London Advice Please!

LustForLeith

Hi!

We're thinking of doing something a bit different during the summer holidays this year. My wife, my kids and myself are hoping to head to London for three/four nights.

We're heading down to London from Edinburgh on the train as we have a railcard. We'll be down at the end of June/beginning of July.

There's a few questions!

Where's a good central location to stay? Something like a Premier Inn/Travelodge would probably do.

If we wanted to visit Legoland Windsor is it worthwhile staying near Windsor and heading into London or staying in London and heading out to Windsor?

Harry Potter and Legoland are on the list so far, what other things would people recommend to keep a five year old daughter and a nine year old son occupied?

Thanks! Probably more questions!

Ilona

Try a Youth Hostel, book a family room.
http://www.yha.org.uk/places-to-stay/london

Ilona

ThemeOne

You might find some ideas about where to stay here:

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/HotelsList-London-Cheap-Hotels-zfp20916.html

You could probably save money by staying in Slough, which is near Windsor, but it won't really be the "London experience" which presumably is what you're coming down for.

pelirocco

There is so much to do in London , spending a day at Legoland would be a waste if you are only going for 3/4 nights .

kitty1941

Stayed last weekend at Travelodge at Hackney Central - 1 minutes walk from railway station. Family rooms now have a double bed and 2 single beds. This travelodge has only been open 8 weeks - the carpets even have a new smell to them. There is a cafe opposite that serves a full english breakfast for less than £4. Tesco's is a five minute walk away. Easy access into the heart of London.

susancs

pelirocco wrote: »

There is so much to do in London , spending a day at Legoland would be a waste if you are only going for 3/4 nights .

I agree that a day in Legoland during such a short stay is probably not making the most of the time in London. Also Harry Potter Studios is in Watford, so in reality a day gone travelling and visiting that attraction (Fast train from Euston takes 15-20 mins to Watford Junction and then a shuttle bus from there to the studios). It might be best to travel around and stay at different hotels and do a longer trip e.g. hotel in Windsor for Legoland, Hotel near Watford Junction for Harry Potter or maybe even consider hiring a car for those attractions outside of London and drive to them from a nearby hotel as if you did so Legoland and Chessington are not too far away from each other (40 min drive). There is currently a Merlin Pass family pass sale. so it might be worth looking at that as it includes 3 theme parks, Warwick Castle (we stayed at Leamington Spa Travel Lodge which is an old regency hotel with stained glass windows, huge staircase), London Dungeons, Aquarium, London Eye, Madam Tussauds.

You could easily do a day at one museum in London, day at Tower Of London.....

p00hsticks

Some of the london university colleges rent out their student accomodation in the school holidays - two I'm aware of are Imperial college in south kensington (good for the Science, Natural history and V&A museums) and LSE, which have some in Holburn I think - ther may be more

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/visit/summer-accommodation/
http://www.lsevacations.co.uk/Home.aspx

Travelling by train, you can use your tickets to get 2-4-1 access to a number of attractions (be aware that the offers change in April, some such as the London Eye are only available in the winter months).

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london

AS you're there for a quite a short time, I do recommend getting "River roamer" hop-on hop-off tickets for all day travel on the Thames Clipper commuter boats - travel from the embankment all they way up to the 02 and back (extending to the thames barrier in the evening). It's a good relaxing way to take in a lot of the key sights in a realtively short period of time - and the boat itself is good fun, especially when it gets up speed after Canary Wharf.

https://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/thames-clippers

You can even try to plan to stop off at the Tower pier at a time to watch the bridge opening

http://www.towerbridge.org.uk/lift-times/

There are loads of previous threads on this board about London visits (I've suggested that we could do with a 'sticky ' thread on the subject but it's fallen on deaf ears) - try having a search through to see what you can find

catkins

I don't have children but places I know my friends' children have enjoyed are:


London Zoo
Tower of London
Science Museum
Natural History Museum
Museum of Childhood
HMS Belfast
London Transport Museum
Pollocks Toy Museum
London Dungeon
London Aquarium
Hackney City Farm

vikingaero

I disagree! Go to Legoland!

I think 4 straight days of London will be too much for the kids - we often go on holiday and give The Vikingettes one or two days in a theme park to break it up.

stormbreaker

We were only in London for a few days with our kids many years ago and found Lego land a must! We stayed in a travel lodge near the London Eye and travelled to Windsor by tube/train. Was a long day but well worth it.