The Citypack map covers the city in detail, while the Citypack guide gives you just the information you need to experience the best of London: The city's top attractions and the must-see sights at each Itineraries for walks and excursions The best museums, parks, children's activities, and more--the author's top picks Offbeat sights even locals don't know Restaurants, hotels, shopping, and nightlife--an unabashedly opinionated selection, with pithy descriptions of each recommendation Best festivals and events Travel facts and tips on getting the most from your visit The author: Charming, cosmopolitan Louise Nicholson has lived in central London since 1976.

Introduction to London

Some people claim they know London. They cannot possibly. The joy of this city is that it can never be known. You could live here for 20 years or more and still be a beginner, familiar with some parts, baffled by others.


The stimulus of London is that there is always somewhere left to explore, something new to learn, some dynamic change afoot. Just when you think you have got to grips with it, the great city surprises and confronts you, turning all assumptions upside-down. A new building will change a view, such as the one across the river from Greenwich after the arrival of the shining shaft of Canary Wharf Tower. Familiar pictures will disappear, at the annual rehang in the Tate Gallery for example, and a feast of new canvases will come into view. Whole areas will change their mood, as Soho has done since the mid-1980s, its friendly seediness transformed into squeaky clean trendiness.


London is a fast city. It buzzes by day and night. Londoners tend to be busy, in a rush, independent. What for them is the enjoyable anonymity of a city can be tough for visitors to deal with, particularly since the climate does not encourage a café society for much of the year. But take a deep breath and join in London life at London's pace, and you will find that they are much more friendly than expected.


London is also an expensive city. But Londoners know how to get the most out of it—from the parks, the churches with free music, the great free national museums, and traditional events with their parades and colors, to Travelcards, plenty of cheap theater deals, and much, much more. London on a budget need not restrict you.


London is in an administrative muddle. For a city that was once the powerful capital of an efficiently run empire stretching round the world, London today is in an astounding mess. It has no central city administration, no properly co-ordinated public transportation, and too many cars. And yet London has its own order. This city is rare in being truly cosmopolitan and the political, economic, and cultural capital of the country. Its citizens share the rhythm of the seasons in the great parks. They share in the annual round of tradition and culture. I still walk in St. James's Park at daffodil time, line up for cheap concert tickets at the Proms, and join Italians at their July festival in Clerkenwell.


London has it all, whatever you want. Simply take London and make of it what you wish.

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Excerpted from London: The All-in-One Guide to the Best of the City Packed with Places, to Eat, Sleep, Shop and Explore by Fodor's Travel Publications, Inc. Staff
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