Interesting activities for 10 yr old would certainly include the London Dungeon, one of the top top tourist sights for Brits in London - see Jack the Ripper and all kinds of horror things presented in a good way.

I would also recommend the Imperial War Museum if they still have the re-created WW2 bomb shelters simulations in Tube shelters.

A boat trip along the Thames to Greenwich and of course the museums in South Kensington - especially the V & A museum and of course the Tower of London.

What interests your 10-year-old? Is she old enough to be let loose with a guidebook, or on
http://www.visitlondon.com/discover-london/choose-london/choose-family-london

to see what she thinks she might like?

Thanks to both of you! Great link and great suggestions.

Hampton Court Palace is great for kids as well - lots of folks in period costumes and you learn about the ghost of one beheaded wife of Henry 8 (who lived here) running around - the Tudor kitches are re-created as during a feast prep and for kids best of all there is the Maze - a veritable huge maze that you are supposed to try to get out of - take a boat here from Richmond or even London for a nice kiddo treat.

and well yes Madame Tussauds is probably the top venue for British families - wax figures of Jack the Ripper and many celebs.

If you don't want to focus all your time on serial killers, torture devices, beheaded royalty, and wax celebrities - some other suggestions include the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, London Walks ( http://www.walks.com/ ), The National Gallery, concerts at St Martin-in-the-Fields (they have some free ones), The Tate Museum & Tate Modern, Kew Gardens, Tea at a nice tearoom (the Kensington Palace Orangery is beautiful & casual - or you can go more formal at The Palm Court or The Wolseley), experience London parks, etc. Also, don't miss visiting some of London's historic pubs - they're often a good choice for lunch. Here's a good site for pubs: http://www.fancyapint.com/

For discount theatre tickets, visit TKTS in Leicester Square.
http://www.tkts.co.uk/leicester-square/

And I second PatrickLondon's suggestion to get your daughter involved in the planning. A 10 year old should have a fabulous time in London.

Have a great time!

Interesting that PalenQ is touting two of the biggest ripoffs that regularly get panned on this board: Madame Tussaud's and London Dungeon.

Tussaud's is what it is: a portrait gallery of wax figurines. If you like the notion and are interested in it, that's fine, but find a way NOT to pay full price - a combined 85.80 for you, hubby and the girl, or nearly 140 dollars to walk around a wax museum. Even the 25% off online price is ridiculous - $105 to walk around and see wax figures. Would you pay $105 for the three of you to walk around a world-class art museum like the Met? The marketing people who made this a success are genius.

The London Dungeon "walk-up" price is 24.60 for you and hubby and 19.20 for the girl, web prices are lower but variable (the website lists them as "from" 16 for adults and 10 for kids). At the lowest of those prices, it's $68 for the three of you; at the highest it's over $105. Seriously?

You can go to the Tower for less than either, especially with the 2for1 offers I mentioned above. Ditto the Cabinet War Rooms and Hampton Court Palace and Windsor Castle, so Pal's decision to steer you to the expensive ahistorical and purely marketing-driven exhibitions is curious.

....see Jack the Ripper and all kinds of horror things presented in a good way....

I love that and also the wax model of Jack the Ripper at Madame Tussaud's. They know what he looked like, then?

I'd echo the free ideas Most children like the mummies in the British Museum. She might enjoy going to an actual performance at the Globe if you choose your play.
The beauty of places like the British Museum and the National Gallery is that because you are not paying to go into them (although it's nice to leave a donation), you don't have to stay long enough to get tired and overwhelmed.
She might also like the exhibition hall in the British Library.

Definitely no wax figures for us. And probably not the Dungeon.

Looks like productions at the Globe don't start back up until May.

The 2 for 1 deals look great - except I don't think we will have the National Rail tickets required for the discount...

Interesting that PalenQ is touting two of the biggest ripoffs that regularly get panned on this board: Madame Tussaud's and London Dungeon.>

So why are these two amongst the very top paid sights in London - I read the Dungeon was the #1 paying site. I guess all those Brits are just idiots wanting to see tortue, etc - well for kids those places can be fun, something you and many folks here who pan these places just can't get your head around.

My first trip to London I went to Tussaud's and loved it - if there is one thing in London a 10 yr old will like it is Madame Tussaud's - yes Fodorgarchs pan it as pablum but again put yourself in the eyes of a kid or even an adult - these places are fabulously popular for good reason and thus they can charge so much to enter.

Plus note I mentioned Hampton Court and the Tower as well - try to remember when you were a kid!

One thing a kid that age may like is to take a boat on the Thames to the Thames Barrier that was built some years ago to save London from a potential and expected flood surge at high tide in storm conditions - the Thames Barrier excursion would be educational as well as fun, riding in a boat on a very busy part of the river - you can actually take a boat all the way from Westminster to Greenwich and onto the Barrier or what I did took one just from Greenwich - but from Westminster there you would pass by so many famous landmarks.

From Greenwich, which has several things of interest to kids - like the Cutty Sark boat and the Greenwich Meridien - again educational as it divides the East and West Hemispheres -take the train back to London or another thing kids may like - the Docklands Light Railways (DLR - Travel Cards accepted) - an above ground light rail train that runs thru the awesome new Docklands like at Canary Wharf - sit right up front in the first car in this driverless vehicle and your kid can pretend he's driving.

And from Greenwich for something different you can walk thru the ancient pedstrian/bike tunnel under the Thames - I guess the first such underwater tunnel in the world and then board the DLR once on the other side.

http://www.thamesriverservices.co.uk/westminster-thames-barrier-greenwich.cfml IME).

<So why are these two amongst the very top paid sights in London - I read the Dungeon was the #1 paying site. I guess all those Brits are just idiots wanting to see tortue>

No British person has ever been to Tussaud's. It is actually against the law and can incur a heavy fine under the 1962 Crimes Against Good Taste Act (Amended). It's one of those things we reserve for visitors. Like the Royal Family, The Angus Steak House and Andrew Lloyd-Webber.

<<So why are these two amongst the very top paid sights in London - I read the Dungeon was the #1 paying site. I guess all those Brits are just idiots wanting to see tortue, etc - well for kids those places can be fun, something you and many folks here who pan these places just can't get your head around.>>

Perhaps because there are a lot of daft numpties in the UK who get suckered by the constant marketing, which international travelers are not subjected to because they don't access British airwaves or TV? Perhaps because the Brits are no less suckers than anyone else. Perhaps because there's no wisdom merely from the fact that Brits attend these exhibitions. And perhaps you should post where you actually saw these statistics you tout so often. I saw an estimate of 2.5 million visitors yearly to Madame Tussaud's on visit-london-england.com, which is less than 1/2 of the attendance at the British Museum (5.8 million) or National Gallery (5.2M), and about the same as the Tower (2.4M, same author, same website as the Tussaud's number).

Fodorgarchs pan Tussaud's as pabulum because it costs nearly $200 for a family of four to walk around a bunch of wax statues! That's Disneyland-ish without the rides! Are you completely out of your mind to tout this as entertainment over the Tower, HCP, the Abbey, St Paul's, Windsor and any of the numerous free admission museums?

<<The 2 for 1 deals look great - except I don't think we will have the National Rail tickets required for the discount...>>

To iowamom - you need to do better research. The Days Out Guide discounts are available if you're just visiting London. First, if you're flying into Gatwick and take the train to and from the airport, those tickets will support your two-fers. Is that your airport? If so, you're good.

Second, if not, then GET THE SEVEN DAY PAPER TRAVELCARD, not the Oyster card, from a National Rail station (Paddington, Victoria, Waterloo, etc.). There are photo requirements for it now, just look on this site for the 2for1 offers and plenty of posters have told travelers what to do. When you arrive, go to the nearest National Rail station, go to a manned booth and buy the Zone 1-2 seven-day Travelcard for you and hubby. You will get a flimsy plastic-coated piece of paper the size of a credit card and 1/4 as thick with the old BritRail sign on the bottom. You use that on buses and Tube. You'll be in London seven days, so you'll need the seven-day Travelcard anyway, just get the flimsy orange paper card, not the stiff blue one (that's Oyster).

Before you go to London, print off every conceivable 2for1 voucher you may want to use (there's no limit) and bring it with you. Present the Travelcard and the voucher at admission. This saves you about 20 GBP at the Tower, 12+ at the War Rooms and another 13+ or so at Hampton Court Palace, which makes 45 quid you could use on the kid's souvenirs .

A couple of footnotes:

Most museums, certainly the (FREE) public ones, have done a lot of work in recent years to beef up ways to involve and interest children (check out their websites or ask on arrival for information on children's activities).

If PQ's suggestion of Greenwich and the DLR appeals, you can stop off at Mudchute DLR station and visit the city farm there:
www.mudchute.org.

Are you completely out of your mind to tout this as entertainment over the Tower, HCP, the Abbey, St Paul's, Windsor and any of the numerous free admission museums?>

Read what I posted - I did not rate them better than the others - just posed possibilities that a 10 yr old kid may like - I also mentioned many other things besides that yet you take my comments out of context and say I only hype those - look at the dozen or so other things I've recommended, including The Tower, the museums, Hampton Court, river cruise, etc.

My crime - putting myself into the mind of an average 10 year old - something you just can't seem to get your head around.

I second all the free museums. What is great about free is that you can just pop in for an hour or so, see something you are particularly interested in and then leave without the guilty feeling that I spent $xx and have to make a long march through it all to get my moneys worth. Checking out the websites in advance is a good idea. For example the British Museum has hourly free guided docent tours on different subjects. I have enjoyed great ones on the Egypt section and the Roman Britain section.

I agree about the free museums. My boys loved them especially the British Museum and the Natural History Museum. The V&A has a section on fashion that was pretty neat and the National Portrait Gallery has the painting of the Queen by Andy Warhol.

If the weather is nice I would take a stroll in Hyde Park.

Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace and the London Eye were all great visits as well.

Have a wonderful time1

http://www.coramsfields.org/

the Coram's Fields Children's Playground has gotten a lot of good press lately. In case tyke needs to let off steam and play with local kids.

http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/activities/family-activities/

Some good ideas for things for kids in London

Our two trips, if that helps:

http://ukfrey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/london.html

http://ukfrey.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/london-and-more-with-grandparents.html

Check out my post about 2-for-1 cards. Although it is over a year old, the basics probably are pretty much the same...though I welcome corrections/updates.

http://www.fodors.com/community/europe/special-2-for-1-days-out-coupon-thread.cfm

SS