Budget London guide

Some people say you'll be charged for breathing in London, home to expensive restaurants, costly transport and extortionate theatre tickets. It's not true! Here's how to have fun on the cheap

Best bargains
Free fun
Best view
Cheap eats
Cheap travel
Splash out

Best bargains
Buy unique and funky gear at London's markets - Portobello at Notting Hill on Saturday, Spitalfields on Sunday and Camden (Saturday and Sunday). Catch a designer sale in Brick Lane. Drive 20 minutes south of central London to TK Maxx in Croydon (1 Drury Crescent, Purley Way) for daily designer bargains in men's, women's, children's fashions and homeware. Back in central London, tkts Ticket Booth in Leicester Square sells unsold theatre seats cheap from 12pm for matinees and from 2pm for evening shows - join the queue to bag your bargain.

Free fun
London's top museums are free. See costume and decorative arts at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Gaze upon Elizabeth I and thousands more famous faces at the National Portrait Gallery (including the sleeping David Beckham), thrill the kids with the robotic Tyrannosaurus Rex at the Natural History Museum and a trip to the Interactive Gallery at the Science Museum next door. Round it off with contemporary art at the Tate Modern, great British art at Tate Britain, and Egyptian mummies at the British Museum

Best view
Head for London's green spaces. From Greenwich Park, take in views of the Dome, Canary Wharf, the City and the snaking Thames. From Primrose Hill, look over London Zoo to the Telephone Tower, St Paul's and the Gothic grandeur of King's Cross Station.