Staying on after the meetings: a London long weekend

The easiest bleisure trip in London starts with telling the residence on Tuesday that you're staying till Sunday. The galleries, the markets and a day by the sea all fit round a Friday that finishes at lunchtime, and the apartment you worked from all week simply becomes the base for the weekend.

Keep the apartment

This is where an apartment beats a business hotel for bleisure travel. There's no switching from a corporate rate to a leisure rate in a different room and no repacking, and if a partner flies in on Thursday night there's already a sitting room and a kitchen. If children are coming, two-bedroom flats are the easy option, and well over a hundred of the residences we list have them.

It changes the shape of the week, too. A partner who lands on Thursday can spend Friday in the galleries while you finish work, and you meet for dinner without either of you dragging a suitcase across London. Ask about extending as soon as you know, and ask the residence directly, since its own reservations team can see whether the same flat is free for the extra nights.

Friday afternoon and Saturday

If Friday's meeting ends at lunch, head for Bankside. The Turbine Hall at Tate Modern is free and hosts a new commission each year; the next one, by Tarek Atoui, runs from 13 October 2026 to 11 April 2027. Borough Market is along the river from there. It's shut on Mondays, open 10am to 5pm Tuesday to Friday and from 9am on Saturdays, and Saturday lunchtime is as busy as it gets.

For the view, cross back over London Bridge to the Sky Garden. It's free but ticketed, and slots open up to three weeks ahead, so book it the same day you book the extra nights.

If you're staying in the West End, the Royal Academy of Arts on Piccadilly is the obvious pick. The Summer Exhibition runs every year through the summer months, the main galleries change several times a year, and Bond Street is a few minutes' walk north. For the Mayfair evening at full volume, finish at Sexy Fish on Berkeley Square, booked ahead for Friday and Saturday.

The antiques stalls on Portobello Road trade Friday to Sunday, but Saturday is the day, with dealers lining both sides of the road from 9am. Get there early, because by late morning it's shoulder to shoulder.

Day trips and Sunday

Two day trips work especially well for a spare Saturday. Brighton is just under an hour from Victoria on the fastest trains, and they run all day. The Cotswolds are further, though the quickest direct Great Western Railway trains get from Paddington to Moreton-in-Marsh in under an hour and a half. Neither needs booking weeks ahead, but advance tickets are noticeably cheaper than buying at the station that morning.

Sunday is the awkward day, with a checkout, a flight and a few hours in between, so plan it round opening hours. Borough Market runs shorter on Sundays, 10am to 4pm, and Portobello Road's antiques stalls keep the same hours. The Natural History Museum opens daily from 10am, and its galleries are free.

Flying from Heathrow, stay west and keep the morning local. Ask for a late check-out when you extend rather than on the Sunday itself; direct guests are sometimes offered one, and it turns a day of lugging bags about into a normal lunch.

If you know in advance that the trip will stretch, let the weekend nudge where you stay. Victoria suits Brighton and Gatwick, Paddington suits the Cotswolds and Heathrow, and Southwark and the City put Tate Modern and Borough Market on foot. Nearly every residence is a short walk from a station anyway, so the line matters more than the postcode. Put the weekend dates in from the start, too, since it's easier for a residence to hold one booking than to stretch one later.