LONDON in august with 18 months toddler.... any ideas

[bhk3]

i'm travelling by train to london. any idea which station would be easily acceseable to all attractions. any ideas about what to see and where to stay... its first time for me to visit london. i'm travellind with my dd 18 months and dh. what r the cheapest hotels available in the city close to all attractions.

tfl.gov.uk shows you what stations are accessible and which are not.

Which things are you looking to do??
Science museum is great for little ones, loads of space and the basement there is a young kids' zone.
There is a Museum of Childhood over towards the East of London which my two girls enjoyed (5 & 3) I didn't go, my dh did (sure you could find it online).
London Aquarium is OK, we went once when dd1 was 2, wouldn't go again really.
Tate Modern is also fun for little ones, not sure what the up-to-date installations are. My girls always just loved big spaces to run around, anything involving sitting still was a nightmare.
Would probably recommend a bit of travel by bus in the centre of town, whenever we have had visitors, their children's favourite part was either the tube or the bus journey to whatever the thing was that we were doing.

Do you know which station your train arrives at?

Have you checked out the other threads for things to do in London, I'm assuming there must be loads.
No advice on where to stay, would check other threads.

Where are you travelling from? That will dictate which station you will come into.

Most of the mainline stations are near to the centre and on lots of tube lines and bus routes so easy to get around from.

I'd second all those ideas for you to do with LO. The London Eye is fab but you may have to queue for ages which might not be so good.

I've never stayed in a hotel in London nor had to put anyone up in them particularly, but if you're on a budget you'd probably be as well going for something like Travel Lodge as they should be of reasonable standard. Lower budget places in London could be a bit dodgy.

Might be worth checking out Wolseley Lodges but I don't know how family friendly they are.

There are lots of open spaces in London so try and get nearish to one of them so your LO can run around.

parks are good Hyde Park, hampstead heath, battersea park and there are small gardens dotted about central london
depends where you are going to be? there are attractions & hotels all over really

an underground map with disabled access tells you where the lifts are for prams but it is possible to take on escalators, people were good at helping and i do too now ..

Science museum very interactive lots of buttons and levers

South Bank, galleries museums shops stalls and river boat?
more info needed op

You're DD will enjoy London Zoo more than any other attraction in London at that age, I guarantee.

The Science museum next.

They aren't very near each other at all I'm afraid.

However, worry not. You just buy yourself a day or 2 day oyster card and get busy with a tube/bus map.

The London eye might be ok, but it is quite a long slow ride and she may get bored and not quite appreciate how special it is to see London from that high!

Have you checked if there's any good kids theatre on?

THe unicorn childrens theatre on the south bank is excellent...but look on line quick if you're coming in Aug as things get booked up.

How cheap do you need the hotel to be? You can find cheap deals everywhere at the moment so you're best off finding out which mainline station your local station comes in to and taking it from there....

Parks - Corran Fields and Diana memorial gardens always seem to get good write ups. Science museum downstairs is fab for pre schoolers.
Places to watch the world go by, with buskers and things like that are bound to keep them entertained - Covent Garden, Trafalgar Square?
For bus sightseeing the tours seem very expensive, but apparently it is possible to hop on an off 'normal' buses and see many of the sights.

very easy to hop on and off normal buses and they say where they are going..get a one day travel card, kids are free with adult

Good places to go are the Diana memorial gardens, any of the parks (I like Regents Park), Covent Garden/Trafalgar square. Also if you go to the zoo you can get a canal boat there from Camden Town or Little Venice. If you go to the river there is a boat that goes between Tate Modern and Tate Britain.