We’ve been itching to go to Europe and now that my kiddos are getting big enough, we decided to start off with a trip to London! They speak English.. we speak English. Harry Potter is English. We love the Beatles. It was a perfect choice! After many hours past my bedtime researching, I created the most beautiful itinerary known to mankind. It was lamination worthy.
Of course, I wanted my family to have an amazing time, but I also had hoped that I would become an expert on London and could create the perfect blog for you all when I returned. It would tell you what to do and when to do it and where to eat, drink, shop and stay. Spoiler alert: This is not that post I had planned. Nothing went as I planned and guess what!!!! It was still a Bloody Brilliant Trip!
North Bank of the River Thames
So here are my tried and true list of tips to keep in mind when planning your own English Vacation. I’m not going to be able to share my perfect itinerary because we didn’t use it. I found that with kids, holidays, and climate change protests that block major bridges and send the city traffic into a tizzy— it’s important to just go with the flow.
–Jet Lag is real.. And so is the ginormous 2 hour customs line at Heathrow. If you think you are going to land in England bright eyed and bushy tailed after your Airbus 331 power nap, that’s great. Although it’s 7:00 a.m. in England and only 2:00 a.m. east coast time, you’ve got adrenaline going for you. After all, you are on a trip of a lifetime. However, If you think that adrenaline is going to last after spending 2 hours in a customs line behind someone who smells like a subway sandwich with extra onions, you’ve got another thing coming. And if you are bringing kiddos on the trip, I HIGHLY suggest you make arrangements to check into your hotel or Airbnb early to grab a few zzzz’s before your first day of exploration.
-Location is Everything– After only a few visits, I can’t recommend the best area to stay in the city, but I can tell you we loved the area we were in. Our Airbnb was located between Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square. We liked it because we felt safe and were within 5 minutes walking distance of 2 underground stations and a bus stop. We could get to and from Heathrow on a straight shot using the Piccadilly Line. We could walk to Buckingham Palace in 15 minutes, Trafalgar Square in 7 minutes and Covent Garden in 10 minutes. Restaurants, Pubs and Shopping were right out the doorstep.
Covent Garden 
Buckingham Palace 
Trafalgar Square
-Familiarize yourself with the neighborhood near your accommodations- Before you go type the address where you will be staying into google maps. Make note of the restaurants near you. Some days you will just want to eat close to your bed. You can look up the reviews ahead of time and have an arsenal of last minute ideas in your back pocket. My hubby didn’t want to make coffee each morning so he headed to McDonalds which was only 1 block away. Find out where the local supermarket, Tesco, is. We found it so much more economical to purchase bottles of water and snacks there. The prices can get outrageous near tourist attractions and in gift shops. Boots is the local pharmacy, prices are higher than Tesco but it will do in a pinch. Also, once you arrive it is so easy to find your way around on foot using your maps app. Just select the “walk” option.
–Mind the Gap and Get the App.- London is huge. A lot of it walkable but you will need to be familiar with public transportation. Most big cities have free apps to help. We used Tube Map- London Underground. It uses GPS Technology to track your location. You can type in where you want to go and it will give you all of your options on the underground and bus. It provides transfer information as well. It made getting around completely painless.
Lyft hasn’t made its way to the UK yet, but Uber has. It’s always a good option when the kids get so worn out they just can’t take another step. The London black taxis are great too! Not only is it as necessary as taking a yellow taxi in NYC, but also the drivers are trained extensively and know the city like the back of their hands.
Potterheads plan ahead- Tickets for Warner Brother Studios Tour London sell out MONTHS ahead of time. They have just completed their biggest expansion to date: Gringotts Wizarding Bank, so tickets are even harder to get now! Tickets must be purchased in advance. You can purchase tickets through Warner Brothers Studio directly. Your ticket not only gives you the tour date, but your time of entry as well. Another option is booking through one of the local tour companies. They add in the transportation to the studio which is a plus, because it is located 20 miles northwest of London.
Holy Moly the Church is Closed- We were in London the week of Good Friday and Easter. Cathedrals like St. Paul’s Cathedral and Westminster Abbey are closed during Holy weeks for extended periods of time. Check each website before you go to see when they are open to the public.
St. Paul’s Cathedral 
Westminster Abbey 
Bath Abbey
Don’t Pass on the London Pass!!! The London Pass is a ticket that lets you visit over 80 tourist attractions in and around the city. There are several purchase options depending on the number of consecutive days you would like to use it.
We purchased the three day London Pass which cost us 115 pounds for each adult and 85 pounds for each child. We used the mobile ticket and were able to flash our phone and get into our favorite sights.
The View from the Shard 
HMS Belfast 
Tower of London
Here is normal cost for each attraction we visited. Tower of London 27.50, Hop-On-Hop Bus Tour 34, The View from the Shard 32, Westminster Abbey 23, Churchill War Rooms 22, Tower Bridge Tour 10, HMS Belfast 16
Visiting all these attractions would have cost us 164.50 without the London Pass. We saved 49.50 for each of us. There were many items on my original itinerary that we didn’t get to, but the HMS Belfast and the Churchill War Rooms were not originally on it. The family wanted to do them as we walked by, and the London Pass gave us the freedom to add in activities without blowing a budget.
Become a Daytripper- We honestly could have stayed in London all 7 days and still wouldn’t have gotten to do everything we wanted to. But since we don’t get across the pond very often, we decided to get out of the city twice. There are so many amazing trips out of London, it was torture choosing where to go!
The upside to tour company-organized day trips is seeing a LOT in a LITTLE amount of time. The downside that it is a LITTLE amount of time and at most attractions you wish you had more.
We booked one of our day trips using Viator. There are several trustworthy tour companies and they all have similar prices and destinations. We chose the Stonehenge, Windsor Castle, Bath and Pub Lunch in Lacock. Our trip was on Good Friday, and it just happened that the Queen wanted to spend the long weekend at Windsor so our tour traded it out for Hampton Court which was the highlight of the trip for me.
Bath, England 
Hampton Court 
Stonehenge
This particular trip met at Victoria Coach Station. It was an air conditioned double decker bus with a bathroom. Our guide, Ben, was funny and knowledgable. Before we arrived at each destination he gave us background information and also told us what to expect, where to meet back and interesting things to look out for. At Hampton Court we had an hour to explore the amazing gardens and an hour and a half to explore the castle at our leisure. We used handheld listening devices. You type in a number on the device screen that corresponded with a number of the room or section you were currently in. Henry the 8th was scandalous and I could have stayed at Hampton Court all day and learned about all the dirty little secrets.
Next up was Stonehenge. We had a little over an hour to explore the stone circle and pick up some souvenirs. Again we were given the handheld listening devices. It is absolutely amazing how this circle could have been built so long ago with only simple tools. It was a wonder and my son’s favorite part of the entire trip. There is also Neolithic houses, some exhibits and a cafe on site, but as with almost all of the day tours there is just not enough time to see everything you want with such a full agenda.
We hit up Lacock next for a pub lunch at The George Inn. The village looks like it did 200 years ago with quaint stone cottages, traditional work houses and shops, therefore many production companies use it as a backdrop for film and television. Harry Potter, Pride and Prejudice and Downton Abby have all filmed there.
Last but not least, we spent an hour in Bath before our 2 hour drive back to London. We enjoyed a forty-five minute walking tour and saw the Roman Baths and Bath Abby. Like, Lacock, I would have liked more time just to explore the streets on my own to enjoy some shopping and ice cream.
We chose to do Paris on our own. Many tour companies offered fantastic looking action packed itineraries, but with kids we didn’t want to see the city from a tour bus. They needed to get out and explore.
We booked tickets on the Eurostar. It was exciting for the kids to take the train. We left from St. Pancras International at 5:40 am and arrived in Paris at Gare du Nord at 9:17 a.m. Roundtrip tickets will run you about $150 a piece roundtrip depending on what times you leave and return. Traveling by train was so much easier than air. Customs and Immigration was easy.
Champ de Mars 
Eiffel Tower 
Paris, France
We decided to book a bicycle tour using Fat Tire Tours. We’ve used them in Washington DC and really had a good time. We didn’t see as much as we would have booking a bus tour, but we felt like we really experienced the city. Our three and a half hour tour included a cafe lunch in Tulleries Gardens and it was just perfect.
The rest of the day was just going to the Eiffel Tower and just “being in Paris.” We were thankful for this non-tour time where we were not on a schedule. We took our time and took pictures. The kids climbed a tree with an Eiffel Tower backdrop. We had time to buy trinkets and peruse several bakeries. We stopped at a cafe and had some wine, baguettes and an amazing charcuterie board. It was relaxing and fantastic. It was very sad to have to hop on the train and head back to London. I will admit that when we first arrived we were overwhelmed with the language barrier and we were glad we did a tour because it allowed us to see some things and took the pressure off of us to organize. If we had it to do differently, we would have spent the night in Paris and made it a 2 day trip. We would have planned 2 half day tours and used the other part of each day just enjoying the “City of Lights.”
Our vacation was amazing and so different than what I had planned, but as long as you have done your homework, prioritized what you want to do and go with the flow, your trip will be amazing too!!