London 5 Days With Kids - Advice

[Brycare]

Hi guys,
As the title suggests I am planning a trip in the first week in July (either then or the first week in August). Two adults & two girls aged 5 and 7. Most likely for 5 nights, but we possibly may have a full week not 100% sure yet.
My initial thoughts are to look for a hotel in the South Bank area if I can find one reasonably priced.
On the to-do list are Harry Potter World (one of the girls is mad into HP), the London Eye, a kid friendly west end show, doing the hop on-hop off bus (did it years ago and loved it then), walk around Borough market, covent garden, leicester square.
Thinking of maybe pottering out to Richmond or some other suburb for a few hours mooching around and some lunch also one of the days.

A few questions below...

1. Would anybody recommend any other good child friendly things to do/places to see?
2. Is Legoland worth the trek (I've seen some very varied reviews)?
3. What would you guys say is the best west end theatre show for girls 5 & 7? Torn between Lion King, Frozen & Matilda but maybe there are ones better than these that I haven't considred?
4. Any other recommendations - child friendly or otherwise? :-)

Thank you very much in advance.

Personally I would drop Richmond and Legoland. HP world? Not our thing. You are paying a premium for London and then not staying in London.

Greenwich is better for a non central London experience and you can go on the Thames to get there which is fun.

We have taken DC to St Paul’s snd then over the Milennium bridge to the South Bank. Tower of London not to be missed in my view. I’m not sure about hotels but the chains are likely to be cheapest. Also what about the science and natural history museums? Always worth a visit.

Premier Inns at County hall/Westminster Bridge are v popular for a reason. The breakfasts are good. (And the evening meals if you are knackered and heading back to hotel one evening anyway are fine and reasonable).

Agree with the comments on Richmond, don't get me wrong it's lovely, but not if you are in London for 5 days with kids. Greenwich is a better bet, you could get the boat down there.

Check out Tesco club card deals for 2 for 1 tickets, pizza express 2 for 1 etc etc. Eating out adds up quickly.

Look out for deals on the theatre tickets.

Kids get tired easily. Don't over plan. Add some park time/cinema in there.
Matilda for the musical. Slightly underwhelmed by the lion king.
Definitely Greenwich as well. Get the Uber boat there. And Canary Wharf too just Over the river.
Stratford has a great park near the Olympic stadium and some Olympic rings so good in Olympic year. And lots of places to eat.
Greenwich cable cars whilst you over there.
Found shrek/aquarium/madam toussauds overpriced.

The Memorial fountain in Hyde Park is good for a picnic and paddling if you’re going/have been to the Natural History or Science museums. There’s also the Serpentine lido close by if you want to swim with the ducks. If you are going to the museums they’ll be busy in July and you’ll need to book any workshops or special events well ahead of time on their websites.

If it's very hot, go to the fountains in Granary square (kings cross). Very fun for this age!

Skip Hamley's if you can, such a rip off

The little underground train at the postal museum is fun too. Book ahead.

We went to London in the Easter holidays (have family there so go about once a year), DC are 9 & 5.
Places we've enjoyed:
Young V&A - recently reopened
Natural History Museum
Science Museum
Greenwich Park Playpark
Cable cars across the Thames
London Docklands Museum
Discover Children's Story Centre, Stratford
Java Whiskers Cat Cafe (over 6s only)
Oxygen Trampolines at the O2
The Elizabeth Line - freaking being able to see down the full length of the train
River boats/ferries
National Maritime Museum
Florence Nightingale Museum
Horniman Museum
Crystal Palace Dinosaurs/Park
Cutty Sark

We usually stay in the Doubletree by Hilton Docklands in Rotherhithe as it's close to our family, close to transport links including the river, you get a free ferry pass & it has suites & family rooms. Good breakfast too.

We went to HP world last year on a separate trip as it's really not in London. It's really good but it's a full-on whole day & everyone was knackered!

Thanks for all the tips guys - keep them coming this is very helpful :-)

Hammersmith &City has had open carriages for years!

I think HP is better as a separate trip. Also Kensington museums are a long way from Stratford. You would need to plan this carefully. Madam Toussauds is grim. Indoors and horribly hot.

Richmond's a bit of a schlep from the south bank. Greenwich is a nice day out and fun to get there by boat - the maritime museum is good and there is a great playground at the bottom of the park and nice places to eat.
Frozen is amazing, as is The Lion King. I think 5 maybe a bit young for Matilda.
Depending on your dates there are good kids shows on at Regent's Park open air theatre too and the Globe usually do a family show over the summer. Also there is often something like The Gruffalo on at one of the smaller theatres but maybe a bit on the babyish side for those ages.
Also check to see if the balloon museum still open, that is very fun.

There's a good "obstacle course" climbing playground behind the London Eye. It gets busy, though. Sometimes there's a street food market nearby behind the Royal Festival Hall. We used to just wander up and down the south bank in summer - sometimes there's a merry go round.

The big Waterstones on Piccadilly is a nice place to chill if you need a centre-of-town break. Great kids section, and they have sofas.

Pelicans in St James's park are fun to watch, and free!

Are you on fb? There is a fantastic page called London with Kids: Travel Planning & Advice. There are loads of ideas on there. We have taken ours to London a few times we have done:

Uber Water Taxi
London Eye
Shrek Adventure
Tottenham Stadium Tour
Wembley Stadium Tour
Madam Tussauds
Hamleys
Rainforest Cafe (but I think this is now closed)
Mooched along the Southbank
Mooched around Covent Garden
Mooched around Leicester Square
Buckingham Palace
Regents Park - gone on the pedal boats
Diana Memorial Fountain

There is so much to do, you definitely won't get bored. We love it. The Tube is so easy & efficient & makes everything so accessible.

Thames Horrible History on the boat, near Tower of London.
New shows opening in May, kids theatre in August with half price tickets but on sale in June. Need to sign up their newsletter.
Southbanks is good central location, check out shows there and walk along the Thames to Bourough market, Tate modern etc.

We've also done:

HP World - loved it but our kids are a bit older & big fans.
LegoLand - Hated it, crazy queues & crazy expensive!

Premier Inn London Waterloo (Westminster Bridge) hotel brilliant location for South Bank
https://g.co/kgs/svcQ7L2https://www.todaytix.com/
Suggest Lion King and it Frozen best for that age.
Playground in Kensington Gardens.
Save HP and Mathilda for when they’re older
Open top bus tour with a live commentary fun way to see the sights.
Hamleys

I’d go for Premier Inn at County Hall. Lovely to walk around at night and a Starbucks and M&S close by.

Play in the water fountains at South bank. Walk across the bridge that goes into Charing Cross station as DS loved seeing trains run across it too.

Uberboat to Greenwich and play in the park - admire fantastic view of London.

Check what times Tower Bridge lifts.

Matilda great but very loud in parts. Pointing out as our DS has sensory issues so worth being aware if it applies.

I found the open top bus incredibly frustrating with kids. It was much slower than I remembered from previous years and so DS got ver bored. Stuck in traffic or waiting at stops for ages.

Matilda is the best of those shows IMHO but perhaps not the most spectacular/accessible for a 5 and 7 yr old, you might do better with Frozen. YY look out for Kids Theatre Week, cheaper tickets in August, sells out fast once on sale.

Other theatre options for kids:
Unicorn Theatre southwark
Regents Park open air theatre (risk on weather)
Kew Gardens sometimes has open air kids’ theatre
Lyric Hammersmith
Royal Festival Hall (has kids shows in school hols sometimes)
Rose Theatre Kingston or Polka Wimbledon (only if you happen to be going out that way)
Various Julia Donaldson adaptations at various theatres

Would not do Legoland in school holidays

Hampton Court is great in summer - fab playground (with water play section) as well as the history and gardens, often special events for kids in holidays

Agree Greenwich is good. Maritime museum surprisingly fun for kids and Cutty Sark, lovely park, small crafts market to wander.

They are a good age for Terrible Thames if they like history. Or just get an ordinary riverboat and see the sights.

You could try a Treasure Trail

Go up Skygarden or Horizon 22 in the City, or climb the Monument, for a good view.

Water options to cool off (take spare clothes/ micro towel) :
Appearing Rooms Southbank (not every year)
Diana Fountain Hyde Park
Somerset House water jets
Granary Square Kings Cross water jets
Fountains by More London

Agree Greenwich better than Richmond with kids
Tower of London
our 4 and 6 year olds loved Frozen
Diana Memorial Playground
The Olympic Village at Stratford was good to explore a couple of nice playgrounds and we topped it off with swimming in the Olympic pool which our kids loved…the facilities are great and we watched the Tom Daly diving school lessons afterwards while eating our sandwiches 😀 pretty cheap and cheerful day
London with kids is brilliant
Have fun!

Me and dd absolutely loved Matilda but dd is a big fan anyway.
Lion king was better for me and dh, it isn't as child friendly as people think.
DDs are not frozen fans, so haven't been.

Your older dc may enjoy the Fashion and Textile Museum. It's not massive and the exhibitions regularly change but my DDs found looking at the costumes interesting. It's a way to kill an hour and we walked back to tower bridge as it's not far. You could do it on the way to the tower if you're going.
Everything the pp have mentioned.
For a shopping/wandering day you could check out duck world, the moomin shop and the Harry Potter shop. All close enough to Covent Garden.

Whichever hotel you do get I would advise getting one with aircon in August. Central London temperatures are generally a few degrees higher than outer London. Plus with restricted opening of hotel windows and fire doors etc its very hard to get an sort of air through.
Depending on the price difference and your budget, Premier Plus rooms are a bit nicer and do come with a (small) fridge which will be useful for a cheap supply of cold drinks when you're back in the room.
The southbank is one of my favourite parts of London, the walk from Tower Bridge to Westminster Bridge gives you a great view of the London skyline and many of its most famous landmarks - Tower of London, HMS Belfast, the London Eye, St Pauls, Houses of Parliament etc.

I would maybe consider going more traditional and visit some of the more traditional and less commercial
London sites/attractions than some of the ones you have suggested. Although unsure whether some and London maybe too much for a 5 year old.

Natural History Museum
Tower of London
Piccadilly Circus
Go up the monument to the Great Fire of London
Covent Garden
Visit to Harrods

On a good day it’s also lovely to take time out in a London Park with a picnic and watch the world go by/let the kids run off some steam.

NB we found the London Eye very underwhelming and very slow.

@Itsanothermanicmonday Do you mean moved slowly? It’s meant to!!! Did you think it was a Ferris wheel? It’s a long view of London.

There are also great views from the millennium bridge and Tate Modern just not as far.

I think the fountains have gone from More London.
However there are free events there in the summer.

londonbridgecity.co.uk

Also free events at Canary Wharf in the summer too.

Get a rover ticket for the Uber boat, it’s fab. Kids go free with 2 paying adults. It’s better than the sightseeing boats imo as it only stops briefly at each dock, and covers a huge stretch of the Thames.

Factor in some park time. I think Holland Park is great for the whole family as it has the Kyoto garden with the waterfall and peacocks, the giant chess game etc. Grab a meal deal from the Tesco by Holland Park tube station and have a bench picnic on the park. The pelicans at St James’ Park are also worth a visit, and would tie in well with seeing Buckingham Palace. Go on a Mon, Weds, Fri or Sun for 10.45am and you’ll catch the changing of the guards.

Frozen is a good musical for that age and is currently being performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, which is right by Covent Garden. Look on TodayTix for tickets.

The mummies at the British Museum are very impressive, free to visit and not far from the theatre above.

Catch the tube to Golders Green and walk though the park to the free open air zoo. You can then carry straight across into Hampstead Heath and explore the beautiful pergola garden. One of my favourite spots in London.

My top tip would definitely be to build in downtime at the amazing parks to balance the intensity of the capital, as it can be quite overwhelming. At several of the parks you can hire a rowing boat or pedalo for an hour, which is great fun. I’ve done it at Regents Park but I have seen them at other parks too.

Have an amazing time.

I would skip the London Eye and book in for the Skygarden (free).
The fountains at Granary Sq (Kings Cross) are good fun and in the summer they also put on free movies there (kids related ones in the afternoon).

The best museum mine went to when little was the Transport Museum in Covent Garden.

The Uber boat along the Thames is not expensive (or it didn't use to be) and a good way to see the sights with some downtime.

Definitely try for cheaper theatre tickets if you're going in August. Around late May google "Kids cheap theatre August London " or similar and there will be a date and time in June to get the August tickets - you need to be quick as the cheaper seats go extremely quickly for the popular shows!

Premier inn Blackfriars is also good, often a shade cheaper.

There's a HP shop and Platform 9 3/4s at Kings Cross, good for a photo opportunity.

There are themed kids brunches, like wizard potions or Alice in wonderland, a quick google will give you the locations.

Stratford has the Olympic park with some good playgrounds, shopping at Westfield and the Orbit slide which is fun.

Babylon park in Camden, huge soft play, arcade games and an indoor rollercoaster!

Often along the southbank in the summer it turns into a 'beach' so lots of sand play, plus the water fountains outside the south bank centre.

Matilda is good if both kids like the newer movie, if not Frozen is fab and loved by all.

At the O2, indoor skydiving and the cable car.