My son and I will be in London and Yorkshire with friends and late July and the two of us are looking for something fun and different to do on the last three days of our trip after our friends depart for Norway. I'm particularly wondering what might be fun for a young teen who is interested in pub culture (okay - this is really just about appreciating a culture where kids are allowed to be more places as he feels valued and included), military history, chatting with locals, and outdoor sporting activities like fishing and lumberjacking, etc. My personal inclination would be to take a train to Oxford for half a day to and continue on to the Cotswolds to explore and hike, though I need a reasonable home base there as we'll have all of our luggage and no rental car. I also considered the Jurassic Coast, Devon, or Canterbury. Is there anything I'm missing? Or do you have recommendations regarding the Cotswolds or Oxford? Thanks in advance!
Posted by
Fort Myers, FL
1674 posts
If he is really interested in military history, I would reserve a time at the Churchill War Rooms.
Pub culture at age 13? Well, there are no shortage of pubs in London. I would probably suggest he research the pub culture online and then map out a few to visit.
Posted by
Land of La
8680 posts
In and around London: Hike in Richmond Park, follow the Line on the Thames Path and ride the Emigrates Gondolas, Imperial War Museum, Greenwich and Royal Naval College, take a tour of the Thames Barrier. Train to Turnham Green or Ealing or Richmond. Meander the high streets.
Fav pubs:
The Dove Hammersmith
The White Cross Richmond
The Victoria Paddington
The Anchor and Hope near the Thames Barrier
Visit Bletchley Park.
Posted by
1 posts
Spend a day at Warwick Castle. We took our 12 year old son there in 2003 and he had a blast and so did we. It is run by the Madam Toussaud's wax museum company, but it is well done with exhibits of different periods of history, reenactors, knights in armor, catapults, Winston Churchill and other figures who visited the castle.
Posted by
Yorkshire
1287 posts
If you are going to be in Yorkshire, it’s kind of Hiking Central!
Posted by
Washington DC
27142 posts
I think the previously-mentioned Imperial War Museum in London and Bletchley Park would be great for someone interested in military history. The IWM is huge, so it would be important to check out the website ahead of time to determine which exhibition(s) to focus on. Even Bletchley Park can consume about an entire day. I used and liked the audio guides in both places, but at the IWM the posted information is very complete; one can depend on that if preferred. The IWM is a free/donation-requested museum.
I have not hiked or used public transportation in the Cotswolds, but I think Moreton-in-Marsh might be the best base within that area. It has rail service, which the tiniest places do not, and it seems to be something of a bus hub. The difficulty is that I think the buses don't run very often at all, so it may not be so easy to get back to your base at the end of the day. I don't know that it's so simple to arrange a same-day taxi pick-up, either, but perhaps it is. At the very least, I'd want to have some taxi telephone numbers with me.
Oxford is a place where one can spend more than a full day; I'd feel really pressed if I had only half a day there. I think your son would probably enjoy the Pitt-Rivers Museum (free/donation-requested) with its fascinating ethnographic collection: https://www.prm.ox.ac.uk/
Posted by
London, United Kingdom
4684 posts
Also consider the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, in the suburbs of London.