Off to London on Friday...need some last minute suggestions..
 

Hello Everyone...this is my first trip to London and it is quite last minute. I'm leaving Friday with my 3 kids (16,16 and 13) for 6 days over our Spring break. We'll be staying in a budget hotel near the Paddington Underground station (Olympic House Hotel) and arriving at 6 am. (Heathrow) (I'm hoping we'll be in our room only to sleep, so it won't matter too much.) We want to see the tower, Westminster, some museums, maybe Kensington Palace, the Eye, do a Beatles walk, visit markets and overall explore the city...

I have four major questions...(and a lot of minor ones, but we'll be fine...after all, it's an adventure!), and I'll take any pointers you can offer...

1. When getting from Heathrow to our hotel, can I take the underground and if so, what tickets (oyster or travel card etc.) would be
the most economical for my family? I know we'll be doing a lot of traveling by tube and bus as I doubt we'll be at the hotel much while we're there and of course we'll be walking too. Are we too last minute to get kid's/family discounts on travel cards?

2. I'd like to start off our first day (Saturday)with a nice breakfast and one of my sons is really looking forward to the Portobello road market(he's especially interested in vintage clothing, music(vinyl) and books). Is Saturday (our arrival day) the best (only) day for that market? and if so, any suggestions for a nice breakfast resturaunt that morning in the general area?

3. Do I need to get tickets early for the
London Eye?

4. Any specific suggestions for what days are better to visit certain sites than others?

Thanks so much for your expertise! I am eagerly awaiting the trip and your comments/advice.

I have not been to London yet but noe847 has a great trip report that may answer some of your questions. I'm sorry I don't know how to link it here for you. Do a search under that name. Also if you search under London you can find a lot of helpful information.

I can give you some specific information later, but have to run right now. We just got back from a 6 day trip - I've just topped our trip report for you.

Topping again...

letsgonow2 - From HEATHROW you can take the Heathrow Express train directly to Paddington station. You just need to ask at the airport and the info desk will direct you where to go.
From Paddington station(which is also an underground station)it is a 3-5min walk to your hotel in Sussex Gardens.
Have a look at the hotel and rooms on Venere.com or tripadvisor.

Next, Have breakfast at the hotel on the first morning ( it will be basic cereal, toast, etc.) and rather have a nice lunch. Next morning you will know the area better. May have to walk along to Queensway where there are lots of eateries but it's quite a walk from where you are.

Then about the London Eye. Just arrive and go and get your tickets immediately. Then you can decide when you would like to climb aboard! Theres lots going on outside County Hall - an aquarium, pizza place, coffee shop etc.
The kids will probably like to stand on Westminster Bridge and watch the river traffic for a few moments.(Tube will take you directly from Paddington underground to Westminster tube stop where you get off).

If you have a good guide book on London you can't go wrong.
Lotsa luck, have a great time with the kids!

Since the words "budget" and "economical" appear in your post, I recommend against the Heathrow Express.

For transport into and around London, you should get an Oyster Card and load a 7-day Travelcard for Zones 1-2 plus airport extensions on it (the latter are actually single fares to Zone 6, where LHR is).

This page details fares for adults and under-18s (it's basically half off):

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...6/index2.shtml

Note that 16-17yo are supposed to have a photo ID card to qualify for child fares:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...toApp-form.pdf

The complete TfL tariff is here:

http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...006.pdf#page=1

Saturday is the best day for Portobello Road. We loved having breakfast at Tom's on Westbourne Grove, but it's quite small. We were lucky to get a table.
Have fun!

Wow letsgonow...there is a current posting "London Family Trip" with a response by Mr. Ben Haines..a London expert. There is so much information there. Just wanted to be sure you didn't miss it.

gbfarra has a current thread seeking info on a London family trip. Ben Haines has replied with a list of things for children in London - the target audience is a bit younger than your children, but there may be some useful info there.

oops, didn't see gomiki's response!

The Heathrow express to Paddington is a very nice option. Booking roundtrip might be cheaper.
Portabello is packed on Saturdays so be prepared and watch for pickpockets.
Go clear to the end and the underpass, turn left and you'll see the stuff my teenagers loved, clothing etc.
Continue that direction for good tube and bus connections.
Try and take your kids to a show, there are many choices.
I believe sixteen year olds may drink in pubs with their parents.

A car service will be cheaper than the Heathrow Express, and in my opinon, preferable as it's a door-to-door service.

You might wish to book London Eye tickets online (if that option is still available).

Your son might also like Camden market...although in my opinon Portobello is far classier.

A car service will cost $80.

You can get from Heathrow to your hotel on public transport for less than $10.

I think the complexity of the bus system is grossly exaggerated. Look here for some pointers:

http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34739639

For our 6 day trip we got 7 day travelcard on an Oyster Card. It cost us £22 for each card, which I figured would be the most economical for us. I read a ton of stuff online, especially at the tfl website: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...06/index.shtml

Reading all the fare info is pretty confusing, especially when you get to the ages of the children you have. Please bear in mind that new fares structures went into effect in January, so old information won't be particularly useful. I will try to give you the gist of what I learned, but I am just a fellow visitor.

There are half price travelcards available for 16 and 17 year olds. You can print the forms from the tfl site and fill them out in advance. You will need a passport sized picture, as a photocard is required as well as an Oyster Card. When we got to the tube station to purchase our passes, I realized that I left the paperwork at the hotel. We could have gone to another part of the station and gotten new forms and the pictures taken. I THINK we could have gotten the photo card "while we wait", but at that point I decided to just get our daughter the full fare Oyster. We were trying to get to a church service on time (that didn't happen because of weekend closures on the Underground) and I figured I wasn't going to that aggravation for £10 savings (compared to the cost of the trip, this was pretty minor!). If we lived in London, or had a longer visit, the savings obviously would have added up.

As for the 14 year old, the fares are incredibly cheap for under 16's. But to get them a travel card, you need a photo card as well. It looked from the information I could find that this has to be applied for a few weeks in advance of the trip. (I was checking this for friends who were traveling at the same time with their 3 children, one of whom was 14.)

So, you could just get them all Oyster Cards with regular fares, or talk to them about the lower price children's fares when you get there.

And, getting further out of my league, I thought that tube service is available to Heathrow?

All five of you can get from Heathrow to your hotel on public transport (Tube & bus) for less than $10.

Buses are free for under-16s.

Robespierre, do the under 16's need a photo card to ride the bus for free?

It's complicated: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/fares-tick...eetravel.shtml

To answer some of your other questions:

If you land on Saturday, you might want to head off for Portobello right after you drop off your bags at the hotel (I’m assuming it will be too early to check into your room). Saturday is supposed to be the big day there, and from what I’ve heard, it’s best to get there pretty early, as it gets good and crowded (We went on Friday, so had no crowds). You can take the tube to Ladbroke Grove and start at the Westway flyover where the vintage clothing is, and go from there. Sorry I can’t help with a breakfast idea, but you can probably pick up something ‘on the run.’

I think that Sunday is the big day for the Camden market (did I read that this is the biggest tourist attraction in Britain???). This market is supposed to have a more punk edge. If you don’t make the market itself, I think there are shops in that area that are open through the week, although we never made it out there.

Charing Cross (and side streets) is the traditional book selling area, and I was also told that there are books up by London University in Bloomsbury.

If you buy tickets in advance for the London Eye it will save you standing in the ticket queue. You can just go to a machine and swipe your credit card or go to a counter for advance purchase tickets. We got ours online the day we left home to go to London for the next day because we saw that the weather would be clear (and it turned out to be the only clear evening.) We went at sunset, which was worth it, imo. There was a line to buy tickets, but it was a weekend. I don’t know how much line there would be on a weekday.

In general, I would bet that you won’t face very long lines at the attractions at this time of year. We were just there 2 weeks ago, and didn’t really have crowds anywhere. We went to Westminster Abbey in the morning (but not right when it opened) and there was no line whatsoever. We got to the Tower in the afternoon (3:30), and also no line (although I would have liked to have had more time there. We left pretty close to closing time and we had a theater performance to get to.) The Yeoman Warder’s tour was really fun at the Tower. It lasts about an hour.

Since there is so much to do in London, and no way that you will ever fit it all in, I would suggest that you have each family member make a list of the things he or she wants to do the most, and try to work in everyone’s top 3 choices. Or decide which common things you are absolutely going to do (Tower, Westminster, Eye) and have them rank their other priorities. This will especially work for museums. As much as I would have liked to see the British Museum, the National Gallery was my top choice, my daughter wanted to see the dresses at the Victoria and Albert, and my husband wanted to see the Churchill Museum, so we made sure we got to those. We also split up on some days, which enabled my daughter and I to shop (a top priority for her) while my husband went to the Maritime museum at Greenwich.

How do I find the message from Ben Haines? I can't find gbfarra's thread, and I didn't see another post by Ben Haines to be able to click onto....