Ten Tips for a Better London Vacation with Kids

London with Kids

We’ve traveled to London with our three kids a couple of times now – when they were 3, 5 and 7 and again when they were 6, 8 and 10. When we’re there we stay active – there’s so much to do it would be a shame to spend too much time at the hotel (even though we loved our hotel). Here are our top ten London travel tips for families. And if you’re worried about rain, don’t be – most of these aren’t dependent on good weather.

See London from Above

Take a ride on the London Eye – the very large Ferris wheel on the south bank of the Thames, across from Big Ben and Parliament. We always do this on the first day we’re in London with kids since it lets us get our bearings, and staring out over London let us plan out the next few days.

Have Afternoon Tea

My wife grew up going to Fortnum & Mason for High Tea / Afternoon Tea, and we’ve continued the tradition with our kids – both at Fortnum and also at the Milestone Hotel. We like them both a lot, but the Milestone Hotel’s is a little more kid-friendly – in terms of the setting, the food/tea served and the price. It’s worth bringing a nice outfit and letting your kids practice their best manners. Put this one on your London travel tips list – there’s so much food served, if you book a tea in the late afternoon (e.g. 4 or 5pm) you likely won’t need to eat dinner. Information on Fortnum’s Tea is here. Information on the Milestone Hotel’s Tea is here.

Learn the History

The Tower of London is a castle with 1000 years of history, and if that’s not enough, the Queen’s jewels are housed there. We took a tour with Context Travel and loved how our guide Philippa tailored everything to the kids, from the starting time to the pace to the stories she told. My kids loved seeing the jewels and hearing about past kings and queens, the animals of the Menagerie, and medieval torture devices. Highly recommended if you’re traveling to London with kids!

Revisit Harry Potter

Exploring London with kids is full of Harry Potter-related things to do, from walking tours to studio visits. We want to experience more on future trips, but for now, my 10-year-old is satiated after visiting Platform 9 3/4 at King’s Cross railway station. I had expected to walk up and find a short casual line for photos. In reality, it’s a highly-organized operation with a queue, a photographer and a person who will put you in the scarf of your favorite Hogwarts house and direct you for the best photo ops, all for free…unless you want to purchase a photo at the end. Despite the hour-long line, it was a highlight.

Let Kids Be Kids

Our favorite playground is The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens. Our kids typically play for an hour or so before they’re ready to leave. Park officials limit the number of people who can be at the playground at any given time, but it’s worth the wait.

Go to a Museum

We love the museums of London since, in addition to being among the best in the world, they’re largely free. That means that you can stop in for even half an hour if you want to or if it’s raining, show your kids some highlights (a Monet at the National Gallery or the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, for example) and then continue on with your day. How kid-friendly is that? No queues to buy tickets, no hit to your vacation budget, and no pressure to stay a long time to get your money’s worth. One of our new favorite museums: Sir John Soane’s Museum, with a sarcophagus, a very unique use of space, and walls of paintings that swing open to reveal more paintings. And the London Transport Museum is fun and interactive, even if there’s an entry fee.

See a Musical

We plan our visits so that we have tickets to a play or musical every other night. In general, I’ve found the New York theatre scene to be more kid-friendly (better seating, free Playbills, no charge for booster seats), but given that we live nowhere near New York or London, we can’t pass up the opportunity to see shows while we’re in either city. In London, we’ve seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (mediocre), Stomp (fun for the kids), Matilda (excellent), Lion King (not quite as good as in New York) and Mamma Mia (my 10-year-old’s new favorite). I usually get tickets online well in advance, since a lot of shows sell out, but there are countless ticket booths in the city for last-minute purchases.

Take a Walking Tour and Become a Better Artist

My kids love to sketch, so I booked Context Travel’s Drawing London walking tour. Edward Collett met us at our hotel, showed us some sites around the neighborhood that we hadn’t seen yet, took us through Sir John Soane’s Museum and then walked with us over to the British Museum where he sketched with the kids. He’s illustrated for the New Yorker, Economist, and newspapers around the world, and he showed the kids how he approached drawing and how to get different effects. We loved it, and our kids’ artwork improved instantly. Such a cool morning with an incredibly interesting person.

Visit a Market

Borough Market has become extremely popular, but we still like it a lot. We’ll typically walk over in the morning, buy fruits, berries, and breads for snacks or to take back to the hotel, get lunch from one of the vendors and then get dessert from another vendor. A favorite stop: Neal’s Yard Dairy, where we love sampling the various cheeses before selecting a few to go with our newly-purchased baguettes.

Rest Your Legs

While London has a lot to offer above-ground, don’t be afraid to take the Tube from site to site to give your kids a little bit of a rest. Our worst days in London have been when we walked too much and pushed the kids too hard – sure we always discovered new fun things, but that’s not enjoyable if the kids are exhausted.

Where We Stayed

As a family, we’ve now stayed at two London hotels, and on other trips I’ve stayed at half a dozen more. The only London hotel that’s been perfect is the Rosewood. I appreciated the kid-sized robes, the cookies delivered to the room with the kids’ names, the location – only a 10-minute walk to the West End theaters and Covent Garden – and the nearby access to the underground. My kids loved Pearl, the resident Golden Retriever. Our connecting room setup worked perfectly.

Other London Hotel Options

Our previous trip we stayed at the Trafalgar St. James London. It wasn’t inexpensive, but it’s less than the Rosewood, and we had connecting rooms.

For a list of other London Hotels with connecting rooms, click here.

Where We Ate

London dining gets unfairly criticized. Sure there are a lot of pubs with similar dishes and a lot of chain restaurants, but with a little research, and recommendations from concierges and friends, we’ve found some places that we love:

• San Carlo Cicchetti has excellent, authentic Italian. We dined at their Covent Garden location. There’s also one on Piccadilly.
• Dishoom (Indian) was amazing – our favorite meal in London. There are often long waits, so make a reservation if you can. (They only accept reservations for parties of six or more, so we invited my cousin to dinner with us to make six. We walked past over 100 people in line as a result.)
• We always enjoyed Jamie Oliver’s Union Jacks at Covent Garden – a unique take on British cuisine. Unfortunately, it’s now closed.
• Paul Bakery. It’s an international chain, but it’s consistently good, and is ubiquitous in London. It’s an easy go-to for breakfasts or lunches.

What have I missed? What are your best London travel tips for families?

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