Sorry to hijack the thread, but this could help the OP too - I looooove the Marylebone area (and find it super convenient to everything.) Does anyone have recommendations for budget hotels in this area? (Under 250 pounds a night for a single room)

Fleur_de_Lys, you have a new, distinct question. It may be a good idea to post a separate thread to draw the attention of veteran travelers who are able to help with hotel recommendations.

Go to booking.com and put in your preferred neighborhood. I’ve never stayed in Marylebone so no suggestions.

Ditto. This topic has more than 80 responses and you are asking a different question. Much better to start a new thread.

Marylebone covers quite big area, some parts are better than others. I would want to stay fairly close to Marylebone Road. In that price range I would take a look at the Montagu Place Hotel. Nobu on Portman Square is very nice but you would be lucky to get it at under £300 pn. , but you never know (they do a great and reasonably priced bento box lunch though!)

Thank you so much for this helpful and kind reply! Really appreciate it.

To others: I wanted to post this here because I really do think Marylebone is a great, family-friendly area with lots of fun shopping and boutiques/parks + still closer to the main sights than some of the other places being suggested on this thread, so I thought OP could benefit from hearing that it might be a neighborhood to look at! Maybe over budget, but still just wanted to flag for OP!

You are welcome Fleur_de_lys - I too love the Marylebone area. We live not far away for part of the year and find ourselves heading there at least once week as it has some of our favourite eating places in London as well as easy access to some great sights and attractions.

London with Family – Sharing What Worked for Us

We did a very similar multigenerational London trip, and your plan already has a great foundation. With first-timers in the group, the classic sites really do land well — the Tower of London, the British Museum, Westminster, the Eye — they create those “this is London” moments for everyone.

For guides, a good storyteller changes everything. We had excellent experiences with Blue Badge Guides and Context Travel. Both kept the adults engaged and still managed to pull the younger ones into the history without overwhelming them.

For the kids, the places that surprised us the most were the Natural History Museum (the dinosaur gallery won over every age), the Science Museum, and a riverboat ride to Greenwich — simple, scenic, and never boring.

On stays: with a group of ten, having space makes a huge difference. We based ourselves in South Kensington, which felt safe, central, and walkable. If you want something a little special, look into a Presidential Apartment in South Kensington — plenty of room for a big family and close to transport, museums, and easy food options.

Your Windsor idea is spot on. It really is close to Heathrow, and spending the final night in Windsor or near the airport keeps departure day calm. We did something similar and were grateful for the reduced stress.

For day trips, teens tend to enjoy Oxford the most — lots of energy, beautiful colleges, easy walking, and just enough Harry Potter trivia to entertain everyone. If you prefer scenery, pairing Stonehenge + Bath is a great full-day experience.

As much as I would love to I don't think it will work for us to visit Windsor the last day and then stay close to the airport. I can't figure out a place for us to store our luggage that day until we check in. If anyone has an idea about that I would love to hear it!
I think we will only have time for the tourist sites in London (British Museum, Westminster Abbey, Tower of London, St Paul's, Tower Bridge, Sky Garden, Borough Market, Churchill War Rooms & probably Greenwich) that you mentioned and then a day to Windsor. We have 5 full days and then the day that we arrive, I am not counting on doing much that day. I have other things to visit if time allows and for whoever is interested (Craven Cottage, Leake Street Arches, Hyde Park, Pubs, Chinatown, Roman Wall).
The family with older kids will do the Churchill War Rooms.We have done it and loved it.
What are you thoughts on the other family with a 9 year old visiting it.

I have booked the Citadine at Trafalgar, we will have 3 apartments. We can pay for breakfast but not great reviews on that. Hopefully there will be a grocery store/bakery near by.
I think we will try and do the subway from Heathrow, it seems that is the recommendation. Any thoughts on that?

Firstly, can you not drop your bags at wherever you plan to stay in Windsor? If not, look for Stasher locations to leave them - I'm that sure there must be some.

There will be plenty of options for breakfast near Citadines. To buy stuff for your apartment there are two Gails bakeries very close (higher end) and many Tesco and Greggs outlets (lower end). Plus plenty off places to eat in nearby.

It's the Underground, popularly known as the Tube, not Subway, which is a pedestrian underpass or a sandwich shop. Very easy from Heathrow. Take the Piccadilly line and change at Hammersmith or Baron's Court to the District line to Embankment - the change is just cross platform, about 20 feet. Your apartment is a 220 yard walk from Embankment.

This is what I love about all of you, so willing to share your knowledge. We do not have public transportation or very little of it in Colorado so of course I misspoke when I called it a sub.
I have never heard of a Stasher so I will have to try and do a little research on that. I had not thought about staying in the Windsor area although that is not a bad idea any suggestions of maybe where we could stay and drop our luggage beforehand.

I haven’t heard of Stasher either, maybe it’s unique to London or the K. But there’s lots of places where you can store your bags for a couple of euros, we’ve used them Rome, Milan, Paris, etc. Oftentimes smaller grocery stores or laundries, they also book reliable airport transfers. They always have a board or notice outside listing their services.

However, most hotels will store your bags even if your room isn’t ready. Similarly, they’ll hopd them after checkout too, till later that afternoon/evening.

It's interesting that two of you do not know of stasher.com as it is a worldwide business - it lists around 100 locations in the US for example. Of course, there are maybe other similar businesses that are more prominent, but it's certainly well known in the UK. Not that I have ever had the need to use it but it does seem to have a decent reputation here.

I have used Radical Storage in London a couple of times.
https://radicalstorage.com

But that would be a lot of bags and it would be much, much better to find a hotel that will allow you to drop them off. Uprooting everyone for one night by the airport may take more time and energy than anticipated, as it is.

rialtogri, I am thinking you may be correct. Plus another thing to complicate this is that My husband and I are heading to Cornwall for 10 days after they leave. Someone had recommended we take the train to Exeter and rent a car there. So, I still need to work on that. It seems that I can take the tube from London to Exeter. We possibly will return the car to Heathrow when we depart. I need to get going on that decision.

Tidy - you're using the wrong word again here, not your fault of course. The Underground (tube) runs across Greater London but not any further. What you want for Exeter or other destinations towards and in Cornwall, are the regular trains. The faster trains that way are run by GWR (Great Western Railway) and leave from London Paddington station. You can connect to Exeter from Heathrow either taking the Elizabeth line to Hayes & Harlington, then a train to Reading and onwards from there, or take the RailAir coach direct from Heathrow to Reading. Or, if you are leaving from Windsor take the train to Slough and then Reading.

Exeter is a possible place to pick up a car but it's in Devon and still a good hour from Cornwall. You could carry on on the train to Plymouth which is still in Devon but right on the Cornish border and go further to either Truro or Penzance to get your car. That cuts out a lot of driving and it's a lovely train journey. You can always see some of Devon on the way back if you're going to drive back to Heathrow. My logic would be to get to the end of the line at Penzance and then work your way back.

Re Penzance: AFAIK the only major rental agency there is EuropCar (perfectly fine company). So you could do a one-way rental Penzance > LHR - its just that your options would be a bit limited so rates could be higher.


Enterprise is also there but I don't think they do 1-ways to LHR. But you could research that to be sure.

I've not heard of Stasher either but that doesn't mean anything one way or the other really.. However in a country of almost 350,000,000, 100 locations is a pretty tiny footprint.

Good point Janis. Penzance and also Truro are small places and will have limited car hire options. Plymouth is larger and I would imagine has more choice but the simple way to find out what will work is to check out what the companies can offer and for how much. You can of course always hire and return to one base and get to and fro to Heathrow by train. For that Plymouth is probably the most logical place.

Another way to possibly reduce costs is to also check out hiring from Heathrow and dropping off in the south west - that may be cheaper.

I perhaps have given the wrong impression there. Stasher is active in 100 cities in the US and has many individual locations in each. They vary greatly in number but NYC has for example over 110 locations. Given the business I assume these are going to be central where the demand for this sort of service is.

But they are clearly a UK based company and so more ubiquitous here. I am not trying to promote them - I have never had the need to use them. They are however frequently recommended on UK fora.