Top Things To Do in London Over Easter

By Katie Sagal
Published: July 18, 2024

Spending Easter in London this year? There’s loads to keep you busy. Check out our list of top things to do in London over the Easter holidays. And many popular attractions take advantage of the long weekend by offering special events for everyone to enjoy. A few of our favorite activities and attractions include...

  • St. Paul’s Cathedral
  • Easter Egg Hunts in Spring Gardens
  • Hop-on Hop-off Bus Tours
  • Thames River Cruise
  • Easter Chocolate Hunts

1) St. Paul’s Cathedral

While a visit to this historic cathedral is special any time of year, it’s particularly meaningful to visit during the Easter season. As one of the most significant architectural landmarks in the entire city, St. Paul’s Cathedral is also an ideal place to visit for people who love art, architecture, and history. Wander around with the help of multimedia tablets, or join in a guided tour. There are many facets of this cathedral to explore, from tombs to galleries and beyond. If you’d like, you can also attend services during the week.

2) Kensington Palace Chocolate Bunny Hunt

Roam the rooms and gardens of the historic Kensington Palace during the Lindt Gold Bunny Hunt. You’ll follow clues on a map as you wind throughout the home and grounds in search of gold bunny statues that have been strategically hidden throughout. Along the way, visitors will learn about historic figures from Kensington’s past and enjoy the opportunity to tour this inspiring attraction. You can enjoy this event throughout April culminating on Easter Monday.

3) Thames River Cruise

Enjoy some lovely British spring weather (such as it is) with a leisurely cruise along the Thames. Your ticket is good for 24 hours, and you can hop on and off at your pleasure. You can choose from four stops, with cruises operating roughly every 40 minutes. Some of the highlights of your Thames River Cruise include Westminster and the Houses of Parliament, the Coca-Cola London Eye, the Tower Bridge, and Greenwich. Enjoy expert narration while on board, and explore to your heart’s content when you disembark.

4) Hop-On Hop-Off Bus Tour

Relax and kick back as this informative hop-on hop-off bus tour escorts you throughout the city, past all the hotspots and top landmarks. It’s great for photo opportunities without any stress. You also have the option to disembark at places that interest you, so it’s the maximum in customizable explorations. Plus, you can choose from two different tour operators to completely personalize your trip. All in all -- a great introduction to London. Even if you’re from the city, it can be fun to spend some time getting to know your home a little bit better!

5) Explore Springtime Blooms

This is right about the time of year when everything starts to blossom, covering gardens and green spaces with an explosion of vibrant color. While you may think that urban London doesn’t have much in the way of spring blooms, however, you’re totally wrong. Visit one of the city’s many gardens to see these magnificent blooms this Easter weekend. From the humble, indigenous flowers to exotic flora, there’s much to see at venues like Kensington Gardens, Kew Gardens, and the Chelsea Physic Garden. Insider Tip: Kew Gardens hosts a chocolate hunt on Easter Sunday for the kids!

6) WWT London Wetland Centre: Easter Duck Hunt

Kids will relish the opportunity to participate in some good old-fashioned Easter fun away from home. Pay a visit to the delightful London Wetland Centre for a chance to see the blooms of springtime, meet baby animals everywhere, and get acquainted with nature. From April, guests have the opportunity to help the Centre find some missing ducklings. Follow the Easter GIANT Duck Trail around the nature reserve to discover the missing duckies. Then, enjoy an arts & crafts session to make your own springtime creations.

Don't forget to pick up a London Pass to save on the most popular family attractions in London.

Katie Sagal
Go City Travel Expert

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Top places to visit in London in April

Although still firmly within the city’s shoulder period, with lower visitor numbers than at other times of year, many don’t realize what an attractive proposition London in April is. Fourteen hours of daylight combine with a busy diary of events to make it one of the most underrated times of year to discover London, regardless of if it’s your first or thirty-first time to the British capital. Enjoy London’s outdoor spaces in a way not possible during the long winter months, whether that’s through joining the St George’s Day celebrations in Trafalgar Square, or wondering at the sunsets which dazzle the city at this time of year. April weather in London Temperatures can be sluggish to get going at the start of April, with early mornings particularly bracing. Lows of 6°C aren’t uncommon overnight. However, mid to late afternoons can see temperatures of 13 – 15°C on the sunniest of days thanks to winds normally no stronger than a light breeze. Roughly a third of April enjoys clear blue skies and bright sunshine. This averages out as 8 hours of sun per day, a full three hours more than in March. At the same time, daylight hours now extend from 6AM – 8PM. During the remaining two thirds of the month, visitors should expect a mix of light cloud and short bouts of rain – April showers are very much a London thing. That said, April is officially the driest month of the year, with just 20 – 40 mm of rain recorded. Packing layers is the key to remaining comfortable in London in April since weather conditions can change so quickly. Odd though it may sound, shorts, sweaters, umbrellas and sunglasses all make great additions to anyone’s luggage. Tick off April’s cultural events When it comes to outdoor spaces, London’s include some of the most famous landmarks in the world. The River Thames is blessed by footpaths extending largely uninterrupted along both banks through London’s central neighborhoods, whilst the Statue of Eros at Piccadilly Circus has been a meeting point for decades. Festivities, meanwhile, have traditionally focused around Trafalgar Square, built to mark Britain’s naval victory over Napoleon’s France and also the place where crowds gathered to celebrate the end of the Second World War. In more recent years, it has come to host a variety of events, including April’s St George’s Day and Vaisakhi. It’s not a public holiday, but the nearest weekend to St George’s Day on April 23 sees the square taken over by performers, food stalls and children’s entertainment keen on celebrating the nation’s patron saint. Just a few days before, the square echoes to the drumming and traditional music of the Punjab in honor of Vaisakhi, the Sikh New Year and spring harvest festival. Around 30,000 revelers head to the square’s a range of related events, making it one of the largest festivals of its kind outside of Asia. Churches and chocolate eggs April is – usually – also the month of the movable feast that is Easter. Attending a church service at one of the capital’s historic churches – Southwark Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral among them – shows the city and its people in a new light. Many of London’s top attractions get in the spirit with special easter eggs hunts for children, including the likes of Chiswick House and Kitchen Garden and Kensington Palace. Both children and adults can also treat themselves with seasonal delights at one of London’s boutique chocolatiers. If you ‘accidentally’ overindulge, there’s always the London Marathon – the UK’s largest mass participation sporting event. Even those without their running shoes can get involved – watch from the sidelines as around 40,000 runners battle their way to the finish line in front of Buckingham Palace after over 26 miles pounding the city’s sidewalks. Scrutinize the stalls of London’s markets The combination of sunnier skies and longer hours of daylight brings our next suggestion of things to do in April in London right to the top of the bucket list for many. London’s plethora of indoor markets largely operate throughout the year, but April’s ever-improving weather makes their outdoor brethren all the more tempting. The permanent porticoed stores of Covent Garden Market together form one of the more stylish places to shop, and has plenty of places to stop for a drink or a bite to eat in pleasant surroundings too. You certainly won’t go hungry at either the Southbank Centre’s weekend market of food pop-ups, nor at the dedicated stalls open daily at Borough Market just a short walk from London Bridge. Antiques and Portobello Road have gone hand in hand since the late 1940s, with vintage and retro items joining the true antiques (items over 100 years old). Alfie’s Antiques Market in Marylebone is a good alternative if April’s showers take hold. It’s fourth floor café is one of the more unusual places to get a glimpse of the capital from on high. Marvel at the summer sky The top spot for experiencing London’s spring sunsets has to be The View from The Shard, rising above the hotch-potch of London’s old and new. If time allows, you should also consider a sundowner at a rooftop bar. Pergola Paddington Central has a fantastic ambience that only builds with the end of the working day. Exuding cool alongside its fair share of eccentricity is east London’s LGBT+ friendly Queen of Hoxton. Its roof space is open during summer and winter, changing its wild persona with the seasons. One month you’ll be in turn-of-the-century Paris and another in the lair of a Mexican wrestling team. Save on attraction admission in London in April Make the most of London’s April weather by exploring the city from high and low, near and far. But before you do, make sure you’ve downloaded the Go City app and taken advantage of the savings on attraction admission available with the Explorer Pass. See the attractions you’ve always wanted to see, do away with those dreaded foreign credit card charges and save on admission. An A-list sighting aside, nothing could be more London.
Ian Packham
A tourist photographs a statue at the British Museum
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The top free things to do in London

London’s reputation for being expensive (just check out the house prices), doesn’t mean vacations in the British capital have to break the bank. Many major museums are free to enter, whilst parks, markets and even some concerts will cost you absolutely nothing, leaving you free to spend your cash on other things. The list of free things to do in London is a long one, so here are a select few that will leave you quids in. Explore London’s museum collections Starting out with just 38 paintings in 1834, The National Gallery on the northern side of Trafalgar Square now has close to 2,500 artworks hanging from its cloth-lined walls. Concentrating on a mere 700 years of European art roughly corresponding with the years 1250 to 1900, some of its most famous works include da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks, van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Turner’s The Fighting Temeraire. Cross the Thames at Hungerford and Golden Jubilee Bridges and you’ll be perfectly located to continue your tour of free things to do in London at Leake Street Arches, the capital’s foremost space for graffiti and street artists. The freedom to spray means it never looks the same for long, and now also plays host to a Polish kitchen and board game café. Food sadly isn’t welcome at the British Library’s Sir John Ritblat Gallery, whose free permanent exhibition space includes some of the most important documents in British history. These include Magna Carta, a symbol of liberty and law to this day, and handwritten manuscripts by everyone from author Charlotte Brontë to Beatle Paul McCartney. Picnic in the park Nearly as many trees as residents, 14,000 species of wildlife and 3,000 parks – it’s no wonder London became the world’s first National Park City in 2019. Its public green spaces have acted as shared backyards, in some cases, for centuries. Its largest is Epping Forest, an area of woodland untouched since the time of William the Conqueror in 1066. Mountain biking and walking are popular pastimes here, with multiple short walks allowing visitors to soak up the spirit of the place and catch sight of its wild deer. Hampstead Health’s Parliament Hill also has a small population of muntjac deer, although it’s far better known for its panoramic views of central London, spanning from The Shard to Canary Wharf. For a sense of what you might expect at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew without the entrance cost and tube journey, there’s the Barbican Conservatory. An oasis of greenery, it’s London’s second-largest indoor garden, containing some 2,000 plants erupting from every surface. Pull back the leaves and you’ll also find a hidden pond filled with koi carp and terrapins. Take part in ancient traditions Things to do in London for free aren’t limited to the capital’s static attractions. Head to Buckingham Palace for mid-morning and you’ll be able to admire the pageantry of the marching bands involved in the Changing of the Guard. The full ceremony lasts 45 minutes, with the changeover between guard battalions taking place at 11AM. The best viewing spots go early, but Hyde Park’s southern boundary offers a crowd-free space to watch the mounted troops arrive and depart from Wellington Barracks. Whilst it’s not possible to enter the palace during the ceremony, it is usually possible to enter the neogothic splendor of the Houses of Parliament a short distance away. Members of the public are able to see the goings-on of the House of Commons (the green-benched lower house) from the perch of the Strangers Gallery. Along the way you can grab a glimpse of Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the complex and where royals lie in state. No pre-booking is required to visit Pugin’s pre-Raphaelite artworks or parliament’s central halls, although the Strangers Gallery fills up quickly for Wednesday’s Prime Ministers Questions. Less confrontational in nature are the free concerts taking place in churches and auditoriums across the capital. Often used as rehearsals to later paid events, classical works can be heard at a number of locations, including the bright interior of St-Martins-in-the-Fields off Trafalgar Square, Morley College’s Waterloo Center and Regent Hall on Oxford Street. Visit London’s top markets All walks of London life buy and sell at its plethora of markets, with voices from all over the world demonstrating why London is known as a city where everyone is welcome. When it comes to color and Instagram posts, make a beeline for Sunday’s Columbia Road Flower Market, which is packed full of blooms. The shadow of Waterloo Bridge plays host to the Southbank Centre’s daily book market, whose row after row of secondhand tomes are sure to include that out-of-print classic you’ve been searching for, in addition to a select pick of artworks old and new. The nearby space behind Royal Festival Hall also hosts a Friday – Sunday pop-up street food market, with aromas that drift towards the Thames sightseeing cruises mooring up at Westminster Pier. Back in east London, the stalls of Old Spitalfields Market sit beneath Victorian ironwork dating to 1876, though its history stretches back to the 1600s. Once a fruit and vegetable wholesale market, today’s stalls are a trendy blend of soul food spots, homeware and boutique fashions, with antiques taking over each Thursday. Take a stroll Getting out into fresh air is relatively easy, and as well as its parks and green spaces, London has numerous walks. The obvious place to start is the Jubilee Walkway, unveiled to mark 25 years of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign in 1977. Connecting many of London’s major landmarks, it runs for 15 miles, with the most popular stretch lining the south bank of the Thames from Lambeth Palace to Tower Bridge. Meanwhile, Regent’s Canal provides a place to wander without the crowds, taking in Paddington Basin, Little Venice, the howls of ZSL London Zoo’s wolf pack and popular Victoria Park along the way to its terminus on the Thames at Limehouse. You certainly won’t be disturbed by the residents of Brompton Cemetery, a grade I listed space containing around 35,000 memorials dating back to the 1830s. Among them you’ll find the graves of suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst and the scientist who discovered the cause of cholera, John Snow. Other ways to save in London There are a huge number of free things to do in London. But they’re not the only way to save when visiting the British capital. The Explorer Pass from Go City saves on admission at many of London’s top visitor attractions without you having to make any decisions on what to do beforehand. What’s more, all you need is your phone to get started!
Ian Packham

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