Mar
12



Busking for money along London’s famed Portobello Road in Notting Hill, a man stands upside down in a bucket.
Avoiding a Parliament funk when visiting London with your family
These London Travel Tips were initially published in 2006
We heard it from friends, from family and from folks we hardly knew; “You’re so brave,” or “Aren’t you scared?” or even “Your kids won’t remember it.”
When we finally decided we’d saved enough money to take our kids to the British Isles, we heard every excuse not to go. We listened politely and even took some of the warnings to heart. But my wife and I wanted to give our daughters an amazing learning experience and we, ourselves, wanted to have fun in a foreign country.
Instead of gearing our trip towards only what we adults wanted to see and do, (like watching a live session of Parliament with all the jeering), we planned our journey around our kid’s needs.
We thought they’d more enjoy several quick stops and not really get into retracing the pub antics of the Sex Pistols. We wanted them to have fun, not get too bored and certainly not get all Henry the 8th on us!
But we didn’t want them to be overloaded with historic sites and modern landmarks. We needed to balance our Magical Mystery Tour between a “Hard Day’s Night” and “Relax, don’t do it.”
If our family can do it, so can yours. Here’s what we learned along the way.
First off, schedule a flight that arrives in the evening. You can mitigate jet lag by letting everyone sleep it off when you land. Try to pre-arrange a kid’s meal during the flight. It’s very easy to do online when you reserve your tickets and a fun dinner calms a child’s fears that their last best meal for two weeks was that cheeseburger they ate on the way to the airport.
But probably everyone’s going to be “knackered” for the first day. Take this day slowly. See about going back to the hotel for a brief nap, (by brief I mean about two hours).
Find a double-decker bus tour, (The Big Bus or The Original Tour are two of the most popular), and hop aboard for a guided tour around the city. Your family will be able to relax and let the city, history, fun facts and crazy accents wash over them while they ride along. Don’t try to do too much. Have a quiet dinner and go to bed early. A family meltdown isn’t pretty.
After your second night’s sleep, your family should be fine. London is a great walking city, but it’s also a mass transit dream. The Tube system is laid out in easy to follow lines, each with it’s own name and color. By the end of your stay, don’t be surprised if your kids have picked up how to navigate the trains. They also may try to lead you back to King’s Cross in order to look for Harry Potter’s secret departure platform.
There are always transportation deals that can get your family day-long or week-long passes for most all of London’s bus and tube routes. That way you can hop on and off or transfer without worrying about how much it will cost.
If you can convince your spouse to stand in the ticket line or “queue” for the gigantic ferris wheel slowly rotating over the city, your children could get a wonderful view of the city via the London Eye. The entire ride takes about half an hour and is neither frightening, nor motion sickness inducing.
Everyone talks about the changing of the guard and, sure, it’s interesting, but it’s more like a short parade. It happens every other day at 11:30 a.m. at Buckingham Palace.
Covent Garden is a series of markets and shops clustered together with restaurants and the ubiquitous “buskers.” These street performers are really the highlight of Covent Garden and our kids loved to watch the magic acts, jugglers and performers. Our favorites, though, were the folks who dress up like statues and look, for all the world, like they’ve been there for years. Toss a little coinage into their box and maybe they’ll give you a thumbs up.



My daughters were by turns intrigued, excited and weirded out by their experience with pedicures given by Garra Rufa, flesh nibbling fish.