I'm taking ds (5) to the big smoke in teh summer hols.....

[DrNortherner]

I am hoping to do:

BA LOndon Eye
Science & NH museum
POss the zoo

Any other must see's for a 5 yr old boy?

hamleys if you can stomach it!

Good point about the zoo cat. He woild love tower of london and buck palace.

thanks

DS loved the London Duck tour here - it's an amphibious vehicle that does a road tour of some of the sights then goes on the river. Not cheap but worth it for the novelty factor.

Allow loads of time for the museums, ds was captivated.

But to be really honest, he'd probably be happy to go round and round on the tube and on the top deck of the buses...

my ds, I mean, re the tube and buses, not yours (although maybe he's the same).

Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards is excellent plus when you see the horses with the guards on riding by, my daughter loved that, you can have a picnic in St James park nearby if the weather is good too.

ds1 loved the DLR last year when we went to London - virtually free - go on a ride around the Docklands!

Imperial War Museum has some fab exhibits and there is a socking great cannon in the park outside.

Docklands Light Railway is great - for one thing you can sit right in the front and "drive" it and for another it goes to Greenwich (Cutty Sark etc)

(We went to both places as hick visitors )

docklands light railway is pretty cool. the tate to tate water bus. The zoo is fab but take a picnic if you can as the food's pretty bad and pricey too. The princess of wales playground is brilliant but can be really busy. The science museum is great but remember to take a spare top for the water play bit - my 4yo always gets soaked. There's a good cafe there (Blue something) which is worth the money and the sit down. Kew Gardens is good if you can be bothered to travel out to it. Yo Sushi is my ds favourite at the moment - a machine! um...

Ditto for the changing of the guards - my DS loved that!

DS really loved the zoo, but he was quite a bit younger than yours, so finding activities for his age was even more challenging - definitely the Science Museum for children around 5/6 the basement interactive section is brilliant.

Large exhibits at the IWM - planes and tanks and stuff

OOOh some fab ideas, thanks guys.

It will be just me and ds, it's gonna be fab

Go to Covent Garden at the weekend and let him think the statues are statues, my ds jumped out of his skin when one of them touched him. Lovely street entertainment there, he might like that.

Oh that sounds fab www. Didn't know about that.

When I have dates I shall post, perhaps if anyone is around we could do a mini meet up

Check this website out nearer the time to see if your visit coincides with tower bridge being raised - it only takes about 10-15 minutes to watch it being raised but is pretty impressive!

london bus tours, or big red bus co, exprensive but great, 24hrs to ride too, so you could buy a ticket one afternoon, do a tour around, then use it again the next morning if you are staying over. You can hop on and off wherever you want and get a free boat ride thrown in. Good if you don't know london

If you do a river trip, make a day of it and go from Westminster pier down to Greenwich. Market day is Wednesday, lots of interesting little bits homemade, mainly by students on sale and the Maritime Museum is free. Royal Observatory and time line in Greenwich park too.

We are visiting fancy london too at the weekend (staying with friends who live northish). Any more ideas?