A day out in London

[ScotsMumOfTwo]

Please could someone help me out with logistics for a trip to London.

We arrive on Friday into King’s Cross where we are staying and visiting Harry Potter studios on Sunday. The kids want to visit Tower of London on the Saturday, having never been to London before I don’t want to mess up.

I’m looking at booking tickets for the tower at 10am which I hope will give us enough time to get up, eat and get there from King’s Cross?

can anyone help me with what is nearby for afterwards? The kids would love to see the sights even from a distance, Buckingham palace, Big Ben, the bridges etc but I would be great to have one or two suggestions of things that are within walking distance of the area of Tower of London?

we also have a few hours Friday evening and again Monday morning - if anyone has any clever ideas of what we could use this time to do it would be very much appreciated. At the moment I had thought we could go to Leicester Square and visit the Lego shop but not sure there is much else about that area.

final question.., for public transport around eg to Tower of London from King’s Cross, do I need to buy tickets or is it all contactless? How do I pay for the kids?

Thank you so very much to anyone that reads this, really appreciate it ☺️

How old are the children? If they’re under 11 then children can generally travel free on London transport.

No need to buy a ticket in advance if you have enough contactless cards for each person over 11 - just touch in and touch out with either card or phone (I don’t know if you can use the same card for two people if one uses the card and the other uses Apple Pay or similar - hopefully someone else will know).

I’d get a riverboat from Tower of London to Battersea if you want to see the sights. Think there’s also a light festival on there at the moment. There are also a number of free viewing platforms in the City (quite near Tower Bridge) if they’re available - I particularly like Horizon 22.

I don’t know if you can use the same card for two people if one uses the card and the other uses Apple Pay or similar - hopefully someone else will know

My understanding is that this does work, because the payment app presents a completely different card number to the system compared to the actual physical card's number. That's also how you can use a single card in multiple Apple/Google wallets. Relatedly, if a single traveller checks in with the app and out with the physical card, or vice versa, it doesn't work (you get charged as if you hadn't checked out).

The Tower of London is basically the eastern bit of the City. It's near Tower Bridge but the main tourist sights are a little further west along the river. The stuff that's nearest and worth considering (in my very subjective opinion) is:

• HMS Belfast
• The Monument (2 min look is all that's needed)
• the Shard
• Borough Market
• Tate Modern

Assuming your kids are older primary age and reasonably good walkers, those are all pretty close by.

Use google maps to work out travel around the city. If you choose 'directions' between two points it will tell you which public transport options you have (tube, bus, walk) and how long it takes. Citymapper app also good for bus times. If you tap in and out with your bank card (or Oyster card) you'll be capped at the daily travel card rate so you don't need to worry about how much it's costing if you're nipping around a lot.

If you want to max out on seeing things, why not do one of the open top bus tours? You'll see loads and get a commentary.

10am is plenty of time to get to the tower. Have a few hours there, grab some lunch somewhere, and then jump on a bus tour mid afternoon? Or walk across tower bridge to the south side and amble west along the Thames to the southbank centre?

Unless they are early risers I would say 10am is quite early to get up, dressed, breakfast and from King’s Cross to ToL. Maybe book for 11am instead so not such a rush.

Double check but if you use Thameslink south from KX (which gives you access to quite a lot of the sights), you might be able to use these offers - check the small print for each one tho, some allow pre-booking online, some you need to print a voucher etc.

https://www.nationalrail.co.uk/days-out-guide/2for1-london/.

It will mean you aren't using the tfl cap system though for those journeys as I think you have to book actual rail tickets and show them, but given how expensive eg Tower of London is, you could be saving quite a bit.