10 days with London as home base

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A day to Greenwich
A day to Windsor
A day tour trip to Stonehenge/Avesbury/Glastonbury

A whole day for Tower of London
A whole day for British Museum

We liked the London Walks tours

We did all of this with our kids: 18; 15; 13; 9 when we went, but also a trip to Bath (both the Roman museum [amazing museum] and Jane Austen stuff) and another to Oxford (and our trip to Stonehenge was paired with Salisbury). We loved the Churchill War Rooms, and a Sherlock Holmes themed tour in London. I would cut the time at the British Museum, which is packed and not very interactive. The Museum of London was excellent, but is in temporary quarters right now, and I haven't been, so can't say whether it is worth it. Another must-do for us is the Portrait Gallery, but my kids are all history buffs. Finally, the Globe Theater and Hampton Court Palace. London Walks tours are excellent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Assuming you’re flying into London? Windsor is fine for a day trip, but I think Bath and Oxford are too far for just a day. Could you immediately hop on a train out to Bath? Hit Oxford on the way back (don’t have the train map in front of me so not sure if that’s exactly possible given geography) and then camp out in London?

I once flew into Manchester, trained down to Bath, trained to London (did day trips from there) then stopped in Oxford on my way back up to Manchester. It was perfect.

Both Oxford and Bath are fine as day trips. No problem...

[Anonymous]

Paris for 5 days. London for 5 days. Or substitute a different city you haven't explored.

[Anonymous]

We were in London for 8 days last summer - our days were packed and we still didn't get to see everything. We took 2 day trips, one to see Windsor and Eton and the other to Stonehenge/Bath. Both are doable, though the Stonhenge/Bath trip was a long day. The whole family loved Churchill War Rooms the the British Museum and Victoria and Albert Museum. We also scheduled 2 plays. We also did all the touristy sites and enjoyed them.

[Anonymous]

We just did 10 days in London with kids 8, 12, 14- we took 4 hr Eurostar train to Amsterdam for a 24 hour trip in the middle-- it was great. Packed a lot in with timing-- canal cruise, bike rental, van Gogh museum and Anne frank house. It was a great addition to everything we did in London- kids loved Tower of London, The Play that Went Wrong, Rocket boat on the Thames, and Churchill War Rooms.... also had a great walking tour that included seeing the changing of the guards. And we fit in a game at Wembley- that was amazing!

[Anonymous]

There is a Jack the Ripper walking tour that is phenomenal. The hop in hop off includes a boat ride to Greenwich and the walking tour

[Anonymous]

Also the tour of parliament is fantastic. Very in depth and educational.

[Anonymous]

If it's your first time (or your kids' first visit) in London, I would recommend you spend the whole time based in London and do day trips from there. (The only downside is that London is very, very expensive.) With three children, it would be good to rent a flat for 1-2 weeks and have room to spread out and a kitchen for breakfasts and some other meals, takeout. Lots of good day trip options have already been suggested. In addition to those, we did a small group tour out to the Cotswolds and Stratford upon Avon (included Oxford too but that's easy to get to on your own.) The Harry Potter Studio Tour also gets good reviews.

If it's NOT your first time, you could consider adding York or Edinburgh, both of which offer a lot at considerably lower prices. And the countryside in Yorkshire and in the Scottish Highlands are each worth a day if you are in the area. With five of you, a private tour becomes more economical.

[Anonymous]

In London, I'd recommend the London Wetlands Centre, the Museum of London Docklands, and the Greenwich Museums. The Postal Museum is also fun.

Battersea Power Station is a good place for lunch. It's the ultimate feat of recycling to turn a disused power station into a mall.

Oxford, Bath, Canterbury, Bletchley Park, and Cambridge are pretty easy daytrips. Hampton Court Palace on the edge of Greater London is also fun.

If you want to do a few days in Stratford on Avon, then Warwick and Kenilworth Castles and Coventry Cathedral are nearby.

One of my favorite daytrips from London is Avebury, which is the most extensive neolithic site in the UK.

[Anonymous]

I vote for London and then going up to Scotland, especially Edinburgh and Skye.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We loved a side trip to Portsmouth. Nelson's flagship the HMS Victory is there, as well as the HMS Warrior (a 19th c. ironclad), which can both be toured. They're right next to the Mary Rose Museum, where they have the remains of the only Tudor ship ever recovered, along with some amazing artifacts that were preserved in the wreck. You can also take a boat tour of the harbor. We took the train and spent one night there, and we wished we had stayed longer.

Since you’re already in Hampshire, Portsmouth isn’t too terribly far from Winchester, which also boasts tons of history. It was once the capital of a newly unified England under King Alfred the Great. Henry VIII’s reconstruction of the famous Round Table hangs at the Great Hall, and you can walk amongst the ruins of Wolvesey Castle. Most famously, there is Winchester Cathedral, where the remains of Norman/Anglo-Saxon kings and queens are interred, as well as 17th century writer/conservationist Izaak Walton, a saint, and none other than Jane Austen herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Consider stopping in York on your way up to Scotland. Go and see the Roman bath there. It’s in the basement of a pub. Lots of cool Roman ruins there. I also love Durham.

np.. we went to Edinburgh two summers ago, but we missed York due to time constraints. I really want to see York and the viking museums (thanks to Netflix Viking series). My spouse is British, so we go to the UK every few years. Next trip we are definitely going to see York.

If your kids like Harry Potter, do the WB tours, but be forewarned, buy tickets like 3 weeks early. I tried to buy it a week early, and they had sold out.

Other good suggestions up thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’d suggest you get out of London to mainland Europe. London is not a nice place post pandemic. Like NYC, it’s full of anger and suffering. I go there a week a month for work and it seems more and more run down every month.

I'm another poster just back from London and disagree. We had a great time. Went to the Tower, the Globe Theater, War Rooms, the Eye, and more. We also did Harry Potter studios: I found them overpriced for what they were and massively crowded.