First time to the UK Itinerary

Southwark Cathedral is a 2 minute walk from Borough Market so combine that on your Thames walk.

Are you arriving from the US on Tuesday? I don't think I could stay awake for a theater performance on my first night. I'd save that for another night, if possible. Otherwise, the musical Six is only 90 minutes long. And know that not all theaters have performances on Sundays.

My visits to Bath and Stonehenge were so long ago that my experience would be useless.

Enjoy your trip.

Your itinerary looks good, and it looks like you've done your homework. I agree with Jean that you should see Southwark while you're at Borough Market. In fact, when I was there in 2024, I bought a creme brulee donut from Bread Ahead at the market, then walked across to Southwark's cafe where I ordered a cappuccino and proceeded to eat my donut and drink my coffee in the outdoor church cafe. But it would pay you to check when the services are at the cathedral, as you won't be able to enter if there is a service going on.

If you can't fit St. Paul's in the morning, you could head over there for Evensong at 5 pm after your afternoon tea. It's a beautiful cathedral, well worth seeing, and Evensong is always a treat, either there or at Westminster Abbey (same time).

One of my favorite restaurants in London is Cafe in the Crypt, which is a restaurant that sits below St. Martin-in-the-Fields church just off Trafalgar square. It's been there forever—I first ate there back in 1996. The cafe has very good food at a very reasonable price. The food is served cafeteria style, so you order your food, then take it and sit amongst all the tombs lying on the stone floor. If you don’t mind eating among the dead, it’s a great place to have lunch. I was there about 2-3 weeks ago, and ordered the beef and ale pie, which came with gravy, carrots, braised red cabbage and a green salad. It was quite delicious.

One more thought: I would recommend taking the verger's tour at Westminster Abbey if you can. It's only £10 + the admission, and well worth it. You can find more info here: https://www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us/guided-tours#i1685

I do have a question—what hotel or location are you staying in? That would help with recommending restaurants. :-) Regardless, here are some recommendations.

Dishoom: if you like Indian food, head here. It's not your traditional Indian food, but is amazing. They have about 5 different locations in London, so you can always find one. I've eaten at the one in Soho (Dishoom Carnaby). They're open for breakfast and lunch and you can make reservations for those, but for dinner, you just show up and you might have to stand in line. It's worth it, though.

The Ivy: They also have several locations. I've eaten at the Victoria location and loved it. Beautiful decor and great service with wonderful food.

Pret a Manger: Great for takeaway or getting a quick bite, and you will find them practically on every corner in London. Gail's Bakery is also great; and they have the best Pain au Chocolat I've ever tasted. They also have sandwiches and good takeaway food, although you can eat there if you like.

Wagamama: This is sort of Asian fusion food but really really good. You sit at communal tables and it's a really fun environment. You can find a number of them all over London as well.

I love your itinerary! Are you going to have a car for the days out of London, or are you going to use public transportation?

Another chain I like a lot for casual eating - Nandos

If you are a Jane Austen fan, one option is to visit Chawton from Winchester.

Would you be interested in a Sunday roast? If yes, you will need to book ahead for Sunday lunch.

Have a wonderful trip!

Bearing in mind you've never been to the UK before, and you have only six days, I'm surprised you're spending 3 days outside London. You are basically shortchanging one of the best cities in the world. Personally I'd pick one place from your outside London list as a full daytrip and drop the other two.

Given your limited time frame, it makes sense to group sites. The Tower of London and St Paul's (and Borough Market) work together, and you can do Southwark Cathedral as well as St Paul's (but definitely not instead of it).

Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, St James' Park and Buckingham Palace work together as well, and make sure you walk past St James' Palace as well. If you like food, check out the lower level of Fortnum & Mason (on Piccaddilly), and for lunch, you can drop by the very nice food market in the churchyard of St James' Piccadilly.

Richmond is a far way out (I'm guessing this is a Ted Lasso thing??).

Obviously it's your holiday and nothing you've proposed is impossible, but given the short time frame it's worth maximising efficiency by grouping sites. And give yourself time to take in the unexpected.

Are you flying in on Tuesday? I also would not be able to stay awake on arrival day for an evening musical after an overnight flight. If you're wanting to go inside Westminster Abbey it looks like the last entry time with tickets available is 2:30 so if your flight arrives any time after noon there's no way you'll get there in time unless your hotel is very, very close by. https://tickets.westminster-abbey.org/Ticketing/index

May 26 is a bank holiday in the UK, not sure that it will have a huge impact on London activities because some of them are always busy on weekends, but one of our local forum members might chime in on whether the rest of your itinerary could be affected.

Not yet mentioned, but make sure to get your ETA in advance using the official website or app. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta

Would welcome any insight anyone has about getting from Salisbury to Stonehenge as well!

You haven’t mentioned whether you’re planning to do this by car or public transport, but this question suggests you might be using public transport?

Anyway, Salisbury to Stonehenge is simplicity itself. There’s a bus called The Stonehenge Tour that picks up at Salisbury railway station. You can buy your Stonehenge tickets on the bus (or you can prebook Stonehenge and then just pay the bus fare). It takes you to Stonehenge visitor centre. Coming back, pick up the bus service again (it operates like a hop-on, hop-off bus) and will take you back to Salisbury via Old Sarum.

Details here: https://www.thestonehengetour.info/

If you’re travelling with luggage (eg you’re using public transport) there are a couple of places near Salisbury station that will store your bags for you.

If you’re hiring a car, then obviously none of the above is necessary and you can just drive to the Stonehenge visitor centre and park there.

The bank holiday weekend could have some effects on your travel. If using trains there could be scheduled engineering work that could affect journeys. I have just had a look and I can't see anything significant although I could have missed something. There will be some changes to trains into Paddington on the Sunday but they seem to be relatively minor.

If driving the roads could be much busier than usual especially on the Friday and Saturday - this is the start of a one week half term holiday for most schools so traffic down to the SW will be very heavy, particularly on the A303 next to Stonehenge.

I see now that you’ve amended your original post to say that you hope not to rent a car.

You’ll need to find somewhere to store luggage when visiting Winchester - train stations in the UK don’t have luggage lockers, so you’ll need to use a service such as Stasher.

London Waterloo to Winchester is about an hour by train, no changes, so that’s easy. Then you can get to Brockenhurst direct from Winchester by train - takes about half-an-hour. Brockenhurst is a pretty small town with some nice areas around for walking, but you’ll only have part of an afternoon so really just enough time to soak up the ambiance and have a nice night in a hotel. Is it worth it, or would it make sense to stay in Winchester then head straight for Salisbury the next day? Or cut out Winchester and go straight to the New Forest?

Brockenhurst to Salisbury will involve a change of train in Southampton, I believe.

In Salisbury, find somewhere to store your bags and catch the tour bus to Stonehenge. Don’t forget to visit Salisbury Cathedral too, which is absolutely magnificent (better than Winchester’s IMO).

Then of course you’re heading straight to Bath, followed by a busy day in Bath and a journey straight to London after that.

I must admit I’m now really exhausted. I suggest cutting one destination at least as there’s going to be a lot of finding somewhere to store cases, getting on trains etc in between all the sightseeing.

Mardee mentioned Dishoom Carnaby Street in Soho for fantastic Indian food. They have several locations. I had dinner at the Covent Garden location before the theater last month. If you're up for an early dinner, know that they do take reservations before 6pm, otherwise it's a long line.

Sky Garden tickets for your dates should become available this Monday. And keep in mind that the Tower of London will take a couple of hours, but totally worth it. You might want to do this in the morning and then cross over to the South Bank via Tower Bridge for Southwark Cathedral and Borough Market.

Going from Heathrow to Winchester or the New Forest use the Rail Air Bus to Woking then train. Or for Winchester Rail Air Bus to Reading then train- about 30 minutes longer.