Hotel and money saving in London advice required

MSE_James

The Sky Garden as mentioned by @onashoestring is a great suggestion - compared to the price of going to the Shard or the London Eye it's a no-brainer money-saving option, and the views just as good IMHO

Candy0107

For a great pizza look at pizza union !

zagubov

This site shows where the shops are. I'd take them to Hamley's.

When you're in central London you can find most attractions near tube stations using this tube map.  The underground's rubbish for kids compared with being upstairs on a bus.

Trust me when I was a kid, my relatives took me round the central London shops at Christmas, and the memories are still with me. We must also have travelled on the underground but that didn't stick in the memory.

Plus, you can go a long way on the underground without getting very far, IYSWIM.

And for buses, these are some of the ones that show you the touristy bits (they're just ordinary buses so you use your Oyster card), and maybe use this website to find stuff to do.  I'd recommend Chinatown for good eating but many of their best deals are for two or more and I don't know if your kids appetites are  equal to your own.

I'll recommend the Duck Tour.

Hope you have a great time!

kimwp

Swimming against the tide here, but while the bus is better for seeing the sights, the tube is a pretty cool experience for a 7-8 year old- huge escalators, underground trains traveling through tunnels, learning to read the tube map...
Definitely worth a few trips, just maybe not with bags and definitely not in rush hour  

first78

kimwp said:

Swimming against the tide here, but while the bus is better for seeing the sights, the tube is a pretty cool experience for a 7-8 year old- huge escalators, underground trains traveling through tunnels, learning to read the tube map...
Definitely worth a few trips, just maybe not with bags and definitely not in rush hour  

I'm with you!! I love riding the Tube!!!

onashoestring

Sign up to the TooGoodToGo App and pick up a discounted bag of delicious food ( breakfast / lunch and dinner ) from cafe’s , bakeries, restaurants around London . 🧁🍰🥐

[Deleted User]

I would think suggest thinking about staying outside central London (outside zone 1/2) - somewhere like Hammersmith or Ealing Broadway will be a bit cheaper but will have good links into the central London and good local facilities. Just also be aware of zones, peak travel and bus travel to economise on travel costs.

p00hsticks

Deleted_User said:

I would think suggest thinking about staying outside central London (outside zone 1/2) - somewhere like Hammersmith or Ealing Broadway will be a bit cheaper but will have good links into the central London and good local facilities. Just also be aware of zones, peak travel and bus travel to economise on travel costs.

When you're only visiting for 2-3 days, like the OP is, I think it;s best to stay somewhere close to your arrival / departure point, as otherwise too large a proportion of your time is spent travelling to and from the hotel with luggage on the first and last day. One option for the OP might be to look into somewhere en route to Euston, such as Watford Junction.

p00hsticks

onashoestring said:

Sign up to the TooGoodToGo App and pick up a discounted bag of delicious food ( breakfast / lunch and dinner ) from cafe’s , bakeries, restaurants around London . 🧁🍰🥐

Having been following the thread on this app over on the Food Shopping board, the results seem to be decidedly hit and miss (not always delicious or necessarily that good value for money)

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6326841/has-anyone-here-used-too-good-to-go/p1

p00hsticks

kimwp said:

Swimming against the tide here, but while the bus is better for seeing the sights, the tube is a pretty cool experience for a 7-8 year old- huge escalators, underground trains traveling through tunnels, learning to read the tube map...
Definitely worth a few trips, just maybe not with bags and definitely not in rush hour  

To add my two pennyworth to the tube / bus debate, don't discount walking -  places that seem many stops away on the tube are often quite close together. Although the iconic tube map makes it easy to find your way around the system, it does give a false impression of how near / far diffferent places are from each other. If you can get a map that overlays the tube lines on a normal map of the capital, it can be very useful. (In particular, if staying in Euston, be aware of how close Euston Square on the Circle line is to Euston on the Northern line, as tube journeys can be made much more straightforward by using one as an alternative to the other).