Last Updated on September 13, 2026 by Adrienne
It’s a bold claim, but I think London may be the best European city for school-age kids. There’s so much to do here, from accessible history and world famous museums (many of them free) to royal palaces, beautiful parks, kid-friendly food and public transportation that’s a destination unto itself. I recently spent 10 days in London with my eight year old daughter, and even with a very full itinerary each day, we weren’t able to get to all the things we wanted to see. In this post, I’ve shared all the activities from our trip that I’d recommend, as well as a few other things that were on our list.
If you’re looking for tried-and-true recommendations from an actual kid, you can skip to the bottom of this post for my daughter’s London Top 10 list. 🙂
Indulge in Afternoon Tea
Kids don’t have to miss out on this quintessential British experience! I have a whole post about my favorite-family afternoon teas in London. There are so many options to choose from, and something to suit every age, budget and interest.
Admire Big Ben
If kids are familiar with one London landmark, it’s likely to be Big Ben, the iconic clock tower of the UK’s Parliament building. Exploring the Westminster neighborhood is a great way to get awesome views of Big Ben, and it’s a compact enough area to make for an easy family walk. If your children are age 11+, you can book a tour to climb to the top, which looks so awesome (they sell out very fast, so make sure to book asap).
Check Out London’s Independent Bookstores
One of my favorite things to do when traveling with older kids is to visit an independent bookstore at the beginning of your trip and let them pick out a book or two. The books serve as entertainment whenever they’re bored waiting in line for an attraction, and make a nice souvenir afterwards, plus as a big reader I never say no to a chance to scope out a city’s independent bookstore scene. We visited Foyle’s flagship Charing Cross location in London, and it was great.
Learn About Ancient History at the British Museum
I’ve seen some advice online to skip the British Museum with kids due to the size and crowds, but – like many of London’s top museums – it’s completely free, so I think it’s worth stopping in even if you can’t possibly see everything. I recommend picking one area of the museum to focus on, based on your kids’ interests. The museum has themed kid-friendly activity trails to help you narrow your focus.
Visit Buckingham Palace, the Most Famous Royal Residence
As the official residence of the monarch, Buckingham Palace is the most famous of the many palaces associated with the British Royal Family (although King Charles primarily lives elsewhere). For two months of the year you can get tickets to tour the royal apartments, although for most of the year it’s not open to visitors and you can only see the palace from outside. The general consensus is that the famous Changing of the Guard isn’t worth it, especially with young children, since you have to line up hours beforehand to get a good view. However, if you happen to be in the area around the time the ceremony happens, you may be able to see the guards march past from one of the nearby parks. That glimpse was good enough for us.
Take a World War 2 Walking Tour and Visit the Churchill War Rooms
I knew I wanted to visit the Churchill War Rooms in London, and also knew that my daughter would likely need some more background info about WW2 to get anything out of it. I picked out some books for her to read pre-trip, and also booked this quick Westminster walking tour, which covered some of the major WW2 monuments and places, before turning us loose in the War Rooms with included tickets. Our guide was fantastic and really engaging with my daughter and I highly recommend this tour for families wanting to dive into London’s WW2 history. The War Rooms are incredible and have been largely untouched since August 1945, complete with maps on the walls showing the positions of Allied and Axis troops.
Get a Great View of the City from the London Eye
A relatively new addition to London’s skyline, the Eye has quickly become a classic visitor experience. It offers panoramic views of London from its large glass pods, and a complete loop takes about 30 minutes. Although it’s an additional cost beyond the already pricey experience, I recommend buying Fast Track entry tickets, especially during weekends and bank holidays, as there can be a pretty long wait otherwise.
Eat Your Way Through London on a Food Tour
Food tours are one of my favorite ways to discover a city, and since British food is generally pretty kid-friendly, this works well as a family activity. We did the “London Bridge and Borough Market” food tour with Secret Food Tours London and it was great.
Nosh at London’s Food Halls
Even if you don’t take a food tour there, Borough Market, which is London’s oldest food hall (dating back to the 12th century!), is well worth a visit, and makes for an easy and quick dinner with kids since everyone can pick out their favorites. Don’t miss the fantastic Bread Ahead donuts if you have a sweet tooth. The major department stores like Harrods and Fortnum & Mason also have terrific food halls.
Shop at Hamleys Toy Store
With seven floors, the flagship Hamleys on Regent Street is one of the oldest and largest toy stores in the world and makes FAO Schwarz look like a corner store. Full disclosure, we didn’t actually buy anything here because the number of options was so overwhelming (though, from a parent’s perspective, that may be a win!) but the toy displays were a sight to behold and my daughter got a kick out of the life-size toys and Lego sculptures.
Relax With the Flora and Fauna in Hyde Park
Most major cities have a large green space, but London’s Hyde Park has to be one of the best. After checking out the beautiful rose garden (peak bloom is in June and July), we walked around the Serpentine and saw a mama swan taking her babies out for a swim, before settling in to read on a park bench with some very friendly squirrels and pigeons. It was an A+ afternoon and the perfect break from the hustle and bustle of London.
Journey to Greenwich to Stand on the Prime Meridian and Visit the National Maritime Museum
“Journey” is perhaps an overstatement; Greenwich is part of greater London and only about 30 minutes from the city center but is a bit of a detour from the standard tourist route and we were so glad we made time for it. The National Maritime Museum is right on the river and has fantastic exhibits and play spaces for kids, including a really creative playground. It’s a bit of a trek from here up to the Royal Observatory (you may want a stroller for kids under 5) but you’ll be rewarded with fantastic views of London and the chance to stand on the prime meridian with one foot in each hemisphere. You can get to Greenwich on an Uber boat (Thames clipper) which is integrated into the TfL public transit network, and get a mini-Thames river cruise out of your journey. We did this one way and then took a train home because the line for the boats was very long.
Explore Royal History at Kensington Gardens
The gardens are home to Kensington Palace, which you can tour with advance booking, as well as the famous Princess Diana Memorial Playground with its pirate ship. The playground was closed for renovation for much of the last year but has recently reopened. There are also pretty gardens and fountains to splash in on a hot day.
Meet Britain’s Favorite Bear at the Paddington Bear Experience
If you have any Paddington fans in your family, the Paddington Bear Experience is a must-do (my full review here). This is part interactive children’s theatre, part pretend play and 100% delightful. At the end, there’s a meet and greet and photo opportunity with Paddington.
Spend the Day at Hogwarts at Warner Bros. Studios’ Harry Potter Tour
The Harry Potter studio tour was a huge motivation for our London trip, and it did not disappointment. My full recap of the day can be found here, but suffice it to say this is a very special experience for any Harry Potter fan, young or old. If you can’t fit a trip out to Watford into your itinerary but still want to get a taste of Harry Potter, you can take a photo with “Platform 9 and 3/4” at King’s Cross Station. I recommend going as early as possible because it gets very busy.
Discover the World Around Us at the Science and Natural History Museums
I will admit that as a regular visitor to the big science museums in Chicago and New York City, London’s Science Museum and Natural History Museum (conveniently located right next to each other in South Kensington), didn’t knock my socks off. However, they’re both free and well worth a quick visit if you’re in London with kids. We especially enjoyed the math gallery and the WWII-era Spitfire plane at the Science Museum. Bonus: if you’re in London during a heatwave like we were, the Science Museum had the most powerful air-conditioning of the museums on this list.
Sit Down for a Sunday Roast
I love everything about a Sunday roast: not just the tender roast beef and crispy potatoes, but also the tradition of sitting down and savoring a long meal together. Restaurants are only allowed to sell “Sunday roast” on Sundays, but the recently reopened Simpson’s in the Strand Grand Divan dining room serves a “roast dinner” every day that’s essentially the same thing (a roast by any other name…). We tried several places and agreed our favorite roast was at Blacklock.
Wake Up Early to See the Beefeaters Open the Tower of London
The Tower of London was another place I knew we’d benefit from a guided tour to get additional context about what we were seeing, so we booked this tour. We saw the Beefeaters (tower guards) open up the tower for the day in a brief ceremony, and then had early entrance to the Crown Jewels exhibit to avoid the crowds there. After that we went inside the tower and our guide provided background about the Tower’s interesting and gruesome history including the famous ravens and the executions that took place here. (I recommend the musical for SIX for context about Henry VIII and his poor wives, if you don’t mind some language and innuendo). Our tour ticket also included admission to Tower Bridge afterwards, although we were on our own there.
Walk Across the Top of Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge was an unexpected hit for both my daughter and me. It’s a beautiful bridge and undoubtedly one of London’s most recognizable landmarks, but I didn’t expect there to be much to actually do. However we ended up spending quite a bit of time here, between the glass walkway up top that connects the two towers (slightly terrifying, but so cool) and the engine rooms, which have really interesting info about the original process for raising and lowering the bridge. There is also a very engaging kids’ program here – they collect stamps in a booklet as they review the exhibits to answer trivia questions.
Ride London’s Famous Public Transportation
Public transportation in London is so much fun for kids, from the iconic red double-decker buses to the “mind the gap” Tube announcements and the Uber boats on the Thames that give you the river cruise experience without paying for a tour. We used public transportation to get around everywhere in London and it was both convenient and fun.
Delve Even Deeper Into Transportation at the London Transport Museum
If you can’t get enough of the Tube and double-decker buses, head to the London Transport Museum for an in-depth history of how transportation in the city has evolved over the last 200 years, and the chance to hop on all sorts of buses, trains and trams. If your kids really love transportation, the museum operates Hidden London tours of abandoned and historically significant Tube stations, which sounds really cool.
See a Musical on the West End
London has a fabulous theatre scene and tickets are typically much cheaper than Broadway. There are usually several kid-friendly shows playing at any given time. My daughter and I saw the new Paddington musical, which was fantastic. Other good shows for kids right now include The Lion King, Matilda, Wicked, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and (for older kids) Hamilton, SIX and Mamma Mia.
Attend an Organ Concert at Westminster Abbey
London’s famous Westminster Abbey church (site of the coronations, funerals and weddings of generations of the British royal family) hosts free organ concerts every Sunday evening. At only 30 minutes in length, these are perfectly timed for wiggly kids, and the music was beautiful. It is recommended to line up about 30 minutes before the concert start time to make sure you get a seat, but there’s nearby green space where kids can run around.
Tour the Fashion on Display at the Victoria & Albert Museum
The V&A arts museum is another free museum located right near the Science and Natural History Museums in South Kensington. It’s not traditionally thought of as particularly kid-friendly, but my daughter enjoyed seeing some of the fashion and pottery across centuries and different cultures that’s on display there. There’s also a more kid-centric branch, the Young V&A (formerly the Museum of Childhood) in Bethnal Green that focuses on more interactive exhibits and items related to childhood. That was highly recommended to us, however my daughter actually preferred the regular V&A. The young V&A would probably be a better bet for the 6 & under set, however.
Visit the Animals at the London Zoo in Regent’s Park
I was initially a little hesitant to include a zoo in our itinerary, because it feels less uniquely London than many of the other things on this list. However, my daughter is a big animal lover so we made a stop at the London Zoo in Regent’s Park and it ended up being a trip highlight. Due to the compact, central London location they don’t have the big safari animals like elephants and rhinos here (you have to go to the more suburban Whipsnade Zoo for those) but the animals they do have are easy to see, and we appreciated the zoo’s long history of conservation. We also enjoyed walking around Camden afterwards.
Other Things to Do in London With Kids
Even with 10 full days in the city, there were some things on my list that we couldn’t make time for. Here are some of the things that would be at the top of my list for next time.
- A day trip to Windsor to visit Windsor Castle – as far as royal residences go, castles have even more wow factor for kids than palaces. Alas, the location outside of central London made it too hard to fit into our itinerary.
- Sky Garden (observation deck) at the top of the Shard, the UK’s tallest building. Our food tour guide mentioned this as an alternative to the London Eye with even better views – and best of all, it’s free!
- The Postal Museum looked really fun but somewhat duplicative with the Transport Museum and we didn’t have time for both.
- The Big London Bake. My daughter and I are huge fans of Great British Bake-Off and this experience where you step into the tent for a day looks awesome and allows children to bake in tandem with an adult.
- Art museums don’t have a reputation as the most kid-friendly thing, but there are free family tours at the Tate Modern geared towards ages 5-11.
My 8 Year Old’s Top 10 Favorite Things in London
- The Harry Potter Studio Tour. “It was really cool to see all of the costumes and props from the movies. If you like Harry Potter, you have to go here!”
- Afternoon tea. “The food at afternoon tea is really good and it’s fun to see all the fancy decorations.”
- London Zoo. “They have so many animals that you can see. My favorites were the penguins, capybaras and llamas.”
- Sunday roast. “The roast beef and Yorkshire puddings are so delicious, but I didn’t eat the vegetables.” (Editor’s note: accurate 😉)
- Paddington Bear Experience. “l liked looking for the ingredients for the marmalade jam and it was so fun to take photos with Paddington.”
- Riding a double-decker bus. “It was so cool to be high up on the top deck. I could see so much of the city.”
- The Paddington musical on the West End. “The way they did the Paddington costume was amazing. It looked like a real bear.”
- The London Eye. “I thought I was going to be nervous, but it was actually really fun going so high. I could see the whole city.”
- Standing on the Prime Meridian. “Being half in the western hemisphere and half in the other hemisphere was really cool.”
- London Transport Museum. “My favorite part was going inside all the different vehicles. They had some interesting games and simulations too.”
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