Neighborhood 48H guide
Covent Garden & Soho: Where to Stay & What to Do in 48 Hours
The market piazza, Seven Dials, theatres and the British Museum nearby.
The West End’s heart: Covent Garden’s market and theatres, Seven Dials’ shops, and Soho’s restaurants and bars, with the British Museum and National Gallery a short walk away.
Photo gallery
Photo: CrisNYCa · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons 
Photo: Andy Li · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons 
Photo: Andy Li · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons 
Photo: Ben Salter · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Why stay here
Walk to the theatres, big museums and restaurants.
Who it's for: First-timers, theatregoers and food lovers.
Pros
- Theatres
- Walk to major museums
- Restaurants
Cons
- Crowded
- Expensive
- Noisy late
48H in the West End
Two free museums, a show.
10:00 – British Museum
Free; open daily, until 20:30 on Fridays.
14:00 – National Gallery
Free; open daily, until 21:00 on Fridays.
19:30 – A West End show
Theatres around Covent Garden and Shaftesbury Avenue.
Named recommendations
Real places with links to their official site or a Maps place page. We do not invent hours, prices, or ratings.
See / do
See / do
British Museum
Great Russell St
World history under the glass-roofed Great Court.
Photo: Andy Li · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons Official site / map →See / do
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
European paintings on Trafalgar Square.
Photo: Ben Salter · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons Official site / map →
Where to stay
Specific named properties—not vague city-wide searches. Expedia stays use tracked Creator links; others open the hotel's official site.
Roam48 may earn a commission when you book a stay through Expedia or Vrbo links on this page, at no extra cost to you. All commercial stay links use rel="sponsored nofollow".
Hotel · Expedia
Covent Garden Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
10 Monmouth St
58-room Kit Kemp–designed hotel at Seven Dials.
Check rates on Expedia →Hotel · Expedia
Ham Yard Hotel, Firmdale Hotels
1 Ham Yard
Soho hotel with a spa, garden and its own bowling alley, near Piccadilly Circus.
Check rates on Expedia →
Vacation rentals
Prefer an apartment or whole home in this neighborhood? Browse Vrbo listings for Covent Garden & Soho.
In London, whole homes can usually be let short-term for up to 90 nights a year without planning permission. Check the listing’s availability and house rules.
Browse vacation rentals in Covent Garden & Soho on Vrbo →Other ways to spend 48 hours in London
- Westminster & St James’s — Westminster Abbey, Parliament and the Churchill War Rooms.
- South Bank & Bankside — Tate Modern, the Millennium Bridge and Borough Market.
- Tower of London & Tower Bridge — The Crown Jewels and the bridge walkways.
- Shoreditch & Spitalfields — Street art, Columbia Road flowers and Spitalfields Market.
- King’s Cross — Coal Drops Yard, the British Library and the Eurostar.
- Marylebone — The Wallace Collection and Marylebone High Street.
- South Kensington — The V&A and the Natural History Museum.
- Notting Hill — Portobello Road and pastel terraces.
- Greenwich — The Prime Meridian and the Cutty Sark.