London, 1 day. What would you do with DC 13 and 11?

[barnet]

Hit me with your itinerary! DD13 and DS11 have never been to London😱 as we live abroad. I was a teenager there in the 90’s.
We have this plan for 1day: SOuthbank, Waterloo bridge, Trafalgar Sq. (Nat. Potrait Gallery), bus to Camden Market.
What should we do on the second day? DS wants to see Hamleys. Where would be great to eat?

How many days have you got?
If just 2 I’d stay more central & not waste time with Greenwich & definitely not the cable car ( you’re on it 20 minutes & there is nothing at either end)
My 14 yr old Dd & friends love Camden (despite it being full of tat) they also like Portobello Road & Carnaby Street (ties in easily with Hamleys) and Covent Gardens
Yes to forbidden planet, really nice fish & chip shop round the corner on Endell st if they want trad English food!
Kensington Museums are all good, Natural history is the busiest.

I think that for a first ever trip to London I would stick to the really obvious stuff and not go off piste unless there’s something quirky that one of your DC are obsessed with (like Lego store or HMS Belfast or Platform 9 and 3/4 or the Old Operating Theatre).

I agree that a boat trip is great for day 1 (you could pay up for a tourist one with commentary or take the Clipper which is cheaper) but maybe not all the way to Greenwich - London Eye to Tower Bridge is fun and then you could walk over the bridge, and have lunch at Borough Market.

I’d do
Day 1: Eat your own body weight in Premier Inn breakfast
London Eye
Clipper to Tower Bridge
Walk across bridge to Borough Market past HMS Belfast and get lunch.
Back along the river past Millennium Bridge, St Paul’s, Tate Modern, Globe, National Gallery. Cake and a nice sit down from food market behind RFH. Back to hotel by bus.
Day 2: Enormous breakfast, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Houses of Parliament. Tube to Camden Market (hell on earth but DC will adore it) - street food there for lunch (in the actual canal side Camden Lock market where the food is quite gentrified). Back to the West End for Hamleys, Chinatown, Covent Garden (and Lego Shop and Forbidden Planet if your DC are anything like mine).
In the evening you can’t beat one of the ...Goes Wrong shows for that age group.

If they’ve never been before I’d guess they will at least want to pass by the ‘big’ attractions like Buckingham palace, Houses of Parliament etc? maybe a bus tour just to get that done easily

If you decide to do the platform 9 3/4 at kings cross. Which is just a photo opportunity and a shop. Book the vip lanyard before. You get to jump the queue.

It’s easy to find and you just walk around to the side and present your lanyard to the staff who fit you in next. It wasn’t very expensive and included a photo. Plus they got a lanyard that was themed to keep as well.

Mine really like the Tower of London as well and last time we went they were 17 and 13.

Shopping wise dd who is 13 loves Camden. More for window shopping as the vintage clothing is £££. For shopping she likes oxford street with urban outfitters, Bershka, pull and bear and of course the huge topshop.
There are primaries on oxford street as well. Dd isn’t keen anymore but if you don’t have them in your country teens often think that they are cool. Plus the Tottenham Court Road one (has an entrance on oxford street) has a huge themed Harry Potter section.

The Londoners on MN are incredibly helpful for planning itineraries for visitors, but our one flaw is a tendency to recommend overlooked suburban gems for first time visitors who probably want to see the headliners. Yes the Horniman gardens and Kew Bridge Steam Museum are lovely, but if you’ve got two days in London for the first time ever then you want to see the lions round Nelsons’ Column and the Tower of London/Tower Bridge.
The latter reminds me btw OP: watch Spider-Man: Far From Home before you go - it’s got a great climactic fight scene on Tower Bridge and for once it gets all the geography right.

(And the showdown in Detective Pikachu happens on Leadenhall Street.)

Yes, always v long queue for Platform 9 3/4 pics.

I would suggest open top bus tour, Buck Pal, Natural History , Covent Garden, Boat trip on Thames, London Eye @ night, Tower of London, Big Ben & Houses of Parliament