An "Iconic" Family Adventure

It’s our first international trip! Going in we knew London was going to be a walking/sightseeing type of trip so there were a few things we got in order before we left. After 8 days, I have to say, great city but exhausted! 15-20,000 steps a day…We were glad we wore good sneakers 🙂

Prep work!

Things we did to get ready:

• Checked the credit card/hotel perks for the hotel! We got a room upgrade, free breakfast, executive lounge access, airport lounge access.
• Purchased a GoCity London 7-day pass for myself and the kids – The pass let us into just about every attraction we wanted to go to
• Purchased tickets to the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley Stadium – via livefootballtickets.com – easy and worked great!
• Bought the kids ride on suitcases which made waiting in lines at the airport much more bearable.

The London Tour

We stayed at the Waldorf Hilton, and although not on our iconic hotel list for obvious reasons, it is very historical. The hotel opened in 1908; originally established by William Waldorf Astor, a member of the prominent Astor family. Dance parties happened regularly at the Waldorf Hotel’s Palm Court ballroom, with the tango in particular becoming a popular pastime and Tango Teas becoming a regular occurrence. These dances are still held today!

OK, back to our travels…Our hotel was by many of the theaters and, though we didn’t get to go, it was actually quite affordable and could be a fun thing to do…

To begin the tour, I will say that transportation in London is pretty expensive…Yes, there is an oyster card and some other public transportation choices, but you have to know how many times you’d use them and whatnot, so it’s not all that flexible. We ended up using Bolt cars (similar to Uber) and they seemed to work out ok for us and was cheaper option.

We started with a hop-on hop-off bus tour which was great because we got to see everything and get a lay of the land before starting our full week there. We used the GoCity pass for this and the BigBus tour bus. We ended up stopping off at Buckingham Palace, then St. James Park, which was beautiful and had a playground for the kids. After walking some more, we took in Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and hopped on an Uber Boat (The Uber Boat was also part of the GC pass) to see the city on the Thames.

Next up, Covent Garden and the Transport Museum. Covent Garden is a great place for shopping, restaurants, street performers, etc. The Museum was nice, not too big, but the kids got to see old trains, cars, and planes. After the museum, time for some art! We headed over to “Frameless,” an interactive art installation. The kids loved it! Van Gogh and other artists work that move as the kids do…Very cool exhibit.

The London Zoo was a fun trip and gave the kids a fun was to expend some energy. It was a decent-size zoo and the kids loved seeing it all. The next few stops were the Science Museum, Kensington Palace and Diana’s Memorial Playground. The Science Museum was ok, but I expected a more interactive experience. The iMax show (GC pass) was a nice 3-D show the kids liked but again, wish there was more stuff for the kids to touch. Kensington Palace was nice, but the kids didn’t want to hear the history of the place, no attention span for that, so we went through pretty quick. The palace was beautiful of course, and the tour guide we started out with was very good, so maybe suggest if you have older kids that want to listen. Finally, the playground was a lot of fun. The kids had several areas to choose from and kept them entertained for quite a while.

Some of the final places we visited were Little Venice, where our canal tour, by Jason’s Trip began, Camden Lock, which was a huge market full of food and shopping, Babylon Park, Wembley Stadium and of course, Tower Bridge/Tower of London. The canal tour was informational and a lot of nice views. The kids remembered it as the boat Danny Dog’s dad (from Peppa Pig) was gifted for his birthday, and how they went to the lock, where the water rose so they could go high. Babylon Park, an indoor arcade with rides (even a small roller coaster) was a fun little diversion during a brief spell of rain and Wembley…Wembley was a must for me because I am a Manchester City fan and to be able to see them in this iconic stadium, was just something I couldn’t pass up. And we won so it was amazing! Tower Bridge was a fun, short thing to do, where you got to go inside and also walk on the glass floor…The kids thought it was cool to look down on the Thames under their feet. The Tower of London you could spend all day in. There is so much to see/learn and we didn’t even get to the crown jewels (the line was just too long for the kids to wait on). There are tours and the guides are very entertaining (I do recommend, again, for those with bigger kids who would stay still and listen).

London in a nutshell

We saw so many wonderful things in London and had a great time. That being said, some things to note:

• Transportation can be expensive
• Eating out can get pricey as well (we did have a fabulous burger at Honest Burger)
• Be prepared to walk…A LOT
• Having UNO in my bag saved us a few times when we had to get out of the rain and had to take cover
• Temperature was nice, like mid 50s/60, so jacket needed…but did rain every day for like 20 min
• GoCity Pass saved us SO much money (you definitely have to plan to use it to make it worthwhile – I had an itinerary of 2 attractions every day)
• Just about everything is “Tap to Pay” so have your cards ready!