3 days in London - 4 kids - next week, need some advice please.

[4anddone]

just wanted to find out if what I'm planning is realistic. Kids aged 7,5,3,6mths. We are camping about 40mins outside central London. On out to do list is: London eye, science museum, nat hist museum, bus tour and river cruise. main sights requested Buckingham palace (2 very girly girls!), big ben and Parliament and tower bridge. Oh and at least 1 trip on tube and red bus (probably will happen on our commute in though)

Is there anything we should definitely add. We will be going mid week. Is Diana memorial playpark good (thought it would be a place to let off steam)? 3yr old (birthday that week) is not good at sitting still, short attention span, likes to run off - is the most scary component of the whole adventure!

Should I have the baby in a sling or a pram. happy with either only real problem with pram would be tube/bus??? (although between me and hubby we could carry it).

Is this all in one day?

I think the park is definitely worth a visit and the museums will be so packed, especially expect long queuing for Nat Hist.

A museum that is fab but less hectic is the Museum of London. My DC are 7,5 and 2. Tbf we did leave the 2 year old at home last time but MoL should be lovely with your 3 year old.

Having said that there isn't that much around there otherwise and no park such as the Diana Memorial.

You could start at Tower Bridge and walk over then wonder around the Southbank, London Eye etc.

Diana memorial playground is great. Museum of childhood in Bethnal Green is also very good, they usually have things going on and interesting as a grown up to see all the old toys.

Definitely use a sling.

The museums may be busy - Nat history often has queues, but science museum may be quieter.

If you are at London eye, wander along to south bank, as they have a summer festival on at moment - fountains to play in, beach, and Beano Town.

You can walk across bridge to pick up boat at embankment.

Have a good trip.

day 1 . I'd start at Green park station. Walk through Green park to Buckingham palace. then through St. James's Park (bring nuts for the squirrels) down to Houses of Parliament and the London Eye. That shouldn't be too tiring a walk. Then get on a tour bus at whatever stop is nearest. Get dropped back at the London Eye and go on it if you like (you might be better to book, I'm not sure). If you're not all knackered by this point walk along the southbank a bit and play in the pretend beach and sit down outside a cafe and have some food or a drink. Depending on how your timings work out you can swap round the eye, southbank walk/eats and tour bus.

day 2 NHM and Science museum are next door to each other so can maybe do both in one day with a break in between. I'm guessing that you can get a bus from there to Diana Memorial garden but I don't really know where that is. Might even be walkable from the museums.

day 3 do other things or do the things you missed out on the other days.

If you go inside Buckingham Palace (££££ but interesting) then the double decker 148 bus will take you from the exit past - or to - Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. It will also take you over Westminster Bridge where you could then hop off for the London Eye.

My children and I today did the Buckingham Palace tour (first slot at 9:30 am), 148 bus to County Hall and walked to London Eye (didn't go on Eye but played in the playground at base), walked to Southbank Centre and played in BeanoTown; sand; fountains. We then walked back over to Embankment. We were at Embankment at 4:30 pm.

You can get a boat from the Festival pier at the Southbank Centre to Tower Bridge. It is the "Westminster - St Katherine's Circular" and takes about 20 minutes. So you could combine a boat trip with the above.

It is worth fiddling with the www.tfl.gov.uk website. You can force it to pick, for example, bus journeys or river journeys and then play with different itineraries. Most of your items will be in there as "place of interest" items or you can find their postcodes.

The Diana Memorial playground is a feasible walk from the Science and Natural History museums but it is quite far. It would be too much with little ones to do both that and give the two museums justice, I think. You could jump on the 70 bus though.

It may be worth exploring hop-on, hop-off bus tours so you could combine some of your goals?

Thank you for all your helpful replies. Lots to think about. If you are coming Cornwall hope I can return the good advice! My main worry is my 3year - old melting down/running off, if I can keep him engaged/still/involved and still with us by the end I will count it as a success!