Is 14 days too many for London?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a small city (San Francisco) and there's absolutely enough to do here to fill 14 days, and yet tourists whirlwind through in two days and think they've seen the entire city. Dig in, hang out, find favorite places and go back to them, etc. London's quite big - plenty to do for half a month.

eh, DH is from the UK and lived in SF for a while, so I'm familiar with SF and London.

14 days in SF and London alone is too long. I would venture out of SF and go up to wine country, Sausalito, Santa Cruz, but I would not spend 14 days in SF city as a tourist. Same for London.

Eh I am telling you that if you can't fill your time in my tiny 7x7 mile city of SF, then you aren't looking for fun things to do while in it.

It’s about the family dynamic. I’m sure I could happily spend 14 days there but that doesn’t mean it works when you’re taking different family members with different ages and wants into account.

[Anonymous]

I think I'd go broke, but if that weren't a problem I am sure there are things to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I live in a small city (San Francisco) and there's absolutely enough to do here to fill 14 days, and yet tourists whirlwind through in two days and think they've seen the entire city. Dig in, hang out, find favorite places and go back to them, etc. London's quite big - plenty to do for half a month.

eh, DH is from the UK and lived in SF for a while, so I'm familiar with SF and London.

14 days in SF and London alone is too long. I would venture out of SF and go up to wine country, Sausalito, Santa Cruz, but I would not spend 14 days in SF city as a tourist. Same for London.

Same here. London was great when my kids were younger and loved museums, parks, boat rides, etc and happily did whatever I told them. Rather annoyingly they turned into teens with their own ideas. Little easier now they are 15 and 17 and can get around on their own (and together as 15yo DD wouldn’t feel comfortable by herself) but 14 days would still be too long.

[Anonymous]

Why not visit a couple of other areas of the UK. If you move out of London, the hotel prices will be much lower. What about Dorset or Wales? Any favorite TV shows like Vera (the north) or All Creatures Great and Small (Yorkshire).

[Anonymous]

For our family it would not be too much. London is fantastic and you can find different things to do with it easily to fill up two weeks. Taking side trips to Bath etc. could easily take up a full week!

I don't know how independent your DD is, but my 13-year old loved exploring London on his own with his phone and my credit card Hit the subway and go explore a different part of town; Chelsea and Kensington with little museums are good for a day each. Take a boat up to Greenwich and spend some time on the water. Look for unusual excursions. For example, you can do a tour of abandoned metro stations in central London, which my DS loved. You can go inside Big Ben (for that you do need to be lucky with the timing). You can see the caves, or the Victorian sewage station. Day trip to Bletchley Park is super interesting if you are into history and cryptography. If she's adventurous enough, you can set her up with a bike and let her loose. So much to explore!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For our family it would not be too much. London is fantastic and you can find different things to do with it easily to fill up two weeks. Taking side trips to Bath etc. could easily take up a full week!

I don't know how independent your DD is, but my 13-year old loved exploring London on his own with his phone and my credit card Hit the subway and go explore a different part of town; Chelsea and Kensington with little museums are good for a day each. Take a boat up to Greenwich and spend some time on the water. Look for unusual excursions. For example, you can do a tour of abandoned metro stations in central London, which my DS loved. You can go inside Big Ben (for that you do need to be lucky with the timing). You can see the caves, or the Victorian sewage station. Day trip to Bletchley Park is super interesting if you are into history and cryptography. If she's adventurous enough, you can set her up with a bike and let her loose. So much to explore!!

This is one I would love to go on next time I am there if its available.

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-london/clapham-south

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For our family it would not be too much. London is fantastic and you can find different things to do with it easily to fill up two weeks. Taking side trips to Bath etc. could easily take up a full week!

I don't know how independent your DD is, but my 13-year old loved exploring London on his own with his phone and my credit card Hit the subway and go explore a different part of town; Chelsea and Kensington with little museums are good for a day each. Take a boat up to Greenwich and spend some time on the water. Look for unusual excursions. For example, you can do a tour of abandoned metro stations in central London, which my DS loved. You can go inside Big Ben (for that you do need to be lucky with the timing). You can see the caves, or the Victorian sewage station. Day trip to Bletchley Park is super interesting if you are into history and cryptography. If she's adventurous enough, you can set her up with a bike and let her loose. So much to explore!!

This is one I would love to go on next time I am there if its available.

https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/whats-on/hidden-london/clapham-south

They are really interesting! We did the Baker Street one last fall.

Leighton House in Kensington for beautiful Oriental tiles.

London Walks for shortish but super informative walking tours of landmarks.

Climb all the way to St Paul.

See the bombed-out churches made gardens.

For the shopping lovers, hit Notting Hill! Nothing better than vintage jewellery shops there.

I love London, I really do. I can happily spend a month there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:14 days is too long if you are going to be dragging her to toy stores and active play spaces every day. It needs to work for everyone with some compromises all round. Is she confident enough to do stuff on her own, maybe one parent accompanies her to do other things, or leave her at home some days?

A few days in Geneva would be a good compromise. You could do some boat trips, spend the day in little towns like Montreux or Vevey, visit Chateau Chillon and swim in the lake.

Disagree. Geneva is sleepy and expensive.

[Anonymous]

I'm a fan of slow travel, and we have made London our base for 14 days while including quite a few day trips (Bath, Cotswolds, Highclere Castle ("Downton Abbey"), Greenwich, Windsor/Eton, Oxford, Stratford on Avon). We did not come close to exhausting what London itself had to offer. If you have visited London frequently in the past few years, you may consider some of these. Have you visited Bletchley Park, Stonehenge, Harry Potter Studios? I would let a teenager have some input (and some responsibility) in the planning. The best thing is unpacking and staying put for a while.

You could also spend time in York and in Scotland, both different aspects of the UK and at much cheaper prices than in London. To allay your travel concerns, the LNR train from London is very easy and efficient.

[Anonymous]

Don’t drag your teen around kiddie London. Track her phone and let her go to an attraction next door to where the kids are going. Compromise on some things. For example, the kids go to the Natural history museum while she can shop within a half-mile. (Go over the permitted streets ahead of time.) Meet at Honest Burgers at noon for lunch. Go see Cursed Child as a family at 2pm and 7pm. Notice that you’ll have her with the family after dark. That’s intentional.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I'd go broke, but if that weren't a problem I am sure there are things to do.

There is so much in London that is free or low cost. It's not actually that hard to have a few days where you aren't spending loads of money.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s too long. In addition to the possibilities already mentioned, consider taking the train to Edinburgh for a few days!

[Anonymous]

Take the train to Edinburgh or Paris.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t drag your teen around kiddie London. Track her phone and let her go to an attraction next door to where the kids are going. Compromise on some things. For example, the kids go to the Natural history museum while she can shop within a half-mile. (Go over the permitted streets ahead of time.) Meet at Honest Burgers at noon for lunch. Go see Cursed Child as a family at 2pm and 7pm. Notice that you’ll have her with the family after dark. That’s intentional.

This makes a lot of sense. Or she could go to V&A while siblings visit the science museum. Something like that. You could do a day in Greenwich and a day at Kew Gardens. 14 days is enough time to see a lot of areas outside of central london.

[Anonymous]

I would rather go to Paris also. We flew to London and took the train to Paris.

14 days seems long for London. We were there for 5 and managed to do a lot including Wimbledon and Stonehenge.