ma23peas

Looking for any tips or ideas...

Here's the plan
Crew...
Myself-38
Dh-39
ds-11
dd-8
dd-7

5 nights in London
5 nights in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire
using tube/buses in London, renting car to Oxfordshire then return to Gatwick

I've been to London once, in college wee years ago...I'm okay with driving and feel like I can navigate myself through the city fairly well.

We homeschool our children and we've spent the past 4 years focusing on world history. We've read many great books set in England (Robin Hood by Howard Pyle, The Door in the Wall by Marguerite DeAngeli, Adam of the Road, Mary Poppins/Travers, Chronicles of Narnia etc.) the kids are so excited to go!

Day one....Mary Poppins at the theatre...figure we'll hit Hyde Park for fun and just get adjusted to the time change (flight arrives at 7am)
Day two...National History Museum, Science Museum
Day three...National Gallery of Art, Buckingham Palace/Mews...
Day Four...Victoria & Albert Museum/Tower of London
Day Five...drive to Chipping Norton
Do day trips from there to Bath and possibly Lake District....son loves birds so we're trying to hit waterfowl/hawking reserves.

Any things I should not miss??? Thanks so much for your help...I'd love to drive down to Portsmouth and do the Naval museum..just don't know if it's a reasonable drive..thanks!
Tara

Carrybean

Are you planning on having a car in London?

janisj

This will be a great trip. Just a few quick comments --

- Don't schedule a show on your first night. The jet lag will be very hard on some of you and kids that age especially. Wait until later in the stay - or you will all be snoring by act two.

- the V&A the same day as the Tower doesn't make sense since they are on opposite sides of the city,

- the V&A is jst next door to the Science and Natural History museums

- and finally - a day trip from the Cotswolds to the Lake district is fairly nuts. There is PLENTY to keep you entertained in/near the Cotswolds - Bath, Oxford, Warwick Castle (a must for kids), Stratford, Blenheim Palace, etc etc . . . . .

janisj

I assumed you aren't planning on having a car in London since you said &quot;<i>renting car to Oxfordshire </i>&quot; - so that is good. But IF you are considering a car in the city - forget about that idea.

noe847

Maybe it's a matinee?

flanneruk

You can do day trips from Chippy to the Lakes. But it's a minimum of 4.5 hours each way, and that's before you start trying to find the bird sites.

Try the RSPB website: practically every decent bird place in Britain's handier, though Chippy's not that good itself for birds.

Slimbridge and the Cotswold Falconry Centre are pretty handy though. And if you drive from London, keep an eye out for red kites flying BELOW you as you pass the Stokenchurch turnoff on the M40. There's even an outside chance of seeing buzzards there.

Portsmouth's just about doable in a bit over 2 hours.

noe847

Do you come from an area that has a natural history museum or a science musem? It might be worth replacing them with something more specific to the area (although I must admit that I haven't seen either). It would be a shame for them to miss the British Museum.

The Cabinet War Rooms are pretty cool, especially for your 11 year old. I think there is a special audio guide for children. Here's a link to the 'family' page of the Cabinet War Rooms:
http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00f009007

The newly opened Benjamin Franklin house looks as though it has a big educational component.

flanneruk

This might be pedantic.

But there isn't a National History Museum. The Natural History Museum's about natural history. If you're looking for a museum of British history, you have to team and lade between the British Museum, the Museum of London and the National Portrait Gallery.

I'm with noe, certainly about the Science Museum. There are a couple of science museums in the US just as good (if not better), and London's is a bit Anglocentric. There's only one British Museum

noe847

flanneruk, I didn't even see the OP said National History - I just read it as Natural History...

PatrickLondon

You could see waterfowl at the London Wetland Centre at Barnes:

http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/wetlandcentre/

but perhaps that's a luxury with so little time.

janisj

there is a falconry center at Mary Arden's house. So you could do a day loop from where ever you stay in the Cotswolds to Warwick Castle then 7 miles over to Stratford-upon-Avon for a bit of Shakespeare and then just outside of town to Mary Arden's - getting a superb castle, some lovely towns on rivers, interesting history, and a falconry center in one day out.

Merseyheart

Okay,maybe it's because I'm not a museum person (gasp of horror from the board regulars), but there's an awful lot of museums on this itinerary. Yawn. How about some time at Covent Garden, (watching the buskers), a boat trip down the Thames, more times in the parks, and shopping on Oxford Street? London Walks does a Harry Potter tour (which I haven't done, but someone else here may know more), and the kids might like that.

julia_t

Slimbridge is not too far from Chipping Norton, and could be combined with Berkeley Castle or half a day in Bristol or Cheltenham.

http://www.wwt.org.uk/visit/slimbridge/

MissPrism

I'd second a trip to the Wetland Centre in Barnes.
Barnes itself has lots of nice pubs and a village feel.
You could also take a nice walk along the Thames path from there.
If I were you I'd leave the theatre trip until you have recovered from jet-lag.
I think that I'd leave the Lake District for another time.
Do you really want to spend hours on the motorway?

I love the V and A, but I think that children would find the British Museum much more interesting.
There's not really a lot to interest a child in the V and A, but the BM, especially the Egyptian stuff will fascinate them.
Other suggestions would be the Old Operating Theatre http://www.thegarret.org.uk/oot.htm
for an agreable shudder, The Ragged School Museum http://www.raggedschoolmuseum.org.uk/
It's open on Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Again, they can be glad that they didn't go to school in Victorian times.
The Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green http://www.vam.ac.uk/moc/kids/is undergoing a major redevelopment, but it is going to re-open in August.
I love seeing all the toys from my childhood and look forward to visiting it and seeing all the changes.

janisj

I agree - If I was a kid I'd MUCH prefer the British to the V&amp;A. All those mummies and mummifed cats if nothing else - but just a lot more of interest for children.

&quot;<i>Maybe it's a matinee?&lt;/i?&gt; IMHO a matinee wouldn't be any better. You'd be cooped up inside a dark theatre all afternoon and emerge at 5:30 w/ your body clocks totally confused - is it bed time? Dinner time? It really is best not to schedule theatre or heavy museum going on the first day. You had the right idea w/ the parks and taking it easy the first day - just plan Mary Poppins for a different night.</i>

janisj

Sheesh - gotta quit doing that!

This is better:

&quot;<i>Maybe it's a matinee?</i>&quot; IMHO a matinee wouldn't be any better. You'd be cooped up inside a dark theatre all afternoon and emerge at 5:30 w/ your body clocks totally confused - is it bed time? Dinner time? It really is best not to schedule theatre or heavy museum going on the first day. You had the right idea w/ the parks and taking it easy the first day - just plan Mary Poppins for a different night.

Annam

I was there with three kids just about those ages 8 yrs ago. The science museum was OK, but since we're from the Chicago area, they were not hugely impressed, except for the special exhibit on the Science of Sports that was there at the time, but long gone. You should not miss the British Museum. The only thing in the V&amp;A that might be worth doing is to take dd's quickly through the history of fashion exhibit. Dad and ds's rested their feet while we girls did that, but it took all of 30 minutes to see. No one has mentioned Westminster Abbey. As students of history and literature your kids should see that. I was in awe, standing between Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, two of my favorite historical characters as a young girl. Poets corner was cool, and seeing the Coronation Chair, which is just a little wooden chair covered with graffiti, cracked us up (Undoubtedly, during their lifetimes, your kids will see Chucky get crowned, and it will bring back fond memories of their trip.) The buskers in Covent Garden were a HUGE hit with the kids. One other place to consider is the London Transport museum. It didn't take very long to go through, and your kids can play in the simulator and pretend they are driving the Tube trains. You MUST come home with a &quot;Mind the gap&quot; refrigerator magnet. Ours is still on the fridge. I don't read the Europe forum regularly these days. Is Ben Haines still around? He is a wealth of information about kids in London, and can send you a file by e-mail that he has compiled.

kswl

Hi ma, I took my son in nov. 2004 for much the same reason---a homeschooled 13-year-old studying world history.

Your itinerary looks fine---assuming you've gone online to find out what collections/rooms will be open or special exhibits available. The science museum just isn't that wonderful, particularly if you live anywhere near a good one in the states. The V&amp;A has some wonderful artifacts you can't see anywhere else, and the Natural history museum is great--especially the new Darwin Centre, which I strongly encourage you to visit. At the V&amp;A I would pick out just a few things to see, then scoot out. You could probably combine all of your Kensington area museums on one day, then go to the theater that night. There are okay restaurants in the museums themselves (self-serve types) for lunch.

The Museum of London is a great resource, set up for kids chronologically. I wouldn't miss it, and you can go through it fairly quickly on the same day you go to the Tower. There is a very small museum at the Bank of England in the financial district that is very good. They give kids (based on their age) a seek and find sheet that's fun. If you have coin collectors in your group they'll love the small but choice gift shop.

I would also encourage a day to visit Greenwich. The Cutty Sark,the Maritime Museum, the clock museum, and--of course--that irresistable photo-op of your kids straddling the prime meridian. It's fun, and you can get there on a Thames river boat, under all the bridges, and then back by Docklands Light Rail, which is very fast if you take an express train. There are lots of cute places to eat in Greenwich.

My son had absolutely no interest in shopping, although we did visit a giant comic-book store near Oxford street. If your kids like video games, there is a huge place for them---Funland--in the Trocadero off Picadilly that they would enjoy. The place is teeming with all ages of kids--up to 20's--and they all gather round when someone is doing well on dance revolution or some game. It's a close up look at youth there that's interesting, and very <i>different</i>.

Sounds like you've done quite a bit of thinking about this. The only other obvious ideas are trips to Windsor (which isn't that great, IMO) and Oxford, which is fun but not essential unless you're doing biographical sorties after particular people.

janisj

The London Transport museum would have been great - except it is closed untill next summer . . . .

The recommendation of the Museum of London is very good. It is a wonderful museum - and might actually have more of interest for the youngest kids than either the British or V&amp;A. Don't get me wrong - those are two of the best museums in the world, but the Museum of London is really great for kids (and adults too)

noe847

The shop connected with the Transport Museum is still open - it's right in Covent Garden. You can get those all important souvenirs of the tube.

My husband thought that the Maritime Museum at Greenwich was very much geared to children.

Here is a thread where Ben Haines posted his suggestions on London for families:
http://fodors.com/forums/threadselec...p;tid=34774808