Does anybody know London and can help me?

[cloudyrainbow]

I'm taking my 6yo to London on Monday - there are a few things I want to do but I don't know the best order to do them in and can't work out timings etc. So stressful! Everything needs booking because of COVID so can't just go with the flow.

I have ADHD and dyspraxia and I'm bloody terrible at organising things, working out directions and how long things take, so would really appreciate some help if possible!

We'll arrive at London Victoria at 11am.

I've promised we'll go to:

The Science Museum
Terrible Thames boat trip, at Tower Bridge Quay
Hamleys

If there's time and fits in location-wise with the above, we'd be interested in going to any of the following:

Natural History Museum
Diana Memorial Playground
Buckingham Palace (to see the guards)

Would anybody in the know be able to write out a rough itinerary for me, please, so I know what times to book, in which order? Never been to any of the museums so I don't know how much time you'd normally spend there. I have a train ticket that includes both tubes and buses. Also, any recs for lunch? I might need to book this in advance too.

Thanks so much in advance!

[Anotherbrokenairer]

I did an kids afternoon tea with my 6 year old dc at the Hilton and it was amazing. The staff make the kids feel so special and when they bring it out the look on DCs' face was totally worth it, and they get a free teddy.
I recommended Kensington Palace earlier because it looked reasonable in an ideal location for doing the London tour (and it was my other option).

[BamberGascoine]

@cloudyrainbow unpopular opinion here. I would definitely go to Hamleys. My boys always wanted to go and the one time we could have gone I was told by the friend we were with it was rubbish blah blah and we would go to the toy dept in Harrods instead. It was utterly disappointing. It was palpable and really spoilt it for us. I always regretted not just going and risking it being crap.

[YesThisIsMe]

I think you might be right Bamber. I was probably the first person i. This thread to suggest Harrods, which I prefer as an adult because my sensory issues with Hamleys are appalling, but I haven’t been for a while and apparently it’s smaller now and there’s no denying that DC do love Hamleys.

[Floralnomad]

Harrods toy dept is crap unless you’ve got 1k to spend on a giraffe that you can get for £200 elsewhere . That however is true of most depts in Harrods and I’m not sure they even have the opera singer on the elevators anymore . The food hall is worth a visit but may not appeal to a 6 yo .

[lomaamina]

It’s worth checking, if you have Tesco points, if you can swap them for a Family Railcard. It’s only good for after 09:30, but massive savings to be had if you travel a few times. And I recommend checking the 2for1 website for deals available for people travelling by train: www.daysoutguide.co.uk/2for1-london/.

[beela]

@cloudyrainbow

I am not sure how much fun afternoon tea would be for a 6 year old

It's a kid's one! I just thought it'd be more interesting than pizza express or whatever for lunch.

My 6yo bloody loves afternoon tea! That looks amazing.

I really want to go to London after reading this thread.

[KittenKong]

Harrods has places that kids would love to have tea in... (and the ice cream parlour which is ££££££). Harrods really is more for the spectacle and people watching! My grandmother (who was fond of her bling) would enjoy marching around saying loudly ‘yuk - I wouldn’t give it houseroom!’

[sanityisamyth]

@JoBrodie

The most useful thing is if you can get the free CityMapper app on your phone, set it to London. Allow it to access your location and then you can choose "From my location" to... "destination" and it will come up with all sorts of options with lots of detail (including how to walk to the right bus stop, or which entrance / exit to use at larger tube stations). It will also let you know of alternatives if a station is closed etc etc. It's ace.

You can bring and eat a packed lunch at the science museum in a couple of places (see the Google Docu for more info, or the map (pdf) and look for the picnic areas on Level 3 or Level -1.

Anyway you've probably got all the info you need already but I have very much enjoyed indulging myself in the creation of this itinerary Google Docs document :)

London journeys

1. Summary of useful links
   
2. Victoria to Science Museum
   
3. Science Museum to Terrible Thames
   
4. Science Museum to Hamleys
   
5. Terrible Thames to Hamleys
   
6. Terrible Thames to Victoria
   
7. Hamleys to Victoria
   
8. Hamleys to Terrible Thames
   

The useful links are

CityMapper (recommend phone app)
citymapper.com/london

What3Words (recommend phone app)
what3words.com/

Map of the Science Museum: www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-05/Museum-Map-Mar-2021.pdf

Thames Clippers website
www.thamesclippers.com/

ThamesClippers timetable PDF: www.thamesclippers.com/media/0fihwcwi/ubtc-09-jul-21-online-timetable.pdf

Jo

Just downloaded the Citymapper app for a trip to London this weekend and finding it so hard to use!! I can't put in all the places I want to go as a multi step journey so I can't see where things are in relation to each other!! Am I doing something wrong?!

[korawick12345]

Why do you need them all in one journey? What are the places - we can probably help you!

[DeathByWalkies]

@cloudyrainbow

Yes, just one day. I was afraid you'd say that! Earlier trains are really expensive but maybe I'll just have to go for it.

It says on the Science Museum's website to allow 2 hours. She's desperate to go there, on the boat trip (which is 45 mins) and Hamleys - so maybe we will only have time for these, do you think?

Might getting a night in a cheap Premier Inn or Travelodge represent better value? Or even a YHA? They do private family rooms nowadays.

[JoBrodie]

@sanityisamyth Hi - I'm not quite sure what you're doing or trying to do. I've never used it in a multi-step way so it may be that I just don't know how to help you, or that it's not possible to use CityMapper in that way. Echoing @korawick12345 - where would you like to visit and where are you starting from?

I use CityMapper in two main ways:
(1) On a laptop, speculatively checking out some options, making notes, repeating with different options - I quite often have several tabs of CityMapper open! :) citymapper.com/london

(2) On my phone while currently at X and wanting to be at Y, so I only enter one destination as I use 'my current location' as the origin.

CityMapper doesn't (to my knowledge) offer a suggested route for hitting various 'targets' en route, but offers the quickest (or with least walking or bus only etc) routes from A to B.

So I would do it as me trying to get from A to B, then once at B I'd start looking at options to get to C. If I wanted to get a more strategic view of where things are in relation to other things I'd do that on a laptop and also look at Google Maps

I don't know if you have a laptop of course but if not I'd have a play around in Google Maps either as a phone app or just on your phone's browser. Or ask here :)

It's very likely that there is an app or tool that does exactly what you're after, possibly there's an option on Google Maps. But I've only ever done that sort of thing 'by hand' (I have no sense of direction so tend to spend a lot of time planning and checking routes in advance unless it's somewhere I know very well).

I hope OP had a lovely visit to London too.

Jo

[PoshWatchShitShoes]

I'm not sure why Hamley's gets such bad press on here. The prices are bonkers, but as a destination for an hour or two, my 5 year old loved it. We wandered around every floor making his Christmas list (for me to purchase later on Amazon 😂). The staff are fun and engaging and do lots of demos.

We bought giant chocolate coins, lots of Hamley's brand colouring pens (magic colour-changing ones etc) and DS loved filling a bag with different flavours of jelly belly beans on the top floor.

Also, the opening bell was fun. It was December and they had a foam snowfall and a big Teddy mascot opening the door at 10am 🐻

[erinaceus]

I hope you had a lovely day @cloudyrainbow.