London with 1 yr old, 4 yr old and 16 yr old! Tips please!

[jollydo]

We are thinking of going on Sunday with our dc (1&4) and 16 year old cousin (and maybe 19 year old cousin). We're planning on doing the sightseeing bits - maybe Buckingham Palace & guards etc, Tower Bridge, maybe Tower of London, Hyde Park - but I don't know how much is realistic in 1 day with 2 little ones. I don't go to London much so can't remember how far apart everything is & want to allow running around time for them. Any tips would be gratefully received. Is there anything good i've not thought of?

I have found some good eating place ideas from other threads (Rainforest, Wagama, Giraffe), and might even have picnic, but any other ideas welcome.

With travel - was thinking easy-to-collapse buggy would be ok on tubes as we have plenty of help to carry things & 1 year old when necessary ie. up and down escalators. But would rather keep tube travel to minimum and walk where poss. to see more and also to reduce the faff of taking ds2 in and out of buggy all the time.

Thanks for reading...

Oh and I was a bit concerned that ds1 (4) would get very tired and need a buggy too, if we're walking a lot. But taking the bigger buggy (graco) as well as littler one would be even more to collapse and carry when we need to. Maybe we'll have to rely on Daddy and cousin shoulder rides.

We did this last week 3 adults with 15 mo ,5,6,11 and 14 !All boys definately take as many buggies as you can!,although we only had the one and they didn't complain,the big hit was the London eye they all loved it ,we could even see the changing of the guard at BP ,one tip you have to take buggies down from the beginningof the boarding queue but after looking at us all looking laden down and helpless they put us straight into fast track .

We did the tube and also Pizza express for lunch (one behind festival hall)ALSo did the dinosaurs at the Natural History museum .

If you are going to buckingham palace, let them have a run around in St James' park. The squirrels are very friendly.
Covent Garden is good & the transport museum is there.
Its an easy walk from Buck Palace down the Mall across Trafalgar Square (take some tourist photos on the Lions) & in to Covent Garden and Leicester Square.

London Eye or the Duck tours (bus that goes into the Thames) although its a bit pricey I think.

Or get a river nus down to Greenwich & go into Greenwich park and the Museums. I fyou climb the hill in Greenwich park you get a great view of the City. the observatory is also at the top of the hill.
The Naval museums at the bottom of the hill.

You can also get the DLR into Canary Wharf.

Oh just seen you are going on Sunday, make sure you check the times of the river bus if you go down to Greenwich, you can also do it by train if needed.

I can vouch for riverbus - v cool on hot day

Great info, thanks. I'd forgotten about the transport museum, ds1 would love that and the older ones can always hang around in Convent Garden instead. I love Covent Garden and didn't realise it was an easy walk from Buck Palace - oooooh I'm getting really excited now! I'm going to search the net for a map of London and plan our route....

I did London today with DH and DD aged 5 & DD aged 11.
We got off at London Bridge and walked to HMS Belfast. (Kids under 16 are free, Adults are £10, but if you go onto daysoutguide.co.uk you can get a 2 for 1 ticket).
We then took the Thames Clipper boat from Tower Bridge to the O2 and then back to the embankment (family rover ticket was £18, last all day and you can get on & off as much as you like).
We then walked to Leicester Square for an Ice Cream at the Hagen Daz cafe (Expensive but a nice treat).
After some shopping we then ended the day at The Rainforest Cafe in Shaftsbury Ave. A great venue for kids of all ages.
Hope this helps.