London trip - to cram everything into 2 days?

[Magenta1234]

Im planning a 2 night trip to London for myself and two teenage daughters (14 &15), surprise trip for daughters birthday. First time for us all visiting London. Currently feeling completely overwhelmed despite trying to get organised as going in less than 2 weeks. I can’t work out if I’m cramming too much into our trip to the point I’d be dragging them around just to get through our list?? I have a list of things we want to do but don’t know what order, timings so any help would be great!!

so far:
Thursday
12.30pm arrive at Paddington train station- tube to Victoria. (Could get earlier train if needed?)
Staying in Belgrave- drop bags off, freshen up.
3pm circular walk around Westminster, HOP, back up to Buckingham Palace, st James park etc.
5pm - pre theatre meal at Bills
7pm - Wicked
is it worth going for nighttime walk after the show to see anything ‘lit up’?

Friday-
early start:
walk along embankment across Westminster bridge to Southbank.
London eye
boat trip/ Thames Rocket?
Cable car
tower bridge and Tower of London,Shard?
can’t book Sky garden as tickets all gone.
also definitely want to do Covent gardens, Camden market and Soho?? Girls really would love it.
DD would also like to see MM shop - not sure if this is on way to anywhere else?
Dinner - Chinese in Chinatown?

Saturday-
anything we didn’t get to do on Friday?? Perhaps Camden market, Soho, Convent gardens and group these together?
lunch/ early dinner??
bus home from Victoria Station at 6pm.

Planning on using boat, hop on off buses, walking?

is this too much to get through in 2-3 days ? Any other suggestions that would be classed as ‘cool’ for teenage girls?

Thanks in advance and apologies for rambling post🙂

Yes skip Camden...go to Borough market. And the garden at 120 on Fenchurch Street is fab and free. Not a long queue. After the show go on a walk to Leicester Square etc. It's fun at night. Dont eat in chinatown. Busaba was nice for an asian meal. Enjoy !

I personally love a hop on hop off bus. Can do a nice tour of the "must see" things and then I can concentrate on the personal preferences. Like I feel like Buckingham Palace is a must see but to me its enough to just see it. And then just go to museum or gallery or market that I want to go in.

Like my fave thing in London is to go to primrose Hill and take in the view and walk to Camden Market from there.

Absolutely not worth going inside the Tower of London unless the girls are really into medieval war equipment and Crown Jewels. Walk around it from Tower Bridge tube but waste of time and much money going inside

I agree that you’ve got a lot there . Rather than Chinatown you could go for something like Zedals just off Piccadilly and that would mean you are near the M&M store ( terrible sickly smell and always busy but it’s one of those tourist things !) Alternatively what about doing afternoon tea somewhere on the Saturday and then you are replenished for an evening walk .

there’s also a food court in Seven Dials ( next to Covent Garden) which my teens love because it has a cheese restaurant where all the little cheesy things go round on a conveyor belt like a sushi bar 🤣

Came to Say the same, don’t go to Camden market, it’s crap and so busy and far away.
Borough market or Mercato metropolitano for a great street food experience.
Bills is a chain restaurant so I’d ditch that, you’re in London, the world is your oyster for food!!

This all sounds like super hard work. I'd redue the amount you plan to do, and keep it to similar areas. I am not sure there is much point going out to canary warf./ the cable cars for example. Also I would leave Camden out. Sometimes less if more, enjoying where you are without clock watch and rushing off to the next thing on the list.

Rib boat on the Thames is fun for teens.
My son loves forbidden planet comic store. He also loves China town, you won’t always get the best food but the experience is great.
the Tate modern and the Saatchi gallery are good, as is museum of the home (all free!)
Leake street tunnel for awesome street art near Waterloo station.

Shoreditch box park for hungry instagram teens, brick lane bagel is a must and if it’sa Sunday all the street food vendors will be out. Teens will love all the vintage shops down there as well.

Lots of advice here. Just two points. If you are around Leicester Square you are near Trafalgar Square. The church in the square (St Martin in the fields) has a self service restaurant in the crypt which probably qualifies as cool.

If going to the Tower consider taking the #15 bus, which runs from Trafalgar Square to the Tower. If you sit upstairs you get a great view of the Strand, Fleet St, St Paul’s cathedral and much more. Cheaper than the tube and easier on the feet than walking.

Have fun.

I would look at getting tickets to Dopamine Land (in South Kensington), it's an instagrammable wonder and the teenagers we know have all loved it.

I would skip the London Eye, and the cable car - both are pretty pants. Shard offers good views and you can have a meal there or go to a viewing platform (there's a Chinese restaurant but we've not eaten there).

I'd definitely go for more Brick Lane/Dalston (Curve Gardens) areas then Camden, Camden Market tends to get super busy on the weekends during the Summer and it's not the greatest experience. It's a lot of tat.

Do they really want to see HOP and St James? I mean changing of the guards is pretty cool but I wouldn't go to all the other places unless they are specifically interested.

What foods do you all like? Bills, as said, above is not really a London experience - we have such good food down here and such a variety (and we love Bills too, but it's just there's more option you may not get where you live).

You can walk across the top of Tower Bridge on a glass floor now, that has some pretty good views.

I recommend Joy King Lau for a Chinese. Standard Chinese restaurant but never had a bad meal there. Food always really good.

Bone daddies in soho is a cool restaurant that my son loves. The Korean chicken wings are so good - definitely try something different to a Bill’s!!

Also even for tourists the m&m store is super shit! Don’t spend any money there!!

I wouldn’t include Camden or Greenwich. I also wouldn’t use the hop on buses, I would be making more use of the underground. I have previously lived in London for many years, then after a long gap and living overseas, we came back and decided to do the hop on hop off buses, honestly it was excruciating getting around London like that, you will waste so much time.

I would just use normal buses , google maps will tell you which bus and stop from where thou are to where you want to go and unlike the tube you can see lots from the bus.

Sometimes less is more. I used to pack in as much as possible when travelling, and much prefer places/remember things more now that I relax and just enjoy.
Think about what you and the girls REALLY want to do and fit things around that. If you have time, add in more on the last day. But enjoy sitting in a cafe or park chatting/ casually walking around rather than rushing from point to point.

Enjoy Wicked! It’s amazing!!

For Chinatown I'd go for somewhere like dumpling legend.
But your kids might want to get bubble waffles or fish waffles or corn dogs if they've seen them on tiltok. Which might work as a lunch snack when visiting Leicester Square/soho/Covent garden.

Tower of London needs most of the day to do it justice IMO, especially bearing in mind the queue for the Crown Jewels.

And sadly, Camden Market/Locks have definitely had their day. It's all tourist tat (and I say this as a tourist!). My 16yo and I just passed through on a canal walk, and even though I'd mentioned beforehand that it had gone downhill, she commented that it was still worse than she thought it would be.

I think Spitalfields/Shoreditch now offers a little of what Camden used to.

I love wandering around Chinatown/Soho. Leicester Square is overcrowded but the M&M store is right on the edge so you can avoid the worst crush. We always eat at Wong Kei in Wardour Street which has been there as long as I can remember. It's not in the least bit fancy but the food is good.
There's also a fantastic Thai place called Thai Tho in Rupert Street, which is just off Shaftesbury Avenue.
There's a lot more than Chinese restaurants there now, there are a lot of Korean places, interesting Chinese and Japanese bakeries, a very odd Phillipino ice cream place and the obligatory bubble tea shops.
Just avoid the buffet places which are really grim.
Teenagers would probably love Camden Market and Camden is really easy by tube.

One thing to remember. London buses don't take cash. You'll need an Oyster Card or a contactless payment method.

I’d do the Shard over the London Eye , which is frankly boring as hell . If you fancy doing a show on the second night The Play that goes Wrong is excellent .

Camden is good for food but the clothes are crap.

It really depends how much you like walking and how much energy you have!

It's not worth doing the Eye and the Shard, I would do the London Eye and forget the other one, it's just looking at the same things.

OP the M&M store is honestly one of the worst places in the world. You'll see 😂