We will be starting a two week vacation (in November) in London with our almost six year old daughter. Any suggestions on things we can take her to do?
Posted by
Colorado Mountains, USA
7579 posts
The Tower of London has a cool castle, a now-dry moat, and she can ride the moving conveyor as many times as she wants to glide past the dazzling Crown Jewels.
If she's allowed to eat chocolate, get her a Nestle Lion Bar at a shop, not available in the USA - not sure if you have those in France or Germany.
Posted by
Land of La
8825 posts
Mudchute Farm, http://www.timeout.com/london/attractions/top-10-museums-in-london-for-kids. Feeding the waterfowl in Hyde Park, Diana's Playground in Kensington Gardens. Check out Timeout London online to see if there are puppet shows, etc for your dates of travel.
Posted by
Kingston, Surrey
239 posts
The Science Museum has quite a lot of hands-on stuff designed for children. It's free too.
Posted by
Florida, USA
27 posts
What does she like? There is plenty to fill 3 days for sure! In addition to the recs for The Tower and the Science Museum:
British Museum - free; grab an activity trail or backpack to make it more interactive for her http://www.britishmuseum.org/visiting/family_visits/activity_trails.aspx
Time Out London has some great recs based on age and interest: http://www.timeout.com/london/kids
Posted by
Dunwoody, Georgia
338 posts
I was in London a couple of years ago with my daughters (ages 5 and 7 at the time). Here are some of the things they really liked in no particular order.
Windsor Castle. It is easy to get to and from Windsor. It was a great place to see a changing of the guards ceremony. The rooms that are open are very interesting. My girls liked the doll house. The staff seemed attuned to children, espcially at St. George's chapel.
Covent Garden/London Transportation Museum/Show. Covent Garden has some great free/low cost performers (depending on what you thrown in the hat) that my kids liked. The London Transportation Museum (right next to Covent Garden) has a neat collection of old buses and subways that kids can climb on. As a plus it has clean bathrooms and your ticket is good for a year. There are plenty of theaters nearby. We saw the Lion King and really enjoyed it.
Churchill War Rooms. There is a special audio tour for kids and a lot of really interesting stuff to see in the Churchill Museum portion.
The museums in South Kensington. The V&A has a lot of interactive kiosks that my kids liked. The natural history museum has dinosaurs. The science museum has some nice interactive displays and staff engagement learning stations.
Tower of London. A castle, crown jewels, ravens, live action actors in period costumes, beefeaters. This was the favorite of the group. Just show up early if you can.
London Eye. Great views of the city.
Westminster Abbey - They have a children's tour page/hunt that my oldest daughter really liked. You get a chocloate at the end for finding all of the items on the list and filling it out. One caveat - this is really for kids closer to age 7 and up. My youngest had a near meltdown because she was having trouble reading the clues and finding the answers in the crowd.
Princess Diana Playground in Hyde Park - It has all kinds of things to climb on and swing on, including a giant pirate ship.
Royal Mews - A good option if your daughter likes horses. They keep a couple on site along with a bunch of carriages.
Have fun!
Posted by
London, England.
661 posts
I know I always mention this, but a FREE trip to the Sky Garden might be fun.
Booking way ahead online essential. They have a smart casual dress code.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thank you all for the suggestions - they all sound great! I will start looking in to each of these.
Has anyone ever been to the London Transport Museum? Our daughter loves cars so I was thinking this could be a fun place to visit as well.
Also, kind of off topic, but how did your children do crossing so many time zones? Any suggestions for handling the change?