Weekend in London - Advice Please

[Spaghag]

Hi,

We (a family of 5) are going to London for a weekend very soon. We are 4 adults and an 11 year old. Despite being mid 40's I've actually never visited London before

We are staying at the Tower (Bank) Premier Inn & obviously want to see as much as possible while we are there. Does anyone have any advice or tips please?

For example, are the bus tours worth the money? Or is it better to work out what you want to see and go on the tube?

Any attractions you would especially recommend? We've looked at Madame Tussauds, HMS Belfast, Tower of London & of course the bus tour etc but obviously won't have the time (or funds!) to do everything this time. If you were going as a family to one paid attraction where would you choose?

Any other tips also very gratefully received .

Yes, thank you. We are still deciding whether to try for the Friday afternoon or Sunday morning based on distance from other things

I went to London yesterday with my daughter, and we stuck to free stuff - I work in London but have never been to the museum of London, which was really good, walked around St Paul’s, and we also discovered the Barbican conservatory. The Barbican was, I thought, just an exhibition Centre, but it’s so much more, and the conservatory was weirdly good!

We also did the Tate gallery, I know nothing about art, but it was really good.

All free, but booked on timed tickets.

I'm back to update & thank you all .

We are back from our weekend in London & it was amazing.

We loved the Tower of London and walked so much I'm not sure my feet will ever recover .

The boat trip (we went for the guided one) was relatively expensive but well worth the money.

I had expected everywhere to be overwhelmingly busy but in actual fact the only busy places were Picadilly Circus on Saturday evening & Westminster on Sunday morning.

Downing Street wasn't remotely what I'd expected - decidely ungrand compared to other places nearby. We didn't use buses but did use the tube quite a bit as DD was a big fan .

The one main thing I loved about the weekend though was the friendliness & helpfulness of strangers. We had expected London to be the complete opposite TBH but were very happy to be proved wrong. Particularly the staff at the tube stations who were happy to help people who clearly had no clue how things worked .

I can see why Londoners are so proud of their city, they have every right to be.

We hope to visit again soon. A weekend is just not enough.

Delighted you had a good time. I lived in London for ten years before moving to Kent, and commuted back for a few years after. Still love going up for a day. (Though happy not to live there.)

Yay! I love the boat trips so much!