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London During Summer Half-Term Holidays - flip to Paris first?

Posted by (Springfield, MO) on

Friends:

First time for wife and kids in Europe, traveling to London and Paris. Flying on points to Frankfurt with planned transfer to London, but can easily flip the transfer to Paris. It looks like our plan to do four days in London coincides with the Summer Half-term holidays (May 27-31, 2024). Are the crowds so bad that we should flip to our Paris trip first? I kind of wanted to ease the family into Europe with a English speaking country first.

Most of the info I've seen (including a previous post here) says the free museums (British Museum, Natural History, etc.) will be more
packed than normal but the rest of the city including the paid tourist stuff not that much worse, but just wanted to confirm. If it's mainly museums, we should be okay because my family are not big museum people and we are staying right next to the British Museum (so can go at any time) and the Churchill War Rooms (where my son and I do want to go) are paid.

Thanks!

Posted by
589 posts

I've been in London over that period several times, and all I can say is London is always busy, whether it be with locals or tourists, so I wouldn't suggest avoiding just because it's half term. We were there that week in May this year, and I don't remember it being especially busier than normal.

It's a lovely time to be in London - the weather is usually good, and people are generally more cheerful as a result! Also, Monday 27th is a bank holiday, but while that will bring people into London, it also means office workers won't be there, so perhaps not as busy as you fear.

Posted by
1451 posts

Agree with Simon. London is always busy. The half term holiday means there will be more children around and anything specifically aimed at them will be particularly busy, like the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. You won’t notice any difference in crowds overall.

Posted by
1232 posts

I don't think the crowds are significantly different that week - an awful lot of families take the opportunity either to travel elsewhere in the UK or down to the Med for a sun holiday. The weeks either side of that week are very popular for school groups to visit London which can be another challenge in some of the popular museums.

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