May 2023: If you ask us, London is at its very best in May. The temperature is absolutely ideal – no catching hypothermia with a slightly premature trip to your nearest beer garden but also no emergency deodorant purchases during your lunch break – and colourful spring flowers are blooming all over the city. Festival season has arrived, open-air theatre and outdoor film screenings are on the cards, and the city’s many, many seasonal rooftop bars are back open. It’s a solid contender for the best month of the year, and that’s before you even get to the long weekends.
But this May is even more special than usual. We’ve got Eurovision. We’ve got the Corrie Naish (we promise there’s plenty of fun to be had even for the most ardent of Republicans). And we’ve got a third bank holiday. Yeah, there are *three* May bank hols this year. We’re gonna have to come up with a collective noun for them at this rate...
No matter what your vibe, tastes or interests, there is always something to do in London. In the winter, the city turns into an illuminated paradise, its pubs are lit with cosy fires and a new cultural season brings huge blockbuster shows to the city’s most illustrious galleries and theatres. When the sun’s out, London’s parks turn into leafy social clubs, restaurants dust off their outdoor seating and fountains erupt from dusty concrete squares and suddenly the city air is filled with alfresco theatre.
Whether you want to see cutting-edge art exhibitions, iconic attractions, secret spots, world-beating theatre, stunning green spaces, it’s all here and you can probably fit all this in and more still barely feel like you’ve scratched the surface of the city. And that’s before you factor in all those historic London pubs, the latest must-visit restaurants and vibrant LGBTQ+ venues. And if you need somewhere to stay? Check out London’s best hotels or Airbnbs.
This London bucket list (curated by our editors and always hotly debated in the Time Out office) is a good place to start because exploring this city can be a little daunting. There’s something for everyone here, but you need to know where to look.
Plus, if you want to know what’s happening in London, like, right now, check out things to do in London this week and things to do in London this weekend. After a few days pottering about in the capital, you’ll be more than ready to reel off Dr Samuel Johnson’s famous quote: ‘When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.’
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