London again..(sorry)

Jodie, my advice would be to book your hotel ASAP as this will only go up in price for family rooms in the Easter holidays. You probably just want something clean, cheap and cheerful as you will be out all day and just need somewhere to sleep. Southwark Travelodge has some good rates for your dates currently £54 for Monday, £67 Tuesday and £63 for Wednesday. It is 2 mins for the tube station and has a cafe so I would book the buffet breakfast as kids eat free and it has a good selection of hot cooked items, cereals, yoghurts, muffins, tea, coffee, juices. 10 mins walk to Waterloo for the London Eye, Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben Thames Boats that go to The Tower Of london. 20 min bus or tube journey or 25 walk to Covent Garden. 15 mins to Kings Cross, Jubillee line to Green Park and then Victoria line to Kings Cross. Green Park tube station is one of the nearest stations to Buckingham Palace and it is nice walk through the park to it and 5 min tube journey from Southwark. You can pick up the piccadilly line from there to South Kensington (less than 10 mins) for the Natural History and Science Museums, which are beside each other. 5-10 minute tube journey to Charing Cross for Tafalgar Square and 5 mins walk down to Whitehall to get photos beside the Royal Mounted Guard. No 15 old red routemaster bus goes from there to the Tower Of London past a lot of London landmarks.

The cheapest train fares are released about 12 weeks before, so keep an eye out for those and you could look at Megabus for cheaper coach fares depending on where you are coming from.

For theatre shows queue for day seats before the box office opens and keep an eye on show facebook sites for offers.

As said before children aged 10 and under travel free on all London transport, just go to the lugguage barrier and tap your oyster card to open and the children follow you through. Same on buses they just follow you on. Travel off peak for cheaper fares (after 10am). You do need an oyster card or travelcard per adult. You can use your train tickets for the 2for 1 offers (the vouchers will update nearer your dates).
http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

Keep an eye out on the group buying sites such as Groupon, Wowcher etc as they often have eating out deals.

techno12 wrote: »

Forget all the talk of Oyster cards if you have a contactless debit/credit card as these are now accepted all over the TfL network (used to just be buses).

One less bit of hassle (ie no need to pay the £5 deposit and faffing about topping up etc). I had an Oyster for years for my occasional trips to London but handed it back in the other week to get my deposit and loaded credit back as I'll never need it again

Santander are advertising that they're giving cashback on contactless oyster travel at the moment

Would also recommend a travel lodge - now live in London so its been a while since I stayed, but I regularly stayed at the waterloo one in a family room - great location and a pretty decent travel lodge - some of the rooms have great views of the London eye.
Also agree with contactless payment - so much easier than oyster especially if you're just visiting for a few days.
lots of free things to see in London too so don't forget to check out museums and other attractions that are free.

I did the London tourist thing with my family in August. We stayed at the Wembley Premier Inn(could virtually see the stadium from the front of the hotel). Not quite central London but a hell of a lot cheaper and right next to a tube station. Being within a 30 second walk to underground meant we could have access to virtually all of the London landmarks within minutes. As you are coming down by train, I think the first thing you should look at is which station you want to arrive at so that you can get to your hotel via tube. Luckily this was not a problem for me as I drove to the wembley hotel.

Another vote for Waterloo, but I would suggest the Premier Inn rather than the Travelodge, as it's in a much nicer location. Waterloo will be quieter at night than Euston/Kings X/Covent Garden, but there are buses and the tube to all parts of central london (usually about a 10 minute journey).

There are also various attractions such as the Aquarium, London Eye, and Houses of Parliament within easy walking distance.