London

London has been in the tourist game for years, and over time it has acquired a massive number of attractions and distractions designed to amaze and bamboozle visitors, usually while vastly enriching their owners. Not everything is designed to leave you destitute though. Just wonder through the main streets of Westminster and you can look at the Downing Street, the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and all the other buildings that are iconically London. And the biggest museums and art galleries are free to enter. This includes the following:

• Science Museum.

  tracing the development of industrial Britain, the Science museum is full of cool mechanical stuff and has dozens of buttons that you, the visitor, are allowed to press. You can't say fairer than that!

• The V&A.

  The Victoria and Albert Museum has a bunch of stuff in it.

• British Museum.

  Don't bother visiting those out-of-the-way ancient civilisations, all their good stuff is in here! Aside from amazing range of ethnographic history from around the world, including Elgin's Marbles, and the fascinating Rosetta Stone, the British Museum also houses the classic British Library reading room, where Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital.

Attractions that are worth shelling out some cash include:

• The London Eye.

  Okay, so it's basically a big wheel where you are stuck inside a little pod for 20 minutes, but while you are you get one of the best views of London money can buy, with a handy guide telling you what to look out for. Anyway, just look at it - how can anything that looks that cool not be worth the money??

• HMS Belfast.

  HMS Belfast is a warship which was decomissioned around 20 years ago after a full life in the navy. Since then it has sat on the Thames close to tower bridge. As a visitor you get access to all areas of the ship (and that's a lot of areas), getting an idea both of what life was like for the sailors who manned the boat, and also of some of the stuff that goes on behind the scenes to keep the guns shooting and the boat moving forwards.

• London Zoo.

  London Zoo is one of the world's foremost conservation zoos, working to preserve in capitivity species which are all-but-extinct in the wild, whilst promoting an understanding of the animals and their natural habitat. The entrance price is pretty steep, but you get to see some big animals for your money.

Art galleries

The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square is one of the world's leading galleries, and has a collection spanning all the major scools and periods in art history. Many of the famous and priceless paintings are scattered around the walls, though if there is something in particular you want to see you should probably check that it is on display when you go - the collection is so large that even major works are occasionally bumped off the walls so that something different can be shown. It would take a complete philistine to walk into the National and leave in less than an hour. And a philistine with a good sense of direction at that - the galleries wind round in seemingly endless spirals so you can quite literally lose yourself in the art.

The National Portrait Gallery next door to the National Gallery and has very clean toilets should you get caught short in Trafalgar square. They probably have some nice paintings as well.

The Tate trust has Britain's largest private art collection housed in a number of galleries throughout the UK. The Tate Britain on Millbank is the jewel in their crown. It has a fantastic selection of paintings including a huge collection by Turner

For those with more modern tastes, the London also has the Tate Modern. This is housed in a former Power Station on the South Bank of the Thames, and each year there is a different piece of specially-comissioned installation art on display in the enormous turbine hall, as well as an ever-changing selection of art from the last 50-100 years in number of other galleries. The restaurant/bar on the top floor has the best view in London.

Entry to all of the galleries above are free. There are also many private galleries scattered around London, ranging from the Queen's collection at Buckingham Palace (which probably most-famously houses the recent Rolf Harris portrait) and the Saatchi Gallery (specializing in extremely contemporary art, reopening in 2007) down to the tiniest art shop.

Parks

London is famous for its royal parks - they even have their own police force. They provide a huge reserve of green open space close to the centre of town. The five best central parks are:

• Hyde park and Kensington Gardens.

  These two form the largest of the central London parks. Situated between Park Lane and Knightsbridge, they are great for walks and picnics. The Serpentine, a large lake which winds through Hyde Park is the site of the annual Christmas Day swim. Large concerts and events such as the Live 8 show and London's Gay Pride march also take place here.

• Green Park and St. James' Park.

  Effectively these two are the Queen's front garden. They are located either side of The Mall, separating Buckingham palace from the bustle of Westminster and Whitehall. You can walk there from Trafalgar Square or Piccadilly tube station, and in fact they are only 10 minutes from Oxford Street. There are always a hundreds of people sunbathing in the parks during the summer and they are both great for picnics.

• Regents park.

  This is in the north of central London. It is a large pleasant park which has London Zoo as its centrepiece.