Since I’m an intro­vert who does­n’t like crowds, I have a love/hate rela­tion­ship with Lon­don. Full of fas­ci­nat­ing his­to­ry, diverse cul­tures, and world-class muse­ums, Lon­don requires care­ful navigation.

But despite my trav­el neu­roses, I want to make sure my kids have a great time.

Vis­it­ing a world-famous city like Lon­don can be one of the best fam­i­ly expe­ri­ences. The key is prepa­ra­tion. So when plan­ning things to do in Lon­don with your kids, let these tips from a ner­vous trav­el­er and sea­soned mom be your guide.

Chill In the City

So your fam­i­ly has arrived in Lon­don. Yes, there are more things to see and do than any­one could con­quer in a year. Before get­ting caught up in a busy itin­er­ary, take some time to enjoy the sur­round­ings. With old church­es, secret gar­dens, and his­tor­i­cal sites around every cor­ner, things that seem ordi­nary to Lon­don­ers will feel mag­i­cal to vis­i­tors. My 9‑year-old’s favorite part of our Lon­don trip may actu­al­ly be the orange mar­malade from our hotel breakfast.

Create Games

As you explore the city, make a game out of your jour­ney to encour­age thought­ful obser­va­tions. Design your own walk­ing tour of Lon­don with Har­ry Pot­ter film­ing loca­tions, cre­ate a scav­enger hunt with stat­ues, or count the num­ber of lan­guages you hear in crowds to keep kids in on the fun.

St. Dun­stan-in-the-East, an old church destroyed in the Lon­don Blitz, is one of our favorite secret gar­dens. Pho­to by Christy Nicholson.

Easily Getting Around

The most impor­tant aspect when plan­ning your way around Lon­don is acces­si­bil­i­ty. I can’t tell you how many times we got off at a Tube sta­tion only to dis­cov­er we would need to car­ry the stroller up dozens of steps. Even­tu­al­ly, we learned to check the map for hand­i­cap acces­si­ble sta­tions. As much as we loved the Lon­don Under­ground, we also found it to be a chal­lenge dur­ing rush hour when pas­sen­gers are packed into each car like sar­dines. (This goes dou­ble for those ancient cars on the Bak­er­loo line!)

You’ll need Oys­ter cards to trav­el on the Under­ground, but they’re avail­able for pur­chase at just about any Tube sta­tion. Chil­dren under 11 trav­el free with pay­ing adults. You also can use your Oys­ter card for trav­el on Lon­don’s famous red bus­es, which is a won­der­ful, afford­able way to see the city. (Want an in-depth view of the city? Try a Lon­don bus tour instead.) Oys­ter cards also work for boat rides on the Thames Clip­pers.

Rid­ing the Lon­don Under­ground dur­ing off-peak hours is one of the eas­i­est ways to get around. Pho­to by Christy Nicholson.

Handling the Kids: Divide and Conquer

When trav­el­ing with chil­dren of dif­fer­ent ages, con­sid­er split­ting up to keep every­one con­tent. While old­er kids and teenagers are exam­in­ing mum­mies in the British Muse­um or vis­it­ing the Churchill War Rooms, tod­dlers can run around Blooms­bury Square Gar­den or the St. James’s Park Play­ground.

Some attrac­tions offer spe­cial activ­i­ties just for kids. Wind­sor Cas­tle hosts fam­i­ly activ­i­ties every Sat­ur­day, and they are includ­ed in tick­et prices. The hands-on arts and crafts are a great way to keep younger mem­bers of your group busy when they get impa­tient with the cas­tle tour.

Many muse­ums offer dig­i­tal guides espe­cial­ly for chil­dren, but the younger kids in our group pre­ferred find­ing space to run around and play. Pho­to by Christy Nicholson.

How to Avoid Crowds

I was shocked by the crowds dur­ing our last vis­it to Lon­don. We were excit­ed to see the blue whale skele­ton in the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um, but long lines and tight spaces meant we did­n’t stay in the muse­um long. Like­wise, the Roset­ta Stone in the British Muse­um was bare­ly vis­i­ble due to eager onlookers.

If the top spots on your itin­er­ary tend to draw lots of peo­ple, pre­pare for lines and crowds by study­ing open­ing hours, tick­et require­ments, and busy times of the day. When pos­si­ble, seek out less­er-known options. Tourist guides often will tell you to skip Buck­ing­ham Palace’s Chang­ing of the Guard due to the mobs of spec­ta­tors; the Chang­ing of the Queen’s Life Guard at Horse Guard Parade is a pop­u­lar alter­na­tive. We found a crowd-free expe­ri­ence by watch­ing the Queen’s Life Guard emerge from Hyde Park Bar­racks and fol­low­ing them through the park.

The blue whale skele­ton in Hintze Hall in the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um is a pop­u­lar stop. This pho­to leaves out the throngs of peo­ple at the bot­tom of the steps. Pho­to by Christy Nicholson.

Make Food Fun

On one of our first evenings in Lon­don, we ate in the base­ment of a small Ital­ian restau­rant called Bizarro. The kind wait­ers made sure even the youngest mem­bers of our par­ty were hap­py, pro­vid­ing plain bowls of but­tered pas­ta on request. But the best part was the loca­tion — gen­tle rum­bles from the near­by Tube sta­tion remind­ed us we were def­i­nite­ly in London.

I was ner­vous to take our kids into a pub, equat­ing them to bars in the Unit­ed States. We soon found that most pubs in the tourist areas of Lon­don are fam­i­ly-friend­ly and easy to nav­i­gate. When in doubt about whether a pub is suit­able for kids, check online for a chil­dren’s menu.

Many of the muse­ums and his­toric sites have their own cafes with mul­ti­ple kid-friend­ly meal options. I find it’s gen­er­al­ly bet­ter to eat lunch on the ear­ly side of lunchtime. By 1pm, every­one has remem­bered they for­got to eat and is grumpi­ly wait­ing in line.

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The Horse and Groom pub in Wind­sor had shep­herd’s pie for me and burg­ers for my kids. Pho­to by Paul Nichol­son.

Essential Stops

So what are the essen­tial stops on a Lon­don fam­i­ly vaca­tion? In addi­tion to the British Muse­um and the Nat­ur­al His­to­ry Muse­um, I rec­om­mend a trip to Green­wich. The Nation­al Mar­itime Muse­um in Green­wich has sev­er­al chil­dren’s gal­leries and a giant world map for kids to explore. Addi­tion­al­ly, while in Green­wich, you can vis­it the Cut­ty Sark sail­ing ship at the water’s edge or hike up the hill to the Roy­al Obser­va­to­ry and the Prime Merid­i­an Line.

I also rec­om­mend a vis­it to the Lego store in Leices­ter Square. I know, I know, Legos aren’t the first thing that comes to mind when think­ing of Lon­don. But the two-sto­ry Lego Big Ben and the wind­ing Lego drag­on make it worth the trip.

For a more tra­di­tion­al tourist stop, the Tow­er of Lon­don is a good choice. With the medieval White Tow­er, the Crown Jew­els, the Roy­al Mint, and the famous ravens, there’s some­thing for almost every­one. (The tours with the Yeo­man Warders are enter­tain­ing and hilar­i­ous, but par­ents of young chil­dren need to know they do share sto­ries of gory exe­cu­tions.) If you’re there dur­ing win­ter, you can skate on the ice rink out­side the castle.

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When You Go

Lon­don is served by two main air­ports, Gatwick and Heathrow. The express train from either air­port is an excel­lent way to get into the city with luggage.

There are a vari­ety of lodg­ing options, from well-known Amer­i­can chains like Hilton and Mar­riott to small­er places like the Ridge­mount Hotel or the Regency House Hotel. We found that stay­ing near major train sta­tions such as Padding­ton Sta­tion, Vic­to­ria Sta­tion, and St. Pan­cras Inter­na­tion­al gave us easy access to late-night restau­rants, phar­ma­cies, and gro­cery stores. (Do not, I repeat, DO NOT ask the phar­ma­cy if they have laun­dry deter­gent. They will laugh at you.)

For longer trips, pur­chas­ing 7‑Day Trav­el­cards or Lon­don Pass­es may end up sav­ing you mon­ey. But don’t for­get that some of the best things to do in Lon­don, like the parks and muse­ums, are free!

Christy Nichol­son is a writer, edi­tor, and recov­er­ing per­fec­tion­ist from Nashville, Ten­nessee. When not trav­el­ing with fam­i­ly, she enjoys cozy days at home read­ing, gar­den­ing, mak­ing music, and wran­gling two awe­some kids. Christy writes at Any-Worth.com about trav­el and sus­tain­able living. 

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