I’m over here visiting family for a few weeks with our 5yo and 7mo, we fancy spending a couple of days in London next week. Ideally we would go on the train, but It’s between other visits so really we need to take our hire car filled with all our stuff / baby paraphernalia.

I’m undecided whether we should be looking for somewhere like Windsor and then train it in to London, or find a hotel in central London with parking and drive in and leave the car for the couple of days while we are there. Any thoughts?

Also, ideas for occupying a 5yo and not over exerting ourselves with a 7mo. Thinking about the science museum at the moment.

Somewhere like Windsor or Richmond sounds like a reasonable idea. Though staying in London itself with a car can work surprisingly well if you can get the right price and location. Look at the hotels near Olympia. I’ve found some of them easy to drive to, with reasonable parking charges, and a pretty OK location.

Young children.
The science and natural history museums are great. Use the side entrance for the NHM to avoid the enormous queues.

Hamley’s always used to please ours as a quick visit.

If the weather’s nice there’s the Lady Diana garden in kensington gardens. Some great outdoor play apparatus.

[edit] Windsor would let you visit Legoland if you’re there on the few days it opens in November.

If you get the train into Paddington it’s quite a nice walk across Hyde Park or Kensington Gardens to the Science and Natural History museums although expect some tiredness by the end of that day. The 5yo might enjoy the tube experience but the buses are a good way of getting around and getting some sightseeing in.

If you can get a hotel with parking in town , do that.
Transport museum & busker watching in Covent garden always worth half a day . Combine that with a explore/walk along the South bank back to Big Ben.
Natural history museum ,dinosaurs ,rarrr, out West &close to science museum. Up to Hyde park perhaps for a play & maybe pop over to Stick and Bowl in Kensington High St. for cheap chinese fair. 🙂
Regents park also has a great kids area – South east corner.

See what you can get on airbnb. We had 2 great flats over the last year. Best one was on Marylebone high street for less than a modest hotel

The Novotel in Greenwich has parking and is 25 mins into Charing Cross.

Near the park, Cutty Sark and Maritime musuem.

I live 20 miles to the southwest of London – I’d never found driving within the periphery of the London Transport system to be of any benefit in daytime – a train journey to Central London takes 40 minutes, a drive 90 minutes plus, plus Congestion Charge and rip-off parking. Richmond is about the extent of where I’m prepared to drive – after it’s slow progress / gridlock.

If you’re in Richmond and the weather’s nice, Kew Gardens is excellent with kids that age – apart from the hot houses it’s also got an indoors playground, kid-friendly restaurant, etc. And it’s a lovely walk back down the towpath after. (Or 5 minutes on a double-decker bus, depending on how tired you/they are).

Up in London the above-mentioned Science and NH Museums are probably the best bet, there’s also the Zoo if the 5 year old is keen on animals. The Tower of London isn’t bad with kids, lots of armour and the Crown Jewels are quite impressive. You could then take a boat back to Westminster which would be fun.

Personally I’d avoid Hamleys with kids, as they’ll want everything and might not understand “no”… YMMV on that one 🙂

Last time we went, we had a family room in the Slough Premier Inn for next to nothing and trained it into London each day – my kids are 5 and 8, and considered the train journey in to be part of the fun as well.

We went to see Matilda, which they loved. They also enjoyed the Tower of London and mooching round Covent Garden watching the street entertainment. Hamleys as well, obviously.

Paid parking can be as little as £20 a day, eg off Warwick Avenue in Pimlico / Victoria and outside congestion zone. Training it in with the whole family will cost more per day. You can certainly find hotels with parking including quite far out on still on the the tube network. There are plenty of simple hotels in Kensington near the museums (so great location with the kids), most won’t have parking though.

Museums, Buckingham Palace – Mall/St James Paek/Horseguards/Trafalgar Sq, Picadilly Circus after dark, Christmas lights (on yet ?), any bus ride on top deck, London taxi, rainforest cafe is always popular with kids (but expensive for what it is really) …..