Must-dos in Central London

[SNWannabe]

With two older kids, pre teen, early teen... Any must dos for us? Or hints/tips? Want to do the tourist stuff, staying central London...public buses? or is it worth spending money on the tourist buses?

When my relatives come to visit the UK and we take them to London for a day we always do the same route, start at Buckingham Palace then walk along the South Bank all the way to London Bridge. You get to see lots and at a relaxed pace. You could do it the other way too and finish near Victoria and go see a play in the evening.

Sky Garden is nice for a coffee, fantastic views.

Don’t do Madame Tussaud’s or the aquarium.

the walk from poster above is v good.

I think the tourist buses are good if you haven’t been before but there’s no denying you can do it yourself cheaper.

one of the big museums.

try and book somewhere cool to eat or go to seven dials food market or borough narket.

the wellcome foundation is good for teenagers.

We did a tour of St Paul's last weekend. It was an excellent trip and you get to climb to the top and get excellent views.

Also the crypt has some very famous and important burials there.

We got them on Tesco vouchers and would defo recommend

On the other hand went to The British Museum as neither of us had been since we were kids and it was so busy. Too busy to see anything!

Thank you all for the tips, the walk along to tower bridge sounds fab and the Sky Garden looks like a great idea too. Thanks also, will avoid the busy museum! and Madam Tussauds/aquarium...

I think the tour buses are a good idea for the commentary. Especially if they haven’t been to London before. All the museums are great. Main liked a boat trip and the cable cars over the Thames

Taking a trip on the riverboat service, now called Uber, is a cheap and fun way to get around whilst seeing a lot of the sights.

Try a smaller museum as well as one of the big well known ones. I recommend Grants museum of Zoology or the Wallace collection. Of the bigger museums, I recommend the v&a, it’s less busy than the others and the cafe/tea room is beautiful.
Go to covent garden and walk down Neal street. You can grab sushi from Itsu, pop into Neals yard, the Artbox shop etc. At the end across the road is the Forbidden planet megastore. Huge comicbook selection & all sorts of cool shit. If you take a right past Shaftesbury avenue towards Charing cross road it’s an interesting walk towards a very interesting collection of shops; a secondhand book shop, a wicca/pagan gift shop, a Korean supermarket & a K beauty shop, if any of that appeals to you.
Or another idea is to visit the National gallery opposite Trafalgar square (easy enough to find from Leicester square tube) and pop into the cafe in the crypt after for a coffee, which is exactly what it sounds like, a cafe in a crypt. You could continue on from Trafalgar square and visit the horse guards museum.

A clipper boat down from London Eye to Canary Wharf going under Tower Bridge is fun.
www.thamesclippers.com
The Eye itself is a tourist cliche but it's a great experience.
Don't do Madam Tussauds. Don't do the Aquarium.
The walk across the upper deck of Tower Bridge is amazing if you can't get Sky Garden.
If preteen is doing Great Fire of London then maybe climb the Monument.
I'd say probably don't bother with Natural History or Science Museum if you've got 48 hours or less: they're great but take up so much time (unless DC are huge huge dinosaur fans).

If you're not on a tight budget I think it probably is worth doing the tourist buses. If you are, then we can help you with routes.

London Dungeon is fab.
British museum was extremely boring (maybe I just wasn't the target audience...). However the Natural History museum was.

Posted too soon
Meant to say Natural History museum was brilliant.
Buckingham Palace sightseeing also worth a visit too.

If you have money I would really recommend an afternoon tea at Ampersand hotel. You can have dinosaur or space themed tea! It's just down the road from the natural history museum and science museum.

Secret London has the most efficient walking tour.

Number 10 Adam Street looks a lot like 10 Downing Street so fun selfies ahoy.

I think the V&A is my favourite of the big museums....the curator guided tours are excellent.

May we'll have changed but we had to book Sky Garden quite a bit ahead. Also it was strict security going in.

I would avoid the big museums like NHM and Science Museum in half term, it’s bedlam. Ditto Hamley’s.

The teens liked Camden - I’m a jaded old sod who remembers when it was a lot more alternative rather than “professionally alternative for tourists” but the teens loved it anyway.

We didn't book the sky garden and just waited in a queue - only about 10 minutes but it wasn't half term and was a weekday....

Oh yes, Cambden. teens loved it.

Is it English half term this week? Thought it was next…

This week for most London schools

Climbing up Monument is really great, a kind of budget version of climbing St Paul's. Sky garden will be mega booked up by now.
Get the Uber boat to the Greenwich museums and a potter round the park too

Damn. Thanks though, some great tips here... off to get on local buses to get our bearings and see the sights...then an Uber boat to Greenwich this afternoon and maybe the cable cars...