London Tips

Going to London?  Here are some tips for families traveling with kids, based on our experience living in London for 2 years.

• Outdoor stuff
  • Central
    • Battersea park and children’s zoo – small zoo, our kids love this place (Chelsea)
    • Southbank – walk along the south side of the Thames (Central London) – From Westminster bridge to Tower Bridge is a great walk if the weather is nice, and you’re up for it.  It’s about 2 miles.
    • Hyde Park –  Hyde park is huge, great to walk through.  The Princess Diana Playground is on the northwest corner – amazing for kids who are 4-12ish.  Can be busy on sunny weekend days – so if possible, go during the week.  Serpentine is the long pond that goes through much of the park.  Lots of ducks and swans, paddle boats, swimming
    • St James / Green Park – fantastic parks surrounding Buckingham Palace. Water, ducks, bridges with nice views of Buckingham Palace on one side and Whitehall on the other.
  • West
    • Holland Park – near Notting hill.  Smaller, but beautiful green space.
    • Ravenscourt Park – awesome park with really cool playground (in Chiswick – west of Central London – take the District/Circle line)
    • Kew Gardens – cool park/garden/hiking place, with playgrounds, ponds, etc (Richmond – Southwest of London)
• London-y stuff
  • Tea – the ladies like the tea.  Fortnum and Mason and The Ritz are classic (ie expensive) places.  Lots of other cheaper options
  • Bus Tour – you can do one of the actual tours, or you can take some regular double decker routes that go past many of the best sights (#24, #11, #9 – https://www.visitbritainshop.com/world/articles/top-3-bus-routes/)
  • Borough Market – near Tower Bridge.  Great place to eat.  Saturday mornings is the biggest market – but they run on some weekdays as well.
  • St Paul’s – Big cathedral.  Great view from the top (lots of steps)
  • Tower of London – coolest tourist attraction in London.  You should definitely do this one of the days during the week.
  • Tower Bridge tour – you can go up to the top part
  • Covent Garden – nice plaza, opera singers (sometimes), Paddington statue
  • Buckingham Palace / Changing of the Guards.  If you want to get a good view at the palace gate, get there an hour before – otherwise you just look the back of people’s heads.  If you have kids we recommend going and checking out the palace from the gate about an hour before the changing of the guard, and then going to the playground on the corner of “Spur Road” and Birdcage walk – at the Southwest corner of St James park.  The kids can play at the playground (instead of waiting and getting bored staring at the palace).  And then after the changing of the guard is over the guards parade back to their training area, and you can run to the street and get a great view as they go right by (playing music).

• Museums
  • Natural History Museum – dinosaurs, free, awesome
  • Science Museum – some good kids shows, free, fun
  • V&A / British Museum – cool stuff that the British have stolen from all over the world, on display for your enjoyment!  If you want a “classic” museum, these two are supposed to be some of the best in the world. The British Museum has great stuff on Egypt (mummies, Rosetta stone), and ancient Greece.  There’s an app that you can use to play a game with the Parthenon Marbles – it’s at: http://gamar.com/games/a-gift-for-athena/
  • London Transport Museum – buses, trains, cool – http://www.timeout.com/london/museums/london-transport-museum
  • National Gallery – if you’re into art, they’ve got lots of it
  • Maritime Museum – this is in Greenwich, which is East of London.  You can take the River Bus (Thames Clipper) there.  Takes about 30 minutes, and it’s a great trip down the Thames, under Tower Bridge, past Tower of London, etc.  Great ride, especially on a nice day.  Once you’re there, the Maritime Museum is awesome for kids.  There’s a fun tablet-based game at the Great Map, and the exhibits are interesting.  Sometimes that have special shows/programs there that are really good for kids too.  Also, Greenwich has a great park, and you can hike to the top of a hill.  It’s also where the Greenwich Meantime line is.  Plus they have a good brewery there that you should probably visit.
• Theatre (as they say)
  • Sunny Afternoon – This show is a lot of fun.  It’s about the Kinks – so if you like their music I think that you’ll like it a lot.  And it’s a good London story.  Try to get better seats near the front if you can, as the show is sort of a concert, and it’s more exciting if you’re closer.
  • Les Mis – if you haven’t seen Les Mis, you totally should
  • You can get half priced tickets to a lot of the shows on the day of or day before in Leicester Square – so you could pick a day and see what you can get.
  • You can also find kid-friendly shows on TimeOut” http://www.timeout.com/london/theatre/kids-theatre-in-london
• Outings/Day Trips (these will take most of a day)
  • Cambridge/Oxford  – If the weather is good, you need to go punting.  It’s fun.  Bring Pimms, have a picnic.  Perfect British afternoon.
  • Windsor – This is the Queen’s other place – it’s a “proper castle”.  Pretty awesome – you should see it.  Good tour (for adults and kids)
  • Bath – Old roman baths.  We haven’t been – but it’s supposed to be pretty interesting
  • Stonehenge – big rocks.  2ish hours away.  Amazing, when you think about when it was built… but kind of dull, in my opinion.
• Apps/Websites
  • Citymapper is really a fantastic transportation app.  I used it constantly.  Download it onto your phone before you go.  It will tell you how to go anywhere, by bus, train, car, bike or walking.
  • TimeOut London (the app and the website) are also very useful to see what events are on when you’re there
• Restaurants/Food
  • London food gets a bad rap – but it really shouldn’t.  The food in London is amazing… just not the British food so much 🙂  Although fish and chips in an old pub is pretty delicious. Although I usually pass on the mushy peas that come with it!
  • Indian food – amazing!  There’s a famous area for Indian food in Shoreditch, near Liverpool Station, called Brick Lane.  It’s kind of an experience to see it, and all of the restaurants have guys out front hassling you to go in and offering you special deals.  Unless this sounds like fun, I wouldn’t go here.  I think it’s pretty annoying, and the food isn’t nearly as good as other places.  Two places that I’d recommend in central London: 1) Punjab near Tottenham Court Road; 2) Moti Mahal – this place is nice, and more expensive.  Not so good for kids.  But ridiculously good!
  • French – London has a ton of awesome French food.  None of these are particularly kid-friendly – so these would be good for if you have childcare, or if you’re traveling without kids.  Three (four) places that I’d recommend are:
    • Le Beaujolais – French wine bar. Tiny.  Awesome atmosphere.  Delicious cheese.  Good french style bar food and small plates.
    • Boulestin – on St James St.  Delicious, and reasonably priced.
    • Clos Maggiore – amazing, expensive.  
    • (Bonus) Mon Plaisir – The food is OK (you can find better French food) – but the cheese tray is ridiculous.  Keep in mind, the French have their cheese after dinner.  Leave room!