Day trip to London Help!

[TiredSENmum]

Hi, I want to take two of my children on a day trip to London. They are aged 10 and 12. I have not been to London in 13 years!

I am thinking of driving to Cockfosters (about 2 1/2 hours) then taking a tube to central London. Would I be best to by a travel card or Oyster Card?

I want to show them the main sights but have no idea where to start and finish. Any help would be amazing.

I did contemplate staying over night somewhere with them so open to ideas on that.

It will be just me and the girls as my husband will stay with my son who is terrified of crowds!

Thank you.

If you travel to the Southbank ( Blackfriars) you can see houses of parliament and Big Ben. Then cross over the river and walk to St James Park where you can see Buckingham palace. Victoria station is close to Buckingham palace. There is also a lovely walk between Westminster and Embankment along the river.

Alternatively the museums near South Kensington are worth a look.

This might help. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/4314057-weekend-in-london

I'd recommend the river boat - buy one of those hop on/off tickets and you can see quite a bit from the river (greenwich / southbank / Parliament etc) and it's just a nice way to travel at leisure.

You don't need an Oyster card anymore if you have a debit or credit card with contactless payment you use that instead. Make sure you touch in and out (or just once on a bus) and it will stop charging you when you reach the daily capped price.

Thank you for all your help. I feel a little bit overwhelmed! I think before I had children I was very relaxed and just explored London but now I feel like I need a plan for the day. I want to show them the sights but would also like to take them to a market. They both really like art so I was thinking of the Tate modern....I fear I am trying to do too much.

This might be a good itinerary if you are starting at Cockfosters:
Take the Piccadilly line down to Green Park. From there, short walk across Green Park and you are at Buckingham Palace.
From there, walk through St James' Park (beautiful park to walk through!) and you get to Westminster - you can see Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament with Big Ben and look down the end of Downing St.
From there, a short walk up Parliament Street, you'll go past the Cenotaph and get to Trafalgar Square, with Nelson's Column, and there you also have the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery for art.
From there, 15 minutes walk to Covent Garden (market) and you're back on the Piccadilly line there to head back. Plenty of theatres around there too if you want a west end show for the evening.

Or an alternative itinerary:
Travel to Waterloo, there you have the London Eye, Sea Life centre, Dungeons, a Shrek experience.
From there, explore the South Bank, there's often pop up things to see, and there's a skate park which is fab to watch. You can walk all the way along the South Bank to the Tate Modern. (Note - if you want to skip the Eye etc/South Bank, you can start at Blackfriars station for Tate Modern).
After Tate Modern, you have Shakespeare's Globe next door. About five minutes walk away you have The Clink prison museum which I think is quirky and interesting, next to that is Borough Market (food market), then a few more minutes walk and you're at the Shard.
You can walk along the river from here to Tower Bridge, cross over Tower Bridge to the Tower of London.

I hope that's some useful inspiration! It sounds like a lot of walking but I often find that walking between places in London is quicker than finding the nearest station, going a couple of stops and finding where you are going, plus you see things on the way.
If you plan to book tickets for anything then I'd suggest not booking too much in one day so you don't feel rushed.

My boys used to love the London Transport Museum in Covent Garden when they were younger, not too overwhelming in size and lots of interesting bits to look at and do. A mooch around Covent Garden and watching the street entertainment is also fun.

www.ltmuseum.co.uk/

Great thread and thanks for the links to the previous one...

@PamDenick

Great thread and thanks for the links to the previous one...

You’re welcome - there are loads of threads very like this so I thought linking to another one would be helpful!

There are some very reasonably priced premier inns abs Travelodge around central London. We stayed in at pancreas last week. Only about £75 but I did book a while ago so many have gone up since. Also one at waterloo that's near all the southbank stuff but an easy bus ride to Leicester Square area.

One thing to confirm is travel forward children - the 10yo (I think) should be free with you when travelling on the tube / overground / bus) but they technically need an oyster to be free on the train. The 12yo you would probably want to get a travel card for as contactless would swipe and adult fare. You can get an 11-16 oyster but there's a charge so not worth it if it's only a day or two.

I always recommend youth hostels for staying in London. They’re cheap, fairly central and are quite nice now. You can get family rooms as well. Worth considering.

Also Tavistock hotel wasn’t too badly priced either.

Tavistock hotel

Also, look at a map before you go. Sites that seem apart on a tube map sometimes are actually quite close together. One of the delights of London is walking from A to B and seeing what you discover en route.

London is also quieter than normal so there may not be so many crowds.

We found the on/off open top bus tours good for a whistle stop tour of the sights.

You'd probably enjoy it more with an overnight stay with that length of drive followed by a tube journey to get you to Central London. It can be pretty tiring wandering around all day.

We stayed in a travelodge on the Southbank, 10mins walk to Tate Modern, it was Travelodge London Central Southwark.

It was reasonable, 75 a night for three of us.
It was a good base, views aren’t cracking… ours was a wall 🤣🤣 but it was clean and safe.
We went with our then 4 year old and walked everywhere. We went on the tube twice, but that was only to get to The train station.

It’s close to walk down to Big Ben and across the river… London eye…. Back up to the shops etc.
We walked down to Buckingham palace etc.
Id recommend staying over as there is less pressure to get everything in…. There is a lot
Of walking but we saw so much . It was fabulous!

Book everything in advance! You can't just roll up and get in anywhere nowadays.

Also, have a plan when using the Tube in case one of you gets lost. Tell the children to use a help point on the station if you get separated, and to stay put until you can come back and find them.

Thank you all for all of your recommendations and the fantastic itinerary suggestions. We are hoping to go next week!

I'd recommend the V&A

I have an 11 yo dd and I would advise trying to not squeeze everything in. Tate Modern or a museum for a bit, wander along the south bank, a water bus to see some sights from the water and then either Covent garden or Camden for a bit of shopping.

You still have to book a time slot to go to the Tate I think. Even if you don’t want to see any of the paid for exhibitions.

@Namechangeforthisquestion7

You don't need an Oyster card anymore if you have a debit or credit card with contactless payment you use that instead. Make sure you touch in and out (or just once on a bus) and it will stop charging you when you reach the daily capped price.

That may work for her but children of that age pay for the tube.

She can't swipe the same debit card 3 times for each of them.

They'll need a travel card as there is unlikely time for a zip photo oyster card

One thing to be aware of is that you will need separate payment cards/ tickets for everyone on the Tube - you can’t use the same contactless card or Oyster card twice in the same station. The 10 year old will be free so you may be able to get through the wide gates with them on your contactless card. Then just buy a day travel card for the 12yo.

Cross post!