London in April: Weather, Events and the Best Tours
Written and checked by the Best London Tours editorial team. .
April is the driest month in London, averaging just 40mm of rain across ten wet days, and the first month since September with a genuinely long evening: sunset is 19:56 on the 15th. The two dates to plan around are the Boat Race on 11 April and a two-day London Marathon on 24 and 25 April.
Quick pick: the best London tours in April
| # | Tour | Best for | Duration | From | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thames River Cruise | The Boat Race month, and a 19:56 sunset | 1-2 hours | £17 | 4.5 (24,711) |
| 2 | London Bike Tour | The driest month of the year | 3 hours | £42 | 4.8 (151) |
| 3 | Hop-On Hop-Off Bus | An orientation day, but not on 24 or 25 April | Full day | £25 | 4.3 (8,092) |
| 4 | Tower of London | Full summer hours, before the summer crowds | 2-3 hours | £37 | 4.6 (31,489) |
| 5 | London Eye | The lowest weather risk of any month | 30 minutes | £25 | 4.6 (39,011) |
| 6 | Windsor, Stonehenge & Bath | An eleven-hour day with daylight at both ends | 11 hours - 1 day | £71 | 4.5 (3,440) |
| 7 | Photography Tour | Blossom, long light and clean air | 1 hour | £39 | 5 (18) |
| 8 | Kensington Palace | Combining a palace with Kensington Gardens | 1.5-2 hours | £19 | 4.4 (4,647) |
| 9 | Blitz & WW2 Tour | Walking the City in dry weather | 1.5-3 hours | £29 | 4.9 (163) |
| 10 | Borough Market Food Tour | Eating outside without a contingency plan | 3 hours | £92 | 4.8 (593) |
Prices, ratings and review counts verified against live GetYourGuide listings on 28 July 2026. Duration varies by the option you choose at checkout.
Is April a good time to visit London?
April is the best weather bet of the ten months here. At 40mm it is the driest month of the year, comfortably ahead of February's 54mm, with ten wet days and 13 hours 51 minutes of daylight mid-month. Easter has already passed in March, so the family crowds have gone.
On the raw numbers April is the strongest month in this guide. It has the lowest rainfall of the year at 40mm, the fewest wet days at ten alongside August, and by the middle of the month sunset is at 19:56. Nothing else in the ten combines those three. If someone asks which month gives the best chance of a dry London week, the honest answer is April.
It is helped this year by the Easter calendar. Because Easter fell on 28 March, the school holidays and the associated crowds land in late March rather than April, which leaves the first three weeks of April unusually quiet for a spring month. That is a genuine one-off advantage and it will not repeat next year.
The temperature is the reason April is not perfect. A 13.8C mean high and a 4.8C mean low mean warm afternoons and genuinely cold mornings, with a nine-degree spread that is the widest of any month here. April in London is a layers month: what works at 15:00 does not work at 08:00 or 21:00.
London weather in April
April is the driest month of the year at 40mm across ten wet days, with 13.8C average highs and 4.8C lows. Sunrise is 06:05 and sunset 19:56 on the 15th, giving 13 hours 51 minutes of daylight, and the month gains a further 1 hour 50 minutes.
| Measure | April | Annual context |
|---|---|---|
| Average high | 13.8C | Ranges from 7.7C in January to 22.6C in July |
| Average low | 4.8C | Ranges from 1.7C in January to 13.9C in July |
| Rainfall | 40mm | Driest is April at 40mm, wettest is October at 77mm |
| Wet days (1mm or more) | 10 days | Fewest in April at 10, most in March at 13 |
| Daylight, mid-month | 13h 51m | From 7h 52m in mid-December to 16h 36m in mid-June |
| Sunrise and sunset, 15th | 06:05 to 19:56 | From 15:51 in mid-December to 21:19 in mid-June |
| Change across the month | gains 1h 50m | Clocks go back on 25 October 2026 and forward on 28 March 2027 |
Temperature, rainfall and wet days are the 2015 to 2024 means from ERA5 reanalysis for central London, 2015 to 2024, via the Open-Meteo historical archive. Daylight, sunrise and sunset are for the 15th, from timeanddate.com sunrise and sunset tables for London.
Forty millimetres is a striking figure in a city with London's reputation. It is 37mm less than October, 21mm less than January and 14mm below February, the next driest month. April also shares the lowest wet-day count of the year with August at ten. The old idea of April showers is real, but London gets fewer of them than most months, and much less water when it does.
The temperature spread is what actually needs planning for. A nine-degree gap between the 13.8C average high and the 4.8C average low is the widest of any month in this guide, and it is felt hardest at the ends of the day. A 07:30 start for a day trip is genuinely cold; the same day at 15:00 can be shirt-sleeve weather in the sun.
The evenings are transformed. Sunset moves from 19:33 on 1 April to 20:21 on the 30th, all of it in British Summer Time. That is the first month since September in which a 19:00 tour departure is unambiguously a daylight tour, and it changes what is worth booking: the river, the parks and the open top deck all come back into play.
Crowds, prices and what to book ahead
The first three weeks are quiet because Easter already happened in March. The last weekend is the opposite: the London Marathon runs as a two-day event on 24 and 25 April and closes a large part of central London to traffic across both days.
A late Easter has handed April an unusual gift. In most years the Easter holidays fill the first half of April with family demand; in 2027 they were over by 29 March. That leaves the first three weeks of April with spring weather, long evenings and something close to March pricing, which is the best combination anywhere in this ten-month set.
The last weekend is the exception and it is a large one. The London Marathon 2027 runs as a two-day event on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 April. That is a change from the traditional single Sunday and it doubles the disruption: the route through Greenwich, Rotherhithe, Canary Wharf, Tower Hill, the Embankment and the Mall closes to traffic across both days, and hotel demand in the centre spikes for the whole weekend.
The Boat Race on Sunday 11 April is a much smaller affair logistically but a considerable one on the river between Putney and Mortlake. The riverside pubs and the towpath fill from mid-morning, and river services in that stretch are suspended around the race. It is free to watch from the bank and it is one of the better free things to do in a London spring.
The best tours in London in April
April is the first month since September where the ranking can be built purely on what is best rather than what is sheltered. It is the driest month of the year and the sun sets at 19:56, so the river, the parks and the open air take the top places back.
1. Thames River Cruise
4.5 out of 5 from 24,711 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £17 • 1-2 hours
Takes first place in the month London's attention turns to its river. The Boat Race runs on 11 April between Putney and Mortlake, and while that is upstream of the sightseeing route, April is when the Thames stops being a cold grey corridor and becomes the best way to move around the city.
Best for in April: The Boat Race month, and a 19:56 sunset
2. London Bike Tour
4.8 out of 5 from 151 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £42 • 3 hours
The clearest weather-driven re-rank in this guide: from outside the ten for five straight months to second here. Cycling London is entirely weather-dependent and April has the lowest rainfall of any month at 40mm and joint-fewest wet days at ten.
Best for in April: The driest month of the year
3. Hop-On Hop-Off Bus
4.3 out of 5 from 8,092 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £25 • Full day
The open top deck is properly usable again at 13.8C with long evenings. One large caveat: the London Marathon closes central roads across both 24 and 25 April, so bus routes are heavily disrupted on those two days. Book any other date.
Best for in April: An orientation day, but not on 24 or 25 April
4. Tower of London
4.6 out of 5 from 31,489 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £37 • 2-3 hours
On summer hours since 1 March but not yet on summer visitor numbers, which makes April one of the two or three best months to do it. Much of the site is outdoors on the wharf and the walls, and April's 40mm is the lowest rainfall risk of the year.
Best for in April: Full summer hours, before the summer crowds
5. London Eye
4.6 out of 5 from 39,011 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £25 • 30 minutes
The most-reviewed product on the site, and April is arguably its best month. A fixed 30-minute view slot is a gamble in a wet month; in the driest month of the year, with 13 hours 51 minutes of daylight to pick a time from, it is the safest that booking gets.
Best for in April: The lowest weather risk of any month
6. Windsor, Stonehenge & Bath
4.5 out of 5 from 3,440 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £71 • 11 hours - 1 day
April is where the long day trips genuinely come into their own. Sunrise at 06:05 and sunset at 19:56 mean an eleven-hour coach itinerary starts and finishes in daylight, and Stonehenge and the Windsor grounds are outdoor sites that April's dryness suits.
Best for in April: An eleven-hour day with daylight at both ends
7. Photography Tour
5 out of 5 from 18 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £39 • 1 hour
Ranked up from the bottom of the review order on seasonal merit. April gives you spring blossom in the Royal Parks, a low clear sun and a golden hour that lands at around 19:00 rather than at lunchtime. It is the best month for photographing London that is not May.
Best for in April: Blossom, long light and clean air
8. Kensington Palace
4.4 out of 5 from 4,647 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £19 • 1.5-2 hours
Enters the ranking for spring specifically. At £19 it is the cheapest palace ticket in our list, and its real April advantage is what surrounds it: Kensington Gardens and the Sunken Garden are at their best in the second half of the month.
Best for in April: Combining a palace with Kensington Gardens
9. Blitz & WW2 Tour
4.9 out of 5 from 163 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £29 • 1.5-3 hours
Rated 4.9 from 163 reviews. April's combination of the lowest rainfall of the year and comfortable 13.8C afternoons makes it the best walking month in this guide, and the Blitz route around St Paul's and the City is one of the most rewarding walks in London.
Best for in April: Walking the City in dry weather
10. Borough Market Food Tour
4.8 out of 5 from 593 verified GetYourGuide reviews • from £92 • 3 hours
Borough is part covered and part open, so it improves as the weather does. April is the first month since September when the open sections are genuinely pleasant rather than something to hurry through, and British spring produce starts appearing on the stalls.
Best for in April: Eating outside without a contingency plan
Every indoor winter anchor leaves the April ten: Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeon, SEA LIFE, the Churchill War Rooms, the Natural History Museum tour and the Warner Bros Studio Tour. None of them has got worse. April simply has the lowest rainfall and the joint-lowest wet-day count of the year, which means a full day indoors is a day of good weather spent under a roof. Buckingham Palace remains closed for the season.
Events and festivals in April 2027
April has two river-and-road events that change how the city moves. The Boat Race is on Sunday 11 April between Putney and Mortlake. The London Marathon 2027 runs as a two-day event on Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 April, closing central roads across both days.
| Event | Dates | Where | Free? |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Boat Race | Sunday 11 April | Thames, Putney to Mortlake | Free from the riverbank |
| London Marathon, day one | Saturday 24 April | Greenwich, Rotherhithe, Canary Wharf, Embankment, The Mall | Free to spectate |
| London Marathon, day two | Sunday 25 April | Same route, second day of a two-day event | Free to spectate |
| Spring blossom in the Royal Parks | Through the month | St James's, Green Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens, Regents Park | Free |
| Changing the Guard | Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays | Buckingham Palace forecourt | Free to watch |
The London Marathon running across two days in 2027 is a genuine change and it matters for planning. A traditional single-Sunday marathon disrupts central London for one day; a two-day event does it for a whole weekend. The route takes in Greenwich, Rotherhithe, Canary Wharf, Tower Hill, the Embankment and finishes on The Mall, so almost every part of central London a visitor uses is affected on both 24 and 25 April.
If your trip includes that weekend, the practical advice is simple: do not book a coach day trip, an open-top bus tour or anything that depends on crossing central London by road on either day. The Underground runs, and runs very busy. Walking and the river are the reliable ways to move.
The Boat Race on 11 April is a far smaller footprint and a much more pleasant day. It is free to watch from the towpath between Putney and Hammersmith, the pubs along that stretch fill from late morning, and it is one of the few London events where turning up on the day still works. River services in that section are suspended around the race itself.
What is closed in April
April has no attraction closures at all, which is unique in this guide. What it has instead is two days of road closures for the two-day London Marathon on 24 and 25 April, and a single closed palace: Buckingham Palace, whose season does not begin until the summer.
| Site or service | Closed | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Central London roads | 24 and 25 April | London Marathon 2027, a two-day event. Closures across Greenwich, Rotherhithe, Canary Wharf, Tower Hill, the Embankment and The Mall on both days. |
| Thames river services, Putney to Mortlake | Around the Boat Race, 11 April | Suspended in that stretch for the race. Central London river services between Westminster and Greenwich are unaffected. |
| Buckingham Palace State Rooms | All month | The only attraction in our list closed in April. Closed since 27 September, with the 2027 summer season dates unpublished at the time of writing. |
| Changing the Guard | Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays | Monday, Wednesday and Friday only, and subject to change on Marathon weekend given the Mall closures. |
Buckingham Palace opening season: Royal Collection Trust, visiting Buckingham Palace. Changing the Guard days are published a month at a time on the Household Division Changing the Guard listing, and the ceremony can be cancelled at short notice in bad weather.
April is the cleanest month in this whole guide for closures. The Tower is on summer hours, the London Eye is long back from its January maintenance, the cathedrals have finished with Easter, and no seasonal attraction has an end date inside the month. The only thing you cannot do is go inside Buckingham Palace.
That leaves the Marathon as the one genuine constraint, and because it runs over two days in 2027 rather than one, it is worth treating as a whole-weekend event rather than a Sunday morning inconvenience. Anything on wheels is unreliable on the 24th and 25th; anything on foot, on the river or underground is fine.
On Buckingham Palace, the position is the same as it has been since October. The 2026 season ran 9 July to 27 September and the Royal Collection Trust had not published 2027 dates when this page was written. Recent years have followed a July to September pattern announced a few months in advance, but we are not going to print a date we cannot verify.
What to wear and pack for London in April
April has the widest daily temperature swing of any month here, nine degrees between a 13.8C average high and a 4.8C average low. It is also the driest month at 40mm, so the priority shifts from waterproofing to layering for the first time since September.
The specific April problem is the morning. A day trip that leaves at 07:30 leaves at close to 5C, and the same day at 15:00 can be pleasant enough for a single layer in the sun. Pack for both and carry a bag you are willing to keep with you, because you will be taking things off by lunchtime and putting them back on by eight.
Because April is genuinely the driest month, the calculation on wet-weather gear changes. Ten wet days out of thirty is the lowest risk in the year, so a light packable shell is enough and a heavy waterproof coat is dead weight. Sunglasses become more useful than an umbrella.
- Layers rather than one warm coat, for the nine-degree daily swing
- A light packable shell, since April is the driest month at 40mm
- Sunglasses, for a low bright spring sun
- Comfortable shoes for the best walking month in this guide
- No road-based tour booked for 24 or 25 April, when the Marathon closes central London
How we chose these tours
April is ranked on the driest month of the year, 40mm across ten wet days, and on a 19:56 sunset. The bike tour returns after five months out, the river takes first place, and six indoor attractions that carried the winter rankings all drop out. The Marathon on 24 and 25 April is flagged on the bus entry rather than buried.
- Popularity first. The base order is the verified review count on the live GetYourGuide listing, which is the only booking signal we can check independently.
- Then seasonal fit. A tour moves up or down for a specific, stated reason tied to April: temperature, wet days, sunset time, school holidays or a closure. Every move is explained in the entry itself rather than left implied.
- Closed means out. If an attraction is shut for the month, it does not appear in the ten at any rank, however popular it is. We name it in the closures table instead so you can plan around it.
- Nothing is invented. Prices, star ratings and review counts come from the live product page, checked on 28 July 2026. We do not publish an opening time, closure or event date we could not confirm, and we say so where we could not.
- We earn a commission. Booking links go to GetYourGuide and pay us if you book. That does not change the ranking: the review counts are public and you can check every one of them against the listing.
FAQs about London in April
Is April the driest month in London?
Yes. On the ten-year mean for 2015 to 2024, April averages 40mm of rain across ten wet days, the lowest total of any month and the joint-lowest wet-day count alongside August. February is next at 54mm and October is the wettest at 77mm. The reputation for April showers is real, but they are short and there is less rain overall than in any other month.
When is the London Marathon in 2027?
Saturday 24 and Sunday 25 April, and 2027 is a one-off two-day event rather than the traditional single Sunday. The route takes in Greenwich, Rotherhithe, Canary Wharf, Tower Hill, the Embankment and The Mall, with major road closures across both days. Avoid booking coach day trips or open-top bus tours on either date.
When is the Boat Race in 2027?
Sunday 11 April, on the Thames between Putney and Mortlake. It is free to watch from the towpath and the riverside pubs, which fill from late morning. River services in that stretch are suspended around the race itself, but central London river services between Westminster and Greenwich are unaffected.
How warm is London in April?
Average highs of 13.8C and average lows of 4.8C. That nine-degree spread is the widest of any month in this guide and it is the thing to pack for: comfortable afternoons and genuinely cold early mornings. It is warmer than March by nearly three degrees on the daytime average and cooler than May by three and a half.
Is April a good time to visit London?
On the weather numbers it is the best month in this guide, with the lowest rainfall of the year, the joint-fewest wet days and 13 hours 51 minutes of daylight mid-month. In 2027 it is helped further by Easter falling in March, which pushes the family crowds out of April entirely. The one caveat is the Marathon weekend on 24 and 25 April.
When does it get dark in London in April?
Sunset is 19:56 on 15 April, moving from 19:33 on the 1st to 20:21 on the 30th, all in British Summer Time. It is the first month since September in which a 19:00 tour departure is unambiguously a daylight tour, which is why the river cruise, the open-top bus and the outdoor walks all return to the top of the ranking.