Mom with two kids in London for 7 days

With two kids I would recommend just staying put and using the hotel as a base. There is PLENTY in London to keep you all busy. The standard list of sights applies...Tower of London, Horseguard Parade, changing of the guard, Churchill War Rooms, London Eye, seeing a theater performance that the kids would like, all the museums...there is plenty! You can combine Bath and Stonehenge into one long day. Oxford can be another long day...if they are Harry Potter fans be sure to go see Christ Church college and the Bodleian Library. You could also go to Windsor Castle or Cambridge. Take them out to Hampton Court Palace and go into the maze in the garden and see the deer park. Take them to the toy dept. in Harrod's. You will have plenty to do!

7 days is not too long for London and you will never get bored. Have your kids learn about the history and they'll enjoy it even more. Rick Steves London guide and TripAdvisor.com is a great source for hotels, and RS guide for what and how to do things.

Thanks Anita for your response. I will look into local tours with London as the base.

Thank you Susan. I am checking out Rick Steves' Tour. That is why I am here. :-) Quite overwhelmed with the info. I feel more assured to get on the forum to talk to people.

My friend's grandchildren, ages 8 and 10, visited London last summer; and both agreed that their favorite sight was the Tower. They had been a bit lukewarm before the trip, until their parents got some books for them so that they could read up on what to anticipate. There are also a couple of books available with titles like "London with Kids."

I was in a somewhat similar situation last year. I traveled with two kids then age 5 and 7 to London for a week and my wife stayed after for business. Your kids are a bit older, but I think some of my advice may still apply. Here are some thoughts:

1). I think you should stay in London the entire time. You probably are not going to want to try to navigate long trips with luggage and two kids by yourself. As others have noted, there is plenty to do in London. You will not have time to see everything by a long shot. In addition, there are lots of easy day trips you can add. We went to Windsor and really enjoyed it. Pick up a guidebook or two and you'll find plenty of options.

2). Consider an apartment for a one week rental. It will give you access to a kitchen and laundry which makes eating easier and will allow you to easily clean clothes prior to the second part of your trip. Many times we would feed the kids cereal or something they wanted for breakfast or make them a partial dinner before heading our to a restaurant we thought they might not like.

3). There are lots of safe neighborhoods in London and the Tube makes travel easy, so you have flexability where you stay. We stayed in South Kensington which provided a short walk to three big museums (science, natural history and Victoria and Albert).

4). Check on the age limits for the Tube. Both of my kids were young enough to travel free with an adult. I'm not sure where the cut-off is, but your 9-year-old may be under it.

5). I would not recommend a tour. You may want more flexability than it can provide. We typically identified a key thing or two to see or do each day and added to it on based on the kids moods and energy levels.

6). I do recommend getting the audio guides and letting the kids play on interactive kiosks at places that have them. I was able to spend all of the time I wanted in the Churchill War Rooms simply because my girls enjoyed the audioguide.

7). Put some thought into how you will get to your hotel or apartment from the airport. My kids were so worn out from the flight that I ended up using a taxi. I felt it was well worth it.

8). Share your itinerary ideas here and your children's interests. There are plenty of travelers with similar aged kids that can provide ideas.

Good luck!

Stay in London the whole time. There is so much to do and so much to see you and your children will not be bored at all. South Kensington is very nice and you'll be close to the Natural History, Science, and Victoria and Albert Museums. All have free admission and the Natural History and Science Museums are very popular with families.

Hampton Court is really good fun for kids...the palace itself is great for all ages and the gardens have a famous hedge maze that the kids can play in. You can get to Hampton Court either by train or by boat and the journey takes no more than an hour from central London. If they're into Harry Potter, you could look at doing the Warner Brothers studio tour - it's an easy day trip from London and would provide a break from museum fatigue. Certainly look at taking them on the London Eye and doing a boat ride down the Thames to the Tower of London and/or Greenwich where they can stand with one foot in the western hemisphere and one in the eastern. On Regent Street you could take them to Hamley's - a fabulous toy store. Of course it depends what they're into - maybe Matilda the Musical might be a bit of fun and something differnt to do one night. If you wanted to go further afield, a day trip to Brighton would get them to a place where they could stand on a pebbly beach and eat ice creams and fish and chips on the pier. There are rides and amusements at the end of the pier and a fabulous sweetie shop in the north Laines.

With the Tower, go as early as possible to lessen the crowds. The Beefeater tour is great but would skip out at the end when you go into the chapel, we thought it was very boring at this point and I am sure the kids would be really bored. Also look into London Walks, I think they now have a,Harry Potter tour if kids are interested. With the changing of the guard, you really can't see much, especially for the children, I would concentrate further down the street to view the horse parade. They should really enjoy going up to the top of st. Paul's and walking around what I seem to remember is called the whispering gallery but not sure. My sons loved it. Also in the back of st. Paul's is the American Chapel dedicated to the over 28,000 Americans who were stationed in England and died during WWII, will give them a taste of US history while overseas. Enjoy whatever you do.

I am traveling to England in June as well with a 5 and 9 year old. Rob mentioned that the children can ride on the tube free with an adult. I have been curious about how this works and maybe Rob can give some insight. We will have oyster cards so how do you get the kids through if they don't have oyster cards. Are there turnstiles that only one person can go through at a time? If so, where do the kids go? Thanks. Sarah

Here are some basics that might help address the questions about Oyster cards.

Have the adults buy visiter Oyster cards from a location that sells them. This site has location information: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tickets/14482.aspx. You can also buy them in advance and have them shipped to you.

Up to four kids age 10 and under travel free on the Tube with an adult. Age 11 and above pay the child rate. See this site for details: http://visitorshop.tfl.gov.uk/help-centre/travelling-with-children.html

As noted earlier, you simply tap in and out though the larger gates located to the side of the regular gates.

You can re-load the cards at kiosks intube stations if your cards run low. I recommend carrying a few small bills or coins for re-loads. During our trip we were able to re-load one card with a credit card, but when I tried to re-load the second one on the same credit card it did not go through. I used a few pounds I had in my pocket as a short-term fix.

I hope that helps.

Rob is completely right-on with the apartment suggestion. It will give you somewhere to crash in the evenings rather than being cooped up in a hotel room which will get old FAST with a couple of kids. Try airbnb.com or vrbo.com to start getting ideas. It's a great way to be comfortable as a family, you can cook rather than always having to hunt for a restaurant, and you'll have a little more room to spread out.

May.. I took my 13 yr old to spend the day at Warwick Castle ..we spent most of the day and really enjoyed it.. google it.. The jousting show was REALLY well done.. full armour and costumes..even the horses.. and they did a catapault display ..

My son also loved the Natural History Museum and the Tower of London.. do join the included Beefeaters tour.. its history "lite" and the fellows are funny.

I can also recommend the Costume Museum in Bath if you have little girls.. the gowns etc are pretty cool to see.

I also vote with stay in London and do a few daytrips.

And May... I also took my 11 yr old dd on another trip to Europe( did not visit London with her though) and on both trips I had asked my kids to invest some "research equity " in the vacation. Kids can take trips for granted ,, and there is more of a chance of whining if kids don't take some ownership of the trip.. its "your" trip and you are dragging them along. or its "our" trip and we all have a say.

I had each child research and find three sites they wanted to visit. Its not hard for them May.. they just have to google "top sights in ..........." and then read up on them and choose something.. The 13 yr old can help the 9 yr old, but lets face it nowaday kids spend hours on computers.. they can easily do this.

The compromises are that you have to make an effort to include their choices.. I had to visit the Catacombs in Paris even though I did not want to.. my 13 found them online.. yech , underground and bones.. it turned out interesting of course.. but I would have never thought to go there on my own.. so when I took him to St Chapelle he couldn;t complain either ! lol

Hi May
I would recommend an apartment for you and the kids. Some sites are airbnb.com, homeaway.com, roomorama.com, venere.com.
Look at maps where your want to stay. We are renting a 2 bedroom near piccadelly circus. Do your research and read fine print. What floor its on and if an elevator? You dont want to be climbing stairs with all your luggage along with the kids stuff with your hands full. It will be nice for the kids to have a place for the kids and you to relax in and not have a hotel without any separate place to relax. Like the other poster says have the kids look up places they would like to visit on their terms and just have fun. The kids will be happy and so will you.

Something else your kids might enjoy is the Old Operating Theatre. Have them do a bit of reserach to see if that's the kind of thing that would interest them, but it was hugely popular with my family. It's a bit of real history and if you can find out when a guided tour is offered (they do them for school field trips all the time) then that makes it all the more meaningful and fun. It's located a very short walk from Borough Market, so you could have a lovely lunch and a very educational experience!

May, I would also recommend staying in London for the 7 days. For a hotel, I would recommend the Falcon Hotel(www.falcon-hotel.com). It's a little bit over your budget, but is located very close to Paddington Station. There is plenty to do in London to occupy your children. The Tower of London was the first to come to mind. Also for a day trip out of London you can go to indsor Castle or Hampton Court.

I was busy a couple of days. I checked back today and whoa, there are a lot of wonderful insight! I love the idea of renting an apartment. I will definitely look into that. Many suggestions are so spot-on; sounds like you do know my kids. :-) Thank you so much for taking your time to write. Now my head is spinning with ideas and excitement. London, here we come...

Suggest 5 nights in London and 2 nights elsewhere/nearby (i.e. Bath) for some relaxation and a broader experience.

Are you counting your first day you arrive as day 1? if so I would not plan a lot for that day. So you actually only have 6 days. Do they like Harry Potter? The Studios is a great day out. You do need to book in advance so if you want to go you should lock the date in. Windsor can also take up the most of one day but easy to get to from London. If you did both of those you only then have 4 days in London. Plenty to see and do in four days.
We took the RS Tour and then stayed a few extra days with our kids 12 and 16 last year. They liked climbing St Paul's, The London Tower, The London Eye, London Museum, British Museum, to name just of few of their highlights. Many museums are free so you can pop in and out.
Enjoy your trip!

My 10 and 8 year old daughters helped plan a London visit about 15 years ago, and they wanted to see some surprising things. Our hotel was near the British Museum, which they enjoyed in a compact visit. We rode the top of a double decker bus we caught across from the hotel to Greenwich, and along the way saw Parliament and Big Ben as well as the horses returning from the changing of the guard. The Greenwich museums, observatory and Prime Meridian line were fascinating, Then we took a boat on the Thames to the Tower, arriving after the bulk of the tour groups had left so they could actually see the Crown Jewels without crowds. One day we took the tube to a toy museum (sorry, can't remember the name), and one day a bus tour to Windsor Castle where their favorite thing was the Doll House. Since then my daughter has taken her middle school drama club students to London and the highlights were the an age-appropriate play, backstage tour at the Globe Theatre, and the natural history museum (she teaches science to 7th graders). The boys liked the Churchill War Rooms; the kids also liked a Jack the Ripper night walking tour geared toward forensics...but that isn't everybody's cuppa.

I'm a mom traveling w/a 7 & 10 yr olds this summer. We have friends to stay with in London, but will be using airbnb for the rest of our trip. (Scotland, Paris & maybe Bruges) Beside looking at price & location, check the reviews. Sometimes pictures can be deceiving. Or the 2nd bed might be lousy or it's really too small for 4, but great for 2 or 3. I know we're going to save a lot of money bc we will be able to deal w/breakfast. We will also be carrying our lunch most of our trip. Having a fridge will be nice for any extra that needs to be in a cooler.

Honestly, Stonehenge is meh. Unless someone is chomping at the bit, it's really a let down. (If it's on your way somewhere, go for it, but otherwise, meh.) I'd stay mostly to London sights. Cotswolds will probably be boring for kids. I did not find the allure of Bath that so many do, so my opinion is skip that too, but I could be in the minority on that. Windsor is very fun. And I hear you need to go to Kensington; place & park and Hampton Court, if you have kids. I would ask the kids what they want to do in London. There is a huge lack of travel books for kids, but I would recommend the Eyewitness books, as a good place to start. They may want to do things you wouldn't have considered. Have them do some research, then get together & "plan out" your days together. Doesn't mean you'll do that for sure, but work out issues before the vacation. Right? Have fun!

Jill

Just wanted to say I'm a mom w/ 3 kids (my husband won't be with us for this portion) and we're going in May for 7 days in London. We rented a flat through airbnb.com near the Baywater area. I chose it because it's near three tube stops, one on the Circle &District lines which goes most places we're going. Also it's near the Diana playground corner of Hyde Park, near Kensington Palace. My kids love playgrounds.
I planned one big thing each morning, then downtime in the afternoons. Ex. Changing of the guards (starting at St. James to see more), Tower, Westminster, British Museum (my son loves Egypt & Mummies), Cabinet War Rooms, etc. Then in the afternoons mostly park things or the London Eye or the big toy store or Harrod's.
We have been reading a lot of very interesting books, which I think will help them enjoy things more. Also I've rented some DVDs (Rick Steve's, traveling w/ kids, the Royal Wedding of William & Kate, BBC history ones) and the kids watch parts with me. It's neat to say, "Hey, guys, this church is what we're going to see!" and then they'll have a little more knowledge of it when we get there.
I plan to have almost all meals in our flat, or as a picnic (hoping for good weather), maybe just a few in restaurants. Oh, and we are going to try to have afternoon tea at Kensington Palace Orangery. That looked too cool to pass up. We'll have to be on our best behavior, but I think one fancy thing is fine.
Have fun!

Oh, one thing I thought of that I'm planning to do is make safety bracelets for them (or buy them) in case of emergency with my phone and email and an emergency contact in case people can't reach me. That way if we're separated, the kids can find another mom or a London policeman (I've showed them pictures), and ask them to call or email their mom so we can reunite.