Selfridges stately storefront on Oxford St in London. Doug McKinlay/Lonely Planet
London is the perfect place for a 3-day weekend, and an even better choice if you can finagle a midweek getaway. Yes, my friends, I am here to champion the midweekend ™. If your vacation days are limited, and your job doesn’t offer much flexibility in terms of paid time off, this kind of holiday is a much harder sell. If the opposite is true, then what are you waiting for? I had the good fortune to be invited by the New West End Company to spend a few days in London. I enjoyed delicious food, saw stunning sights, walked more than 20,000 steps per day and even indulged in a quick mini-spa treatment. Whether it's your first time or your fifteenth, this London itinerary showcases a vibrant, variety-packed part in the capital. Here’s how it went down.
When to arrive: The midweek getaway is ideally Tuesday to Thursday.
How to get from the airport: After landing at LHR in the morning, I took the Elizabeth Line into town. I was in no rush – and honestly I prefer it to the The Heatherow Express even though that option is faster and brings you directly to Paddington.
Getting around town: This is a peripatetic itinerary – you’ll get your steps in (and more) wandering the West End: Oxford St, Bond St and all the streets in between. Because I visited during a heatwave, I was glad to have built in some indoor breaks.
Where to stay: I was put up at the BoTree Hotel in Marylebone. This is a unique luxury stay, devoid of pretention, with excellent service, comparable to any 5-star hotel, but with a reasonable (for London) price tag. Rooms during my stay were less than £500 (US$587).
What to pack: The forecast was in the 80s °F (between 26℃ and 27°C), so I packed sundresses and a light cardigan, a pair of trainers and nice sandals. I forgot to bring sunscreen, so make sure you’ve got your stash!
Day 1
Arriving in London from New York City in most cases involves a red eye – though some advocate for British Airways and Virgin's day flights, I opted for the late evening departure so I arrived a little after 9am (almost an hour ahead of schedule). After taking the Elizabeth line to Bond St, I walked a short distance to arrive at the BoTree, just off Oxford St in Marylebone La.
The room wasn’t ready (are they ever ready?) so I went to the bathroom for a quick clean-up. With freshly-brushed teeth and a made-up face, I figured I’d better get a move on and make my way to Selfridges (I think that’s the only place you can get sunscreen in London).
How to spend the day
Even on the short walk to Selfridges, I could feel the heat and impending sunburn so I picked up the pace and breathed an audible sigh of relief upon walking into the air conditioned store – London is not a big AC location, which makes increasing heat waves harder to manage, especially if you’re staying in a rental.
Selfridges & Co, for the uninitiated, is a sprawling, storied (the PBS show Mr. Selfridge is worth a watch) department store extraordinaire – I could spend hours picking through all the designer fashion and beauty products on display. Selfridges is the kind of store you love and curse with equal measure. Everything is beautiful, various bits of colorful merchandise displayed under theatrical lighting. The store is bustling without feeling crowded, and I’m convinced there’s nothing they don’t carry – maybe toilet paper (nope, they had some).
I paid for a bottle I selected from the beautifully-merchandised wall of sunscreens, then took the escalator down to the foodhall, where you can order anything from cupcakes to jerk chicken. I went to Din Tai Fung for dumplings, but had I been in a more spendy mood, I might have taken a seat at the Champagne & Oyster Bar by Caviar House & Prunier.
Afterwards, I had a treat in store: An afternoon cooking class at the Jamie Oliver Cookery School on the third floor of John Lewis Oxford Street. On the menu? Vietnamese street food. Our chef instructor pointed us to our stations, where we were to work in pairs, with all the ingredients and tools laid out just so. I was on my own, so I was pleased when a friendly young woman asked me to pair up. She turned out to be part of an incredibly friendly group of John Lewis employees.
We sliced and diced and mixed and rolled our way through a litany of delicious concoctions, including Vietnamese pork balls, chicken pho and prawn summer rolls. We made a nuoc cham dipping sauce and the fragrance of freshly chopped herbs and strong spice filled the air.
The best bit was sitting down with the other chefs and enjoying the dishes we’d made.
Dinner
After class I checked into my room – which was huge – and had a lovely bath and a nap before dinner. LAVO is BoTree's restaurant (the original is in Los Angeles with outposts in Las Vegas, Mexico City and Singapore). Occupying two floors, the popular Italian spot is both bright and subdued, with a living wall and olive trees as well as a terrace that’s open onto the street.
I started at the bar with an espresso martini, then on to a table to eat a delicious dinner, including a delicious hamachi crudo, grilled octopus and penne alla vodka. I washed it down with a superb glass of Sicilian Nero d’Avola.
Day 2
Morning
I woke up in my palatial suite, pressed the button to open the blackout shades (everything in the room is electronically controlled – which has its ups and downs), and sunlight came flooding through the floor-to-ceiling windows. I ordered breakfast from room service because I wanted to luxuriate in my robe and slippers before hitting the ground running.
How to spend the day
I took a 20-minute walk along fashionable Bond St to get to the Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art in Piccadilly. This annual art show has been a part of London's cultural scene since 1769. Unlike a usual museum show, many of the pieces of art on display are for sale. I spent a few hours perusing more than 1700 pieces of art, including new work from Tracy Emin and large-format black balls with provocative text, such as “When do you know when you’re right?”
After the exhibit, I wandered along Piccadilly into St James through the stunning Green Park and found myself face-to-face with Buckingham Palace. From there, I made my way to St James to enjoy lunch outside in the shady courtyard at The Stafford Hotel (book ahead if you want to snag a seat).
Post-lunch, I backtracked along Bond St to stop for a coffee soft-serve ice cream at the Ralph Lauren store, and decided I needed another shot of art (and air conditioning), so made my way to The Wallace Collection (another in a long list of the best free things to do in London).
Dinner
I returned to the hotel to change and then walked back out to grab dinner at the new Mandarin Oriental Mayfair. I didn’t get to dine at the Michelin-starred Korean fine dining counter, Dosa by Akira Back (next time!), but I did enjoy a delicious Japanese tasting at Akira Back, the hotel’s all-day dining room. Among the many standout dishes on the menu: an umami bomb of a tuna pizza, melt-in-your-mouth sushi and classic miso black cod.
Day 3
Morning
I was up early so I popped out to grab a bite and a coffee at WatchHouse near Hanover Square. WatchHouse offers a rarities menu; I tried the Iced Pepe Jijón from Ecuador – £10 (US$14) never tasted so good!
How to spend the day
Since I had a very special tea scheduled at 4pm and an early morning departure the next day, I knew dinner was out.
After buzzing around town on foot for 2 days in the scorching heat, it was high time to take a load off. I went to the LUSH store on Oxford St for a mini-treatment. But before I went down to the spa area, I tried all kinds of fun and funny skin products.
Refreshed, I walked to an early lunch at Maison Francois with my London-based colleague, Zara. We split their tableside caesar and each got our own custom-made steak tartars - extra capers. Absolutely gorgeous food, in a chic and festive atmosphere.
From there it was another (long) walk back towards Marble Arch, passing two of my favorite London squares: Berkeley and Grosnevor, both of which transport me back in time. I picture horse-drawn carriages where Teslas are now whizzing by! What a world.
I had been given tickets to the Frameless Immersive Art Experience, which, after 30 minutes in the heat, was a welcome multi-sensory, subterranean respite from the relentless heat. Here I stepped inside more than 42 immersive works by Monet, Dalí and Van Gogh, complemented by soundscapes. There are four galleries that you can wander into and out of freely. Some people sit, and others, like me, could not sit still, wanting to be enveloped by the sights and sounds of familiar, famous masterpieces come to life.
I came out a bit discombobulated but ready to partake in the final experience of the trip: afternoon tea in the Gallery at sketch, probably the most Instagrammed space in the universe. It was a perfect complement to the art exhibit I’d just seen: tactile, three-dimensional, beautiful and tasty. The experience is an artistic rendering in and of itself.
Tea is perfectly composed against a background of pink tufted everything. There was a string quartet doing covers of pop songs (very Bridgerton soundtrack). When it comes to afternoon tea, I prefer the savory bits to the sweets, so their lineup of tiny sandwiches was my favorite: sundried tomato and mozzarella; roasted vegetable focaccia; egg mayonnaise; and cucumber, salmon and cream cheese, capped off with Coronation chicken.
I also explored the other spaces at sketch, including the more casual Parlor by the front entrance, an upstairs 3-star Michelin fine dining restaurant called The Lecture Room and a trippy forest-like bar, The Glade, with inventive takes on classic cocktails (try the Alchemy Negroni). Take a moment to examine their in-house art installation, a series of mesmerizing, textural tapestries by French artist Aurélia Jaubert. And don't miss the toilets!
I left sketch stuffed, happy and tired, and took one last walk back to the BoTree to pack for my flight.
Brekke traveled to London on the invitation of the New West End Company. Lonely Planet does not accept freebies in exchange for positive coverage.
