London in May with 11 year old boy

[imstilljenny2]

We've just booked a 3 night stay in London staying in the Kimpton hotel near Russell Square. I'm hoping the hotel's in a good location because I booked it on a whim after a few glasses of fizz last night! Looks nice though. It'll be me, DH and DS who is 11. I'm thinking of going to the London Eye, Tower of London and perhaps a show (Lion King probably).
I'm looking for a couple more recommendations of things we should do or book while we're there. My DS is into cars but any recommendations would be brilliant thanks.

The Transport Museum in Covent Garden

www.ltmuseum.co.uk - not quite cars, but plenty of vehicles

The Science Museum - contains cars, trains and lots of other vehicles - also right by the Natural History Museum and the V&A, plus near Hyde Park with plenty of space to picnic, visit the Diana playground, see the Peter Pan Statue and go boating on the Serpentine

The Postal Museum is near where you'll be staying - definitely worth a visit, and you can ride a bit of the underground Mail rail

www.postalmuseum.org

You'll be v close to the British Museum too, and the various museums of London university, plus the Wellcome Collection

www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/

wellcomecollection.org

Think about getting the Thames Clipper to see Central London from the Thames - you could get a bus to Trafalgar Square (National Gallery, National Portrait Gallery) walk down Whitehall and see Parliament and Westminster Abbey, then get the Clipper from Westminster Pier to either Tate Modern or as far as Greenwich (National Maritine Museum, Cutty Sark, Royal Observatory, park and market)

Hire a bike and ride though the parks from Hyde park, through Green Park and St James park. You will pass Buck house, horseguards parade, the Mall, the Albert Hall. It's lovely! Also walk past some super posh hotels (I think we walked past some in ParkLane) they had all manor of Supercars parked outside!!!!

I agree with @SquirmOfEels that Transport Museum, Science Museum and Natural History Museum would be top of my list for an 11yo interested in cars/transport. Added advantage that SM and NHM are free. You could probably spend most of a day in any one of them.

I suspect he may be too young to appreciate or be interested in the arts, also Tower of London is perhaps a bit hard work at that age - interesting but in 3 days there are better places.

Covent Garden is also interesting for street performers, right by Transport Museum.

I also saw combination tickets for London Eye and London Dungeon.

Travelling by tube will be an experience in itself if it's the first time.

Info in Thames Clipper

www.thamesclippers.com/plan-your-journey/timetable

www.thamesclippers.com/media/2jkjqpoc/riverbus-routemap.png

There's a stop by Tower Bridge, so you could visit Tower, then see central London from the River, getting off at Westminster, seeing Houses of Parliament, then walking through St James Park to see Buckingham Palace, back along the Mall to Trafalgar Square

These are all brilliant ideas, thanks so much!

The Aquarium
School of Rock the musical
Harry Potter & the cursed child
The planetarium in Greenwich which can be reached by a boar from london bridge
Tate modern

Science Museum
Aqua Splash at The London Aquatic Centre
London Zoo

If you travel by train you can get 2for1 entry to the Tower of London. If you go there make sure you do a Yeoman’s tour - my 9yo was enthralled!

You could also look at the cable car from the O2 - we went one way only but there is nothing of note on the other side so if I did it again I’d just do a return journey.

The Skygarden isn’t far from the Tower and it’s free but you need to book in advance. Or you could walk across London Bridge to Borough Market.

That Kimpton is a great hotel. I stayed there last December (I live in London but was having a staycation lol). There's a great bakehouse round the back of the hotel called Fortitude. Worth a visit for coffee and cakes/sticky buns. It's takeaway only.

Go Ape at Battersea or Trent Park

Ice skating at Ally Pally or Queens Rink.

Definitely the cable car rather than the London Eye - far more fun.
Get the Thames Clipper down there.

Yes yes to getting a boat from Westminster to Greenwich. We did it with DC aged 10 and 11 last week - a real highlight.
Unfortunately the planetarium in Greenwich is closed until April. But the Maritime/naval museum in Greenwich is also well worth a look. The animated Colonisation of America is fantastic.
I also highly recommend getting off at Tower Bridge and climbing the Bridge itself. There is a glass floor so you can look down at the traffic and boats and some great original footage of the inaugural opening of the Bridge with all the horse-drawn carriages going across.

And get the driverless DLR back from Greenwich instead of returning by boat. You can sit at the very front and it runs through Canary Wharf with all the skyscrapers on either side of you. DC loved it.

Wander around Mayfair - area between Hyde Park and Piccadilly in evening and you will see boy racers in amazing cars. Lots of car showrooms down Park Lane for window shopping. My DS were always more interested in cars than Hyde Park!

When DD was 10 we went for a London by train and used the Days Out Guide website to get 2 for 1 vouchers for lots of attractions.

The London Eye was a hit as was the Science Museum and Natural History Museum.

We had one day when we walked a lot, past Buckingham Palace, Parliament, 10 Downing Street, Covent Garden and on to the City. We then had a rest on a return boat trip.

An old fashioned red bus was still running on one route which went past lots of attractions - it might have been the 23? We had to let a few go past before the routemaster turned up.

DD had been learning about the Tudors so we went to the Tower of London and Hampton Court.

She also liked the Tate Modern but there was a fair bit of sniggering especially the Sainsbury's receipt on the wall.

Another option that we missed was a Harry Potter tour. I think there were walking and bus options but we ran out of time.

Thames clipper (boat) down the river then cross over using the Emirates Skyline. That was the biggest hit with my 11yo at Christmas.

Disappointing transport news - the old fashioned routemasters no longer run and since covid you can’t sit on the front seats of the DLR which make it much less fun.

The Wonderlab at the Science Museum is excellent if you are willing to pay (the rest of the museum is free).

If it’s rainy one day, the Globe theatre do Storytelling for kids.

My husband and son (11) went recently and they both loved it.

He may have studied about it too in History.

Wow fantastic recommendations. Thanks so much everyone. I'll need to sit down and plan everything based on this thread.
I had never heard of the cable car and it sounds brilliant so I'll definitely check that out.
I really wanted to see The School Of Rock but it's not showing when we're there so we've booked the Lion King instead.
The bakehouse near our hotel sounds lovely! I'll definitely check that out.
Thanks again-so glad I posted!

One Day: Science Museum 100%. If he likes natural history, that too. And while you are in the area, go into Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, hand feed the squirrels and parakeets (if he likes animals) have tea in Kensington Palace tea rooms, maybe take a boat out on the Serpentine.

Another Day: If there's any specific things he wants to see in British Museum, go to those. The whole place is daunting, but a quick hour to look at mummies, treasure hoards and the Rosetta Stone followed by an ice cream is ideal. Then head down to Covent Garden/West End to watch the buskers, do some shopping and go to a matinee show followed by dinner in Chinatown.

Another Day: I'd definitely take the Clipper river boat from London Eye to Greenwich, maybe visit Cutty Sark or Maritime museum if he likes boats, Observatory if he's interested in weather, then round trip on the cable car, foot tunnel under the river, and ride the front of the driverless DLR railway. One route is a bit like a fairground ride.

If Greenwich doesn't interest him, you can jump off the boat at Tower of London and explore it then get the boat back to the West End.

If he's interested in politics, you can ask your own MP for a free tour of parliament. Tell them what days you are in London and they will arrange for someone to show you around. Otherwise you can join a tourist tour.

Oh and yes my DS is really keen to go to the Globe theatre (?! I'm totally shocked at that). They are doing Twelfth Night at school so he seems really into it.

You can also get off the clipper(Uber boats now I think) at bankside for the globe, and walk down to see clink street, the golden hind, and grab food in borough market or one of the restaurants around there.