We brought our kids to England for a summer holiday. Despite my all-consuming terror of a mid-air meltdown by my children, everything went incredibly well. Thank you Gravol! We have been fortunate enough to stay with family and have used England’s fantastic transit system to get us to our desired destinations.
We are staying out in Coventry but we had to make at least one trip into London. We arranged tickets on the Original Tour bus. Absolutely fantastic! Your tickets get you all-day access to any of their 3 routes plus the Thames River route. Not only are the tour guides informative and witty, you get to ride on a double decker bus. Our little boys were lucky and managed to get front row seats on the top…great view! The Original Tour is worth every penny. I recommend starting your London visit with the tour bus; you get a real lay-of-the-land. We rode the Yellow Route. In its entirety, the Yellow Route is 2.5 hours. However, you can hop-off at any point.
We decided to hop off at Covent Garden because we wanted to visit the London Transport Museum. If your kids like things with wheels this museum is amazing! The museum, in its current form, opened in 2007. Despite the many visitors the museum receives, the museum appears to be in brand new condition. The museum is exceedingly kid-friendly…they are welcome to touch things, they are encouraged to climb into things. The museum is designed to lead the visitor through time from the 1800s to current day. Kids are given a passport to stamp at various stations throughout the museum – great fun!
Our kids’ favourite section was the bottom floor. Here kids can “drive” double decker buses, “drive” an underground tube train, climb aboard numerous models of double decker buses and more. We were tearing our kids out of there; us adults wanted to eat and see more of London, our monkeys would have happily stayed all day.
We hopped back on the Original Tour bus and completed more of the yellow loop. We saw Big Ben (actually we saw Queen Elizabeth Tower with Big Ben, the bell, inside), the London Eye, drove across Tower Bridge and London Bridge, and hopped off at Piccadilly Circus. We headed up Regeant Street and stopped at Hamleys. If you have chidlren, Hamleys must be on your to-do list while in London. It is an unbelievable toy store. Five floors, more toys than you can imagine, constant toy demonstrations, and the crowds to match. It was amazing, and yes, I spoiled our kids.
We had a fantastic day in London and will certainly make a point of visiting at least once more before our return to Canada.
