We are nearly two weeks away from departure for our two-week trip to the UK, and I'm realizing that, though I'm great at planning for "big picture" ideas, I've neglected to actually plan what we'll do on specific days. It seems like many posters have their days planned to the nth degree, and while I don't really feel that approach fits my family's style, I do recognize that it would be helpful to have some sense of what's possible in the time we have.

We (me, DH, and 2 kids) will be staying in Winchester in an apartment for the entire two weeks, while my husband is visiting colleagues at the U. of Southampton. In addition to touring the area around Winchester (what we can see within about a 2-hour driving radius), we would like to take a few day trips into London by train. We know we'd like to see the Tower of London, Greenwich, maybe Buckingham Palace, and a museum or two (British Museum and Natural History?), plus my son has his heart set on a Harry Potter London Walks tour. I can do without the London Eye, but friends say we shouldn't miss it. I'm also thinking I'd like to see the Globe Theater, but am not sure about taking a tour vs. trying to see a show. We will see Windsor the day after our arrival and will be going to LegoLand in Denmark later on, so we don't need to factor those places in for our day trips.

So, here are my questions:
1) Which 1 or 2 London museums would be best for kids? Ours are 7 (a girl) and 11 (a boy).
2) What can we reasonably see in a day, taking into consideration our travel time? Are there things we can group together?
3) Would a double-decker bus tour or ride be worthwhile with our limited time-frame?
4) I'd love to visit a park while we're there as well--any suggestions?

We don't care much about restaurants or shopping, so no need to worry about Harrods or toy stores or high tea and all that. Just trying to hit a few highlights (terrible as that may sound...).
Thanks!

"<i>It seems like many posters have their days planned to the nth degree</i>"

What they don't tell you is that there finely tuned plans often fall apart on the first or 2nd day

quick answers:

1) For most kids probably the Natural History and British Museums are the top two. But I highly also recommend the London Transport Museum which just re-opened after a massive re-model.

2) Count on a max of 2 "biggies" a day. If you are lucky you might squeeze in a 3rd but w/ transport, meals, and time for "whimsy" - count on 2.

3) A double Decker is a good way to get an overview - but only do it if the weather is nice-ish and you can sit up top.

4) Don't worry about parks - there are everywhere, Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park (one vast park area) is good because there are lakes, paddle boats, a wonderful playground - though your son is a bit old for it, horses, peter pan statue etc etc.

that should be "their finely tuned . . . ."

Another vote for the Transport Museum - it's great.

I don't think much of the London Eye, but it is kind of nice, on a clear day, to get a look at the whole city laid out.

Check out the Horniman Museum:

http://www.horniman.ac.uk/

janisj is right. You could do 2 or at most 3 and it would be a real squeeze.

I have 2 girls aged 13 and 11 and they rate the museums as follows. 1) Science museum, 2) Natural history museum (both round the corner from each other). There are so many interactive/hands on thing to do in the Science museum that you could very easily get carried away (we always do)

Kensington Gardens is really lovely and walking distance from the science and natural history museums.

I think it would be a shame to come to london and only do the musuems and the park though. The sightseeing buses tell you things that even us residents didn't know. So try to squeeze that in (perhaps at the start). Get in really early though.

Thanks so much for your insights, especially on the museums. And thanks, janisj, for saying that about uber-planners--it makes me feel better about being so lackadaisical...

I've been shying away from the Science Museum, since we've seen a lot of those elsewhere (Boston, Toronto, San Francisco), but we might consider it if we have time. I know there's also a science museum (much smaller, of course) in Winchester that I thought we might visit on a rainy day... The Transport Museum might work well as an alternative, though I'm not sure how much it might appeal to a 7-year-old girly-girl? Any thoughts?

The Horniman Museum looks lovely and has some great exhibits on while we're there--thanks for mentioning it, mbgg!

I agree, aden, that we don't really want to visit London and just see museums--I'm just trying to think of how to limit our activities to something do-able as a day-trip. When we visit relatives near San Francisco and Toronto, we often day-trip into the city and see just one big attraction (like a museum or zoo/aquarium) and then walk around a bit and maybe picnic in a park, so that's kind of what I had in mind. Of course, we visit those cities every year, so we can always come back another time to see more... I'm glad to hear that Kensington Gardens is close by the Natural History and Science Museums, so that sounds like a good match-up. And I do like the idea of a bus tour--any recommendations on which one to take?

Are there other pairings we could put together? Something fun to see near the Tower? or a place we could walk from there? Could we see the Horniman Museum and Greenwich in the same day? (It looks like it's somewhat nearby.)

Also, coming from outside London, what would be the best way for us to visit Greenwich? I like the idea of a boat ride, but I'm not sure it's practical in terms of time.
Thanks so much for all your help!

Hi JSPEN -

I just returned from a trip to London. I think your kids will love going on the London Eye. It can get very crowded, so I would recommend taking the first flight of the day at 10 am. You can save money and time by purchasing your tickets ahead of time on-line. Big Ben is just a very short walk across the Westminster Bridge from the Eye, so stop there next. Then you can walk just a bit further past BB and Parliament, around the Royal Treasury building, and go to the Churchill War Room. Your kids might think it's cool to learn what it was like to have to live underground during the war. The Tower of London is great too. The Beefeaters are fun to talk with, and who doesn't enjoy seeing lots of jewels? Have a picnic lunch in Leicester Square. There's a movie theatre, and a cafe that has delicious gelato. The Brits are really friendly, so I think you'll have a fab time!

Hi again -

I took a open-top bus tour, and it was great. You can get on and off at will, so it may work well for your family.

Personally, I have no problem with planning a detailed itinerary ahead of time -- I'm likely much more fastidious than most on this, and recommend doing so. If you fly too much by the seat of your pants, you're more prone to try visiting a museum when it's closed or something similar.

But be prepared for the likely possibility of changes, as they can happen to the best thought-through plans. Some things take longer, or less time that you thought. Sometimes an unusual thing you didn't count on crosses your path and merits exploring. You never know.

For London parks: Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, Regent's Park, St. James's Park, and Green Park are all varying degrees of centrally located, near one or more attractions. Would recommend seeing which ones are near the attractions you want to see and include as you see fit.

"<i>If you fly too much by the seat of your pants, you're more prone to try visiting a museum when it's closed or something similar. </i>"

Making note of museum/sites opening days/times is just being sensible. No one is advocating not researching when places are open. But planning things down to the minute is just silly IMO. For instance on my last trip (I got back from the UK on May 24) in just 2 weeks 1) the Circle/district line was down for 2+ days, 2) Blenheim Palace was closed the day we wanted to visit due to a movie doing some re-shooting, 3) There was a special event at the Tower of London which diverted visitors, 4) It poured down cats and dogs on the day we planned on doing 3 country gardens, 4) a tube station we needed was closed w/o advance notice. And I knew every inch of our itinerary like the back of my hand (I lived in the area for 5 years and had organized the trip for 6 friends.)

If we had tried to follow set plans - they would have been shot out of the water from day 2 onwards . . . . .

As for the Tower, expect to spend at least 4 hours there...then perhaps you could jump on a river boat and cruise back up the Thames to Westminster etc...

Greenwich can be accessed with minimal travel time by riding the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), two branches of which start at the Bank and Tower Gateway Tube stations. But a cruise down from Westminster or Tower Pier is a history lesson, so it's not a total waste of time.

The Maritime Museum is worth a half-day, and you can fill out most of an afternoon at the Royal Observatory at the top of the hill. I recommend riding to the Obs on the tram from in front of the Maritime if your stamina for climbing isn't pretty high.

I haven't seen it since it re-opened, but the Transport Museum is great for kids of all ages -- including those in their Sixties and Seventies. Since it's practically in Covent Garden, that also gives a chance to do a little shopping, see a few street performers, and wander down through Trafalgar Square to Westminster Abbey and the Thames.

Curious to know what you went for and how you got on. The sun was out in full force at around 8am and I was routing for good weather. It's not so bad now at 12:32 but the sun is hiding.

Do let us know.

Thanks for all the great feedback, everyone! Sorry to be off-line for a bit--my 7-year-old got a concussion at school the other day and had to go to the ER, so we've been busy... (But all's well now, thank goodness.)

It's good to get a sense of how much time things will take--if it's really going to take us 4 hours at the Tower, for instance, I'm not sure we'd be able to fit in another big destination that day, since we have to account for an hour train trip each way to and from Winchester, plus time for meals, etc. As a family, we're not great at efficiency! Though we'll be sure to check when things are open--I'm reasonably good at that!

I love the idea of the trip up the Thames to Greenwich. But that sounds like a day-trip in itself. Maybe we could take the light rail one-way and the boat the other? Is there a boat company that anyone could recommend? I saw on-line that there are several that make the trip. I also think my kids would enjoy a double-decker bus ride, but I'm not sure if they'd sit through a long tour--again, any recommendations? I suppose we could just ride the bus to get from point A to point B, and they'd probably enjoy that just for the novelty...

The Transport Museum sounds like it should be on our list, so we'll keep that in mind--everyone seems to recommend it so highly!

I saw on a bus map I downloaded that there's a Charles Dickens Museum--would that be interesting for kids? I'm thinking of my older son, who is an avid reader. I haven't heard a thing about it on this forum...

Thanks again for all the suggestions--two weeks exactly until we leave! We can't wait...

The Dickens House Museum is suitable primarily for literature majors. The old English teacher and I spent a pleasant hour there but I doubt it would be of interest to most young people. Incidentally, on our way there, we passed one of our favorite sights in London: the grounds of Goodenough College. You can be sure the photo of the gate -- proudly emblazoned with the name -- has a prominent spot in our album.

If your son is a reader, he might enjoy the Sherlock Holmes Museum, a commercial endeavor I believe, but reasonably well done and located naturally at 221B Baker Street. The oven mits sporting a magnifying glass and "You're getting warmer" make great souvenirs.

Boats to Greenwich: all much of a muchness, though basically there are slower boats that give you a commentary, and the faster Thames Clippers that are a commuter service (but when they open up the throttle and you're standing on the open deck at the back it's a buzz). Yes, for a daytrip the DLR one way (try to get up to the front, but people of all ages will have the same idea and will be pretending to drive) and boat the other can be fun, if you've the time (and the Maritime Museum and Observatory are set in a huge expanse of park if they want to run around).

Buses - again if there's time, you could sit up top on a regular scheduled bus and a guidebook for a regular fare and see some sights without an expensive commentary:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...al_bus_map.pdf

Thanks, VirginiaC, for your take on the Dickens Museum. Sounds like we should give it a pass... But the Sherlock Holmes museum might be fun, though the 11-year-old hasn't read any SH yet (but has been exposed to Dickens, via PBS in the US).

And thanks for the bus map, Patrick--this is the one I mentioned earlier, and it seems a gem. I'm thinking that a bus ride and a trip up the Thames might be the ticket for my kids, as long as the weather cooperates.

In terms of getting in from Winchester, can anyone advise on how best to get from the rail station to our key sights? Since we are only coming into town on a few separate days, are we better off with an Oyster or a paper travel card? I'm still confused, despite reading previous posts on transport issues!
Thanks!