London with children

Some of the London Walks may be interesting for the kids. The guides are excellent and on the one I took that had kids, the guide was very engaging with them. The Museum of London is more hands-on that many.

I went to Greenwich by boat and stopped in the Maritime Museum there, where the boat docks. There are some interactive displays your older children might enjoy. The Cuttysark ship is right there and open for touring. The London Eye is worth a trip and should engage the kids.

The armory in the central keep of the Tower of London and the Crown Jewels are both pretty dazzling - your young kids might enjoy seeing that! If you want to take them to a family park, then Holland Park would be a good choice. Family area with play equipment that will give them a place to run and climb. There is a maze at Hampton Court Palace that's fun. If you go to Covent Garden there are often street performers that are pretty entertaining...also in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. The Horse Guard Parade ceremony just off Whitehall is a guard change on horseback that I prefer to the guard change at Buckingham Palace - lots to see!

http://www.mudchute.org,
http://www.timeout.com/london/kids.,
http://golondon.about.com/od/londonwithchildren/tp/Toddler_London.htm

Some free or inexpensive things our guys liked when they were small:
- riding in the front seat upstairs on a double decker bus. It didn't matter where we were going, they liked seeing things from up there. Note that London buses don't take cash anymore.
- Harrods toy department
- walks in St. James Park, seeing the swans
- the fountains at Trafalgar Square
- Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens

If they like Harrod's toy department, try the whole store of Hamleys in Regent Street. Seriously World Class.

And it has loads of demonstrations and play areas.

And wait till you see some of special £,£££ big toys.

Hi lechugasam!

I know you've probably heard this already, but try packing some warm clothes. Your activities will somewhat be conditioned by the weather, so if you're thinking of walking about, you're gonna need to be prepared.

As for destinations that the kids will enjoy, I always recommend the Science Museum (it has a way of bringing out the child in everyone, no matter the age). They'll get the chance to interact with all sorts of fun installations and learn more about the inside workings of old&new devices.

Even though it sounds clichee, the London Eye seems to be one of the kids' favourite too.
Covent Garden might work too, since it's full of fun street performances, especially on weekends.

That's all I can think of for now, hope it helps!
Enjoy the trip! :)

Mine loved the parks. The Diana Playground at Kensington, but also the swans and small playground at St. James. They spent a ton of time at the lions at Trafalger Square. The Tower is actually really good with kids. especially if they know a little bit about it ahead of time. The London Transit Museum was great with a train/car/bus obsessed kid. The London Eye. My 4 year old at the time liked The British Museum (for about an hour, then he was done), because there were cool animal statues, a neat building, and clocks :) Next time we go, the 8 year old wants to see The Millenium Bridge, because "it looks awesome". He didn't care when he was 6, though. When I went with an 18 month old, he loved the dome climb at St. Pauls. Granted, my husband had to carry him a lot of the way, but he loved it.

There are a ton of kids books on London, and I've found that getting kids excited and aware of cool stuff in the destination is worth its weight in gold. When I had a 1 year old, I'd print out basic pictures of things we'd be seeing (Tower of London, Red Bus, Underground train, statues we'd encounter, etc), put them in a little book, and they'd look at it frequently. For 6-8, I find children's books on the places, read them, show them TV shows on the area, etc. For example, I'm planning Italy for next year. Kids 5 and 8. We have Olivia Goes to Venice, several Magic Treehouse books on Ancient Rome, a few of the This Is..series (This Is Rome, This is Venice...), and so on. London has a This Is book, there's also A Walk In London, Katie In London, multiple kids guidebooks (might be too old, but maybe the 8 year old...), and a lot more.

I think they would love London's many great parks and also the Natural History Museum.

Thank you so much.Everyone´s feedback is really appreciated. I have taken good note. We´ll be leaving on 23rd so have one week to plan ahead. Thanks again everyone for the superb feedback

I will preface this by saying we don't have kids...but when we were in London last month, we went to the Golden Hinde and did the hour tour. It's right on the Thames right in the middle of everything.

http://www.goldenhinde.com/whats-on/

There were some children in the tour (there were maybe 15 people, so small group) and they seemed to quite enjoy it - especially hearing about the 'gross' aspects of life on a ship (cuz kids like that kinda thing...as do some adults...lol). This was our 4th time to London and we were looking for something a little different to do. The tour guide was quite informative and really got into his role as a sailor on the ship, and some interactive portions for the kids.

Add on - someone mentioned the lions at Trafalgar Sq - when we were there last month, they were blocked off - you could still see them, but no climbing on them - perhaps they are unblocked now...I think some cleaning or whatnot was going on...

We came back from London and had a superb experience.
We had good weather and the children loved it.
Their favorites were the London eye, squirrels in the parks!, taking the bus and going to the upper floor (we got into a traffic jam that was not top but the kids loved being so tall in a vehicle) Then they also enjoyed a bus boat we took from the O2.

It had been sometime since my wife and I had been in London and we were impressed by all the changes. Some many new buildings and the City is so dynamic.
We stayed at a flat in Greenwich millenium village, which was really a good idea. There was a small lake next to the building with ducks (and more squirrels) and it was less than 10 minutes walk from the underground (O2)... We avoided the rush hour on the underground, which I think was a great idea.
We were luck y to enjoy the red poppies at Buckingham palace!

Thanks again so much for the feedback. it was really helpful. I´ll try to be active on the forum and help out with suggestions on places I know!