London w/kids itinerary help please!
 

Next week, we are leaving with our 2 daughters (9 and 13) for London and Paris. I am trying to work out the London part of the itinerary. It is so hard to fit it all into 4 full days! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Of course, this will all be flexible, depending on waning energy levels of daughters. We are staying in an apartment in the Knightsbridge area.


May 24 thurs
Arrive at Gatwick in AM
Gatwick Express to Victoria—cab to apt in Knightsbridge
Explore Knightsbridge
Harrods
Walk around Hyde Park
Dinner: Indian food at Shikara


May 25 frid
Tower of London in AM (Tube Tower Hill)
Tower Bridge
Explore Notting Hill area--lunch Lazy Daisy Cafe
Visit Hummingbird bakery
British Museum at Night?
Jack the Ripper walk w/out kids?

May 26 sat
Camden Market (Tube Camden Town)
Horseback riding in Hyde Park
Victoria and Albert Museum
Covent Garden
Carluccio's for dinner?

May 27 sun
London Eye
Buckingham Palace (Tube Green Park)
St James Park (walking around)
Brass Rubbing at St Martin in Fields
Lunch at Café in the Crypt
National Gallery

May 28 mon
Westminster Abbey (Tube Westminster)
See Big Ben
11 am St. James changing of horse guards parade?
Cabinet War Rooms
If time--shopping around Oxford and Bond Street
Billy Elliot 7:30 pm


May 29
10:40 Eurostar to Paris

Saturday looks a bit full. And I believe the Cafe in the Crypt is closed at present.

Don't know where you're flying from but you don't make any allowance for jetlag.

I fear this might turn into something of a forced march. I'd pay attention to the kids' degree of interest and tiredness, maybe slow down and assume you'll all come back some day.

Mimar: thanks for letting me know that cafe in the crypt is closed. We are flying in from Florida, so I know we will be pretty tired--we'll see how we manage...

Riding in Hyde Park - unless you have an overwhelming ambition to do this I'd skip it. If you enjoy riding you won't enjoy it as much as riding in the countryside. If you don't ride, it's a hell of an expensive way to have a 'pony ride'. The Hyde Park stables charges £53 (roughly $106)per hour at the weekend, so that would be over $400 on a one hour family activity.

Thursday sounds fine, as you can cut out the walking in parks if you get too tired. We have found that shopping the first day (eg, your Harrods plan) is an activity that diverts our attention from jet lag, and you if you zone out you don't wreck some sight that you'd much rather be awake for.

Be aware that during the night hours, the museums have a reduced number of galleries open. This worked fine for us at the V&A where we just wanted to poke around and see the dresses (which were open), but we got burned at the British Museum, where only the ground floor galleries and a few Egyptian galleries on the first floor were open, and we REALLY wanted to see the Anglo-Saxon rooms. At present, I think some of those galleries have closed (or are closing) but the Lewis Chessmen are still on display - I'm pretty sure. The Lindow Man is off display, however.

I'm not sure that Camden is the best market for girls of 9 and 13. I might do Portobello instead (and explore Notting Hill then) - but go early on Sat. Another market that is great on a Saturday morning is Borough Market - both my girls love it (they are older, but I don't think that would matter). It gets pretty crowded on Saturday afternoon.

The V&A is great for girls that age.

Covent Garden is fun. The transport museum is still closed, I think.

I think the brass rubbing centre is closed along with the cafe in the crypt. The National Portrait Gallery is small and surprisingly interesting for families, so that is something in the same area to consider.

I'd save walking around St. James park for when you see the Cabinet War Rooms and the Horse Guards. They are all together.

One thing you don't have that is wonderful is the treasures room at the British Library. This might be my favorite single thing in London.

Have fun and report back!!

good comments so far.

I would re-think what you do which days - use a map of London to group things better. Like Friday for instance:

The Tower of London/Tower Bridge on the far east end of central London, then across the whole city to Notting Hill, then back across most of the city to the British Museum (or across the whole city to the Ripper walk). This is fairly nuts when there are other sites on your list which are much closer together. You'll be wasting a LOT of time just traveling back and forth.

(BTW, I would <u>definitely</u> skip the Ripper Walk)

Sat is a bit better but you are still traveling north, then south west, then east

I guess I might actually put Buckingham Palace on that day that you are doing Cabinet War Rooms. It's just a walk by at this time of year. The Mews is supposed to be fun (horses and carriages).
http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/de...icle&amp;ID=31


When you finish the Eye, you could take a boat on the river to the area near the Tate Modern/Globe Theatre. The fast Tate 2 Tate boat stops at both, and we got a discount with our Oyster cards I think even a tube ticket would have worked, but not sure) We've not done the Globe tour, but it's reported to be very good.

If you do the shopping on a different day then you could the Sunday stuff on Monday - when it'll be quieter

Camden market BTW is better on a Sunday - though incredibly crowded. For some peace and quiet walk along the canal tow path and walk up Primrose Hill for the views


For a good map of central London see www.tfl.gov.uk/assets/downloads/centlond.pdf

it seems to me you have a lot of shopping time built in, but you know yourself and your daughters best.
At ages 6 and 10, my kids (boys) really enjoyed visiting Windsor Castle. Much more impressive and castle-like than Buckingham Palace, and it also has a changing of the guard ceremony.

Unless you/your daughters really insist on horseback riding, I'm inclined to recommend Regent's Park instead on Sunday. Roses in Queen Mary's garden inside the park should be getting ready to bloom.

I like how you have your restaruant choices already selected. I wish we had done this. I think we would have been less disappointed with the food.

I like your choices of activities but would skip the Jack the Ripper walk as another poster suggested. One thing our family did was choose which sights were 4* attractions, 3*, etc. and try to hit the top priorities first just so we wouldn't be disappointed if we ran out of energy for everything. We loved Billy Elliot - good choice! If you're looking for another play, my kids really enjoyed Agatha Christie's Mousetrap.

Have a great trip!

We visited London with our daughter for several years when my SIL lived there. Overall I agree with most of the comments above. Would skip Jack the Ripper tour, would skip the horseback ride, would go to Portobello rather than Camden (and go early!) Also, when we were there 2 years ago you could no longer do brass rubbings at St Martin in the Fields. We also enjoyed seeing the changing of the guards from the vantage point of the Horse Guards parade on Whitehall, rather than Buckingham. That's where they start and end and you can practically touch the horses - no crowds. Since Buckingham itself won't be open when you're there (and it's almost impossible to see anything), thought it might be a possibility.

We always set aside at least a half a day and let our daughter pick some things to do. She felt more a part of the trip, and she rarely complained about the visits to the museums and galleries easier. Some of the choices we thought were truly awful (London Dungeon (near Globe Theatre) comes to mind) but she loved it and if she had it on the list we did it. However, some were really interesting and different and turned out to be fun. Just a thought.

In August 2006 we did brass rubbings at the London Brass Rubbing Centre in the undercroft of St. Martin in the Fields. At the moment the entire church is closed for construction, and will be through the end of September:
http://www2.stmartin-in-the-fields.o...home/home.html

If it makes you feel any better, it was hot, crowded, and understaffed when we were there. And the rubbing wasn't as much fun as I thought it would be.

Great theater choice. Have you bought your tickets yet? I got mine at a discount at Broadwaybox.com/london when I saw this show last month.

Somedude do you post anything else apart from your constant spamming of Broadwaybox?