Be realistic about money. London is a very expensive city. The entrance fees to sites will blow yo

Yes, this post keeps kids in mind when touring London, but you can easily do all of these things sans kids.  This trip is for anyone who wants to explore the history of London via literature (as well as pop culture such as the Beatles).  It s obviously written by someone not from London, north carolina beach vacation rentals which I assume if you re a Londoner north carolina beach vacation rentals is as painful to read as it is for me when people write I Went to D.C.! posts.  So er skip.  Or add in more tips in the comment section below.
Write up an itinerary before you go that contains all the facts you want to convey to the kids.  Believe me, when the days begin blurring you ll forget all the cool trivia you meant to tell them while you were in Westminster Abbey or at Trafalgar Square. north carolina beach vacation rentals Even without kids, my itinerary has always made keeping track of what I did on the trip so much easier when I put together a photo album upon returning home.
Have your kids look up information on every site you ll be visiting before you go.  It will help them to gather enough background information to appreciate what they re seeing.  For instance, while we told them that they d see the Rosetta Stone at the British Museum, we didn t tell them why the Rosetta Stone was important.  Which meant that when we got to the museum, they didn t realize north carolina beach vacation rentals why we were dragging them to see a stone. north carolina beach vacation rentals I think we just expected them to get excited because we told them that it was exciting.  We then had to discuss the importance of the stone for ten minutes until that information clicked, and then see the stone again.  We could have avoided a lot of this if we had taken time before we left to have the kids learn about important sites or items at home.
Most kids rise to the occasion when they sense their behaviour will be determining what they are allowed to do.  You know your kid better than anyone else.  Don t put them in situations where they re doomed to fail.  If they are the sort who need to run around outside, there is plenty here outside. north carolina beach vacation rentals If they are the sort who can tour an art museum, by all means, take them to an art museum.  But always ask yourself before north carolina beach vacation rentals you decide on a site whether you re asking too much of your travel partners.  For instance, we really wanted to see Churchill s War Rooms, but knew that was too much for the twins.  They would have probably loved Legoland, but I wasn t giving up a London day for that.  So we all compromised and tailored the trip so everyone could be reasonably happy with our personal limits kept in mind.
There are many Tube closures on the weekends (for instance, while we were there, we couldn north carolina beach vacation rentals t take the District or Circle lines).  Make sure you look up travel directions before you go but also have a back-up plan in mind.
There are plenty of great neighbours to stay in, but we found Kensington to be fantastic for kids.  We could walk to the park, it wasn t that crowded and therefore noise was at a minimum at night, and there were plenty of kid-friendly restaurants.
Be realistic about money.  London is a very expensive city.  The entrance fees to sites will blow your mind if you re accustomed to US museums.  You can save money by packing a bag lunch and eating breakfast in your hotel room, purchasing tickets north carolina beach vacation rentals ahead of time, and opting to visit free sites with a few paid sites sprinkled in.
Bring more than one kind of camera.  We brought along a point-and-shoot which fit in my pocket and an iPhone and ended up having the perfect picture depending on the lighting without having the camera take up a lot of space.
Rent a wifi device.  Instead north carolina beach vacation rentals of using free wifi (always risky) or paying daily for the hotel wifi, we rented a portable wifi device.  This saved our ass many times when we had to look up information on the fly, but it also enabled us to skype with people back home and send photos right as we took them.
Rather than have the kids keep a detailed journal (they were pretty exhausted by the time we got back to the hotel each night), we made an audio journal as a family.  It s about two hours long.  Each night, we d sit on a bed with the recorder in the middle and talk about our day, telling what we did and the random funny things we noticed along the way.  We got a lot more detail than we would have gotten if we had written for ten minutes and the audio journal became one more souvenir from the trip.
I wrote out where we sprinkled in daily Harry Potter stuff below, though I ve sectioned out the pictures and details into two separate posts.  So know that information is coming.  And to make it easier to plan a Harry Potter trip, I ve designated what was Harry Potter book sites (meaning, trying to find the real Diagon Alley or Ministry of Magic) which I m calling HPBS and what was a Harry Potter movie location (such as where they filmed the Leaky Cauldron scene in the first Harry Potter film) or HPML .
We took a night flight from the US and skipped the airline dinner so we could go to sleep immediately on the plane.  We got a few hours of sleep enough to allow us to function the next day and then hit the ground running once we reached London and checked into our hotel.
We started off with a little Harry Pottering because we knew the kids were excited for that.  We focused on HPBS, trying to find the real Diagon Alley (see the next post on Harry Potter sites in London for the details).  And we ended up walking to Trafalgar Square where the kids played on the base of the statue of Admiral Nelson, enjoyed the sunshine, and watched a chalk artist (was it Bert from Mary Poppins ?).
The Sherlock Holmes north carolina beach vacation rentals Pub is in this area if you re into those books (you also can visit the Baker Street tube stop to see the wall mural and the statue of Holmes).  Afterwards, we went to St. Martin in the Field instead and did brass rubbings in the crypt.
And then to a few Harry Potter sites (again, outlined in the next post), finally ending up at the Tower of London.  We got a great Yeoman Warder for our tour and then saw the White Tower and Bloody Tower on our own.  The kids were fascinated by the story of the murdered princes.
This was probably our least successful day (hence the lack of pictures).  We went to the British Museum, a lot of which was over their heads.  Again, next time, we ll pick ten items, have them research north carolina beach vacation rentals them ahead of time, and then go to the museum north carolina beach vacation rentals so they know exactly what they re looking at.  We also went to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood.  We thought it would be a big hit, but looking at cool toys behind glass doesn t really excite kids we found out.  Lastly, we swung by Harrods, which was crowded beyond comfort.
There was more Harry Potter stuff at Kings Cross station (important information on that in the next post), and finally Abbey Road where we crossed the street just like the Beatles and saw Abbey Road Studios north carolina beach vacation rentals as well as signed our name to the wall.
After lunch, we crossed the river (a short walk) to see Eton College, an all-boys boarding school for ages 13 18.  It was where Prince William and Harry went to school.  We took the kids there because we felt it was as close as we could get to a school like Hogwarts old stone buildings, formal dress.
We walked over Millennium bridge in the afternoon (which is in the sixth Harry Potter movie) and loved the tradition of lovers placing locks on the bridge. (I know this is done in many places, but it looked particularly pretty here.)
We ended up at the Tate Modern.  While we saw the permanent collection, the twins wanted north carolina beach vacation rentals to spend most of the time inside a performance art piece that was taking place on the ground floor.  Like three hours in a performance art piece that s how much they loved it (and that performance art piece probably needs its own post as well).
And finally, we headed back to London, to eat at our favourite Italian restaurant in Kensington, pack up, and head back to the US to tackle the enormous quantity of laundry spilling out of our suitcases.
This is SO AWESOME. Charlie north carolina beach vacation rentals and I are talking about taking Lucky to England, for all the reasons you mentioned in your prior post. And I m not sure why it never crossed my mind to do a book themed trip Lucky loves Peter Pan right now. Such a great idea. Totally using this as inspiration.
It sounds north carolina beach vacation rentals like you struck a wonderful balance to please all of the family. I like the idea of filling in the kids on the importance of these places before they go, so they can have that sense of context that makes seeing the sights so much more meaningful.
I had to laugh at the Rosetta Stone mention because when my best friend and I went to Egypt, we were convinced that it was in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (in no small part because it s supposed location in said museum was marked on a map on its wall). We eventually gave up, which is a good thing, because my friend (who lives in London) called me a few months later to tell me that she d just been to the British Museum where she couldn t help but notice that, yep, there it was.
What a great trip! Just proves that there is SO much to do in that amazing city. I just returned from my 4th trip there this year, and while I go for work, I always stay the weekend. And so many things on your list, I have never done. So I ve got lots of new additions to my list for next trip! Thanks!
AWesome.. I LOVE the portrait gallery. London never was an interest of mine, and then I went (with several dozen Italian high schoolers north carolina beach vacation rentals you know to keep things interesting and story worthy) and wow.. I love it.
What wonderful timing!!! I m planning a trip with my husband and mom for England next May. While we re only staying in London a few days we plan to see the Harry Potter Studio, Kings Cross and Leadenhall Market (Diagon Alley). I m curious about your Alice in Wonderland stop-off as we ll be driving through Oxford on the way to Bristol for the next leg of our journey around England. So glad you guys had a good time!
Melissa , otherwise known as Mel, The Stirrup Queen, and most recently nicknamed Lollipop Goldstein, has been blogging since 2006. In ad