London: Need help with 4 day Itinerary with Autistic child
 

I am traveling to London in a few weeks (late July/early August) for one week, but we technically have only 4 days to sight see with two other adult friends. My son is a child with mild Autism and I will be taking his special needs buggy.

Would you mind helping me with my itinerary? Not yet in itinerary: We want to see Peter Pan @ Kensington Park/Gardens and we also have to squeeze in a dinner with friends wherever we can meet. We also want the double decker bus experience and the River cruise experience somehow -- How do we do that, where to fit in?
And the Harry Potter experience -- visiting 9 3/4 platform.Notting Hill visit, too.

My draft of the itinerary is below:

Thanks!

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London Itinerary:

Arrive: Wed, 29 July: Rest Day

Thursday 30th July: Kensington & South Kensington
Ease into that Thursday with some easy stuff: Princess Diana Memorial Playground in nearby Kensington Gdns, Play date with friends children. Picnic Lunch with kids.
-- Natural Museum of History: There is a Butterfly Garden inside, a new exhibit that has hundreds of living butterflies flying about the place, where you can touch them, walk with them, etc. Free museum, butterly: 6 quid.

FRI: St. James/Westminster
--Big Ben (just for the picture and to hear its bell)
* Westminster Abbey (but the last admission is 3:30) - across from Big Ben apparently
* London Eye (You don't have to suffer! We'll go--it's only 30 min.)
*Dali Museum
*Dinner with mates somewhere local

SAT: The City
--Tower of London
-- is it possible to have a Boat ride past London Bridge to Tate Modern?
--Tate Modern
--Trafalgar Square & Cafe in the Crypt (it's inside St Martin in the Fields at Trafalgar Sqare! A crypt!!)

SUN:
--Play date and lunch in North London
--Perhaps visit the Kings Cross station? (Platform 9 3/4)
--Piccaddilly Circus
--Trafalgar Square et al (if we had not seen it yet)

MON:
--Check out flat, taxi to Paddington, train to Wales

I don't know how long certain visits take, and there are so many places to visit.

The Tate Modern can take as long or as little as you like. I was mainly interested in the building itself, so spent maybe ten minutes there in total as part of a walk along the South Bank. (Admission is free, though there can be special exhibitions that do charge fees.)

My suggestion would be to put Trafalgar Square on the Sunday schedule, since it's so close to Piccadilly Circus. Instead, on Saturday, if the weather is nice you may really enjoy walking along the South Bank. There's a nice broad smooth walkway along the river, heading from the direction of Tower Bridge past the Tate toward the Eye, and the view of London is excellent. It could be a nice chillout for you & your son, and it'd be easy to push his buggy!

It might help to know how old your son is and how far he is able/willing to walk at a stretch. The buggy folds, I guess.

My son, who has Autism, is 7 1/2 and can walk a fair bit, but becomes tired easily and does get sensorily overwhelmed. I hate foldinig up that buggy -- which is actually a transport wheelchair -- but will do when I go on the tube and bus.

Hi, LA mum,
The Thames Clippers boats will take you from Bankside Pier to Canary Wharf Pier, or even all the way to Greenwich. These are the speedier commuter style boats without loudspeaker comment, so if he likes speed but not loud noises this might be just the ticket. You must go east of Tower Pier to go under Tower Bridge.
http://www.thamesclippers.com/routes...for-tower.html

Picadilly Circus is almost a definition of sensory stimulation, along the same general lines as Times Sq.

Hi - I'm not clear why the Peter Pan statue visit isn't already in the itinerary on Thursday since you'll be right there in Kensington Gardens?

No suggestions on your itinerary. My only thought was the length and height of the escalators in the tube. It would be good to find out about elevators. It may be a bit difficult to manage your son and his buggy - but perhaps you have done this before and have a system that works.