How does this sound for a plan of things to do wtih DS1 in London at half term?

[katierocket]

Tower of London
London Eye
Science Museum
Hamleys

We have 2 days.

Going to stay in a hotel. Shall I just choose a central one do you think?

Mine are 9 1/2 and 6. Years, I mean, not months.

There's that chocolate bar in Harrods too, isn't there? Yum I find Harrods very intimidating unless I'm with my two for some reason.

Have no idea what the Ice Station exhibition is about really - have this blurb:
Ice Station Antarctica is looking for ice cadets willing to brave freezing temperatures, 24-hour darkness, a scary snowmobile ride and life in a stinking penguin colony. Under the guidance of the Ice Station Commander, you'll get to grips with a variety of exciting Antarctic challenges, meet Antarctica wildlife and explore the skills it takes to work in, and care for, this frozen frontier.

We're doing it tomorrow morning, so should be able to tell you more later in the week.

(And I'm craving chocolate now, thankyouverymuch wheelsonthebus )

do let me know what it's like JJ.

EmsMum - interesting about St Pauls, DS1 (who is 6 BTW) has specifically asked to see this - no idea how he knows about it except they have been learning abotu great fire of london so guess it's from that. He really wanted to go to the monument to the great fire of london but it's closed for refurbishment.

Natural history museum sounds like it might be better.

Just looked at dungeons website and looks really good, think DS would like that but how scary is it, he is a bit of a wuss!

Our son particularly likes:

Science Museum
Tower of London
London Duck Tours
London Dungeons (verged on TOO scary though!)
and most of the parks, especially St. James' Park
and, of course, double-deck bus rides (any will do, but the ones that go around the major sights are pretty good!)

We usually use lastminute.co.uk and expedia.co.uk for hotel bookings, as well as ideas and cheaper online ticket bookings. (Just make sure you read the small print, though, as we got caught out at the London Dungeons once - you still have to join the queue there if you booked tickets through any booking site apart from their own.)

Have fun!

We find the Tower of London quite interesting and easily spend 3+ hours there.
I asked on here about the London Dungeons re: scary factor (for my 6.5 yr old 'delicate' dd) and received a resounding 'no!'. Haven't been myself though.
Tate modern has interesting exhibition with enormous crack in the floor atm, it is a good wet weather option as there is some big indoor space (and has the benefit of being across [via cool pedestrian bride] from St. Paul's.
Nat. Hist museum has a good bugs and creepies section, also a room that simulates (very realistically) the feeling of being in an earthquake.
The Science museum has very interesting interactive play space which is extremely suitable for your age ds called the Launch Pad, which is in the basement.
But, be warned, as others have said, these 2 museums get v. busy in 1/2 term, so (esp. for Science musuem) aim for beginning of day.
Enjoy yourselves!
Btw, you both might enjoy wagamama's (japanese type noodle restaurant). Lovely food if you are into that kind of thing, and they do a child's menu and child friendly chopsticks etc.

Bump for JJ - do let us know what the exhibition was like.

Unfortunately, we didn't make it. There was a mix up with the tickets. We had a family ticket from the hotel and they were going to make us buy individual tickets as it was just the boys and me and we needed either 2 adults and 2 children or 1 adult and 3 children, no less (I thought it was "up to", silly me!) - it got sorted but stressed my eldest to the point where he felt sick and insisted on leaving the exhibition before we got started (there's a film for cadets or somesuch that you see when you first go in - we didn't make it past that). I really really tried to make him stay, but couldn't, so we left. It was really a pity.

We had a good time at the museum after that though - I recommend going very early and queuing as there was still a line when we left around noon.

In better news, I did find a giraffe near there. We went at 5pm and it was deserted, so it was perfect for a super child friendly yet not chaotic dinner. And Kensington Gardens are nice, although we didn't make it up to the playground. There's a stand with coffee and ice creams and pastries behind the Albert Memorial in the park across from the Royal Albert Hall.

really, really, really (think I didn't get enough of those in - love being out with them, but it's a bit draining and obviously I'm losing any coherency I once had... or didn't, who knows?)

Oh that's a shame JJ but glad you enjoyed the rest of it. TBH I think we'll give the antartica bit a miss, we only have 2 hours there - how long did you stay? Brilliant tip re: the giraffe, we need somewhere for lunch before we go back to the train station.

I went to the Science museam with dds on Sunday and they both loved it, especially the hands-on stuff in the basement, they both sat trough two of the talks too. Also went to Girrafe in Richmond which was great, the food was lovely and you got lots of it!

There was a long wait to get into the Tower of London on Sunday so we didn't bother just walked around outside. The biggest hits were the street entertainers near the London Eye and Covent Garden. DDs have been to London quite a few times before so were familiar with most of this however that didn't take away from their enjoyment.

My only tip would be to have a plan of what you're going to do and in what order beforehand as you can spend loads of time travelling and not actually doing much.