Help! London this weekend

[clippityclop]

Dh and two teens dds and me, staying near St Paul's. Really need some ideas! Only plans are show booked for Saturday night then panto at Hackney on Sunday afternoon. Please help to fill in the gaps and avoid dithering while we're there! Would be nice to see the lights, but not just spend hours on Oxford Street on the Saturday. Should we head to Hackney on Sunday morning? Travelling on elsewhere early Sunday evening.

If you want museums, the Museum of London is very near to St Paul's. The British Museum and the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery are not too far.

You can look up to see when Tower Bridge will be opening, and go and watch it from the embankment in front of the Tower.

I'd keep the time spent schlepping around on public transport to a minimum, and stick to things not far from where you're staying, to make the most of your time.

Do a treasure trail! There's loads of choices so you can just pick one in an interesting or convenient location. You basically walk around solving clues by looking for small, usually historic, details.

www.treasuretrails.co.uk/trails-search/London,Greater%20London,England

I really enjoyed the Spitalfields and Brick Lane one.

Hojas sort of has a point - we haven’t asked the number one question which we need to ask: do you live in Stornaway and this is your DC’s first ever visit to London, or do you live in Cambridge/Bristol/Dover and they’ve been here a few times already on school trips etc? I assumed from the tone that the latter was the case so they’d already ticked off the essential tourist stuff on previous visits. Obviously if we were wrong and this is a first ever visit from Aberdeen then we should

...suggests more meat-and-potatoes basic sightseeing itinerary.

Oxford street will be absolutely jammed, I’d avoid it. How about a guided walk (just google London walks)? Maybe round the city on a Sunday?

Thanks for all the brilliant suggestions! In my flap I should've said we're not quite from Stornoway, and get to London once a year so have been lucky enough to visit lots of the places suggested, just never at Christmas! Love the idea of the flower market and the walk along the canal in Sunday. Do you have ideas for a special dinner Covent Garden?

We were at the Winter Wonderland early December, it got very busy in the evening! It had less shopping stalls than we expected but massive fairground rides - way bigger than the usual touring fairs. Lots of bars and food shops there especially in the German-style village part.

For a special dinner in Covent Garden I would go to Orso or Joe Allen.

L'Escargot is great for an atmospheric, typcially London lunch (and star spotting) Just off Leicester Square in Soho. Or there's Rowleys or the Criterion. Both pretty and festive. Budget pretty and festive is Zettel.

Winter Wonderland - free entry though pricey to do stuff inside

Dippy the Dino is going on tour, so may want to catch him(?) at natural hist museum. Or if any star wars fans, madame tussaudes has an exhibition

For really good views of London (near where you are staying) you could head to the Sky Garden at the top of the Walkie Talkie building. It’s free - all pre-balloted tickets have gone but they reserve some for walk in guests every day - worth a try maybe
skygarden.london/news/walk-guests-sky-garden