London for 11th birthday... recommendations?

[IhearyouClemFandango]

We are taking ds to London for the weekend for his birthday as he has never been.

I have booked a slot at the Natural History museum and Science museum which I think he will love, but I was hoping someone could recommend somewhere nice for dinner (he's relatively adventurous), perhaps a route or company for a bus tour?

Plus any little extra places to visit or see to make the weekend special for him.

Op walking past Westminster abby, parliament big Ben, over bridge, past London Eye (good play ground there) and further down is one of my favorites routes.

No, it means she sees the same things for longer. Overall she actually sees less. You're clearly not a Londoner if you think slow buses are a good thing. 😂

We were down in London recently with our 10 yrs DS for a hospital appointment and extended a couple of days to make it a positive experience.
We were recommended the Uber boats and got a family ticket, such a great idea. The family ticket was great value (£40) compared to the sightseeing bus and planned our journeys along the river then walked from there.
He loved the walk from HoP/Big Ben down Birdcage Walk to see the Palace, it ticked a few things off the list in terms of sightseeing.
We did visit NH museum very briefly but it was so unbelievably busy, there were people everywhere. It was impossible to navigate and we were desperate to escape.

We have done the nhm and science museums in one day and it was a bit of a struggle to see everything they wanted to. They were pretty tired afterwards. Dds are 14 and 10.

I've done the tower of London with DH, whilst I absolutely loved it there was alot of walking. Not sure I would do that on top of the museums.

When we did sightseeing we got the tubes to see various things, getting on and off. I made a checklist with the tube stations and the order to visit!

One thing that went down very well has been a show. If you arent fussy, apparently you can get great seats on the day really cheap. We saw wicked and dd1 who usually hates musicals absolutely loved it! Next on the list is Matilda or Lion King! It's a nice way to end the evening but relaxing after a long day walking around!

Hop on hop off buses mean you get to see loads without traipsing miles. A great way to keep kids’ spirits up! Tower of London had a Horrible Histories event on when we were there. The trick is to mix up sitting-down stuff with walking. The Rain Forest cafe is fun (if a bit shabby.) London Eye ticket combined with river cruise to Greenwich is a good option. Matinee?

It's not what you've asked for but if you can afford it at that age, I'd get tickets for Mathilda. It's so good and a real London experience. Today tix usually has deals.

My son also really liked any street entertainment, we saw some good ones at Trafalgar Square.

In case you were unaware, Tower Bridge has a viewing platform at the top. Great view and nice little museum that shows how the bridge was made.

https://www.towerbridge.org.uk/