List of London Tip with direct links to each site in the blog

London is really a perfect destination to take the kids to - close, direct flights from most large cities in Europe and lots to do!

We went to London over Easter 2014 and have gathered tips on the following: (read more under each link)

• London Eye & River Cruise on the River Thames
• Legoland Windsor
• Playgrounds in central London in Regents Park and Kensington Gardens
• Madame Tussauds
• Hamleys toy store
• The Harry Potter Studio Experience
• London Museum of Science
• Afternoon tea
• Eating out with children in London
• Getting around by bus and metro
• Fly to London and get from Heathrow to downtown

What more should we bring up about travelling with children to London? Please e-mail me at christian.muda @ gmail.com and we will add this and links in the list and make sure to visit the place next time we come to London. For we will definitely make a return - soon!

Day 5 - afternoon tea at the Orangery in Kensington Gardens

Classic afternoon tea is fun to try in London and is great to do with with the kids who love "fika". The little more fancy afternoon tea costs around 40-50 pounds per person, but when we understood that we probably ought to book a table, we were too late. All the best places were full. We chose instead the Orangery in Kensington Gardens, where you do not need to reserve a table, and after half an hour queuing (under umbrellas in the rain), we sat down at a nice table, each with a glass of pink sparkling wine.

A super lovely way to spend a few hours a rainy Sunday and the kids behaved very well!

The afternoon-tea here cost 30 pounds including a glass of sparkling wine. For the kids, there was a bit smaller kids menu for 9.5 pounds that were not on the menu but they suggested that we would order this one for the kids and it was perfect.

Advice: book well in advance, especially if you want to try the more luxuriuos afternoon teas at one of the finer hotels . 

Day 5 - London Science Museum

A day where we had planned to go shopping took a different turn when the shops had closed due to it being easter and it rained all day.

We went instead to one of London's many museums - the Museum of Science . A huge museum with six floors both for toddlers in the basement and educational exhibits on the rest of the floors for older kids.

Free admission and fun events every hour!

Day 4 - The Harry Potter Studio Tour

A tourist attraction that quickly became one of the most popular in London is The Harry Potter Studio Tour.

In the studios outside London where all eight Harry Potter films were produced, a studio tour is now available where you will be guided through the different rooms as scenes that have been built up, will see how the special effects were created, test flying on a broom against a green-screen or learn to fight with a magic wand . We started to watch the Harry Potter movies with the kids last Christmas and have come to the fourth movie, so it was really fun to see how films were created.

It is really Easy to get there, by train to Watford Junction only fifteen minutes from downtown London and from the train station, it was a bus straight to the studio for 2 pounds per person roundtrip.

Advice: You have to book tickets in advance .Book well ahead  - this is a popular place to visit!

Day 4 - Princess Diana Playground in Kensington Gardens

I had read about Princess Diana's Playground - a large play area in Kensington Gardens, and it was super nice weather, so while my wife went down to town for shopping, I took the kids to this beautiful playground.

From the playground, we took the subway directly to Weasley station where we met up with Jenny, picked up some lunch food at M & S and took the train to The Harry Potter Studio Experience!.

Day 3 - Hamleys - London's largest toy store

After the park visit, we continued to Hamleys - a toy store with five floors of toys and a "must" if you take the kids to London. Here it is truly an experience to go around. No discounts or low prices, however, very large range of toys and committed staff who demonstrate the latest toys.

Day 3 - Regents Park

After spending the whole morning indoors, we were eager to enjoy the nice weather. We took the bus to Regents Park where one of the finest playgrounds in London are.

We met another Swedish family in the park that recommended a restaurant a little further into the park where we went for lunch. The children tried fish & chips for the first time and it  directly became a favorite for Filippa.

However, I got her lettuce...

Day 3 - Madame Tussauds

Day 3 - Madame Tussauds

Madame Tussauds seems like an obvious attraction in London but have not the best reviews, not at least in the guide books we brought along. However, we were looking forward to the visit and it clearly exceeded our expectations. So far from a rigid wax museum you can get!

In the first room we went into we ended up in the middle of a Hollywood-mingle party, with high party music and celebrities deployed in the premises of all visitors. The tour continued into sections with different themes like sports, movie stars and pop artists. Everywhere got photos with their favorite celebrities and it was actually really fun!

The visit ended with a short 4D movie - Marvel Super Heroes!

Tip:

- book your tickets online in advance to Madame tusseadys. Clearly worth paying a little extra to avoid standing in the regular queue. If you for some reason dont buy your tickets in advance - be prepared for long waiting in line. If possible, stand in the queue with a coffee an hour before they open or came at the end of the day.

Day 2 - Legoland Windsor outside of London

We have for many years thought of going Legoland in Denmark, but have been discouraged by the long journey to get there from Stockholm . As we now planned to go to London and started of reserach, we discovered that there was a Legoland also just outside London in the town of Windsor.Great to not have to make a separate trip to Legoland, but just spend one day at Legoland we thought - and planned a day at Legoland Windsor in our London Scheme .So, today was the day . We googled to find the optimal way to get us here , but found no direct connection, only a bus - train - train - taxi trip that took about an hour from our house in central London.Once at the park, we bought tickets and went inside. Legoland run many offers and two-for-one promotions in England. We found one from the train company we traveled with, where adult tickets were free but we had to stand in a queue for about 15 minutes in the entrence in place to be able to use the offer. Well worth waiting for however as we saved over 94 pounds on the offer.Once inside we realized that we we had choosen one of the most popular weekends to go to the park and the queues were between 45-80 minutes to the most popular attractions . We direcly decided to rent one Qbot express each. With the Qbot you can "stand in line " without actually staying in line with a little gadget and then when the queue time has passed you can see it in the device and you can then access via a separate Qbot queue . The express version we rented cut queuing time in half. Expensive, £ 30 per person, but worth every pound when the day would otherwise become an eternal queuing . We could now take it easy between attractions, get refreshments while we " stood in line " and so on. Luxury !

How was the Legoland then? "The Miniland" where they had built famous landmarks from different countries in Europe was fine and fascinating for the whole family, but the major focus of Legoland Windsor is on the fairgrounds, and they rides there are mostly small and does not really compare to an amusement park such as Liseberg in Göteborg. It was perfect for our 6-year old, who could ride everything, but our 8 year old found that many of the attractions was a bit childish.

Fun in all cases to have finally seen Legoland, now we can check that box and next time we go to London - we will go to a real amusment park with large roller coasters! 

On our way home (after already have purchasede round trip tickets by train) we saw that the bus 702 goes straight all the way to London  city for only 11 pounds (compared to 8 pounds for the short trip back to Windsor from Legoland). Strange that we did not find that information anywhere when we googled. 

Things to consider:
Direct bus 702 from London goes directly to Legoland
Bring rain gear to the water attractions
If the weather is nice - bring your swimsuit -there is a pool area
Very long lines - 30 to 90 minutes.
Qbot available in three variants, but also with Qbot you often have to stand in line, between 5-20 minutes. This is since more and more people buy Qbots and that "express que" fills up as Legoland sells more Qbots than the que can handle. Clearly worth it though to have a Qbot even if it is expensive. Variant for £ 30 pp is perfect, then you can put yourself the next queue as soon as you sit down in the first attraction.

Day 1 - River Cruise and London Eye

The plan this first afternoon was a ride at one of London's most visited sights - the London Eye . We took a classic double decker bus down to the city and before going up to in the large wheel the kids found a nice playground where they spent half an hour. We also had time for a river cruise on the Thames before we went up in London Eye.

The cruise took us past many of London's top attractions such as Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Tower Bridge and so on.

Time then for the London Eye. In one of the 32 large eggs that the wheel consists of - we had a fantastic view. We timed our ride to the quarter just before sunset, awesome.

Despite sharing the egg with about 20 other tourists it did not feel it is not crowded and there is plenty of space to walk around and check out the view from all sides.

Tip: book and buy tickets online in advance of the visit.

Combining the London Eye with a river cruise where the dock is located next door to the wheel. Good package price is available at Londoneye.com .