Taking kids to London - where to go / where to eat?

[don logan]

Mr Kitten said:

Definitely this. Best ice cream I've had in ages, and I don't really like ice cream that much. Their mint ice cream is just amazing.

It is isn`t it, I`m an ice cream fascist and nothing comes close! (try "Bonet" some time or their no milk Espresso) last visit they also had gin, kiwi and elderflower flavour and cherry sambuca, they also do ice cream filled panetone and as you mentioned mint,they do mint ice cream filled chocolate bonbons!

Edited by don logan on Thursday 25th July 17:31

[surveyor]

Best value 3 hours with my 7 year old daughter...

DLR (sat at the front) to the Emirates Cable Car. ECC over to the O2. River bus back into London. Wandered up into Covent Garden afterwards.

Absolutely loved it - more so than some of the expensive stuff that we have done.

PS Hamleys - Don't do it. Overpriced, full of kids saying Can I, and pissed parents saying No. I did it once and we are not going back.

Edited by surveyor on Thursday 25th July 16:24

[prand]

Hamleys has always puzzled me too, reminds me of a hot pokey department store, and not a nice place with lots of Wow you'd expect from the 'world's best toy shop'.

I went there a couple of weeks ago, no water pistols either!

[Tumbler]

If you are doing the London Eye the combine it with a priority ticket for the London Aquarium

http://www.visitsealife.com/London/?awc=3010_13747...

Head over across the bridge Fire and Stone in Covent Garden for lunch.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

surveyor said:

Best value 3 hours with my 7 year old daughter...

DLR (sat at the front) to the Emirates Cable Car. ECC over to the O2. River bus back into London. Wandered up into Covent Garden afterwards.

Absolutely loved it - more so than some of the expensive stuff that we have done.

Spot on. Said something similar but forgot about the cable car which is great and cheap. London doesn't have to cost a fortune. That little lot costs very little.

[Gwagon111]

The trouble with the 'front of the DLR into a tunnel' thing, is that you have to be very lucky not to find some mongs sat up front, who never seem to be getting off anywhere, ever. That said, I'm nearly 40, and every time I go from Canary Wharf to Bank, I do try to get up front .

[ClaphamGT3]

prand said:

Hamleys has always puzzled me too, reminds me of a hot pokey department store, and not a nice place with lots of Wow you'd expect from the 'world's best toy shop'.

I went there a couple of weeks ago, no water pistols either!

Agreed - if you must do the toy store thing, the toy department in Harrods has much more of a wow factor

[JohnStitch]

Oh my word, you weren't wrong about Gelupo...that mint ice cream was divine!!!

[prand]

ClaphamGT3 said:

Agreed - if you must do the toy store thing, the toy department in Harrods has much more of a wow factor

Apart from the crowds at sale time, I quite like going to Harrods, I like the food hall and the watch shop, kids like the toy dept, and WTF is all that Egyptian carving and the Dodi and Diana memorial all about??!

[Cheib]

Tate Britain and Tate Modern both have kids exhibitions on for the summer holidays....my wife has been at the former with our kids this morning.

With regards to London Zoo it's a bit hit and miss, the new Penguin bit is great but don't go in the middle of the day if it's hot because you wont see the Tigers, Gorillas etc....or if you do they'll be sleeping. There's also a good little kids bit...if it's hot take some swim/water gear as there are some small fountains/jets for the kids to tun around in.

[don logan]

JohnStitch said:

Oh my word, you weren't wrong about Gelupo...that mint ice cream was divine!!!

So glad you enjoyed it, I was there last night, had a large espresso ice cream and didn`t get to sleep till sometime after 03:30 because I was completely wired!

[JohnStitch]

Yep, had espresso too, and the blood orange one. Lush. Might have to pay a return visit tomorrow :-)

Well as mentioned above, the queues are horrendous everywhere, but to be honest, we're not too bothered about going into the main attractions...heard a couple of Americans moaning in the hotel lift that it took them 2 hours to get in to Madame Tussaud's (!) Don't think I'd have bothered. We're quite happy just wandering around, and my daughter is loving it - will probably try out some of the other suggestions tomorrow...

[rix]

get the routemaster from tower hill to the west end (or somewhere en route...) no 15 iirc

[prand]

JohnStitch said:

Yep, had espresso too, and the blood orange one. Lush. Might have to pay a return visit tomorrow :-)

Well as mentioned above, the queues are horrendous everywhere, but to be honest, we're not too bothered about going into the main attractions...heard a couple of Americans moaning in the hotel lift that it took them 2 hours to get in to Madame Tussaud's (!) Don't think I'd have bothered. We're quite happy just wandering around, and my daughter is loving it - will probably try out some of the other suggestions tomorrow...

People who queue for that deserve the wait! I

[Gwagon111]

prand said:

People who queue for that deserve the wait! I

Very true, get on the number 9 bus route round 'proper London'. It beats all the touristy ste into a cocked hat.

[croyde]

Mr Kitten said:

Take her to the Rain Forest Cafe to eat... she'll love it.

Usual sorts of places to visit: NHM, London Zoo, London Eye, etc...

Do Not Go There! She might love but you will hate it. The food is some of the worse overpriced rubbish that I have ever tried. I say that as a paying customer and once having filmed there and being 'treated' to a meal. It really is god awful.

[Perec]

JohnStitch said:

Im taking my 6 year old daughter to London on Friday and Saturday. This is her first trip there and we want to do all the sights, usual stuff around the West End, London Eye, Tower of London etc. I'm very familiar with London, but never taken kids there so would like to get some other ideas on what we can do. Any hidden gems anyone can offer that would be suitable / fun for a 6 year old?

So far on the potentiallist:

London Eye
Buckingham Palace
Tower of London
Covent Garden
Hamleys
Harrods
Leicester Square / Trafalgar Square / Piccadilly
Maybe the Science / Natural History museums if it rains
Boat on the Thames
London Zoo

Also, Anyone know some great child friendly places to eat? Would rather not end up in any fast food places, plus she's in the fussy eating stage so nothing too exotic...

Hamleys and ZSL London Zoo are rubbish. The former sells overpriced, low-quality tat and London Zoo is expensive whilst lacking most of the animals people want to see.

[JohnStitch]

We did go into Hamleys but quickly got out again. (My daughter really wanted to go there). As everyone says, it was full of cheap tat (well, not exactly cheap, can't believe the price of some of that crap)....so went to the toy kingdom in Harrods and that was SO much better. Especially as I could go and drool over the stuff in their technology department next door :-)