Lonely Planet - London

4. Lose yourself in the royal parks' green splendour

While royalists race to see the garish innards of Buckingham Palace during its brief summer season, even republicans will relish the Royal Parks (www.royalparks.gov.uk). These eight verdant patches, now publicly owned, are often called London's 'lungs'; they help make it (surprisingly) Europe's greenest city. The list includes Bushy, Green, Greenwich, Regent's and Richmond Parks, but the most convenient and compelling are St James's Park and the joined-at-the-hip Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens.

Bordering Whitehall, St James's Park features rose gardens, pelicans, ducks, geese and great views of Buckingham Palace over its lakes. The place has garnered attention for its new restaurant pavilion, Inn the Park.

Hyde Park is better yet. This 140-hectare metropolitan oasis is famous for concerts, political demonstrations, deck-chair rental and Speaker's Corner, but two of its most enjoyable attractions are quite new: the strangely mesmerising Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fountain and the solar ferry that glides across the Serpentine Lake.

In neighbouring Kensington Gardens you'll encounter the brilliant Serpentine Gallery and the gleaming, kitsch Albert Memorial nearby. Further north, the Italian Gardens is another particularly pleasant spot.

5. Check out old masters and famous faces at the National and National Portrait Galleries

When coming to the National Gallery don't overlook the separate National Portrait Gallery (NPG) around the corner. Of course, no-one would impugn the artistic credentials of the National Gallery. It houses more old masters than you can shake a loaded paintbrush at, including works by Caravaggio, Constable, Da Vinci, Monet, Rembrandt, Titian, Van Gogh, Velazquez and Vermeer. But it's a formal affair with a faintly 'eat-your-greens' tone. Grab a free floor plan and decide on a handful of works you want to see.

The NPG is more of a guilty pleasure. The subjects take precedence over the art, and range from the likes of William Shakespeare to suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst to footballer David Beckham. The 2nd floor has striking portraits of Shakespeare, Henry VII, Elizabeth I and other royals, plus some marvellous miniatures. Near the exit, the ground floor focuses on contemporary stars and latest acquisitions.

There's an IT archive on the mezzanine to ensure you miss nothing in this constantly rotating collection.

6. Delve into antiquity at the British Museum

Marx, mummies and marbles are the headliners at Britain's largest - and possibly most crowded! - museum. Parts of its superb antiquities collection are frequently arranged into spectacular special exhibitions. However, several historical highlights are always in the free permanent collection.

Free floor plans are available, but if you see only one thing, make it the Great Court just inside the porticoed main entrance. Renovated by Sir Norman Foster in 2000, this light-filled inner courtyard is covered with a spectacular glass-and-steel roof spanning out from the old British Library's circular Reading Room. Inside this hallowed, book-lined hall, Karl Marx wrote Das Kapital (Capital) and Mahatma Gandhi came to study.

The museum also contains the greatest Egyptian collection outside Egypt, including mummies (room 62) and the Rosetta Stone (room 4), the written tablet that helped unlock Ancient Egypt's secrets. Neighbouring galleries venture into Ancient Greece and the museum's most controversial possession. Pretty well ever since the Parthenon Sculptures (aka the Parthenon Marbles; room 18) were shipped to England by British ambassador Lord Elgin in 1806, Greek governments have wanted them back.

If stone statues with missing limbs, African carvings, prehistoric pots, carved jade animals and gleaming mosaics do it for you, you'll love this museum.

7. Journey in body and spirit to the top of St Paul's

There's a special exhilaration in being atop St Paul's. The 360-degree view is brilliant and you feel you've really earned it, having clambered up 530 sometimes precarious steps to the summit's Golden Gallery.

The route starts sedately as you ascend to the Whispering Gallery, circling the bottom of architect Christopher Wren's huge dome, but progressively becomes more of an adventure. If you don't have a head for heights, the Stone Gallery (378 steps) offers reasonable views.

Built after the 1666 Great Fire of London and inaugurated in 1697, the cathedral survived the London Blitz of WWII to become a much-loved symbol of British grit. It's also seen Winston Churchill's funeral, the wedding of Charles and Lady Di and major 9/11 memorials.

With interior renovations completed in 2005, the interior - from the black-and-white flagstone fl ooring to the ceiling mosaics - gleams. Inside is an effigy of John Donne, author of the immortal line 'No man is an island' and one-time dean of St Paul's, and the American Chapel, a memorial to 28,000 American expats killed in WWII.

Wren himself is buried in the crypt, alongside Admiral Nelson, but the floor below the dome bears an epitaph conveying the architect's true feelings: Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice (Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you).