3 days in London (with kids)
 

I’m not sure how interesting or helpful this will be, but I’ll have a go. For photos and commentary, please see my blog:

http://ukfrey.blogspot.com/2012/02/london.html

And now for some background and hopefully helpful tips.

<b>Who</b>: Family of 4, DW, DD12, DS9. American ex-pats living in Derby (East Midlands).

<b>When</b>: 3 nights, 16-19 February, the back end of the February half term. I’m sure London is busy all the time but I’m also sure that there were places that we visited that were more mobbed than usual due to it being half term. Oh well, that’s when we can travel.

<b>Why</b>: Well, it’s London after all. Despite being here almost a year this is our first trip since moving here. It's been tough for us to get away for a weekend and we've tended to go elsewhere on the longer breaks.

We visited friends in Windsor a few years back (Windsor Castle, Tower of London, Les Miserables) but this was essentially our first real visit. Plan to be back so didn’t try to do it all (not that we could) and tried to find a mix for kids and adults.

<b>How</b>: Different than most in the “audience”, we were able to take an East Midlands train from Derby to St. Pancras (&pound;86 return for 4 with railcard). 1.5 hrs down; 2.5 hrs back (more stops). This makes us eligible for the 2for1’s (as intended!).

We purchased Pay-as-you-Go Oyster Cards with &pound;20 each. For the 12 y.o., we purchased 4 &pound;2 off-peak 1-day travel cards and the 9 y.o. is free on the Tube.

<b>Where</b>: Holiday Inn, Mayfair. Excellent use of Priority Club points (normally &pound;175/nt). Great location. Close to the Green Park Tube (Jubilee, Piccadilly, Victoria) and generally walkable to many sites (though we did use the Tube quite a bit). Decent size room for 4. Close to Starbucks for breakfast and M&S for snacks/sandwiches.

<b>What</b>: General itinerary
Thursday: arrive, dump bags, hit TKTS, Natural History Museum, Harrods, Billy Elliot

Friday: London Walks (Royal London & Westminster), London Eye, Hamley’s, Chinatown

Saturday: TKTS, St. Paul’s Cathedral, walk through The Temple, London Walks (British Museum), Stomp

A fairly full plate that tried to hit the main items for each family member. We don’t tend to do “kids” things all the time (e.g. zoo, aquarium, wax museum, etc.) but we did try to honor their requests (London Eye, Hamley’s) and pick some items that would please the whole family (Natural History, Stomp).

DW and I really like a nice, compact tour and London Walks was perfect for us even if neither was much of a walk. The kids were a little bored with some of it but they are used to it. :) The Royal London was good for seeing parts of the Changing of the Guard without squeezing up / waiting for the actual guards. We got a nice bypass entry into Westminster as well.

The British Museum “walk” was just the highlights which was fine for the 1st time visit to the museum. It was absolutely packed on the day we went.

Enjoyed both shows though I had really high expectations for Billy Elliot and it didn’t quite measure up to Les Miserables IMO. Stomp was a great family show. Doing 2 shows in 3 nights does limit your eating options (earlier or quicker). Totally mis-calculated how busy it would be in the theater district before the Saturday show and had to eat at McDonalds (not happy).

<b>Discounts</b>: We saved &pound;80 total for Billy Elliot and about &pound;65 for Stomp by going to TKTS. TKTS is a little challenging to reach with all the construction in Leicester Square. There are plenty of other options, but I felt safer going there.

We got 2-for-1’s for the London Eye and St. Paul’s. For a family of 4 you either get both kids free or 1 adult free (not 1 adult and 1 kid). Still a nice savings though. London Eye was a neat one-time thing but we don’t need to do it again.

<b>Misc</b>: Hard to take photos! None allowed in Westminster or St. Pauls. Quite crowded on the streets and other places but I did manage a “few” for the blog.

For the Tube, it was a good choice to just go with PAYG for the adults (I felt so well informed on the topic from reading all the info here). For DD12, it was a tougher call. With our railcard we can purchase &pound;2 off-peak day passes for her so that’s what we did (4 days). However, I’m not entirely sure how the afternoon peak works. It would appear that they aren’t valid from 4-7 pm M-F. However, price capping for PAYG is based on when you tap in in the morning. It wasn’t an issue this time, but if returning home at the end of the day doesn’t count, then another option might be better. The teen PAYG card requires a &pound;10 fee and photo so I didn’t want to bother with that. I may just have an extra adult PAYG to handle the evening peak time if necessary next time.

Note: for 10 and younger, use the wide (handicap) entrance/exit so you don’t get squashed in the gates (learned that the hard way). You tap in after you pass through in some cases. DW forgot to tap-in once in the beginning but she went to a service desk at the destination station to have them tap in before she tapped out.

That should do for now. Plenty left to see and do for next time. Hope you enjoy the blog.

GREAT pictures/blog have stayed at that Holiday Inn
Kids look like they are having a blast.
Thanks for posting most informative.

As usual, indydad, nicely done!

must go fix dinner but can't wait to read this!

Thanks for an orderly, fact-filled report--brilliant!

I love your trip reports. Going to Indy for a convention in March and i will try your restaurant recommendation. We are travelling to England/Scotland in 2013 and I will keep following your trip reports.

Thanks, everyone.

@willowjane -- the Belgian restaurant I mentioned in Indy is not in the downtown area where you are likely staying for a convention. It's tucked away in Broadripple so a little tougher to reach if you don't have a car. Worth it though!

Thanks for the report! We are in London now (c 14yo) and will check out Hamley's. We saw Billy Elliot and my son loved it, me too, haven't seen Les Miz so can't compare. He loved the British Museum too so we made two visits.

Lovely report, thanks for sharing!

It should be the new mantra visitors need to remember for London: Always Touch In and Touch Out.

Thanks for sharing another trip with family! I am exhausted just reading all that you did in your short time in London! (Age is showing, I guess. When I think back to trips on my own and when I took my two nephews, I realize that I squeezed in a lot more than I can today.)

<i>It should be the new mantra visitors need to remember for London: Always Touch In and Touch Out.</i>

I knew that, but I didn't emphasize it enough to DW. It was easy to fix since we caught it before exiting!

<i>I am exhausted just reading all that you did in your short time in London! </i>

Irishface, it was definitely a holiday on the go. For the events we did, we did not try to see every square foot so that helped.

Thanks for the lovely trip report and blog. We also enjoyed the Royal London walk as we got to see the changing of the guard in addition to Westminster Abbey without having to wait on line for either. The guide was very informative and funny too.

Was Westminster Abbey super crowded the day you were there? It was extremely crowded when we went.

Did the kids enjoy the Natural History Museum or was it too crowded to appreciate fully?

It is great to see the more popular spots and crowds are to be expected because the places are so popular. However, when everyone seems to converge at the same time, it often distracts from the beauty of the place you are trying to see.

That is why for our trip I favored St Paul over Westminster Abbey. St Paul was so spacious and although there were numerous groups walking around, it was not mobbed with people like Westminser Abbey was for us.

Anyway great report. Can't wait for the next one.

Awesome to see another report by you, indy_dad - I always look forward to them and find them very helpful for planning our upcoming trip!

@europeannovice -- it's hard to judge the crowds without knowing what normal was. Westminster was crowded, but not stuffed. I didn't think it diminished the experience (though I agree that St. Pauls was much less crowded.

We still enjoyed the Natural History museum but I'm sure it would have been better with smaller crowds. We could have seen more and saved our feet from all the standing still. Oh well, that's when we could go.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

aloha indy, when i opened your blog, and saw the first pic, my immediate reaction was, wow, those kids look hapa. i was right.

anyway, thanks for the great info. it will be very helpful to me as i visit london for the first time, next week.

i hope it won't be too parky.

FANTASTIC pix and blog, Indy Dad.
Going in May with grandsons and can hardly wait to retrace some of your route. Thanks for many tips. LOL scene in "European Vacation" My kids and grandkids are ALL tired of hearing me mention it. Never fails when needing a laugh.
Just today, told older grandson about crossing the road and the on-the-street writing instructions for which way to look. Thanks for the photo!
After living in London, and numerous visits, STILL havent seen Changing of the Guard. That will "change" on this trip, so thank you for inspiration, Indy!
ps Your kids are adorable...but you already know that!!

Really enjoyed your blog on London! My daughter (age 15) and I are going in July for the first time. I'm glad to be a bit better prepared re. how crowded it will undoubtedly be (we will be there a couple of weeks ahead of the start of the Olympics). I need to schedule some meals in specific areas where we'll be, for example ;)

I'm actually planning to both the London Walks you did and feel my expectations are a bit more realistic having read your report. They sound enjoyable but not phenomenal.

Thanks again for the report :)

Glad I could help.

Wonderful! How neat that you and your family have the opportunity to live in England! Off to read you blog now.