Taking 11 and 9 year old to London tomorrow.

[politicalcorrectnessisgreat]

Please can anyone recommend places to visit? We would like to visit some bustling markets perhaps and don't have a big budget. I have looked up places but find it difficult to work out how far away things are from each other! Possibly Camden? Or Covent Garden? We have been to Science museum and natural history museum before. Thank you for any suggestions

Stay clear of the M&M shop in Leicester Square!!

And Camden is much better for kids than Covent Garden.

Camden is fab - mine love it although they are a bit older. Southbank is great to walk along - usually lots going on. If you go to Camden you are fairly near Regents Park so could go there and hire bikes (they are very cheap to hire). Granary Square is near Camden too (by Kings Cross) and if it's warm has fountains to play in.

There is a Lego shop in Leicester Square (near the M&M shop!) and you may have to queue to get in but you can make minifigures upstairs for a fairly cheap rate which is fun.

Covent Garden is mainly shops IMO.

Oh thanks so much, maybe Camden then and Regent's Park for packed lunch?

What about portobello road market?

Use Google maps to work out distances between places.

Granary square is lovely.

The London Transport museum is good for kids in Covent Garden

Portobello is ok but best at the weekend really and not great for kids.

Camden Market is more quirky/ interesting, whilst Covent Garden is more gift shop-y, but generally has some street performers (living statue type things especially) which your kids may like.
If they’re into animals walk along the canal from Camden to Regents Park and you should be able to see into a few of the London zoo enclosures without having to pay an entrance fee - it’s been a while since I went along there but you always used to be able to see the Warthogs certainly and possibly something else.

Also fairly near (a long walk for kids but if you’ll have tube passes only a couple of stops on the tube) are the Wellcome Collection (medical type collections) and the Grant Museum at UCL (zoology, afternoons only) both relatively small, free museums which shouldn’t be as horrendously busy as the big museums.

Covent Garden again isn’t far from Camden if you’ve got tube passes. Covent Garden is very close to the Thames so then i’d either walk east along the Southbank, or walk West to Westminster and see the Houses of Parliament, St James Park and Buckingham Palace.

Oh British Museum is also quite near Covent Garden