London Holiday Advice or Hints/Tips

minerva_windsong

I'd definitely recommend getting an Oyster card as it will slash your transport costs massively - £1.60 for a single Tube journey as opposed to £4 with a travel card.

Also ditto going to the museums - it is quite easy to spend a whole day in there just wandering round and investigating things in a 'where does this door go?' way. The Science Museum, Natural History Museum and British Museum are the best ones to go for with children I think, particularly the Science Museum as downstairs it has (or at least it had one two or three years ago) a room where kids can do various simple experiments and which my five-year-old cousins went absolutely mad for. If your son likes trains and cars etc I believe it's also the Science Museum which has a display of that sort of thing upstairs.

The Tower of London is absolutely brilliant if your son's into blood and gore history stuff but is a bit more toned down than the Dungeons (or it was a few years ago anyway, it's a while since I've been). However it is quite expensive - £16 for an adult and £9 for a child when booked online - so if you're trying to keep costs down then perhaps not the best idea.

Re: eating, your best bet is probably to buy sandwiches from Tesco Metro or Boots (there are loads dotted around central London, although I should warn you now a Boots meal deal is £3.49 in London as opposed to £2.99 everywhere else) for lunches, and to grab as many vouchers as you can for chain-type places like Pizza Express, Gourmet Burger Kitchen etc for evening meals.

Also, I'm not sure how long it goes on for but at the moment a lot of the West End theatres are doing a deal where kids can go to the theatre for free or half price, so it might be worth looking at that.

HTH

zagubov

If you take the underground, it's easy to lose your bearings when you resurface (many major London streets took their signs down as a wartime anti-spy measure and never returned them). An A-Z or map is a must (also remember to get your bearings by looking for satellite dishes which always point south).
For cheap dining in the evening try 5pm.co.uk ( I know it's a Scottish site but it does cover London) The Stockpot restaurant chain runs cosy restaurants in Chelsea and the West End, and do good cheap basic meals at normal prices, unlike almost everywhere else in the centre (or even outskirts) of London - their addresses are on the internet.
The underground maps miss out overground lines so for example if you need to get from Trafalgar Square to London Bridge/ Tower of London area get any overground train from Charing Cross and you're there in a couple of minutes. Maybe a third of London is off the tube map especially most of the SW and all of the SE, although most of the touristy areas are north of the river anyway.
Enjoy your visit- the natives are friendly!

xfive71

I am like a broken record but here's my tips :

Natural History for the dinosaurs and Science Museum. Walk to Harrods (about 10 minutes away), have a donut at Krispy Kreme. Let the little one go nuts at the Toy Kingdom on the 4th floor. Best if you agree that he could spend a fiver or so.

Around Westminster station, you get the triple whammy of Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. It is free to look. The river cruise from the Westminster Pier is lovely and goes on to Tower Bridge. I love waving to people on the bridge as the boat goes under it.

Covent Garden for buskers. Do tip the 'statues' a pound if you want to take pics. Wander round Jubilee market at Covent Garden. Walk to Belgo's Centraal (which is near to Neal's Yard) and have a nice pot of mussels and frites. Kids eat free! and that includes a lovely main course and ice cream

Princess Diana memorial playground is great for kids that age (nearest tube is Queensway or Bayswater). Plenty to eat at Bayswater, although personally i would recommend the kebab at Taza or the cheapie sub of the day at Subway for £1.99

pallan0706

Great tips everyone - thank you so much!

My little boy is dinosaur mad and is desperate to go to the Natural History Museum. We love the look of the duck tour! Has anyone been on it? Also with regards to the London Eye... Are the carriages packed because I dont like that idea at all.

xxx

xfive71

Hiya

Your little one will so love the Natural History Museum! Watch his face when you enter the museum. There is a huge diplodocus skeleton in the main foyer.

Hopefully the queues will not be too long for you for the Dinosaur exhibit. It moves fairly quickly though and there are plenty to look at whilst you are in the queue before you see the animatronic T-rex. The triceratops skeleton is amazing.

You may want to buy the Kid's souvenir book for £4.50. It is very readable and covers other exhibits in the museum. It might make the wait in the queue more bearable.

Watch out for the Dinosaur museum shop at the exit (they do know where to place these things!) I did get away relatively unbruised pocket-wise. I bought some dinosaur temporary tattoos for £2 at the till.

With regards to the London Eye, the capsules are huge and not too overly crowded. There is space to walk around and a bench to sit down right the middle of the capsule. Be mindful though that the capsule don't stop for boarding. It goes really slow and you just walk on.

mutley74

hey great tips in here. i may consider a a few days in the city now!
Just some Qs....
1. where does one pick up an Oyster card? As i had been told before its a min £10 top up for these cards..can they be used on buses as well as teh Tube?
2. what is the name of the area near the museums, in order one can get a central hotel? or can anyone recommend some hotels/B&Bs near shops and resturants, that are family friendly?

dzug1

mutley74 wrote: »

hey great tips in here. i may consider a a few days in the city now!
Just some Qs....
1. where does one pick up an Oyster card? As i had been told before its a min £10 top up for these cards..can they be used on buses as well as teh Tube?

Any tube station or thousands of newsagents and similar. Yes they can be used on buses:

on buses swipe when boarding
on the tube swipe on entering and leaving the station

OP's six year old travels for free

warehouse

Just to add to the above great advice:

Trafalgar square has the living statue thing on plinth 4 right now, get there about 1/4 to the hour and you see the changeover. The people up there when we went for a day trip were a bit boring but it's something different and a nice place to sit for lunch one day.

We do a couple of London days out each year, one we pay out for, one we do free. My kids are 11, 7 and 3 and last week we got the tube to Covent Garden, (stairs and a lift there), had a couple of hours free entertainment there, from there down the Strand and Whitehall for Big Ben, Houses of Parliament and the Westmister Abbey. At this point you can go through Green Park for a great walk towards Buckingham Palace, or as we did, back up to Trafalgar Square via Horse gaurds. From Trafalgar Square it's 5 minutes to Leicester Square, (always something going on there and the street artisits), then up through China Town and Soho if you're brave, back down to Piccadilly Circus and my kids favorite place in the whole of London which is the biggest pick and mix sweet shop we've ever seen. If you've still got energy you can do Hamley's in Regent Street from there, or easily up to Oxford Street. Marble Arch is walkable from there too.

If money is no object then you MUST do the London Eye, (book in advance, very easy), then the London Aquarium next door, then a Duck Tour and finally a tour of Buck Palace.

London is a great city to walk around, everything worth seeing is most definately walkable. You're never bored when walking either, my kids see things that totally amaze them on every corner, it's just a superb place and absolutely full of life. We never get bored of visiting.

Steve2009

The 2for1 tickets mentioned are normally available from the train station, absolute money saver!

Now I'm 29 and I loved the Science Museum in South Kensington, 3D Cinema is fantastic with huuuge screen it feels like your actually in the movie. Reccommend the 'Space Station' 3D if still showing. If I was 6 I'd love it!!

Hope you have a great time, me and my partner love London.

Steve

mutley74

i have been browsing at hotels near the science museum. Notice the Imperial college has rooms available fro B&B - anyone stayed at them? are there suitable for kids? or can anyone recommend any other clean hotel near (walking distance) the museums?