London in October with teens

[myotherusernameisbetter]

I've posted on here with the same query before and got loads of great suggestions, but we ended up not going at that time and now I can't find the thread (maybe I put it in chat?)

So, thank you to everyone who posted before, but can you please help me again? pretty please :)

It'll be me, OH and 2 boys 14 and 13.

we have done:

boat trip down the Thames,
Museum of Natural History
Science Museum
Westminster Abbey
Imperial War Museum
Harrods
Hamleys
Trafalger square
Buckingham Palace

all in the space of 2 and a half days...phew!!

Boys not interested in Sport or shopping - unless it's for computer games...

2 of us are terrified of heights so we gave the London Eye a miss last time - heard great stuff about the harry Potter Studio thing so that may be a possibility.

We will have all day Sunday and Monday and Tuesday morning to fill. Think OH would like to do the churchill War rooms.

Want it to be fun - we really enjoyed the last trip (except westminster Abbey for the kids - they were 10 and 11 then)

We are not really a "Musicals" type of family - we mainly just wore ourselves out during the day and went back to the hotel after dinner, boys are that wee bit older this time so not sure if there would be a non-theatre option for an evening? Cinema I guess maybe?

A couple of suggestions Ripleys which is full of horrible things teenage boys will like. go down to the south bank visit the ship and do the London dungeon. buy one of those guided walks around London type books and pick a walk to do together. as for shows, woman in black. definitely not a musical and will scare the pants off of them!! my teens did enjoy the tower of London (surprisingly) also covent garden isn't shopping more wandering around. what about speakers corner on sunday morning.

thanks mummymeister. I'll look into those - :)

St Paul's?
Kew Gardens?
Art galleries?

I have vouchers from tesco's club card for Ripley's Believe it or not for our visit in October, we're doing Tower of London via clubcard vouchers too as my son has asked numerous times to go.

We're doing Madame Tussauds too.

The London Dungeons would be good.

We also always head to Covent Garden for a wander about at the performers and some lunch while watching the world go past. And the kids love Picadilly Circus.

39 steps is a non-musical worth seeing. My dcs loved it, but are a little bit older. Its very clever and very funny.

Thank you for all your suggestions - I am going to make a list of suitable ones and we each get to choose one to do - seems the fairest way. I'll just make sure that I want to do everything on the option list

The boys are away camping just now so it'll give me a chance to do a bit of research so they can make an informed choice rather than just picking based on the name :)

Thinking the Design Museum may be an option - not sure if anyone has any views/experience?

Eldest is very keen on architecture and product design and there is a Louis Khan exhibition that we may just manage to catch.

booked a slightly later train so we will have a fair bit of Tuesday afternoon too but we will need to do something close to the centre then. Last time we went all the way down to the Imperial War museum on the last morning which probably was a little stressful in terms of making sure we got back in time :)

So we have 5 half days to fill I think and then a wander about town before getting the train home :)

Shoreditch street art tour?

Architecture walk?

If you go to cabinet war rooms, St. James's park next door has squirrels who will eat from your hands so take nuts. Also Westminster tube station is great inside, like something from metropolis.

Camden....

Mudlarking

visit the thames barrier.

British Museum
Museum of London
The Monument (for those who don't mind heights)
Walking tour?

Great ideas, thanks.

Added them to my google list for later :)

Is it the British Museum that has the cursed Amethyst? Youngest wanted to see that last time we came and we thought it was in the Museum of Natural History but couldn't find it. We thought it would be quiet and then found out it was half term in England.....

Do you have a half term in October at all?

Half term is usually last week of october

Great! Ours is the middle of October so should be a bit quieter :)

We had to queue for over an hour to get into the Natural History Museum the last time - think it was February.....I remember it being really warm though so maybe I've got that wrong - although when I look at photos, it does just seem to be just us in the t-shirts and lightweight tops - forget how much warmer you guys in the south get it.

If you want lunch near the BM, the Holborn Whippet does good pizza (and beer for the adults).

Harry Potter studio tour is absolutely brilliant. Also, dp is scared of heights but it absolutely fine on the Eye - and it is deffo worth going on.

We're going in a couple of weeks and have done all the tourist stuff before. So far on the list =

• theatre (not necessarily a musical - we'll just see what's available at the booth in Leicester Square when we get there)
• maybe the Prince Charles cinema one evening, depending what's showing
• Hunterian Museum and Wellcome Collection (because they are my favourites)
• Old Operating Museum - but will probably dump the dc on the Southbank for a few hours whilst dp and I do that, as they don't want to go
• maybe the Museum of Childhood, especially if we can couple that with a mooch around an area we haven't been to yet, such as Spitalfields or Brick Lane or somesuch (I need some Londoners to help me with what's feasible there!)

Not sure what else yet!