London is the capital and largest city of both the United Kingdom and of England, and also the largest city in western Europe. Situated on the River Thames in South-East England, Greater London has an official population of roughly 7.5 million people - although the figure of over 14 million for the city's total metropolitan area more accurately reflects London's size and importance. London is historically one of the great 'world cities', and remains a global capital of culture, fashion, finance, politics and trade.

The city has one of the most comprehensive public transport systems in the world, indeed, nearly a third of households do not feel the need to own a car, meaning onward travel from Marylebone station is quick and easy.

London hosts an outstanding collection of world-class museums. Even better, it is the only one of the traditional 'alpha world cities' (London, New York and Paris) in which the majority of the museums have no entrance charges, thus allowing visitors to make multiple visits with ease. Although London can be expensive many of the best museums and galleries are free including Tate Modern, Tate Britain, British Museum, National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery and most museums in Greenwich.

One of the world's great metropolises, anything and everything you could possibly want to buy is available in London, if you know where to look, and if you can afford it! In Central London, the main shopping district is the West End (Bond Street, Covent Garden, Oxford Street and Regent Street). Visit Fortnum & Mason, 'the Queen's grocery store'. On Thursday many of the West End stores stay open until 9pm. Oxford Street is home to flagship branches of all the major British high street retailers including Selfridges, John Lewis (includes a food hall), Marks & Spencer, Debenhams, Next, Gap, H&M and Primark. Regent Street (between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus) includes such gems as Liberty, London Apple Store, Zara, Banana Republic, Mango, Aquascutum, Kurt Geiger, Nike Town, Armani and Hamleys, considered to be London's flagship toy store, on seven levels!

As one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities, you can find restaurants serving food cuisine from nearly every country, some of it as good as, if not better than the countries of origin. If you are looking for particular nationalities these tend to be clustered in certain areas: Brick Lane in East London is famous for curries but for better quality Tooting in South West London has a good reputation and is cheaper. Brixton for African/Caribbean, Chinatown in Soho for Chinese, Edgware Road in Marylebone for Middle Eastern and Drummond Street (just behind Euston railway station) for a selection of good value Indian vegetarian. Golders Green for Jewish and Kingsland Road for good cheap Vietnamese.