Please help: Where to take a 2.5 year old and a 10 month old nearish to London next summer?

[milk]

Please help MNers! Where to take a 2.5 year old and a 10 month old nearish to London next summer?

Should I take them to a holiday camp like Butlins or Center Parcs? Should I take them to a theme park like Legoland? Or should I stick to a sandy beach?

TIA :)

Avoid Legoland like the plague during the summer holidays. The queues will be too long for your 2.5 year old, who will just want to play in the aqua park anyway, which you can do for free somewhere else. [bitter experience]

We went to Peppa Pig World with 2.5yo DS on Monday and he absolutely loved it, much more than Legoland. I had low expectations but was really impressed. The ride queues were fast-moving, there was an excellent play area (including the all-important aqua park!), there were lots of things to do other than rides and it was all so close together that it was very manageable. A 10mo would have plenty to do there too.

Based on ^ I suggest camping in the New Forest (if you like camping! DS loves it and there are lots of holiday parks with pools and activities or smaller sites) with day trips to the beach at Bournemouth, Peppa Pig World, maybe a ferry across to the Isle of Wight, and general jauntering around the Forest.

We're going to have a 3.5yo and a 10mo next year and that's what we're thinking of doing :)