We are a family of 4 travelling to london in Nov. Kids are aged 2 & 6. We have 2 full days (thursday,8th Nov. & friday) in London. We have booked Ray's london-transfers for pick-up & drop-off to a hotel near Waterloo from LHR. We are going to buy one day travelcard for thursday & one day adult bus pass for friday (in LHR tube station?).The plan is as follows..
Thursday :
9:00 - 12:30 : Tower of London
2:30- 4:30 : Westminister Abbey
6:00 - 7:00 : London Eye
Friday :
8:00-12:00 :Walk to Trafalgar sq & from there, to Buckingham palace.
Changing of guards
2:00 - rest of the day : British Museum

Since you are on a fairly tight schedule you may want to get your Tower of London tickets ahead of time to make sure you don't waste time standing in line.

just a couple of very quick comments just now . . .

Get to the Tower at or just before opening time and there won't be much of a line.

I really would re-think the Changing of the Guard. The kids won't be able to see anything unless they sit on your shoulders the whole time - which can get very old very fast. And it will likely be pretty cold and/or damp. Standing in the same place for 90 minutes on a November morning is not something I'd want to do even w/o 2 small children. Your time is sooooo limited I wouldn't bother w/ it myself.

Perhaps Horses Guards instead of BP?
Agree that you need to get there early to get any chance of a good view, with limited time...

Thanks AisleSeat,Michel_Paris & JanisJ,
How about this on Friday: Bus number 12 from London Eye to Trafalgar Square passing Buckingham Palace and the Horse Guards Pavilion to see sentries on horseback standing at the entrance before 10:45 AM. I am wondering whether or not to take stroller everywhere we go?

I think that skipping the actual changing of the guard is a good idea, but you might want to walk by the sentry guards at the Horseguards and Buckingham. Then your children can stand next to them, have pictures taken, etc.

My other comment is that your children sound remarkably patient to do so much museum/indoors time.

If you end up with pretty weather, you could consider Princess Diana's playground in Kensington Gardens:
http://www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/k...playground.cfm

Being a parent of two kids similar age to yours, you might want to consider a contingency plan if your kids need a mid-day nap. It seems to take children longer time to get over jet-lag.

As noe847 mentioned, are your children ok being indoors with limited children attractions? (If so, I'd like to know the tricks myself...) Westminster Abbey would be quite boring for young children after maybe 20minutes at most. British Museum has good ranges of activities for children. For something more children-oriented, Santa's Grotto at Harrod's should be open in early November.

After Tower of London, you may want to visit and see Tower Bridge. It will be dark by 6pm so you won't see much aside from city lights from London Eye.

Also, are you planning to bring a stroller for the 2yo? If so, you might want to take notes that many tube stations have stairs leading up/down to platforms/streets.

Thanks a ton everyone. Since Westminister Abbey is near to Premier county hall , I am planning to skip it whereas my husband might go there.I have heard that they have some kind of play area near that hotel. I liked the idea of Kensington Gardens(thanks to noe847) on Day2.
W9London,
thanks..Did you take the stroller with you?

qwerty11,

With a 2 yo, I'd bring a stroller--easy to fold, light weight umbrella type. (You can gate check at the airport). That way he/she can nap in the stroller. Tube stairs are definitely manageable with two adults. You just use separate, manned ticket gates with a stroller. Rather expensive so not a normal mode of transportation, but you don't have to fold strollers if you're taking a black cab.

Personally, we use all modes of transportation though we tend to use a stroller on buses during the week (school run, after-school stuff), and drive if we want to do things in central London over the weekends (no congestion charges on Sundays). We love our McLaren Volo.