Surprise weekend trip to London

acebanditcat

As a surprise for my husband and son (aged 9) I've booked a weekend to London.
They know about it now as I made a riddle that they had to solve.
So we are going to London by train Saturday morning (17th Dec) from Birmingham and staying over night in the Premier Inn near Victoria. We are planning to go to Winter wonderland.
However that is the only bit we have planned.

So my question is. Any suggestions on where to go, what to see, where to eat during the day etc
We did take our son in July on his first ever trip, which he loved. We walked everywhere so he's seen the landmarks (except London Bridge) and hes been in every toy shop we passed lol
Money isn't flowing as this was my treat and have learnt to my error that buying two travel cards totaling £48 wasn't the correct way for traveling for two days. So any suggestions are
welcome.
Thanks in advance

converted

Try a treasure trail, they have quite a lot for London, cost £6.95 a is an interesting way to spend a couple of hours, learn a few things and come across things you would otherwise have missed.


I have taken my 8 and 10yr old grandsons on quite a few and they love them - they get really involved and trying to solve the clue's and figure out to done it. Adults get really involved as well.


https://www.treasuretrails.co.uk/trails-search/London,Greater%20London,England

susancs

In regard to travel children aged 10 and under travel free on London transport. For adults the cheapest way to travel is using a contactless bank card (1 per adult). It caps at a daily rate less than travelcard.

Has you been to the Natural History and Science Museums By South Kensington? They are free entry and worth a visit. There is an outdoor skating rink there.

If you arrive early morning on the Saturday you could head to theate box offices to queue for cheap days seats for that night. If you haven't been to M&M world shop your son may like having photos taken beside the giant M&M charaters in Leceister Square. Winter Wonderland will take up most of the day.

Cloudydaze

susancs wrote: »

In regard to travel children aged 10 and under travel free on London transport. For adults the cheapest way to travel is using a contactless bank card (1 per adult). It caps at a daily rate less than travelcard.

If you use the tube make sure you use the luggage/buggy gate. As well as being wider, the gate also is open for longer which makes it easier to get through with a child.

dacouch

London Bridge itself is a fairly plain bridge. It does have Borough Market, Tate Modern, Shakespear's Globe and Drake's Golden Hind and some Charles Dickens landmarks on the south bank.

I think you mean Tower Bridge which is the bridge that opens and closes

acebanditcat

Ahh yes, sorry my mistake I did mean Tower Bridge!

Thanks for all your help were off in the morning.

So far have planned as well as Winter Wonderland, a treasure trail around Westminster, a visit to either the Natural History Museum or the Science.
A possible trip to tower bridge and see about experiencing the glass floor!

Just having a quick look online to see if there's any vouchers etc towards food. More we can save more we can do.

Thanks again for your help

suki1964

Get boots meal deals for lunch and hit weatherspoons for dinner, you'll not get much cheaper unless you get take out to eat in the hotel

Might be a tad cold but getting the boat up the Thames to tower bridge and the Tower of London is pretty good value, there's a tesco just where you get the boat to get a meal deal, eat lunch whilst on the boat


The British, science and history museums are all fantastic for all the family and much of them are free. So is the national gallery, we introduced our grandson to it by saying this is where James Bond was filmed- he loved it

I love visiting London as a tourist, it's really not expensive if you keep your wits about you

acebanditcat

Hi Just wanted to say thanks for telling us about the treasure trails!
I looked the website up and it looked great fun! I was even surprised to see there were several
where we live in Staffordshre.

Anyway we did one around Westminster and loved it! Two hours of walking around looking for clues and finding short cuts that took us to places we didn't know existed.

I've told all my friends and family about the site and we intend to do several more. Even when w go on hols to Cornwall in the summer

So thanks for the recommendation
x