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The Casual Tourist Guide to Central London 2026

The Casual Tourist Guide to Central London 2026

A London guide that helps you avoid the touristy stuff and experience the real city instead.

London comes with a lot of “you have to go here” advice. 

The Casual Tourist Guides cut through the noise and show you where locals really go, so you can wander your own way and know you got London right. 

With these area-based guides and digital maps, you can always see which of the best local gems are nearby while you explore.

The Casual Tourist Guide to Central London covers Westminster, Chinatown, Soho, Covent Garden, Marylebone, Mayfair and Fitzrovia — all within easy walking distance of each other.

This guide brings together the underrated restaurants, quirky bars, and lesser-known experiences I love recommending to friends and family. If you want to explore central London beyond the obvious and discover places most visitors walk straight past, this is the area to do it.

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What’s included in each Casual Tourist Guide?

PDF Guide

A PDF Guide (instant download) with a curated list of 50+ recommendations for the best food and drinks spots, points of interest, tours and more.

Digital Map

All recommendations pinned in one done-for-you map, so can skip the days-worth of scrolling TikTok videos and haphazard pin-saving.

Practical details that save time and stress

Diet restriction info (veggie, vegan and GF), wheelchair accessibility, hours of operation, how to book tickets/make reservations, and other crucial logistical info.

Printable Checklists

So you can keep track of which recommendations are your must-do’s.

Toilet Guide

Public (and not-so-public) toilets are pinned on your Digital Map, so you always know your closest option when you need it.

Every element of the Casual Tourist Guide is digital, so it will land straight in your inbox after purchase, and it works best on your devices— no printing required!

Which areas are covered in each guide?

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Soho and Chinatown

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Marylebone, Fitzrovia and Mayfair

Covent Garden

Westminster

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Kensington and South Kensington

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Notting Hill

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Little Venice

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Paddington

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Shoreditch

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Hoxton

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London Fields

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Victoria Park

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Camden

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Hampstead

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Kings Cross

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Islington

Bermondsey

Peckham

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Brixton

  • This guide is perfect if you:

    ✅ Don’t feel like wasting days of your life scrolling, watching, and adding random pins to your own map 

    ✅ Want to experience London beyond the main tourist sights

    ✅ Prefer wandering and discovering places naturally

    ✅ Like having great local options nearby instead of a rigid plan

    ✅ Want recommendations that locals actually love

  • This guide may not be for you if you:

    ❌ Want a minute-by-minute itinerary

    ❌ Are only interested in major attractions

    ❌ Prefer ticking off a checklist of famous sights

Explore London, One Area at a Time

Each guide focuses on a different area, perfect for a full day of exploring. Choose one, or combine several to match your time in London.

Staying several days or want full flexibility?

Get all 5 Casual Tourist Guides for the complete local London experience.

About your London Expert

Hi, I’m Jessica Dante, founder of Love and London — but you can just call me “your friend in London”.

For over a decade, I’ve been helping millions of tourists like you to plan the London trip of a lifetime, with my work being featured on TV and in major publications like Forbes, Newsweek, Business Insider, and Yahoo.

After moving from New York to London over a decade ago, I fell in love with the real side of the city… you know, the hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurants, picnics on Primrose Hill with a skyline view, and cocktails in dimly lit neighbourhood lounges. And a few years ago, I realised many of my followers also wanted to experience the city like how I do it — they weren’t looking for a rigid itinerary or days full of being herded around with thousands of other visitors.

The Casual Tourist Guides were created for exactly that kind of traveller: people who want to feel the pulse of the city, to go where the locals go, and who want a curated list of the best of the best.

  • 👩🏻

    Curated by London travel expert Jessica Dante

  • 🍛

    Based on places us Londoners actually return to (not sponsored lists or social media hype)

  • 🌟

    100+ five-star reviews

  • 💯

    Trusted by thousands of travellers who wanted a more local, less touristy London experience

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does it take to receive my guide?

You'll receive these guides immediately upon purchase via digital download.

How do I save the guides to my phone/laptop?

To most easily access your Love and London guides and to make sure you can always reference them into the future, you’ll need to download your files to one or more of your devices. It’s fairly straightforward but if you are not sure how to do that then follow these steps.

Get in touch with us if you need us to reset your download attempts as each guide can be downloaded five times by default.

How are these guides different from your itineraries?

Both help you explore London confidently — but they work differently.

The itineraries include major sights and provide a suggested daily route, helping you move efficiently between attractions while still leaving room for flexibility.

The Casual Tourist Guides are designed for a different style of travel. Instead of a set route, you get a curated collection of locally-loved places within one area, and you decide how your day unfolds. The digital map simply shows what’s nearby so you can explore at your own pace.

I have one of your itineraries, are the Casual Tourist Guides similar?

Yes, there is some overlap depending on the itinerary.

For the 3-Day Itinerary, The Casual Tourist Guide to Central and East London overlap with days 2 and 3, and South London slightly overlaps with day 1. The best additions to this itinerary are West London and North London, both of which cover different areas.

For the 4-Day Itinerary, The Casual Tourist Guide to Central, East, and West London overlaps with days 2, 3, and 4. South London slightly overlaps with day 1. The best additions to this itinerary are North London, which covers different areas, and South London, if you want to explore Peckham and Brixton. However, note that the Bermondsey area will overlap.

For the 5-Day Itinerary, there is almost complete overlap. If you want to explore Peckham and Brixton, you can add the Casual Tourist Guide to South London. However, note that Bermondsey will feature in both guides.

For the 6-Day Itinerary, all of the Casual Tourist Guides overlap with it.

How do I choose which Casual Tourist Guide to purchase?

Don’t worry; we’ve got you covered! You can use this map to understand the London areas before or after you book your stay. Then, once you have decided on which area to book your hotel room in, or if you’d like to explore a particular area more in-depth, you can decide on which Casual Tourist Guide you’d like to purchase.

Is this suitable for families with children?

The cool thing about London is that many things during the daytime work for families with kids (if your children are fairly well-behaved). That being said, we’ve not specifically made these guides with kids under 16 in mind, but we’re currently working on a dedicated London with Kids guide, which will focus on family-friendly planning and experiences,  so keep an eye out for that if you’re travelling with kids.

I have really specific things I want to see, will this work for me?

With the guides we simply provide you with a curated list of the best local places to explore, eat, drink etc. You then decide which options sound the best to you, and you can combine them with the things you already know you want to see.

I have a physical disability. Will I be able to do everything in the guides?

Our guides have indicators telling you whether or not each recommendation is wheelchair accessible and there are plenty of options for those who need to avoid stairs. But if you have any questions or worries please don't hesitate to reach out to us at info@loveandlondon.com.

I have a dietary requirement, do your food suggestions suit that?

London’s food spots are generally pretty good at accommodating this, and we’ve included a variety of options that should suit just about everyone. But even still in the guides we include icons indicating restaurants that are veggie-friendly, vegan-friendly and GF friendly.

That being said, you should always check the menu online yourself, and you can also phone up a restaurant before you go to ask what they can do for any requirements, as they might have a hidden menu you can choose from, or they can create something special for you if you give enough notice.

Jess is vegetarian, so if you are too, you’ll find plenty of food options in the guide. She also eats vegan very often and has close friends who need gluten-free so she knows how it goes :)

How far in advance should I buy this for my trip?

How far in advance should I buy this for my trip?

Buy it at least a week in advance, if you can. We recommend reading over the guide before you arrive to London, so you can familiarise yourself with our recommendations, and some attractions and restaurants require advance booking.

How are these guides different from what’s online?

Most online guides are written by someone who visited a couple times or compiled from popular lists. These guides are created by London travel expert Jessica Dante, founder of Love and London, who personally researches and continuously tests recommendations across the city.

Instead of spending hours planning and second-guessing, you can simply open the map and confidently choose from places already vetted by a trusted London expert.

Why do you charge money for this?

Creating each guide takes years of research, testing, writing, and updating. Many recommendations come from ongoing visits, meals, and experiences across London to make sure only the best places make the list.

Charging for the guides allows us to keep them independent, regularly updated, and genuinely useful, rather than filled with sponsored recommendations.

And realistically, if the guide helps you avoid even one disappointing meal or tourist trap, it’s already paid for itself, not to mention the hours of research and planning you save.

What's the digital Map?

The map includes all the recommendations mentioned in the PDF. It integrates with Google Maps and you can easily get walking, taxi and public transport directions to any of our recommendations. This is where you’ll find all the toilets marked off too!

Do I need data on my phone to be able to use the Digital Map on the go in London?

It absolutely works best when you have it. It will also allow you to get walking directions when needed, or transport directions when you’re planning to head back to your hotel once the day is done.

Here’s an article where we explain how to use your phone in the UK.

Which phones does the Digital Map work on?

It’s integrated with the Google Maps app, so it’s available for all phones that use iOS or Android operating systems.

Here's how to access and use our digital maps.

What's the London Packing Guide?

The London Packing Guide will help you figure out what you need to pack for your London trip.

It's written by a local, so we know exactly what you'll need depending on the season. You’ll also get a printable packing list (for all the seasons), help with packing for London’s unpredictable weather, and info on what you absolutely must bring in order to be prepared for your trip.

The digital guide includes:

➤ London Weather Guide with weather averages by month so you can know what to expect“

➤ "Do Not Forget” Guide of the things that tourists ALWAYS forget that can make or break your trip for London

➤ "Dress like a Londoner" Guide with suggested clothing items to bring for the weather you’ll experience (with links to ones we recommend)

➤ Packing Lists for each season (Printable PDFs + Notion templates) to make packing quick and easy

What's the London Spending Guide?

London is SUCH an expensive city, so it’s really easy to crush your budget without even noticing, especially when you’re also dealing with trying to do currency conversions in your head on the fly.

It’s also really hard to get a good idea of how much every part of your trip is going to cost, thinking about food, drinks, and little things like a late-night Uber ride after emerging from the club at 3am…

The London Spending Guide is a tool that does just that. It comes with:

1. London Cost Guide - a PDF filled with advice about getting and spending money in London, plus guides for how much you can expect to pay for certain parts of your trip, and recommendations for hotels, food, drink and activities for every budget level.

and...

2. London Budget Tracker - an easy-to-use but incredibly comprehensive Google Sheets template. Calculate how much money you need to save each month to pay for your trip, figure out the total amount you can spend, play with your numbers to see where you want to splurge and where you want to save, and keep track of your daily spending while in London so you can stay on budget. It's available for 30+ different currencies (see which ones below.)

How does the London Budget Tracker work?

You'll get a link to download the Google Sheets template within your files.

We also provide you with plenty of instructions on how to use the sheet, both in the document and via a video tutorial.

How tech saavy do I need to be to use this?

You'll want to know the basics of how Google Sheets works, but otherwise we provide you with plenty of instructions and all of the formulas are protected so it's almost impossible you to mess anything up.

Of course if you have any problems or questions, you can email us at hello@loveandlondon.com and we'd be happy to help.

Do you have recommendations in the Cost Guide for budget travelers?

Yes! We have a "budget" category for each section and we also recommend some hostels.

We're traveling as a family, does this work for us?

While the Cost Guide doesn't have a family-specific section, we included a few notes about which recommendations are kid-friendly (up to 13 years old). The Budget Tracker has a spot where you enter how many people you're travelling with and then the spreadsheet does all the math for you, when relevant.

Which currencies does this support?

It works with British Pounds (as you'll pay for most of your London things in ££) and it converts the following currencies:
United States dollar - US$
Euro - €
Japanese yen - 円 / ¥
Pound sterling £
Australian dollar - A$
Canadian dollar - C$
Swiss franc - CHF
Renminbi - 元 / ¥
Hong Kong dollar - HK$
New Zealand dollar - NZ$
Swedish krona - kr
South Korean won - ₩
Singapore dollar - S$
Norwegian krone - kr
Mexican peso - mex$
Indian rupee - ₹
Russian ruble - ₽
South African rand - R
Turkish lira - ₺
Brazilian real - R$
New Taiwan dollar - NT$
Danish krone - kr
Polish złoty - zł
Thai baht - ฿
Indonesian rupiah - Rp
Hungarian forint - Ft
Czech koruna - Kč
Israeli new shekel - ₪
Chilean peso - CLP$
Philippine peso - ₱
UAE dirham - د.إ
Colombian peso - COL$
Saudi riyal - ﷼
Malaysian ringgit - RM
Romanian leu - L