Any experienced people know how to do london

[Hortuslover]

Morning all,

I’d really like some help on how to do london with a teen. I plan to take 13yo ds for 2 nights in January.

I have no idea where to stay. I’ve stayed in Covent Garden before now when I’ve been for shopping trips and seemed a good location, but not sure if there’s better places to stay in terms of sight seeing. Plan is to do open top bus, national history museum, change of the guards and London dungeons..not sure if I’m being too optimistic with the amount of time we are there.

Ive not got loads of money so I’m looking for deals on hotels if anyone knows of any little gems.

Thank you.

It’s £12 return from Paddington to terminal 4 where there is a very lovely premier inn. Trains/tube take 30 minutes direct from terminal and you literally just walk up the gantry undercover to the premier inn. It’s approximately £42 for the 18th jan then add £12 for adult fare and under 16s look to be free - but do check, I think you can use an Oyster card

I can recommend the hotel as it’s very quiet, staff lovely 😊 stayed there 3 x this year, spacious rooms, clean and nice bathrooms

It depends whether you mind an extra 15/20 minutes travelling

Museums are mostly free, the science museum and V&A are worth a peep for 30 minutes and are next to each other

The sky garden is also free, you need to book on a Monday two weeks prior, and it’s close to where the fire of London started and a monument erected. Tbh I preferred the sky garden to the millennium wheel

See you’ve got hotel sorted 😊 looks like you got a great deal

We recently did a tour of Highgate cemetery, we turned up first thing on a Saturday morning to go on the tour, it’s £12

"doing" a destination makes me cringe. AIBU.

If you have tesco points you can use them for the London eye.

If money is tight, personally I wouldn't bother with the open top bus. It'll be freezing at that time of year,. More fun and far cheaper to jump on a number 8, 11 or 19 and try to get seats at the top front, as these routes go past most of the major attractions. Instead, buy a Clipper boat ticket. You get a gorgeous ride from London Eye up to Greenwich and see everything from Houses of Parliament, Tower Bridge and the Tower, to O2 if you stay the whole route.

This site has some cheap deals on theatre and musical tickets for January if you want to book ahead - about £25 per seat (plus booking)

For nice, cheap food I recommend Cote's early pre-theatre dinner - 2 courses for £12 and the food is lovely. It's a chain with restaurants in Covent Garden, South Bank etc - all central. Or try the street food stalls at South Bank, Camden, Spitalfields or Borough. You can get great hot food for around £6.

I highly recommend the Science Museum. Free, next foro to Nat Hist and full of hands on activities that are definitely still of interest in early teens (I still love doing them) Head for the children's sections for interactive exhibits.

Definitely do the sky garden for some views. Also second the emirates cable car, I took my sisters who were around the same age about 5 years ago and since then we must have done every attraction in London and that’s still the thing they talk about

Also if you’re both into pizza Pizza Pilgrims and Franco Manca are both excellent chains for very reasonable pizza

I agree that the emirates cable car is fun. Skygarden is free. If you can't get in, there's a new sky garden at Fen Court 120, Fenchurch St which imo is much prettier than the original andf there are no queues (also the ceiling in the entrance is unbelievable - constantly evolving screened images from nature. I could have gazed up all day long. Also free.

if you want some quirky things to do that don't take too long, climbing up Monument is very cheap and gives you great views. The Postal museum is fun, mainly for the ride in the tiny underground train that used to deliver letters across the city.

Citymapper app is the best thing for helping you get around town on public transport. Just type in where you are going, and it'll tell you the quickest route by car, walking and public transport.

I recommended it to my friend from NZ when she was visiting and she loved it!

Also you mentioned the Natural History Museum, but not the Science Museum. They are next door to each other, and are a short walk from South Kensington station, so you could do both while in the area.

Please don't take your son on a Jack the Ripper tour. They glorify the killing of vulnerable women

Something best done in spring or summer, so for future reference - Docklands Museum, then DLR to Cutty Sark, visit the Maritime Museum and walk in Park, eat at one of the restaurants by the pier and boat back into London.

Or if you have money to spend and want to spend the day at Greenwich, there's the Royal Observatory and Cutty Sark.

This thread is making me want to take DS to London...

Make sore you are ready to book sky garden as soon as tickets are released 3 weeks in advance if you're keen - I attempted at 2 weeks and 5 days and they were gone

I'd definitely recommend you stop in to Borough market for breakfast on Saturday morning.

sign up to Days Out Guide....there's LOADS of 241 vouchers on there for everything and you just need to show your train ticket as you buy your entrance tickets.

It's saved us a fortune!

Also if you have tesco clubcard vouchers you can turn those into food...places like Prezzo, so not posh but great if you have teens...I think it trebles up now, so a fiver of clubcard vouchers will give you £15 to spend on food.

Try TKTS in Leicester Square for theatre tickets.

PS that's the booth in Leicester Square not ticket sellers in any of the buildings.

OP, check your train tickets for 2-for-1 vouchers as lots of stations have booklets of 2 for 1 if you are coming from out of town. We saved loads by chance on the way to Tower of London, DS happened to pick up the leaflet while I was queuing so we all got in half price. Pretty sure it works for things like London dungeon too.

You lot are just fab..if never know any of this and you’ve all probably saved me a lot of time and money.

I’ve spent most of the day getting the hard bit done of organising train and hotel, now on to the fun bit.

I have actually reconsidered the ripper tour 🙂
I just hope 2 days will be enough.

I wouldn’t bother with sky gardens. Just head to the viewing gallery in the Tate modern. As for an open top bus I wouldn’t bother either. Most of the main sites are close together, Houses of Parliament, Westminster abbey, Downing Street, trafalgar. Square and Buckingham palace is an easy walk. A boat down to Greenwich is pretty cool , don’t bother with a tour one just use the river bus.

I just hope 2 days will be enough.

It won't be. You could spend a lifetime doing London, and not see everything.

For example, check out this blog, and see how much this chap finds to write about within a different small area each week: alondoninheritance.com