We have been thinking about going to London with our 5yo daughter, who is well-traveled for her age and generally behaves well on planes etc. After having recently spent several days in a very large American city while on vacation (she had a good time but got very tired and cranky), I'm wondering if it'd be worth it to spend many thousands of $$ to go to London when she is still too young to be up for anything but very low-key sightseeing. I know one must adjust one's ideas -- traveling with a child means going much more slowly and not expecting to do/see the sorts of things one normally would (e.g., no spending hours in a museum). London is obviously full of unique stuff to do and see, but she'd be happy doing very little of it and I don't know that we, her parents, would feel that it was a good use of our vacation time and money, nor would we want to spend a lot of our time doing things we could do at home, like taking her to the zoo or playgrounds etc. Obviously we could split up some of the time, with one parent heading out on his/her own for a half day here and there while the other one did something kid-friendly, but we want to be together most of the time. Does anyone have any other/related thoughts?
I fear this post sounds much more negative than I feel -- we really do want to travel with her, as we benefit from the time together and from exploring new places, and she's generally been a really good traveler (although it's all been domestic thus far). Perhaps it's just a difficult age, or perhaps our recent experience has colored my opinion more than it ought to have done. :-) Thanks in advance for any thoughts you care to share.