One week in London with kids
 

Now that the trip is booked and another couple and child decided to join us, it is way past time to plan our itinerary. We leave in two weeks and I would love a few suggestions on what to do with kids in London. What are the touristy musts? And what is off the beat path and cool?
Also, any suggestions of places to eat, would be great! Thanks again!

Eat ? London ? With brexit no hope the improvement on food will last.
Béer ? They drink it warm. Berk.
What our kids loved : Sherlock Holmes house.
He actually stayed there. There was a huge crowd. I can prove it with alternate fact.
Walk along ponds in gardens. Full of squirrels.
Tussaud (so ?).
And getting lost in the city.
Ah. Shopping.

Kids in London: how old are they?

I would suggest, for a start:
Natural History Museum - dinosaurs
Science Museum
Tower of London
London Eye

Harry Potter: https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/

w/o knowing how old the kids are, what sorts of interest they have, and what sorts of food they like - there is no way to give useful advice (and realize our friend Wo does think he's funny)

Where are you staying?

My young son enjoyed rowing a boat or was it a kayak in the Serpentine in Hyde Park.

We are 4 adults and 3 children (3, 4 and 6 y.o.)
The adults would love a pub (but we understand the challenge of having kids with us), good food, markets, and art. Would love to go to the British Museum (although we may only see a bit of it), and try to squeeze in Victorian and Albert or Tate. Which one is best?
The kids would love the Natural History Museum, the London Eye, a Castle, parks, etc.
Other than that, we would like to have afternoon tea and do some touristy things.
Looking into the Harry Potter studio tour and the Sherlock Holmes house.
Thanks so much!

We are staying in Kensington, by Earl's Court tube station. It's an interesting little area with a series of Mews-style homes. Seems like a very centralized area, with easy access to the tube and within walking distance to a couple of museums, the park, whole foods, etc.

Where are you staying?

They are quite young. You probably need to consider the parks, there are many, and feeding the ducks.

What about a picnic in one of them? Check that the weather before planing. You could do afternoon tea in the park with the kids. Pick up sandwiches and cakes in Waitrose/Tescos/Sainsburys and head to one of the glorious parks and let the kids run around.

I would probably advise against afternoon tea at posh hotel with three small kids.

Borough Market is the best of the food markets, but DO NOT GO THERE on Saturday - it is just awful. Go on Thursday or Friday morning.

You would LOVE the V&A (one of the best museums in the world IMO), kids might get a bit bored at that age.

The Tate might be very difficult with young kids -there would be little to interest them.

I think they would be interested in my original list, plus M. Tussaud.

Maybe consider splitting the day with one couple have the kids and doing kid stuff and one couple doing adult things for half-days?


I will add the aquarium - our Harry loved it at 4! He also loved Tower of London, Science Museum and feeding the ducks in Hyde Park.

https://www.visitsealife.com/London/


Here are some sites to help you plan:

http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to...o-do-with-kids

http://www.visitlondon.com/things-to...ZUt8RAHkT26.97

https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2...ly-holidays-uk

https://www.timeout.com/london/kids/...ondon-for-kids

https://www.timeout.com/london/kids/...ndon-with-kids

a Castle>

Well Tower of London is a castle and about the only one in London proper - be sure to take a boat ride on the Thames.

Check out the Covent Garden where there are unbituitous street performers -some of which may delight kids and also there is the London Transport Museum with lots of kids things:

http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/e...ily-activities

London Transport Museum - excellent recommendation!

The Princess Diana Memorial playground in Kensington gardens would be a must for kids those ages.

https://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/...ial-playground

The London Transport museum Garden (plus there is the extra of watching the buskers/street entertainers in Covent Garden)

http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk

The Tower of London for sure

Hampton Court Palace -- take the train to the palace and if the weather is nice you can take a boat back into town.

The V&A and Tate (both Tate's) are apples and oranges so no way to say which is 'better'. The Tate's are art galleries. The V&A is one of the great museums anywhere. But for families, I'd think the British Museum would be better than either.

The Natural History museum is terrific for kids and is across the street from the V&A.

Thank you, thank you!
I'm well aware of the challenge of traveling with little ones. We will certainly have to compromise and counterbalance an adult thing with a kid-friendly thing. ;)
These are great suggestions though and I very much appreciate all of your inputs!

Your kids are very young.. the 6 yr old you might get him/her to show some interest in some things in musuems.. ( like the Mummies at the Royal British, or the old beds and clothing etc at Victoria And Albert or the suits of armour and weapons at the Tower.. .. but really the 3 and 4 yr old are not going to be interested in those two wonderful musuems and the historical site.. (but if they are girls they might like seeing the Crown Jewels at the Tower) They will however likely enjoy the Natural History Museum , which is right across the street from the Victoria and Albert ( and close to where you are staying as you likely know) so there you go! Choice made. I personally think the Tate would bore even the 6 yr old.. its not one of my favorites either so perhaps I am biased.

I forgot to add every child's dream, and every adult's nightmare:

Hamleys in Regent Street

http://www.hamleys.com/explore-whatson-london.irs


If they have been very very good, you can promise them this. It is a magnificent toy store.



DO NOT GO ON A SATURDAY!

The Tower, definitely. I don't know why a 3-year old boy would not enjoy the crown jewels as much as a girl would, Justine?

Natural History Museum. Science Museum has a hands-on area for small children. I think the V&A does too (in the basement). Good thing is that these museums are free, so you can just pop in if you like.

Parks, playgrounds.

The London Duck tour - my kids loved that when they were little.

Just FYI, Earls Court station is walking distance to museums only if you like to walk a lot, and the kids are in a buggy. The South Kensington Museums would be 15 minutes. The nearest park would be Holland Park - very nice, there's a good playground there. I'd say about 15 minutes walk from Earls Court Station.

My grandchildren are a couple of years older.
They have always loved the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green.
It's fun for adults too "I had one of those!"
They often visit the Natural History Museum

They also like the Tower of London especially the ravens. One likes to pretend to be dead. She waits until she attracts a concerned crowd and gets up and strolls away

Personally, I can't imagine young children enjoying Madame Tussaud's.
I'd also forget about taking small children for afternoon tea in one of the smarter locations. It wouldn't be fair on them or the other patrons.

You can actually get afternoon tea in the V and A cafe. Food in museums can be quite good.

It looks like it will coincide wth school holidays so there may be extra child-centred activities going on, especially over the Easter weekend itself, which incudes Monday which is a bank (public) holiday (although Easter's late so schools may go back early in the week).

EG Hampton Court: http://www.hrp.org.uk/hampton-court-...ce/#gs.p13bmJM

Harry Potter Studios is incredible if your kids are fans! London Dungeons is great fun also.

We were just in London last week with our 6 year-old son. We stayed near Gloucester Road Station. We loved the area. We ate at a lot of quicker service or casual places like Pret A Manger, Wagamama, Herman Ze German, etc. We also did sandwiches, fruit and sushi from Waitrose or M&S. We also loved getting cookies from Ben's Cookies and gelato from Amorino.

What he LOVED:

The Science Museum - we spent a good chunk of the day there. There are a good number of hands-on things for the kids.

Tower Bridge - we did the experience and he loved laying down on the glass floor and looking at everyone below.

Museum of London - this may be boring for the little ones, but our son enjoyed many aspects of this museum. The people working there were great at explaining things to him at his level.

Warner Bros. Studio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter - he has only seen the first 4 movies, but he was fascinated with seeing the props and sets from the movies. We spent about 4 hours here.

Tower of London - he loved climbing up and down the towers and seeing the ravens.

The Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens - this was a fantastic playground, with bathrooms on site. We spent 2 hours here. The park is beautiful to walk through as well.

The Cutty Sark - he loved this clipper ship museum in Greenwich. It has lots of hands-on displays for children.

The playground at Greenwich Park - this playground was very nice and has bathrooms on site.

Hamley's Toy Shop on Regent Street - we spent a couple of hours here. Luckily, our son is very good about not asking for much. I think we got away with only spending 20 pounds here!

The Shard - he is fascinated with skyscrapers and wants to be a builder when he grows up, so he loved seeing this building and the view from the top.

St. Paul's Cathedral - it was all about the Whispering Gallery. He loved that. We sped through the rest of the church.


What was just OKAY to him:

The Natural History Museum - he enjoyed the volcanoes and earthquakes section, but the dinosaurs, bugs, and other areas were presented very dryly, not really as kid-friendly as we had hoped.

The Sky Garden at the Walkie Talkie Building - he loves skyscrapers, but he was bored after 5 minutes.

Coram's Fields - not a very good playground. We only stayed 35 minutes so he could get some wiggles out.

Playground in St. James's Park - great for the preschool set, but very small.

We missed Hampton Court Palace due to a day of heavy rain that kept us inside and chose to use our free nice weather day to head out to Bath, which we don't regret. Bath is amazing and if you or anyone goes there, the playground at Victoria Park is amazing, we were there for 3 hours. The Roman Baths are also very child-friendly.

London is fantastic for children. We all hope to return for another visit soon!

Oh -- PLEASE not the Dungeon!!!! It is schlocky, and gory -- these are little kids.

London is a lot of walking! I vote for V&A or British Museum over Tate. Natural history great too.

Agree, no dungeon, they're too young.

Also I think they're too young for Sherlock Holmes - it's small and boring. My daughter loved it but she was 16 at the time I took her at her request and was watching Sherlock on netflix.

Harry Potter Studios is awesome and worth the trip, but perhaps when they are older? i'm thinking they may not even know Harry Potter yet? Madame Tussauds wax museum might actually have more characters they recognize - star wars, marvel, not sure.

I second Tower of London and Tower Bridge, just fabulous and a must see for all ages.

I also agree that St. Paul's cathedral an be enjoyable for all ages. It's big and pretty and has the whispering wall.

Not sure where you are staying but there are many many great parks throughout London. I also think St. James park is a nice choice and they sometimes have bands playing.

Covent Garden can be fun as someone mentioned. There is always lot of hustle and bustle there, street performers, etc. and pickpockets (that can be anywhere) but it can get crowded and you can easily be distracted with the street performers! So, keep smart under clothes wallets and hold hands in crowded areas!

Here's a day out of town thought: http://www.bekonscot.co.uk/

Went there when I was 4 and 7 (it's been around a while).

According to my next generation, between the Tate and the V&A the answer was always the National Gallery - or the National Portrait Gallery.

The crucial thing about Britain's major museums and art galleries is that they're all free. So no queues and no need to hang around any longer than a small child's attention span can handle. If they're clearly bored after 7 minutes, who cares? You just leave.

Why not go to two or three (especially around South Ken)? In an hour you can do taster sessions of the V&A, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum.

A number of my 5-9 yo nieces and nephews LOVED the National and the NPG (next door to each other): a few minutes of their child-friendly tours gave them a hint of what galleries were like - and by quitting while we were all ahead, they never learned galleries were boring.

30 years later, they're either in those galleries' Friends' loyalty programmes. Or they keep telling me at clan gatherings how they learned a whole new side of life they'd never have stumbled over without those "wham, bam. thank you ma'am" sessions.

None of them - not even the nephew who became a Friends'Chair of one of the Tates - we ever dared drag to a Tate. Just not designed for younger people - though you do often see ambitious young mothers trying to inculcate their children. In our clan, Tates were one step too far.

Even there, though: both Tates are on glorious walks along the Thames kids (well, Flannerkids) will love. So it doesn't hurt to try. The Flannerclan, of course, doesn't hold with letting kids say they don't like things - till they've tried them

Wonderful! You guys are just amazing! Thank you so much for all of the suggestions and comments.
I often get asked: why take the kids? And then told: It will be fun!... but maybe not as fun!
Well... I recognize I may not be able to enjoy a few pubs or shows, or even some museums and tours, but I also believe that I can come back and do all of that when they are older and living their own lives with family. They are growing up So fast and I would love to instill some beautiful experiences in their lives while they are young. We went to Paris a couple of year ago, for a week, and at ages 2 and 4, they did wonderfully well, at the muse d'orsay, louvre, etc... as long as we rode carrousels, ferris wheels, we went to cirque d'hiver, etc. they loved it! They still talk about t and ask to go back!
So I surely appreciate all these comments. And I agree with you all that the Tate will be difficult for the kids. Perhaps we can take a stroll on the bridge and just walk over, even if just to see the building (in an architect and have always admired this Herzog and de Meuron's project).
Now this will be a stretch, but I'll give it is a shot: good Indian food and fish and chips around south Kensington or close to some of the places mentioned??
Thanks again!

Tulips.. yeah.. the fact is most little boys are not into princesses and queens and fancy jewels. Raised two and a girl.. and yeah, I bought my son a baby doll , I was going to be all gender neutral too.. But most kids just like what they like, and for most boys that doesn't include standing on a conveyor belt to see fancy jewels.. especially three year olds. I am surprised you think your 3 yr old son would enjoy it.. did he?

Following, as we're considering a trip with children of similar ages to yours. Please report back on how it went!

3 is very young - and my son enjoyed the tower just as much as his sisters did at that age. They all thought the ravens and the tour much more fun than the jewels, though.

Tate Modern; do the walk from Borough Market, and have a look inside. It's huge. They may have something striking, that the kids enjoy. Years ago there was a huge slide, from near the top to the ground floor, as part of an art installation. Now that, they enjoyed!

ooh, weren't the Slides GREAT! I wish they could be reprised some time