london recommendations
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Anonymous
| Will be going to London for 4 days (not including travel days) this July - 2 families (4 parents, 3 late teen boys). Would love any suggestions for neighborhoods/lodging to stay in (open to hotel, air bnb, nice family youth hostels, hoping to be about 10 mins walking from public transportation) and fun things to do (one parent and child are history buffs so will be checking out the usual history things but would love anything off the beaten path - planning Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, British Museum, Churchill War Rooms, London Dungeon, Globe Theater, Jack the Ripper evening tour). Boys would also like to do the Warner Bros Harry Potter tour and maybe see a theater show one night. One parent and child might be interested in doing a side trip to Stonehenge (with or without the group) so if anyone has advice about doing that it would be great too. The moms may duck out one afternoon for tea somewhere. Would you recommend getting GoCityPass? Kids are energetic and will likely be up for full days of activities. Thanks !! |
Anonymous
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Lots of threads here about where to stay. I think South Kensington is nice, but South Bank is also a possibility (depends a little if you want a neighnorhood-y feel or want to try and be central to different areas).
For history buffs I definitely recommend checking out the ceremony of the keys-- requires getting tickets roughly 2 months in advance I think. Greenwich or Hampton Court might also be possibilities. |
Anonymous
| Consider touring The Globe, and then seeing a show there. |
Anonymous
| Buy Harry Potter studio tour tickets now |
Anonymous
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Use uber boat for transportation. Buy a day pass and take it back and forth.
I recently stayed in a hotel south of the tower bridge and it was very convenient. A bit of a walk to the tube but not awful (took uber when we had our luggage though). Lots of options for eating and shopping on that side. It had connecting rooms which was an awesome setup to allow some more space and privacy. One room had twin beds though, which I think is more common than in the US. Check out the imperial war museum. Its free and my tween boy found it super interesting. Matinee theater followed by indian food dinner may be a hit! GoPass didnt seem worth it for us, as many museums are free. But you may get a good discount for buying multiple so may be worth pricing it out. |
Anonymous
Sorry but Uber boat is awful for basic transportation except for maybe a couple of very specific trips. Sure use it once as a novelty. But the Tube is the way to go pretty much always. |
Anonymous
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I like to do the Southbank walk, usually from Tower Bridge to the Millennium Bridge. You can see Borough Market and the Globe on the way then walk up to St. Paul's.
You can also do it from Westminster to Tower Bridge. It depends on how long you want to walk and what you want to see. My kid got a kick out of climbing to the top of St. Paul's as well. |
Anonymous
Staying where we stayed by tower bridge, that wasnt my experience. The uber stop was closer than the tube, and we could hop off on the other side of the river. I found most stops to be very conveniently located to what we wanted to see. The British Museum and theater district were the exceptions. But for leaving theater we walked south through Trafalgar square and picked the boat up to head home as well. More walking than tube but we wanted to walk that part of town anyway. |
Anonymous
| The one thing I'm kind of eh on is the Jack the Ripper tour. If you actually read up on the whole thing it's just kind of a sad story, it's not like it's a particularly interesting area of London to be wandering around (neighborhood isn't the same). I think there are better ways to spend an evening (theater, literary walking tours). |
Anonymous
| The globe theater tour is small and boring. Id recommend trying to watch a show there instead of paying for the tour. |
Anonymous
I've stood for a whole show there and it's fun (and cheap). You can get some food (meat pies, basically) and drinks and have a good time. Your legs do get a little stiff so you stretch out during breaks. |
Anonymous
| I liked the London Museum Docklands — https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/docklands/ — and I liked one of regular London ghost walking tours. |
Anonymous
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Hilton London Bankside is maybe a soulless corporate hotel, but it is well located (near the Tate Modern and you can relatively easily get anywhere from it), has an indoor pool, and sub-500 GBP/night for family connecting rooms.
The Harry Potter Studio tour is amazing and my boys loved the Tower of London. How old are your late teens? Are they old enough to share a Guinness at The Toucan where Jimi Hendrix played? There’s a bunch of music related history (not just Abbey Road) throughout London if you are interested. Any interest in footy? So many amazing London clubs to tour their stadiums but if you don’t have a team, I think going to West Ham’s home (London Stadium in Olympic Park) is cool, particularly because there are a number of interesting sustainable community projects they are working on in Olympic Park. And a cool slide! The only other thing I was surprised to not see on your list was Westminster Abbey. My kids still talk about seeing Steven Hawking, Charles Darwin, and Isaac Newton there. It’s weird what a big impression it made on them - almost making their achievements seem bigger to my boys after they saw how they had been honored in death. Make sure you start following TopJaw on Instagram or YouTube to get great food ideas. |
Anonymous
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The Leake Street Tunnel is very close to London Dungeon and might be interesting for them to walk through.
Borough Market is close to the Globe (and there are lots of social media famous vendors there if that's something that they would care about). The Tate Modern is also there, and free, and you can go up to their observation deck. There are a number of other free observation decks (Sky Garden, Horizon 22, The Garden at 120) which have varying degrees of how complicated they are to book tickets for. |
Anonymous
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We went with our kids, 21 and 23 recently, and stayed at Point A Hotel at Canary Wharf. Walking distance to 3 different metro stops. We were there for 2 weeks, you have a lot of stuff listed for only 4 days. I would ensure you do:
Tower Tour Sky Garden Lookout - free, but you have to register, pick a time to go up at sunset Churchill War Museum We did a private British Museum tour that was great We did a Harry Pitter tour that was a dud (brought us to places where they said xx was filmed here), but it sounds like you've got something different planned See the changing of the guards - the pomp and circumstance is worth it |