Day Trips from London

Hamtpon Court might be fun because you can take a boat there, let the kids run around the maze, and is less "stuffy" than say Windsor which is still a royal residence.

How about taking a boat down the Thames to Greenwich? My wife and I are thinking about doing that. You can visit the town, the maritime museum, etc.

Windosr is one our favorite day trips. The Castle is excellent as are the grounds (in spring do not miss the yellow rose garden). You can do a cruise up the Thames, walk over to Eaton, and enjoy some shopping. The previous post about Greenwich is also valid. Either of these can also be "done" in 1/2 day. I'd also suggest you consider York or Stratford-Upon-Avon. They are good day trips.

When my sister and I were in London years and years ago we did a day trip to Canterbury It was 1.5 to 2 hour trip by train. We loved seeing the cathedral and I remember liking the town as well. Pam

I think the boat to Hampton Court is a good idea. In addition to the maze, Hampton Court has people dressed up as characters from the time. Another idea would be to take the train to Warwick Castle. Warwick is a wonderful castle and has Madam Tussaud's wax figures thoughout many of the rooms giving a good representation of the times. Actually, we had a car when we went there, but I would think there would be some mode of transportation to get there.

Definitely Hampton Court. As Sharon mentioned, the tours with the people dressed up, playing the parts of people who would have been in the castle at the time, were great. Definitely something extra to keep the kids entertained. Don't even think of taking them to Stonehenge. I was bored after 5 minutes and I saw it when I was 35.

I live near Stonehenge and totally agree with Rick, who said the kids will be bored! Windsor or Hampton Court are much better ideas. Have a great trip!

Thank you all so much for all the great advice and information. I will let the kids read your posts and help make the final decision! Cheers!

I was in London 2 weeks ago and did the following day trips:

Hampton Court,Brighton and Stratford-Upon-Avon

I would recommend any of these -

Took my 14 yr old to Warwick, he loved it. They had a full dressed jousting tournement, the horses and knights all done up,, and the castle had a dungeon and torture section, ,what kid wouldn't like that, ( it wasn't too gory) ,.

Google Warwick Castle it has a good site.

You might try investigating Chislehurt Caves, assuming you are doing this primarily for the kids. Our family spent 18 months in Europe when my brother and I were about the same age as your kids. Unfortunately, I have a vivid memory and remember every place we visited. We went many “cool” places but forty years later I will do almost anything to get out of yet another museum visit.

Hampton Court Palace would be my vote for kids because they will love the maze, they may well feel like they are being dragged through another museum as far as most of the rest of it goes. They will both remember Chislehurt Caves in twenty years as quite the adventure but probably not remember anything about Hampton Court Palace except its maze and the boat ride (check tide tables). I remember Stonehenge because we were the only one there and we got to run around and climb on the rocks. Not so today. Take them to Avebury if you want them to have fun and some exercise.

Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chislehurst_Caves and follow the links at the bottom for more information. If I could have chosen a place to go long ago, this would have it. Good luck and have a great trip!

We were there in May and our kids were 13, 11, 7. We did a day trip to Bath where we did a MadMax tour of Stonehenge, Avesbury, Lacock & Castle Coombs. The Madmax tour made our kids feel special, always calling them to the front to be demonstrators and have a birds eye view of things. Walked us to a Harry Potter home used in the film. Totally recommend using MadMax for a daytrip that leaves from Bath. Take the train from London. We were in Bath in the morning, but took the train at 4:45pm from Bath to Kings Cross right after the tour. Others on our bus did this day as a day trip. I think that would be totally doable. I would have no problem doing that with our kids if we weren't staying in Bath.

We also did Warwick Castle, mentioned in this thread. A hands down favorite of all three kids. They had a foul show that was very entertaining, archery show, lots to see. A highlight to the boys was the dungeon. A little more tricky by train, but we did it from York to Warwick station with 2 trains, walked to the castle, walked back to the train station around 5pm and continued on to Bath. I loved both days. Go to the website to see what is being offered when you will be there. This castle was a great memory to all of us when we talk about our trip.

We were going to do Hampton Court on our last day, but ended up realizing train wise from where we were coming from it was going to eat up a lot of our time getting there, so we ended up coming straight into London for one more day. I hear Hampton Court is really neat too.