Must do in London ages 6 & 9

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We are off go London on the train with our two DDs. My only definite thought is doing the tower and maybe the natural history museum, plus red bus hop on hop off.

Any tips/ restaurant recommendations? Really don't know London at all so any help would be gratefully received

I did consider a show but £££ And not sure youngest would sit still

London eye?

We went last year with dd1 and 2 who were similar ages to yours. Apart from the tower and the natural history museum (which they loved) their other highlights were the tube and Hamley's

Museum of London is fun. It can also easily be combined with some Roman walls in the City, a brief look at St Paul's and then a walk over the Milennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. Usually quite a lot going on along the river bank for kids to watch.

London Transport Museum id=s good and kid friendly.

What starlight said! my kids love the south bank (and it’s not crowded like the west end) plus the museum of London has a sister museum at Canary Wharf that is also good.

We also like to take cable car over the river to the 02, then get the clipper boat back to Waterloo. You get an amazing view of the major landmarks from the river. You can get combo tickets at the cablecar ticket office.

My kids love to go up to the 10th floor viewing platform at Tate modern, (but are not impressed with the art work lol)

The sky garden is worth a visit, has great views and a coffee shop that isn’t too badly priced for central London. It’s free but you have to prebook your slot and bring photo I’d.

The parks are always good if the weather allows.

I wouldn’t waste money on the hop on hop off buses. There are a couple of tfl heritage routes that use old route masters. One is the no15 that goes between Tower of London and St. Paul’s. But there are plenty of other routes that take in many of the landmarks. (10, 9, 12 from the top of my head) Not sure with contact less but with an Oyster card, you can travel on more than one bus in an hour and only be charged for 1 fare. Citymapper is a good app for planning journeys on public transport but I’d use google maps for walking.

How much time have you got?Tower of London, HMS Belfast and the Monument are all quite close together and all interesting.

I recommend the Greenwich observatory, Maritime museum and cutty Sark as another three sites. If you walk under the river via the Greenwich foot tunnel you can either get the dlr to the docklands museum or go to Mud Chute city farm.

Try to fit in a boat trip, you can find commercial sightseeing ones with commentary or just pick up one of the normal commuter ones, it's a great way to see the city, and rest your poor feet!

SOuthbank is very buzzy at the weekends, lots of street food stalls, the skateboard park, often other stuff going on for free at Royal Festival Hall or the Tate or just music/performers along the way doing their own thing.

A almost forgot Skygarden is free and gives amazing views over the river and city and gives the best view of the Shard. You do need to book ahead and provide ID .

If your kids need to let off steam then Corams Fields is great, very safe, no dogs and adults are only allowed in with a child! Close by is the Brunswick shopping centre which has lots of reasonable chain restaurants. Speaking of which, places like Giraffe, Wagamama, are great for kids, serve decent food and are as reasonable as you can get.

Avoid Jamie's like the plague!

where abouts in London will you be staying? what station will you arrive at? how old is your dd? so many questions

www.timeout.com/london/kids/activities/free-things-to-do-with-the-kids-in-london

Lesser known one- if you’re on the southbank do the Golden Hinde trip. It’s all It’s very entertaining (and educational) for children.

www.goldenhinde.co.uk/

www.visitlondon.com/things-to-do/food-and-drink/restaurant/best-family-restaurants

www.visitlondon.com/traveller-information/getting-around-london/do-kids-need-an-oyster-card

Last one! don't miss out on the really tourist sights like Buckingham Palace, and Changing of the Guard (I like the Whitehall one because of the horses!) just push your kids to the front........apparently If you get up really early you can often see the horses being exercised in the Kensigton parks, haven't seen this myself but have seen them pulling the gun carriages around - and I also have a very interesting video of horses bums from the time I was invited to what was a unique spot outside the Houses of Parliament for the state opening, i dI'd see Royal carriages as well, but mostly horses bottoms.

Don’t do the Eye it is dull , the Shard is much better if you want a view or the Skygarden .

Travel by tube and let them plan the route!
Sounds simple but that was my DGS same ages favourite thing!

Thanks everyone DD are 6 and 9 we are staying near bank and will be arriving 9 ish sat morn leaving Monday afternoon

Sadly no slots for sky garden

The view from the top of the Tate Modern is really good too, and free.

If you do go to the Natural History Museum, be warned it is ridiculously busy nearly all the time. Get there just before it opens, head straight for the bit you really want to see and aim to evacuate an hour or two later. The V&A has some great stuff for kids, and their restaurant etc is much nicer.

General buses are very easy to navigate and most are double decker so I would just use those.

We love London Zoo, and Regents Park is a lovely one to walk through en route.

There's also the Shrek Experience on the South Bank - next to the London Eye. I'd second the fact that the Shard is better than the Eye though.

Boat trip on the Thames is good too. You can go from Tower Pier to the Eye (for example) or to Greenwich.

Our son enjoyed HMS Belfast too - depends on what you're children are into. DS is 11 now and I took him to HMS Belfast when he was 7-8 years old. A couple of years ago we did the Tower Bridge experience so went up and walked on the glass panel area above the Thames then went into the engine room etc., HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge are very close to each other and you can walk across Tower Bridge to the Tower of London.

Boat trip down to O2 and do the cable car that’s quite fun .

If the weather is awful - there is a lovely little curzon cinema in the shipping containers hotel. The daytime film is usually a family friendly film and daytime prices are much cheaper than my local cinema. When you book, it looks like the seats are in separate pairs, but they are actually in rows. The gaps are little tables, so if you are booking for 3, you will still be sat together, there will just be a small table between 2 of the seats.

You can also get hop on/off tickets for the clipper boat.

cable car
museum of childhood
V&A
sea life centre