Your first London trip: choose the walk home, not the view

Pick a first London base for the walk home rather than the view. A serviced apartment on a residential street five minutes from a Tube station, with a staffed desk and keyed entry, will make the whole trip easier than a grander address that needs a taxi every evening.

Choosing an area

First-timers tend to book right by the sights, then find the sights are crowded and the streets around them noisy until late. It's better to stay in a residential neighbourhood with a good Tube connection and travel in to the busy bits.

Marylebone, round Harley Street and Marylebone High Street, is a good example, with calm side streets, a proper high street, and the Bakerloo, Jubilee and Central lines within walking distance. Chelsea and Pimlico are calmer again, with garden squares and a local feel, though the trip to the West End is a bit longer. Mayfair is central and quiet at night, but short on everyday shops.

Wherever you land, check the walk from the nearest station. Nearly every residence we list is within about ten minutes of one on foot, but look at the route on a map before you book anyway, since a few minutes along a lit main road beats a shortcut through empty back streets, particularly on your first night, when nothing's familiar yet.

What a secure building looks like

The features that matter are the same wherever you stay. The street door should open only with a key, fob or code, and the flat should have its own lock, a door viewer or chain, and a safe. Ideally there's someone on a front desk; about half of serviced residences have a reception, and some staff it round the clock.

Some residences also list CCTV at the entrances, private entrances or on-site parking. Parking is rare in central London and very few residences have it, so if you're driving in, ask early. None of this has to be taken on trust, either. Send your questions along with your dates, and the residence's own reservations team will tell you exactly what the building has.

Arriving, and numbers to save

From Heathrow, the simplest route is the Heathrow Express to Paddington, a quarter of an hour, with a train every quarter of an hour, and then a black cab from the rank. If you'd rather be met, ask the residence whether it can arrange a car; a booked, named driver waiting at arrivals takes the guesswork out of a first landing. Tell the residence when you land, and if you're arriving early in the morning, ask about early check-in or luggage storage so you're not sat in a café with your suitcases until 3pm.

Put these in your phone on the first evening.

• 999 for police, fire or ambulance in an emergency
• 111 for urgent medical advice from the NHS when it isn't an emergency
• 101 for non-emergency police matters
• 61016 to text British Transport Police about anything on the Tube, trains or buses
• The residence's front desk or out-of-hours number

London is easy to get around, and a few habits keep it that way. Use contactless on the Tube and buses instead of carrying cash. Keep your phone in your hand or a zipped pocket, not on a café table by the pavement. Only get into a black cab you've hailed or a minicab you've booked, and check the car matches the details you were sent. Leave your passport in the apartment safe and carry a copy, since hardly anywhere will ask to see ID and losing a passport is the one thing that really can derail a trip.

On your first evening, walk the few streets round the apartment before dark: the route to the station, the nearest supermarket, a pharmacy. It takes twenty minutes, and the neighbourhood feels familiar by the time you come home in the dark. Ask the front desk for the one restaurant nearby they'd send a friend to, and book it for the second night, once the jet lag's eased off.