Help me decide where to take my children (London)

[Wallabyone]

We live just outside of London and our half term is next week. I'd like to take my eldest two in for a day out, but am being really indecisive and would like some help.

We've thought about the Royal London Observatory (too far?)
Possibly the Postal Museum, or the Museum of London? I've not been to either of these.
Not the Science Museum or the Natural History Museum, nor the Transport Museum.

Any ideas? They're 7 and 5.
Thank you in advance!

Greenwich is a pleasant boat trip so could be an idea.

There’s also a toy museum in East London - that could be fun.

Following this thread! We are off to the big smoke tomorrow!! Our must do’s as dictated by the children are, m&m world, Spurs football ground and warhammer store! We are off to warner bro’s studios friday. Need to fill tomorrow and Saturday!

HMS Belfast is great for kids of that age. You can explore the ship from top to bottom.
You do get quite a workout climbing all the ladders etc.

Postal museum is good if you book the train ride as well - otherwise you miss the best bit. Can be a tad expensive with that included tho.

Toy museum in Bethnal Green is gorgeous. Would be good for your age range.

Cannot praise Tower of London highly enough - free Beefeater guide with bloodthirsty potted history comedy tour, crown jewels with travelators to keep you moving, royal mint with lots of interaction on the exhibits, weapon arsenals, excellent café.

Observatory good - but again book ahead for planetarium and any extras as they tend to book out. The boat trip there is great and touristy, maritime museum also good.

Best cathedral is St Pauls with excellent viewpoint at the top and brilliant children's audio guide.

Kids like the monument - certificate for climbing all the stairs, good views at the top, fire of London action which can be followed up at the Museum of London nearby.

Don't spend money on expensive bus tours - just get the 11 bus.

Not sure if there’ll be any availability, but I went to the Sky Garden in the summer as advised on here as better than the Shard, and it’s free, but all spaces may be gone.

People laugh and call me a weirdo but when mine were that age the best fun we had was walking the perimeter fence at Heathrow! That plus a combination of all the free buses and trains

Horniman Museum

Diana playground followed by Chinese food in bayswater

Museum of water and steam

Foundling museum. All about the lives of foundling children. Heart wrenching exhibition of tokens left with children to identify them for retrieval. So many children never claimed. Small but fascinating.

Postal museum is great for that age. Make sure you do the train and the soft play (you have to book both of these). They are in a separate building from the rest of the museum, so time them together. There are some fab interactive bits in the museum too.
Boat trip to or from Greenwich is also good with kids, and the kids shows at the observatory are great. There is also Ahoy! at the maritime museum which is a kids area (check if you need to book as you do in holidays and on weekends).

@tadpole39 sounds a bit intense for a 5 and 7 year old?!

2nd for museum of childhood in Bethnal Green absolutely perfect for that age, not too big, really varied and bet they have some good 1/2 term stuff on.

Thank you very much, so many good ideas-much appreciated! I think that most half term activities will be on this week, as we seem to be the exception having half term next week.
I'd forgotten all about the Tower of London, despite taking 60 6/7 year olds there on a trip a few years ago! I am going to look at the Postal Museum again, see what is available to book. Bethnal Green is a bit far out-I remember going there as a child though, and finding it really interesting.

Yes the Bethnal Green Museum of Childhood is lovely and easy to the pop on the central line tube to Stratford if they like shopping centres (ie the Lego Store ) or trains (massive amount of train lines to stare at) or you get the central line in the other direction from Bethnal Green to central London.

If the weather is good do the river bus to Greenwich and the maritime museum and observatory in the park. If weather is less agreeable I would stick to central London museums

Not really too intense, they don’t get the meaning of the tokens, there’s lots of stuff to do and daily life in the foundling home, where they slept what they wore etc. It was amazingly progressive for its time. The tokens were to identify the children cos they couldn’t write so they had to be distinctive, such history behind something so tiny. My kids really enjoyed it.

Lego Store (often have to queue to get in it's so popular), upstairs you can make your own minifigures quite cheaply with all the separate pieces or the M&M Store opposite, both in Leicester Square. These options are probably better if like me you have a child that is not keen on M&M's so we don't buy anything there!

Also, look at Tesco vouchers if you are doing anything touristy, they send a lot of them via email and you can book online.

Tower of London, Tower Bridge visitor's centre, Sea Life aquarium, Madame Tussauds have all gone down well with my DD (and used Tesco vouchers as well) although the aquarium and Tussauds are very busy.

We haven't done the mail train but it's on our list!

I would also agree with the river boat to Greenwich. I've not been up to the observatory myself but the play park in Greenwich park is brilliant, lots of different areas with play, sand and water activities.

Ther are wonderful free trails for children in the British Museum, my children loved them at that age.
Number 11 bus follows the same route as the tourist buses.
There is a small (free) museum at the Bank of England which is strangely compelling. It's fun to try and lift the gold bar and as an adult it's weird to see the money that used to be in circulation and things like million pound notes.

We did SeaLife yesterday (although DS is 21 - he's at uni & wanted to do fun things) It was great! Also did the Ghost Bus Tour the other night - also brill

I visited the Museum of London Docklands at Canary Wharf at the weekend - free entry and there seemed to be lots of interactive displays/dressing up etc. You can get there by tube or DLR (which may be more fun|).

@Iwantacampervan

Docklands Museum is one of our favourite days out. It also has a billable soft play area - Mudlarks- which is brilliant, and all themed around life at the docks. We often couple it with a ride out on the DLR then a trip over the river on the cable car to the O2. From there you can get a boat or tube back to Canary Wharf to complete the round trip

Bookable soft play area even!

many places have been mentioned already, but my 7 year old really enjoyed the Olafur Eliasson exhibition at the Tate.

Also - if you’re going to London on h the train, google the two for one vouchers - you can get into loads of places two for one with a valid train ticket.

I second loads of the places above, plus Tower Bridge with its glass floor is good if only fairly quick.

Museum of London, we found the downstairs much more interesting for children than the upstairs - so suggest starting there. This means you do it ‘backwards’ in terms of chronology but I don’t imagine the children will care!

My main advice would be to pick a nice day weather wise if you can. October half term tends to be a really busy time for taking kids into London and I know that everything can be very busy. If it’s not raining then you can walk around / do outdoor attractions/ go to parks but if it’s raining you might find yourself queuing for ages for indoor stuff without much chance to do anything else.

And I’m sure you know this but if you get the train in, have a look at the Train 2 for 1 vouchers - they’ve got discounts for loads of things. Have fun!