First timer Family London Visit 6 days - Advice please

Sam,

July 6 - I'd recommend joining a verger-led tour at Westminster Abbey (5 GBP per person). It takes about 1.5 hr, but you learn so much more about the history of the place. Consider going there first thing in the morning as it gets crowded quickly.
July 8 - You may want to consider booking a free visit to Sky Garden (https://skygardentickets.com/skygardenpublic_ui/events/). The view is great and there is almost no wait. If you are not satisfied, you could do London Eye afterwards.

Mei

We will be there a couple weeks after you, with boys ages 10 and 12! This is what we are doing - just for reference so you can see what I picked as boy-friendly - had to cut some other things I wanted to do! Looks like you have one more full day than we have.

July 25 - arrive, groceries, dinner
July 26 - Wembley Stadium tour, Arsenal soccer game
July 27 - Churchhill War rooms and Imperial war museum (was highly recommended by this board)
July 28 - Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, walk to Trafalgar, St Martin in the Fields (brass rubbings and crypt cafe), Natural History Museum (my husband loves this)
July 29 - rest morning, afternoon 1/2 of us to Wicked, the other 1/2 to Harry Potter thing, meet for dinner
July 30 - Tower of London, walk over Tower bridge, borough market, southbank walk, maybe HMS Belfast, hopefully London Eye if weather ok (maybe take the boat there)
July 31 - leave via train to York

have fun!!
Kim

http://www.goldenhinde.com/

I think a couple of boys would enjoy this! It's across the river from the Tower of London, and I think the tour was about an hour long. Hubby and I did it last year (sans kids). The fellow doing the tour was letting the children there be really hands on, and of course some of the disgusting stories about life on a ship a few hundred years ago would really be up the alley of pre-teen boys! The kids on the tour seemed to be having a lot of fun.

The science museum is def fun.

Try to join up with one of the free yeoman warder tours at the tower of London. About an hour. Our tour guide was quite humourous. http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/stories/yeomanwarder

My only comment on Harrods - the food area maybe would be fun for boys, but my impression of walking thru the rest of it was hoity toity workers dressed all in black and really expensive stuff (maybe I just felt very out of place). But the food hall was def worth checking out.

Thanks Mei, Kim and Nicole for your valuable suggestions. We will include skygarden, Churchill war room and golden hinde. As we won't venture outside of Zone 1 & 2 is there any point in getting Travelcard? Trying to determine if it is worth getting it just for 2-4-1. Besides Travelcard are there other opportunities to get 2-4-1 tickets?

We didn't get the special "paper" tickets that had the 2-4-1 attraction ticket deal, but I did order the 7 day travelcards online (for zones 1-2) and had them mailed to us - I don't guess you have time to get them now, though you could get them there. After a lot of research I decided on this instead of the Oyster cards - there was some process that I now can't remember that was a hassle for dealing with the free kid (10) and/or the reduced price kid (12), and ordering the travelcards online (2 adult, 1 kid, other kid free) seemed easier - I like to have things set in advance, and it will work out to roughly the same cost for us I think based on our journeys.

If you are getting them there, I would just go to a ticket window and ask what's best, if I had to go to the window anyway I may have done the Oyster thing, as they can give you the 1/2 price kid at that point.

Also at the time I ordered them, we were coming in late at night and planning to take train/tube and I didn't want to deal with the hassle that late. We have since changed to an earlier flight and decided to get picked up by the driver our apt. uses, so no matter there. My husband has taken the tube in before from Heathrow and said never again (plus we had 2 transfers to get to apt...). Getting Heathrow Express for 4 people was not much cheaper than just getting the car, so we are paying a little more for less hassle.

When we went to Munich last year, we fully intended to take the S-bahn 45 min trip (with no transfers) to our apt - but upon arrival couldn't jump in a cab fast enough. :) So we will plan it this way this time!

Kim

Under 11s get free travel in London on bus, underground, overground, tram or DLR providing they are travelling with an adult (and not even that if it is bus or tram). If the entrance is barriered go to the manned one for the child to be let through. The only exception is National Rail outside of the Overground.

I recommend to visit top 10 free places to go in London http://londonkatalog.com/top-10-free-places-to-go-in-london/

Thanks Kim, Keith (didn't know locals referred to it as Horrids! :) , Marco & Dzyuria for your inputs. We have a rev 1 agenda which includes a host of other attractions based on people's feedback here. After exhaustive calculations we figured Travelcard might work out better than Oyster. Only downside is we have to get cash fare tkt. from Heathrow to Russell Sq. as we don't plan to get Oyster cards.

Not sure where Russel Sq. is but if it's a longer journey than the zones of your travelcard I think you can just buy an add-on for that... We are planning to do that when we go to Wembley since it's in Zone 4.

Extra bonus points for visiting the Home of Cricket.

Double extra bonus points for visiting just six days before the Second Ashes Test.

It will be day three of the First Test, in Cardiff. Turn on the TV in your hotel to Channel 5 at 7pm each day of the Test for a one hour summary of the day's play.

Visitors to London need to learn the location of Russell Square - the tube stop for the British Museum and just north of the museum. Also the terminus of the number 7.

Aaah that must be why I didn't know - we aren't going to the British Museum! :) I feel like I have done tons of research and know a lot of the tube stops - but I guess there are so many!!

Man so much to do in London! We have 5 full days and barely scratching the surface!

Hi, Sam!
If you are going to visit British Museum сonsider also the option to visit National Portrait Gallery. It is close to British Museum and can be more interesting for children. (here you can find more information http://hotelsbrit.com/london-national-portrait-gallery/ ). Free entrance and wi-fi! Have a nice trip!

I echo Nigel's sentiments about Lords. The Ashes is the peak of international Test (that is 5 day) cricket and you ought to try to watch some of the highlights. If you're going to Lords and haven't already booked a tour, you might want to do that. You can turn up on the day, but if it's busy you might have to wait for a slot (mind the schools won't have broken up then and there isn't a match on at Lords that day, so it will probably be quiet).

As someone said, a very reasonable, well-paced plan. And please do a tour at Westminster Abbey and don't simply walk around. Same at Tower of London (not even sure you can simply walk around by yourself, but take the Yeoman's Tour).

As for two more to consider...St.Pauls Cathedral, and something the boys might like more -- Royal Mews, the Queens horses, carriages and one car....right next to Buckingham Palace, a fun 90 minutes.

Also, on your "Bath' day....consider the Evan Evans tour that does Windsor Castle, Bath and Stonehenge. Was great, and boys would like it.

Enjoy!

Thanks vivanpreston, Pete and dgnagle4 for your tips ! Too bad would miss Ashes live at Lord's. Hoping Wimbledon tour (just the grounds) would salvage the cricket loss :)