Re poutine's "<i>a place in St James Park</i>" It is called 'Inn the Park' and is a great place to stop for tea or snacks. It gets very busy at Lunch time and there is often a queue. But during the 'in between' hours you should be able to walk right in. If the weather is nice, there are tables outside.

Poutine has given you some excellent advice.

@poutine: Thank you , thank you a lot! I am very humbled by the effort you have taken to help me. My kids are 11, 7 & 7 (twins). My 11 year old is reading a lot of world history in 6th grade and is doing high school French. So, he would appreacite a lot more things in this trip, than my 7 years old. They would love to be in parks and such! OK, so, popular vote is to have V&A out. I love DC Natural History Museum, and my kids love it too. In fact, anytime, any friends stop by for DC trip we take them to that museum first. But, if London one is not something extraordinarily different, I would keep it to the last (in the interest of time).

The change of guard will definitely interest them. Please suggest some books if you can for 11 and 7 year old kids to help in London and Paris.

Poutine,

We are going to be doing almost the exact same trip as you did a few years back. We will be going with my 10 year old son and 80 year old mother in law. Thanks for the advice.

How much time did you spend at the Imperial War Museum?

You suggest going to Greenwich on your own then rather than with the London walks. Was it too dry for kids? Did the kids enjoy Greenwich outside of the walk?

I wouldn't spend too much time (if any) in the transport museum. It's very british-centric. You and your kids will enjoy just wandering around Covent Garden more IMHO.

There's loads going on there in terms of street entertainers and the like and the shops are great (if you are a foreign). Plus lots of places to eat and drink....

Junk4rp: You are welcome. I received a lot of help from posters on this board myself before that trip to London and Paris, including janisj. I will get back to you on book recommendations, and will also post on your Paris thread.

europeannovice: We spent about an hour at The Imperial War Museum, and I would have liked to stay longer. However, we arrived at about 2 pm, my husband was tired/cranky, and so we just looked around and then left. There seemed to be some excellent parts for kids, on subjects such as spying. As a 9 year old Cdn kid (3 years ago), he really didn't have much knowledge of what spying was or why it was done(outside of his sister spying on him. Now, at 12 he really enjoys the UK teen spy novels by writers such as Robert Muchamore, so I think he would get a lot more out of the experience. The spying exhibit is just one example, but there seemed to be quite a lot there for kids to see/do.

If you are in London for longer than 3 days, I would also suggest going to Hampton Court Palace, for the gardens, the maze (all kids love a maze) and the palace itself. So many chimneys!

As for Greenwich, and London Walks in general, I think that not only are they too information heavy, they are not interactive enough for most kids. The same tour one on one would probably be a very different experience. However, when you are with 30 adults, you get lost in the drone of information and can't really ask very many questions, and it is easy to tune out.

The best part of the Greenwich tour was the boat ride down the Thames and visiting the Cutty Sark, which is no longer there (I think). Hampton Court would be a much better choice over Greenwich if you are looking for a short trip out of London with kids. I think you can take a boat trip to Hampton Court as well, à la King Henry. We took the train back and forth from Waterloo which was easy to do.

I want to add, do be sure to use London's superb public transit system. Kids will love the busses, Tube etc. It is very clean, efficient and affordable.

I too agree with the 2 major sites a day rule. In fact, that's exactly the advice I gave yayeurope on her 'brave london experts' thread.

By the way: You know there's a Harry Potter tour, don't you? (maybe not what you're assuming, but still fun). http://www.walks.com/Homepage/Harry_Potter/default.aspx

If you don't do the tour, your kids might still enjoy seeing 'Diagon Alley'. (aka Leadenhall Market)

Here's a different sort of tour; it's self-guided:
http://www.the-magician.co.uk/harry-...-locations.htm

Following up with other books my son recommended for London for the 11 yo. I don't remember my daughter reading anything specific for that trip other than art books. She had just turned 7. I am sure there are more, but these were the London ones he mentioned.

The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd
London Calling by Edward Bloor
The Baker Street Irregular by Robert Newman (read this one when he was 9)

Something I thought about tonight was the fact that almost every souvenir we bought was from London. We have been back to France twice since that trip and I always find souvenirs very expensive there. London had cool, funky hats and magnets and Big Ben pencil sharpeners, etc. etc. for fairly reasonable prices. So don't wait until the end of your trip to do some souvenir shopping!

c_w: "<i>I wouldn't spend too much time (if any) in the transport museum. It's very british-centric. You and your kids will enjoy just wandering around Covent Garden more IMHO.</i>"

I've taken several colonial kids (and parents) to the Transport museum and, as weird as it seems, they've all really enjoyed it. Now, these were all prior to the refurbishment so I can only guess it is even better now.

It may be the British-ness, or maybe that it is pretty exotic to some kids who seldom if ever ride on buses/subways/metros. They absolutely love climbing on the double decker buses and pretending to be drivers/conductors, and seeing the mechanical bits.

Of course they also enjoy wandering around Covent Garden and seeing the buskers. Plenty of time to do both.

You can send away in advance to get tickets to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. It's free but you do have to have tickets. It's very cool and my kids, although a little older than yours, really enjoyed it. It's only about 45 minutes long but shows how they've locked up the tower every night for hundreds of years. Impressive.

@Bowsprit: I will show the Harry Potter links to my eldest son and I am sure he would like to do that.

@poutine: Thanks again about all the information you have provided. I will get the books you have suggested for the kids to read. Also, I will buy the souvenirs early.

Your kids might really enjoy the gift shop at the Tower of London. I bought several rulers with Rulers listed on them as tokens, but you can even buy a model of the rack or a catapult there. This is a great site to browse:

http://www.historicroyalpalaces.com/...ifts-Shop.html

Considering the ages of your kids, I think that they would have a lot of fun on the London Duck Tours.
Just google the name, it is a land/river tour in an amphibious vehicle used in WWII. The tour is about 75 minutes. When you go to their website click on "About Us" for the history of the vehicles. They leave from close to the London Eye.

Do your kids like theater? If so, there are always plays being performed as well. I know my kids have always loved going to plays since they were very young and if yours do, this might be something to investigate as well (if they have any titles suitable for your kids).

Poutine,

I thank you too for the book recommendations. I will also get them from the library so my son can start reading to get him excited.

I think most kids especially boys like trains, trams, etc. so they would find the London Transport Museum fun. My son has ridden on many trains, subways etc. and when we went to the Albany State Museum and to one of the Chicago museums (I forgot which one) they both had old subway cars that are no longer in use and he still had fun exploring them even though he had seen and rode on more modern ones already.

you've gotten some great advice.

I am presently in London alone (a quick solo bonus trip) and heading here with kids this spring. After walking around the last few days and figuring out what they would like, here are my plans:

day 1: arrival late afternoon. plan on some quick orientation, and dinner, and Ceremony of the Keys that evening (I already have tickets). I wanted to get to the Tower before we did the Ceremony, but I don't want to push it.

day 2: Tower of London when opens. Beefeater Tour, Crown Jewels. lunch maybe in the Tower cafe. Walk to Tower Bridge and see it. Walk to St. Paul's, climb to the top (breathtaking views). dinner, bed

day 3: Westminster Abbey, Changing of the Horse Guards, Cabinet War Rooms (I know many don't recommend for kids, but mine are interested and we'll explain it to their level), maybe a walk through St. James Park ? or to Covent Garden. dinner, bed.

I'll share more thoughts, but I'm getting kicked off.

@Bowsprit: I saw the site. Those souvenirs look really nice. I like the catapault. I think my kids will like the coloring postcards. They may want to get the pencils too. I will see what is available when we go there.

@Lynnaustin: I saw the duck tours. Looks very unique. Is there any place I can get discount for the ticket? They have family ticket, but I still would have to one extra child ticket. I will explore it a little more to understand what all they show.

@HImom: My kids will like theater. But I hear theater tickets are expensive. So, may consider it if we have time. But would not put it first in the list.

Thanks a lot again everyone. I am really enjoying this thread since it gives me so many information, to plan a great trip for the family.

<B>Surfmom:</B> If I can suggest a minor adjustment to your plan w/ the kids. Since the kids may be bushed day 2 because of the late night and early morning at the Tower -- instead of walking to St Paul's, you can jump on a #15 bus right outside the Tower and get off in front of St Paul's.

oooh, janisj, that's why you're the expert! I was in St. Katharine's Docks area Monday and thought of you... remembering that you had an apartment there last trip. It really is a wonderful little peaceful spot, isn't it ? I had fun in my brain thinking of what the Dickens Inn looks like in spring!

I'm off to a lecture by Quentin Blake... the illustrator of Roald Dahl books. I know it is a random thing, but I think it will be interesting...