I consider myself a resident tourist in London, meaning that I am a resident here, but also a tourist. But as we have friends and family come to visit, I find myself playing tour guide, which is a great excuse for me to get out and do things I haven’t done yet. Here is my suggested list for everyone visiting us in London, which I’m sure I will continue to update over time.

General lists of stuff

• TimeOut magazine’s "Best of London"
• Theatre
• Hop-on, hop-off bus tours: The Original Tour and The Big Bus Company

Specific activities and tours

• London Bridge Tour: £6, ticket office is at the North West side of the bridge (also called the London Bridge Experience)
• Tower Bridge Tour
• New London Architecture, including green-architecture
• Chelsea Football Stadium Tour: £10: Chelsea FC Megastore / Fulham Road, London SW6: Monday–Friday: 11.00, 13.00 and 15.00 (non match days only)/ Saturday and Sunday: 12.00 and 14.00
• Royal Albert Hall backstage tours: Kensington Gore, SW7 / Fri-Tue £7.5 / 020 7838 3105 / 020 7589 3203 / Monday special tours: £12.5
• Houses of Parliament: watch laws being made, attend debates and committees, tour the buildings
• Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms: 9:30 – 5:00 every day / £11 / King Charles Street, London SW1A 2AQ
• Westminster Abby (the big old church)
• Flights over London: 
  • Air Experience: As well as helicopter flights and flying lessons, this company can take you up in a two-person vintage Tiger Moth biplane from locations around London (£169 for 25 minutes). Air Experience (08704 299 325)
  • Flying Presents: Operating from Stapleford Flight Centre in Essex, Flying Presents have a range of pleasure tours, but the more adventurous might want to try an acrobatic flight in a Firefly plane (£77 for 20 minutes) or a flying lesson in a Cessna 152 (£135 for one hour). Flying Presents (01708 688 380
  • Headcorn Aerodrome: From this base in Ashford, Kent, you can take a range of different length aeroplane flights from £62 for 20 minutes to £186 for one hour. They also offer flight lessons, aerobatic flights and balloon trips. Headcorn Aerodrome (01622 891 158).
  • Red Letter Days: This gifts company offers a range of airborne options. A 30-minute helicopter tour of London costs £149, a biplane tour for one and a quarter hours costs £225, and a deluxe champagne flight for two will set you back £299. Red Letter Days (0845 640 8000).

Miscellaneous places and events in London:

• Borough Market: Saturdays / near London Bridge Station
• Comedy at The Comedy Store: 1a Oxendon Street, SW1Y 4EE
• Abbey Road Studios: (you’ve heard of the Beatles, right?): 3 Abbey Rd, London NW8 9, United Kingdom
• In April each year: Gumball 3000 car race for people with too much extra cash 
• Learn to fight with swords: £5 introduction class 
• Interesting Movie Theaters:
  • Electric Cinema: big leather chairs and drinks are served
  • Odeon Leicester Square: Huge screen and good sound

Music

• Ain’t Nothin’ But: Great blues in Soho
• Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club: 47 Frith Street, W1D 4HT in Soho (I missed the Original Blues Brothers Band when they played here!)
• Indigo2 (the smaller club at the O2 arena)
• Hammersmith Apollo: Queen Caroline Street, W6 9QH (where big names come close to where we live in Fulham)

Pubs, Bars & Restaurants

• Tons of Restaurants
  • Levant: Middle Eastern restaurant / Jason Court, 76 Wigmore Street, London W1 / Tube Stop: Bond Street
  • The Big Chill Bar: they might also have a restaurant / Dray Walk off Brick Lane / London E1 6QL / Liverpool Street Tube Stop (open midday to midnight every day)
  • Martini bar: Christopher’s / 18 Wellington Street / Covent Garden / WC2E 7DD
  • Jamie Oliver restaurant: 15 Westland Place, N1 7LP / Old Street Station tube stop
  • Babylon at the Roof Gardens
  • The Savoy
  • The Butlers Wharf Chophouse
  • The Ivy
  • OxO Tower (at least for the view)
  • The Crazy Bear
  • Jenny Lo’s Tea House
• Great list of pubs at pubs.com 
  • The Blackfriar pub: 174 Queen Victoria Street, Blackfriars, London, EC4V 4EG / Tube Stop: Blackfriar
  • Bank of England pub: 194 Fleet Street, Holborn, London, EC4A 2LT / Tube Stop: Temple / Chancery Lane
  • Argyll Arms: 18 Argyll Street / Soho / London / W1F 7TP
  • Albert:  52 Victoria Street, Westminster, London, SW1H 0NP
  • Harcourt Arms (a Swedish pub) for glogg in the winter and Swedish cider in the summer: 32 Harcourt Street, W1H 4HX

Museums

• Greenwich with the The National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House and Royal Observatory are open from 10.00 to 17.00, seven days a week
• The Science Museum is usually cool  
• The National Gallery is open until 9pm on Wednesday nights and has a great bar overlooking Trafalgar Square. Go along and enjoy the new ‘Americans in Paris: 1860-1900’ exhibition then get tipsy discussing it. The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, WC2 / 020 7747 2885

Outside of London

• Canal boats a few hours North of London: multi-night, slow moving through locks, canals, and rivers
• The Cotswolds: With Lacock (The Sign of the Angel inn, Lacock Abbey), Bath (place to stay), Stonehenge Oxford, Yorkshire (place to stay in Yorkshire and a pub) and the Trinity Barn in the Cotswolds
• Isle of Sark, which has no cars, requires a flight, a ferry, and a boat ride
• Ride in a big, round bubble called Zorb in Dorchester
• Bed and Breakfast places in the UK and France
• Warwick Castle: with a big trebuchet (catapult) Warwickshire, England, CV34 4QU
• Windsor Castle
• Indoor skydiving, rock climbing, and skiing at Milton-Keynes