The 2012 Olympic Games

After Beijing's mind-boggling display at the 2008 Olympic Games, the baton was passed to London for the 2012 Olympic Games (www.london2012.com), to be held July 27 to August 12, 2012. London's handover performance at the Beijing Olympics curtain call—featuring a double-decker bus and umbrella-toting commuters—was a typically English affair: slapstick, tongue-in-cheek, and devoid of bombast. Overshadowed by the ambition of Beijing's mesmerizing show, some decried its lack of ambition. But it was a confident, offbeat, and fun display that was so very London. The unmistakable message was: come to London and enjoy yourself.

Hotels and Flights

London may have more than 100,000 hotel rooms but you will still need to book your room as far ahead as you can, especially if you want to be near the Olympic Park. Air tickets are also going to be snapped up close to the event.

Getting Around

More than £17 billion has been earmarked for transport development in the run-up to the 2012 Games in this city that sees 20 million trips daily on the transport system. Served by five airports, London has the world's second largest (and oldest) underground system, but pre-Olympics development saw the extension of the East London line (May 2010) and the Docklands Light Railway, the upgrading and modernization of all underground stations, investment on the Jubilee Line (serving Olympic facilities) to handle extra capacity, and a high-rail link between St Pancras International and Stratford International for the Olympic Park, shuttling spectators to the Games in seven minutes from central London. New cycle and walking lanes are also planned to encourage healthier modes of transportation. London, however, remains one of the most congested cities in Europe, with an average vehicle speed of just under 12 mph.

Buying Tickets

Tickets for the London Olympics 2012 go on sale in 2011 and will generally be available until the start of each event unless sold out. Advance tickets start to go on sale beginning March 15 to April 26, 2011, through the Authorized Ticket Reseller, Cosport (cosport.com), or through the various offices of the National Olympic Committees of the International Olympic Committee (www.olympic.org). Tickets will include free public transport on the day of the event.

New London?

The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing further marked the long-heralded shift eastward of the world economic axis. Back in London for the first time since 1948, the Olympic Games return to a nation increasingly at ease with its decreased global stature but just as eager to put on a show. Drawing on impressive reserves of cosmopolitan verve, creativity, and sheer élan, London aims to host the Olympic Games in striking fashion. While the Beijing Olympics purposefully declared the arrival of a new superpower, the 2012 Olympics will be about showing why London remains one of the world's most-loved and cosmopolitan cities.

The jigsaw-style logo for the London Olympics may have polarized opinion, but the Games have been applauded for their promise to revitalize areas of East London and swing the spotlight of global attention back to town. The Games are also an occasion to showcase some dramatic new architecture. And, Olympic visitors are expected to bring as much as £2.2 billion to the local economy in 2012, fueling the London feel-good factor.

London under Construction

London has focused its Olympic energies on transforming the deprived East London, where the Olympic Park is under construction, but the occasion has been seized on to overhaul public transport, to showcase some sparkling new architecture, and to convert some well-known landmarks into Olympic venues.

With the exceptions of Canary Wharf, the Swiss Re Headquarters (the "Gherkin"), the Lloyd's of London building, and the London Eye, London's skyline is typically low-key with little of the brash swagger of, say, Shanghai or Manhattan. But a spectacular crop of new architecture—the 945-foot (288-meter) "Helter-Skelter" Bishopsgate Tower, 740-foot (228-meter) Leadenhall Building "Cheese Grater," and 1,020 foot (310 meters) "Shard of Glass"—is set to inject fresh adrenaline into London's otherwise staid streetscapes and revitalize its skyline.

A curvilinear £303-million piece of eye candy due for completion in 2011, the gorgeous Aquatics Centre will be a centerpiece of London's Olympics display. Designed by Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid, the center's wavelike form has been scaled back from original designs, but it remains an impressive and inspirational building.

The Olympic stadium's design has divided opinion, with critics making unfavorable comparisons with Beijing's iconic Bird's Nest, but supporters have pointed to the 80,000-capacity stadium's ability to be dismantled as a major plus point.

Olympic Venues

Most big-ticket events will take place in the Olympic Park but some medals will be vied for in more unusual settings, many that are open to the public today.

Athletics events will all take place in the 80,000-capacity Olympics Stadium.

Gymnasts and basketball finalists will be limbering up in the O2 Arena, to be temporarily rechristened the North Greenwich Arena 1; badminton contestants and rhythmic gymnasts will aim for glory in the North Greenwich Arena 2.

The Beach Volleyball competition will be held in Horse Guard's Parade in Whitehall, a beach ball's toss from Downing Street and next to St. James's Park.

Road Cycling takes to Regent's Park. (For great views of the park and Central London head to nearby Primrose Hill.)

Football (soccer) matches will kick off in 90,000-seat Wembley Stadium, the home of the English National Football team.

Triathlon contestants and Marathon swimmers will make a splash in the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

Swimming and diving will be held in the astonishing form of the signature Aquatics Centre.

Lovely Greenwich Park —London's oldest Royal Park—is the venue for Equestrian events and Modern Pentathlon.

In Woolwich, shooting will be staged at the Royal Artillery Barracks, while Lord's Cricket Ground will host archery.

Tennis can really only be held at one venue—Wimbledon —with its famous grass courts, but rowers, canoeists, and kayakers will be heading off to Eton Dorney, near Windsor Castle.