South Bank

Culture, history, sights: the South Bank has it all. Stretching from the Imperial War Museum in the southwest as far as the Design Museum in the east, high-caliber art, music, film, and theater venues are up alongside the likes of an aquarium, a wine museum, historic warships, and a foodie-favorite market. Three structures dominate the skyline: the looming stack of Tate Modern, the distinctive Oxo Tower, and overlooking them all, the London Eye.

For centuries the North London jibe about needing a passport to cross the mighty Thames may have held true. But in the mid-20th century the South Bank emerged as one of the capital's most creative hubs. The reconstructed Shakespeare's Globe Theatre steals the show, but the Tate Modern is also a huge draw, a monolithic ex-power station turned museum. The Southbank Centre is home to the recently renovated Royal Festival Hall, the Hayward Gallery, the BFI Southbank

, and the National Theatre. East near Butlers Wharf,the ultrachic Design Museum occupies what was once a dingy Dickensian shadowland.

Southwark, the oldest borough in England, was once infamous for being London's outlaw neighborhood. Just across London Bridge, it was conveniently outside the city walls and was therefore the ideal location for the theaters, taverns, and cock-fighting arenas—not to mention brothels—that served as after-hours entertainment in the Middle Ages. Today the Thames Path is alive with legal activity, especially in summer, with skateboarders, secondhand-book stalls, and street entertainers.Several footbridges cross the Thames, including the curvaceous Millennium Bridge, connecting the Tate Modern to St. Paul's Cathedral, and the Golden Jubilee Bridges

, with the best view of the Houses of Parliament on the embankment between Westminster and Lambeth bridges.In the shadow of the Oxo Tower sits Gabriel's Wharf, a small marketplace of shops and restaurants.Sir Francis Drake's ship, the Golden Hinde

nestles in Pickfords Wharf and the massive domed City Hall lies next to Tower Bridge.

A millennium project that's a favorite with both Londoners and out-of-towners alike, the London Eye is next to the London Aquarium and the surrealist museum Dalí Universe. The grisly delights of the Old Operating Theatre Museum and the London Dungeon are favorites for kids. After all this sightseeing, have a drink at Vinopolis and grab a bite at the legendary Borough Market (the rowdier neighbor of Southwark Cathedral). "London's Larder" has become an essential foodie destination, where celebrity chefs go in search of farm-fresh produce.