Six of the best things to do in London with kids
By Flip Byrnes
Brimming to the rafters with family focused activities, London excels in sensory feasts for both curious minds and active legs.
Visit a museum
A blue whale skeleton at the British Natural History Museum. Credit: iStock
London is a buffet of museum mind-food mania. Unlike much in England’s capital, most are free (bar temporary exhibits), but which one? There’s the double whammy of the neighbouring Natural History Museum and Science Museum, the first featuring an excitingly terrifying robotic T Rex and the latter boasting space exhibits including an actual spacecraft and impressive code-breaking equipment. Then head next door to The Ampersand Hotel for a science-themed high tea served with crucibles, test tubes and planet-shaped macaroons. Also steam over to the Transport Museum to steer a double-decker bus and drive a virtual train. The gift shops are next level for that niche present of space slime or palaeontology dig set. See visitbritan.com
Catch a show
The Vaudeville Theatre.Credit: iStock
Visiting the West End will raise the curtains on any budding theatre love. The theatres themselves are showstoppers, like the red velvet-lined Vaudeville Theatre, home to the musical Six, a 60-minute #girlpower sassy song-fest about Henry VIII’s six wives. Frozen is housed in the 350-year-old marble-decked Theatre Royal Drury Lane and perennial all-age pleaser is top tier (in both price and experience) The Lion King. Big shows are big bucks, book months ahead (restricted view tickets can be bargains, preview visibility at seatplan.com) and for limited release “rush” tickets, the Today Tix app is your best friend. Use bathrooms at nearby eateries pre or post show to avoid long venue queues. See todaytix.com
Take a ride
Fee-wheeling sight-seeing … Tally Ho bike ride.
If there’s just one London activity to make non-negotiable, it’s the family-guided bike tour with Tally Ho Experiences. In three hours you cover serious territory, including winding down a wonky-door street in Westminster or adding to the street art with spray paint cans (supplied) in Banksy Tunnel. Kids will burn energy and it’s the ultimate parent pleaser – switch off while following your guide who’s on an eye-catching vintage Pashley bicycle complete with music box playing 1950s music. The cherry on the cake is tag-along bike options for little legs. Hit Lower Marsh Market post cycle for fast and delicious ethnic street food. See tallyho.cc
Skip out of town
Lose yourself … The maze at Hampton Court.
Londoners describe Hampton Court Palace as “outside” London, in reality it’s just an hour from the city. The imagination-firing labyrinthine palace once belonged to Henry VIII, best known for epic medieval banqueting and a guillotine-heavy approach to marital issues. Equally effective would’ve been banishing his wives into the disorienting (take snacks) 300-year-old hedge maze. An alternative is the 90-minute trip to Windsor. Kids go quackers not just for Windsor Castle, but riding around the pretty village on a Windsor Duck Tour in The Duck, an amphibian yellow bus prone to river deviations. At Halloween, Hampton Court goes all out with wandering ghosts and spooky decorations. See hrp.org.uk
See the big things on a big bus
Double-decker delight.
Sights synonymous with London include Madame Tussaud’s, where wax works exceed expectations and an unexpected adventure is a fun fair-style black cab ride through displays (including the rat-infested plague) of London’s history. Or head to South Bank where a standout is the excitingly interactive and huge SEA LIFE Aquarium. The visit starts with the Shark Walk over a glass walkway with sharks below. You may emerge with an octopus face painting. Connect geographic dots with the handy Big Bus Tours buses. The distinctive brown and yellow open-air double-deckers have stops near all attractions, run regularly, and have earphone commentary. See bigbustours.com
The Tower of London
Yeoman warders at the Tower of London.
There’s one thing to know about the Tower of London. If aiming to see the gems of the Crown Jewels arrive at opening and make a beeline for the Jewel House vault (revamped for King Charles III’s Coronation). Two clever, moving walkways prevent overcrowding in front of the most popular display cases but queues and kids don’t mix, so go early. The Tower of London is a complex of buildings – a fortress, palace and prison all in one. If visiting more than one property managed by Historic Royal Palaces, it’s cheaper to buy a season pass. See hrp.org.uk
The writer was a guest of the attractions.
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