August 2025: London welcomes plenty of visitors year-round, but August is when the city’s tourism really hits its peak, with music fans descending for a bunch of great London festivals and Carnival over the bank holiday, and huge numbers of visitors at the city’s more popular tourist attractions. Keen to avoid the tourists? Save Buckingham Palace and the British Museum for a quieter time of year, and instead make the most of London’s alfresco goings-on around the city, from open-air theatre and cinema to outdoor swimming and rooftop bars. Get out there and make the most of the late summer sun!
The London Eye. Hyde Park. Wembley. The Shard. London landmarks are iconic for a reason!
Even if you’ve lived here for years and pride yourself on steadfastly avoiding ‘tourist traps’, you really ought to check these places out at least once. Marvelling at the capital’s museums, galleries, monuments and parks is a London rite of passage, whether you’re a day-tripper visiting for the first time, or a lifelong local who knows the entire Tube map by heart.
But where to begin? Right here of course, with our massive list of the capital’s 50 best attractions. We’ve thought long and hard about what is worthy of your London bucket list, so you can expect to find a real mixture of iconic institutions known throughout the world and (comparatively) lesser-known gems that we’d argue are just as worth visiting.
The good news is that a lot of these must-see London attractions won’t cost you a penny to visit. And for those that do have an entrance fee, you can book below.
Still after some sightseeing inspiration? Check out our list of the 50 best things to do in London, and our roundup of the 25 best things to do in London in 2025. Or if you’re feeling a little more spontaneous, you can also find out what’s happening in London today, this week, and this weekend. Happy sightseeing!
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