London Itinerary for family of six - feel free to share advice
 

Our family of six (DH and I, two sons ages 14 and 11, my parents) will be in London June 9-13. This is our brief itinerary. We would love your suggestions or input if you have them. Thanks, KimiG

June 9, Tuesday
Arrive Heathrow at 6:50 a.m., drop luggage at hotel, meet up with either Big Bus Tour or Orginial Tour - double decker buses. Overview of London, perhaps catch changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

If not completely exhausted, perhaps the London Eye


June 10, Wednesday

10:45 Meet the London Walks The Tower of London walk.

St Paul’s

Tower Bridge

Borough Market for food .... or

Dinner: Dickens Inn, St Katharine's Dock, Tower Bridge,
London, E1W 1UH (across bridge from Tower)
Or
Butler’s Warf Chophouse
36E Shad Thames
London, SE1, United Kingdom
020 7403 3403‎


Ceremony of the Keys (yes, we have received our tickets)


June 11, Thursday

Hampton Court

Begin at Waterloo station Travel office – package of train to Hampton Ct and boat back. (Can stop at Key Gardens on the way back)

Meeting friends for Pub Crawl that evening. Boys and parents will eat near hotel in Kensington.


June 12, Friday


10.45 am on Fridays The Westminster Walk

Churchill’s War Room

Parliament/Big Ben

10 Downing Street

Covent Garden in evening

7:30 p.m. Possible Ghost Walk of London

These are other restaurants that have been recommended to us:

* Cork and Barrel Wine Bar, off Leicester Square.

*The Stanhope Arms pub near the entrance/exit of the Gloucester tube station.

*Earl's Court Tavern near the Earl's Court station

*The North Sea Fish Restaurant

* Browns Bar & Brasserie Covent Garden 82-84 St Martins Lane, Covent Garden, London
WC2N 4AA

*Sherlock Holmes Pub (10 Northumberland Street).

The Wolseley-The famous and historic restaurant set in a grand historic building on Piccadilly in Mayfair. Serves traditional British fare. http://www.thewolseley.com/

Locanda Locatelli-One of the city’s best Italian restaurants located in Marylebone just north of Mayfair. http://www.locandalocatelli.com/

River Cafe – Run by the famous chefs Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, this famous Italian restaurant offers some great views of the river along with an excellent menu. About 15 minutes in a cab from Mayfair. http://www.rivercafe.co.uk/

A few comments:

<i>June 9, Tuesday
Arrive Heathrow at 6:50 a.m., drop luggage at hotel, meet up with either Big Bus Tour or Orginial Tour - double decker buses. Overview of London, perhaps catch changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace

If not completely exhausted, perhaps the London Eye</i>

You do realize the HOHO bus are fairly expensive... I think £22 per person?

<i>June 10, Wednesday

10:45 Meet the London Walks The Tower of London walk.

St Paul’s

Tower Bridge

Borough Market for food .... or [snip]</i>

Borough Market is only open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.
http://www.boroughmarket.org.uk/

<i>June 11, Thursday

Hampton Court

Begin at Waterloo station Travel office – package of train to Hampton Ct and boat back. (Can stop at Key Gardens on the way back)</i>

Hampton Court Palace will pretty much take up your whole day. Have you read a recent trip report on HCP - there are some special events this year due to the 500th anniversary of Henry VIII's ascension to the crown. One of the event is a costumed wedding of Henry VIII to Katherine Parr, and visitors are invited to the "wedding". I think it'll be lots of fun for your kids.
http://www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPa...n/Default.aspx

anyway, I don't think you will really have time or the energy for Kew (note the spelling) Gardens.

BTW, just to illustrate my point about the HOHO sightseeing bus fares... for the 6 of you (4 adults; 2 children), you are looking at paying at least £100 for a 24-hr ticket.

OTOH, you can ride any London buses all day long for just £3.80 per person using a one day bus pass. Children ages 11-15 travel <u>free</u> on buses if they have the "11-15 Oyster photocard" (which you can apply for them in advance). Therefore, for the 6 of you, you can ride on London buses all day long for a grand total of £16 vs > £100 on the sightseeing bus.

For more info on the 11-15 Oyster photocard, do a search here or look for it at www.tfl.gov.uk

For a self-guided sightseeing bus tour on regular buses, print out this Central Bus Map
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...al_bus_map.pdf

For more info on fares on buses and tubes:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloa...s-zones1-6.pdf

This is why I made this post. Thank you for the great advice! I did not know the Borough Market was only open Thursday - Saturday. And I cannot wait to read the link on Hampton Court.

Yes, I know the HOHO tour is a bit pricey - there is a prepaid family price of 69 pds for all of us. I thought (particuly for my senior citizen parents) that it might be a good activitiy for the first day with jet lag.

That's a good price then for the HOHO bus! I think it was lauratg who recently posted about the Hampton Court "wedding" on her trip report. Do as search here for lauratg and the HCP segment is towards the end.

The London Eye is best done if the weather is good so don't go based on the fact you're exhausted or not... pick a clear day/evening if you can.

If your plane arrives at 7 am you won;t get to the hotel before 9am. I would go get some breakfast, see the Changing of the Guard You need to be there early to get close enough to see anything, THEN go on the HOHO bus - if you must. We don;t like these buses at all - prefer just to go see what we want - but it's up to you.

Also, can't believe you missing almost all the museums. At a minimum hit the highlights of the British Museum - and the London Museum is fascinating and has a bunch of interactive exhibits for kids.

Agreed - even if your family doesn't get into art museums, the British Museum is incredible and has a wide variety of things, and the Museum of London is great. Plus there's no law saying you all have to do the same thing all the time!

I was going to suggest a do-your-own walking tour rather than the HOHO tours, since many of the sites are close together and I've heard reports of people falling asleep on the buses on their arrival day! But with your parents being along, the bus may be a better idea.

Agreed on the London Eye - you really don't need to plan too far in advance on that one. Do it based on the weather. I've done it at sunset and thought that was great - you get to see the city in the daytime(ish) and then as all the lights are coming on.

just digging up some old threads... how did it go ? Did you do the HOHO bus ? Last time I did that on arrival day, I was one of those that fell asleep... we're much happier spending the day outside - preferably in a park or somewhere we can walk -