ex-residents as Constable, Freud, Karl Marx and John Keats. Camden Town is one of London’s best bohemian-urban places to eat, drink and shop, its colourful markets a tourist hotspot for clothes and crafts. By night Camden buzzes with dozens of live music venues, clubs, pubs, bars and restaurants.

A major international flight hub, Heathrow's four terminals are connected to central London by train and Underground services. The Heathrow Express speeds into Paddington Station in 15 minutes. The Underground’s Piccadilly line is cheaper (but slower), stopping at stations including Earl’s Court, Green Park, Leicester Square and Kings Cross. Coaches run to destinations throughout the UK.

Upscale, residential Kensington is best known for its palace and gardens, and for its major museums in South Kensington —the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, and the V&A. Earl’s Court has a wide selection of budget and mid-range hotels, clustered around Earl’s Court exhibition centre. Its Underground station offers good links (District and Piccadilly lines) with trains running to central London and south-west to Wimbledon.

The leafy residential districts of Maida Vale and St John’s Wood have an air of refined elegance, their broad avenues lined with smart mansion blocks and multi-million pound villas. St John's Wood is home to Lord's Cricket Ground and borders Regent's Park; Maida Vale is just two Tube stops from Paddington Station for fast trains to Heathrow Airport, Oxford, Bath and Bristol.

Famous for its hotels, Mayfair holds London's most expensive homes and, on Bond Street, its most expensive shops. But the tucked-away pubs, restaurants, and shops of atmospheric Shepherd Market offer affordable local colour, too. Sandwiched between several main roads, Marylebone has a village atmosphere and a charming High Street. Nearby attractions include Madame Tussaud's and the Georgian splendours of Regent's Park, including London Zoo.

Made famous by the eponymous film, Notting Hill is an affluent cosmopolitan neighbourhood of large Victorian townhouses, high-class shopping and chic restaurants. Adjacent, Ladbroke Grove and Westbourne Park are grittier but still hip. Portobello Road is famous for its weekend market and antiques shops. Late August sees the Notting Hill Carnival, the largest Caribbean festival and biggest street party in Europe.

South of the City, historic Southwark is packed with visitor attractions. Famous landmarks include Tower Bridge (the Tower of London is just north), Shakespeare’s Globe, and Tate Modern. Borough Market is gourmet heaven; the 17th-century George Inn is a picture-book pub. Waterloo train station has services to southern England and the Eurostar to Paris and Brussels. Tourists flock to the London Eye, a giant observation wheel which offers fabulous views of London.

A busy transport hub, St Pancras train station is a few minutes on foot from both Euston and King’s Cross stations. All three terminals have regional and intercity train services to north London and the rest of the UK. Fashionable Islington is located to the north. Boutiques, antique shops and bars line the streets around Islington Green. Large Georgian and Victorian houses are home to the well-heeled media and political classes.

The Business District's rich history encompasses dozens of ancient churches and monuments, the atmospheric Inns of Court, the Museum of London, and the Tower of London. Convenient for business travellers, it offers top quality lunchtime dining and historic pubs.

Home to some of London's most famous institutions —the Houses of Parliament (Big Ben), Westminster Abbey, and Tate Britain— Westminster is busy by day and quiet by night. Buckingham Palace is located across lovely St. James's Park; Whitehall leads to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery, passing 10 Downing Street and the Queen's mounted troops at Horse Guards on the way. The streets around Victoria Station offer hotels to suit all budgets.