Self catering holiday cottage close enough to London to do some sight seeing?

[Ghostsdonttalk]

We are looking for a self catering cottage for six, close enough to London to be able to do some sight seeing eg. Buckingham Palace etc but also want to do Harry potter studios, the Zoo, ski place in Milton Keyens and possibly a working (open farm).

Going 30th of June. Four kids from 14 to 6 hence wide range of wants.

Many thanks.

yha lee valley ?

I think you might be trying to cram a bit too much in to a visit to London. forget the open farm, there is a city farm near Great Ormond street hospital in the park there where you can pet animals etc. the HPS have a bus that you can get out from the centre to the studios. Milton Keynes is a heck of a trek out. my advice would be to look for cheap accom in central London - try airbandb as a good start. then do the bits in town and leave the out of town stuff otherwise you will be spending your entire time travelling with lots of commuters and this is no fun at all.

There is another real snow slope at Hemel Hempsted which isn't so far out of London. If you did this you could think of staying in Woburn or St Albans. We went to the Mead open farm when the DC were young which they enjoyed.
Alternatively stay in North London so your tube in isn't so bad and you have escape routes north.
There is a new centre parks opening in woburn forest but is very£££ and a waste if you are going out a lot. Harpenden also worth a look fast trains to london

Thanks all, we are coming over from Ireland so our geography is not good on distances to Milton Keynes etc

I will sit down with Dh and a map tonight and have a look at all the suggestions.

We are planning on staying 7-10 days and bringing the car so would hope to fit in 4-5 days out. I don't think we will bring car into the city so rail links would be good.

We have never been to London so I am excited but want to see everything, will have to narrow it down a bit.

Thanks.

when thinking about driving in London you need to factor in a fairly hefty daily congestion charge plus the cost of parking is horrendous. leave the car at home, get around by public transport/coach and do a bit less would be my best advice.

Oh, thanks for that. I have heard of congestion charges but had forgotten.

Don't know any cottage. But we spend times in London every summer we usually stay in "StayCity" where they have self-catering apartments. I've always found very good deal prices.

Your kids are a great age for the science museum. It's amazing! But go early - it gets very crowded

Just got back from london last weekend. I highly doubt that you would need a car at all. We done all the touristy things and the harry potter studios all using the tube and oyster cards. Just find out what you want to do then find out the relevant nearest tube stations.
Get a map of the underground stations too.
We then grouped all the near activities together day by day so the oyster cards were only used to get there and back to accomodation IYSWIM?

Milton Keynes is a bit of a trek , what about the Hemel Hempstead ski centre instead which is also near to Harry Potter.