Two days in London with an 8yo!

[SirSamVimesCityWatch]

I've just booked a couple of days in London with DH and DD. She's never been, he's barely been, I used to live in the home counties and visit occasionally but not been down south in years. So I'm after some up to date advice!

We're going down by train on Friday morning, getting into Kings Cross about midday. Leaving Sunday early pm. So not a lot of time!

Going to do a few Harry Potter related bits: the luggage trolley and shop at KX, and a trip to the house of Mina Lima in SoHo. Not going to do the studio tour this trip, want to focus on central London (and DD hasn't gone past book 3 yet so leaving it for a couple of years).

So far, in addition to the HP stuff above, I've got:

London Eye
Natural History Museum
British Museum (not all of it, just the mummies and Romans)
Go look at Buckingham Palace from the Mall

Wondering about the Tower of London but concerned DD might be a bit over walking around and looking at stuff she can't do.

Any good suggestions? Central London, accessible via tube and minimal walking ideally.

At that age my DS loved the Science Museum as its interactive and a trip on the river taxi to look at stuff. We also went to the floating chinese restaurant.

Boat trip to greenwich to have a mooch at the market or buy ice cream and stand on the meridian line in Greenwich park. Great way to see the sights and go on a thamesclipper/Uber boat not an organiser tour.

There is a great walk (though I know you may not want to walk too much!) Tower Bridge, to HMS Belfast (great to visit), Borough Market for lunch/snacks, past Golden Hinde, onto Tate Modern. From there can cross over Millennium Bridge, visit St Paul's, or go up Monument (lot of steps!)

Tower of London in itself is great. I'd probably give London Eye a miss.

Also yes river trip is or take the Thames service.

Greenwich also lovely. Maritime museum (free), planetarium, lovely park with good play area. Market (not sure what that's like these days).

When we took some rural cousins of the DDs to London we did all that Kind of stuff. Asked on the journey home what the best bit was. Resounding answer - the M&M shop
🙄

I think that already sounds quite a lot to pack into a couple of days.

I took my son when he was 8 for the first time. Apart from the Harry Potter stuff our trip was similar. We went straight to a matinee, so also had a look round Convent Garden. Next day we went to the Tower and late afternoon the London Eye and did a boat trip from there. Next day the British musuem, leisurely lunch.

I think the Tower deserves a good chunk of a day, you could combine that with a trip up the Bridge for great views or the Sky Garden.
Open top bus tour would be a good way of seeing main sites.

Its tempting to try and fit in a lot, personally I’d go for fewer things and longer stops for lunch so you dont get over tired and cranky
Have fun!

I don’t think you can add the Tower of London to that list - it’s too much. I don’t think I’d want to do two major museums in one weekend. Just getting to these places and queuing up can be tiring.( likely to be queuing for the British Museum ). The Crown Jewels are pretty special though and you can often see a guard change close up so I’d add it but lose a museum. Otherwise I’d think about plenty of refreshments breaks and snacks. Last time I did the BM we walked down to China Town and got Bao buns. They also do these ice creams in fish shaped cones that they cook in fancy contraptions in the windows of the shops ( sounds odd but very popular) or you might want to get a bubble tea if your kids haven’t had one before. I’d recommend the river Clipper service or a regular double decker bus for getting around.

The London Eye is shit. I know this because I've been on it, so you may want to also, but it really is boring as fuck.
Tower of London is great. Science museum bores me but DD loved it at that age. Her favourite place to go was Coram fields, but you don't want to travel to London and hang out in a park necessarily.

If she loves HP then there is the photo exhibition in Covent Garden. It was ok but not cheap but if she is a fan then worth it. I quite like the London Eye, but it is very busy.

I went in April with my 7 year old for 2 days to see Matilda the musical.
We saw the London eye she wanted to, Buckingham palace, natural history museum and her favourite bit was tower bridge you can go up in it and walk along the glass floor. We did not do the tower of London but walked around it before getting the Uber boat back to Westminster.

The Uber boats a great way of doing a boat ride on the Thames.

I think a theatre trip would be a great change of pace ….( from looking at old stuff). I use the Today Tix app and have seen a few shows for OK prices ( I haven’t tried post Covid so apologies if they’re extortionate).

You're going to have a ball!

No. 15 bus route.

Diana's memorial playground in Kensington gardens.

British museum/NHM/Science museum used to have fantastic explorer packs you could hire for free from their customer service desks. Really engaging for the children.

Changing of the guard. Horses always pull you in!

Greenwich cable car, foot tunnel and cutty Sark and observatory.

Lego and m&m shop.

Coram fields

Sky garden or monument for views.

Wetherspoons for food

I took my 2 to London on a regular basis from the age of 1. We always enjoyed it, and did it really cheaply every time.

I don’t think anyone has mentioned a hop on- hop off bus. A good way to see all the sights without getting tired.

Hard Rock Cafe if you're all into music etc
I've heard about the Royal Mail train ride??
Apparently there's also a ski lift place in London which is better and cheaper than the London eye
Next to the London Eye is a Shrek interactive thing, if she enjoys the movies she'll enjoy that
Riverboat ride
Tower of London
Bus tour (kind of takes your day up but you can hop on and off)

We did London with a 6 year old last year and he loved it. Mostly, he loved the boat ride and the bus tours. He also enjoyed walking around the South Bank and generally seeing things, even if only walking past, so I wouldn't worry too much

There's too much to do and so much to see, I'm sure you'll be fine and she'll love it

Agree re the m & m store, also south bank and Covent Garden

Went at Easter, my 9 and 6 year old both loved Tower of London. They didn’t find it too much at all.

Natural History Museum is fab, London Eye is fun. Also Speedboat trip on the Thames 😍

Hamleys?

Find them stuff to do rather than stuff to look at is my advice. I think there’s a Harry Potter themed potion or wand making experience somewhere central.

Placemarking as I’m also bringing an 8 yr old to London soon

Sky garden is fab. It's free but you need to book in advance.

Natural History Museum is great, but it's huge, and there are big queues and it's the wrong end of London to anything else. Unless dinosaurs or evolution are your DD's favourite thing then I'd maybe skip it.

A show?
The orbit - worlds biggest slide at the olympic park
I would go for a boat trip or a hop on hop off tour.
Selfie at fake no. 10 downing street (10 adam street).

M&M world
Walk through china town
Rainforest cafe

Oh and the horrible histories boat trip - brilliant!

There isn't a luggage trolley at KX any more: dropped in a few days ago as we were travelling on the Eurostar. It's just a wall that says Platform 9 3/4 - it's pretty underwhelming. Our dc enjoyed Science Museum/NH Museum, St Paul's, the Monument and HMS Belfast in particular in London. And travelling on the tube