great cheap things for kids in London

gooismeid

Hats off to the Natural History, Science & British Museums! We've just spent several very cold days in London and got some great tips from museum staff when visiting with our 6 and 4 year olds.

Natural History - ask at Information Desk to hire an explorer's pack, you need to leave a credit card deposit but otherwise it's free. The kids get a backpack, pith helmet, binoculars and a set of clues to follow to various animals, plus a clipboard and some pencils and drawing paper. Brilliant fun, and they get to keep the drawings they've done. There's also a huge picnic area in the basement so you can take your own sandwiches.

Science - again, basement is the place to be for smaller kids. There's a whole "garden" for under 5's with water play, climbing frames, big shapes, and lots of science-type experiments with buttons to press and noises to make. And there's also a huge interactive indoor playground for older kids too. Kept ours occupied for nearly a whole day. And there's also a picnic area there too.

British museum - unfailingly polite and helpful staff helped us create a treasure trail, finding monkeys and hippos (long story but we had a school stuffed animal with us and he wanted to see all his friends the monkeys). And in the basement there's a family centre with FREE lockers for bags & stuff, very clean kid-sized toilets and again lots of picnic tables.

The 77A bus - forget the open-topped bus tours and get the 77A which goes from Tate Britain to Houses of Parliament, Horse Guards, Trafalgar Square, Aldwych (for Covent Garden and the street entertainers). That's a whole day trip in itself if you get on and off at each attraction!