London with kids

[SweetPeaPods]

Thinking of booking a weekend in London mid November with DH, DS aged 5 and DS aged 7.
Any recommendations for reasonably priced hotels or activities?
It's to celebrate a big birthday and anniversary so want it to be special but equally can't justifying spending £1k on 2 nights away!

One of the most reasonable places we’ve stayed at was Comfotel Grn in Shepherd’s Bush. It’s actually more of a traditional British style B&B. Our room was OK, a reasonable size with comfortable beds and the bathroom was large and modern. The whole building was in the process of being refurbished while we were there. Breakfast was good, eggs, cereal, fruit, yogurt and sweet things, made to order in the kitchen/dining room by pleasant staff. The man on the front desk was super helpful. Shepherds Bush is a great location, we were a short walk from Hammersmith’s excellent transport connections.

Will have a look thanks

Tavistock hotel near Tavistock hotel is reasonably priced and quite central.

Tavistock

Also, consider the Youth hostels,in London. More like Travelodges and you can get family rooms, and they really reasonable.

yha

I think there’s five in London, and if you join, you sometimes get extra discounts.

Activities - the museums are free, Natural,history museum would be a go shout.

Katie in London - James Mayhew - good book to get.Lovely, illustrated book about Katie and her brother exploring the sites of London. Maybe a good starting point.

Katie in London

Also, love the I-Spy books.

If you have Tesco vouchers, consider London zoo. Also, look on Groupon for deals. Sign up to restaurent chains to get discounted food.

Android app "1001 free things to do in London"

play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=bhacromwell.com.freelondon&hl=en

The museum of childhood in Bethnal Green is fab for children of their ages! It's also free to get in to

Depending on the weather Battersea Children’s Zoo is excellent and a lot cheaper than London Zoo

Discover children's story centre in Stratford is great particularly if your children are in to reading

The Martime Museum in Greenwich is free and there's a brilliant adventure playground within the north east corner of Greenwich Park too (plus its generally a great park!)

We loved the premier inn near tower of London which was the best think ever according to ds then10

Do corams field, the Diana garden, museum of London. All free but I'm not sure of their rules now.

Eat at dishoom if you can be bothered to queue.

YY to museums - Science museum and Natural History. Wonderlab at the Science Museum is fab but you have to pay and book in advance.

Walking along the river if the weather is kind. Tower Bridge along the South Bank down to the Tate Modern would be a great riverside walk. Child friendly cafes near the end too.

You could book to go to the Skygarden for a good view of London. Tickets are free but only released 2 weeks ahead I think. Not sure how it is working at the moment with covid.

Agree Tower of London is great and they often run extra activities at weekends. Or Hampton Court but that’s further out.

Air BnBs might be cheaper than a hotel possibly? Definitely worth being central (zone 1 or 2) as travel will eat up a lot of time otherwise. It’s more fun taking buses than the tube.

The number 11 bus route goes past lots of sights as I recall so if you can get a top deck seat that would be fun. Riverboat possibly?

Boat trip with commentary from Westminster Bridge to Greenwich. I've done it in both November and January and it's still great, though you might not go out on deck.

We always stay at the Citadines on Holborn, and the one at Bloomsbury is great too. Little apartments so a bedroom and a sofa bed with a lounge and tiny kitchen.

Check 2 for 1 London.

Have a look on Expedia for hotels - you might be pleasantly surprised with prices - hotels are much cheaper in London at the minute, particularly “business” hotels like Hilton and Park Plaza etc.

You can stay overnight at London zoo! It was a fab evening. I don't know if they have started doing them again. We stayed at October half term a couple of years ago. Room was comfortable, food was great! Got woken up by lions at 4 - 5 am!!

I’m not sure what will be open/going on in November with Covid but definitely recommend looking at tours and events that the bigger museums put on - the Science, Natural History etc and they will often have special tours on for kids. I think free or at least not expensive.