22 Best Things to Do in London With Kids
London is easier with kids than most people expect. The biggest museums are free, children ride the buses and the Underground for nothing, and there’s a park every few blocks for the moment when everyone needs to stop walking.
London is big, and the difference between a good day and an exhausting one is usually how much time you spent getting between places instead of being in them. The key to an enjoyable trip is grouping your time by location to avoid hopping around too much in one day.
If you’re trying to figure out the best things to do in London with your family, this is my list of 22, with the family tips and logistics that make each one go more smoothly.
22 Best Things to Do in London With Kids
1. Start With a Guided Tour
Starting with a tour is one of the best things to do in London with kids on your first day, before you do anything else. It changes the rest of the trip. Instead of walking past buildings and checking a map to figure out what they are, you recognize things, and the kids remember places much better when someone has told them a story about them. London especially rewards this, because so much of the city is layered with history that’s invisible if nobody points it out.
There are three good ways to do it, and which one you pick depends mostly on the age of your kids. Book a morning slot whatever you choose. Patience is always highest before lunch.
Hop On Hop Off Bus
This is the one I’d choose with younger children. We like to treat these as our transportation for the day rather than as a tour, so we ride a few stops, get off for a look or a snack, then get back on when legs start to get tired. You cover a lot of ground without anyone having to walk it, with a wonderful view from the top deck.
Walking Tour
A walking tour gives you far more detail and takes you into the smaller streets a bus can’t reach. It’s the better option if your kids can handle a couple of hours on foot with breaks. Pick a shorter route and do it early in the day, when everyone has the most stamina.
River Cruise
A cruise on the Thames is the easiest one to sell to kids, because who doesn’t love a boat ride? You get the whole skyline from the water, everyone is sitting down, and it works well on a first afternoon when the jet lag is still catching up with you.
2. Ride a Red Double Decker Bus
Riding a red double decker bus is one of the simplest things to do in London with children, and you don’t need a tour bus for it. The regular London buses are double deckers, and the front seats on the top deck give you the best view in the city for the price of a normal fare.
Children under 11 ride the buses free at any time, so you’re only paying for the adults. It’s a flat fare no matter how far you go, and the Hopper fare means you can change buses as many times as you like within an hour without paying again.
If you want a route that passes a lot of landmarks, numbers 11, 15 and 24 all do well. Route 15 also runs the old style Routemaster buses on part of its route, which are the ones with the open platform at the back.
One thing that makes all of this easier is sorting out your data before you land. You’ll be checking maps and bus routes constantly in London, so having a connection the moment you step off the plane matters. Try Holafly for an eSIM, which installs before you leave home and switches on when you arrive, so there’s no hunting for a SIM card in an airport with tired kids. Use code MARIHOLAFLY for a discount.
3. See Big Ben and Westminster
Coming up out of Westminster station and finding Big Ben directly in front of you is a good first moment, especially for kids who have only ever seen it in cartoons. It’s bigger than they expect and it’s right there, with no build up.
Walk out onto Westminster Bridge for the view back toward the London Eye, which is the one most people picture when they think of London. The Houses of Parliament run along the river beside it, and the whole stretch is flat and easy with a stroller.
Westminster Abbey is next door if you want to go inside. With younger kids I’d look at it from the outside, explain that this is where the coronations happen, and save the interior for a trip when they’re older.
4. Explore Trafalgar Square
Trafalgar Square is en easy stop because it’s open, flat and full of space to move around. After narrow pavements and busy streets, that matters more than it sounds. The four bronze lions at the base of Nelson’s Column are the highlight of the stop.
One thing worth knowing before they do. You’re meant to stay on the stone bases rather than climb onto the lions themselves. The signs around the square ask people not to climb the statues, and while it isn’t strictly enforced, there are good reasons for it. The lions have been there since 1867 and generations of climbers have worn the bronze thin in places, with cracks along the backs and tails where people use them as a step. They also stand around eleven feet tall, and falls have caused serious injuries.
The stone plinth gets you the same photo without either problem, so that’s where we’d put the kids.
The National Gallery sits along one whole side of the square and it’s free to walk into. With small children I wouldn’t attempt the full collection. Choose two or three paintings ahead of time, find those, and let that be the visit. The gift shop makes a reasonable trade for their cooperation.
There are public toilets and cafes here, which is worth knowing because both are harder to find when you visit London.
5. Watch the Changing of the Guard
The Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace is free and it’s a thing worth doing once, even though it’s crowded and you’ll spend more time waiting than watching. The uniforms, the band, and the horses are what the kids remember.
It doesn’t run every day, and the schedule changes with the season, so check before you build your morning around it. This is the official Household Division schedule page.
Watching the Changing of the Guard is one of the most typical things to do in London, so get there at least forty five minutes early if you want a spot at the gates. If you arrive later than that, don’t fight the crowd. Stand along The Mall instead and watch the guards march past on their way in, which is honestly a better view for a short child anyway.
6. Walk Through St James’s Park
The route from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham Palace goes straight through St James’s Park, and it’s a nice 15-minute walk through central London. If you’re doing the Changing of the Guard, you’ll pass through the park anyway, so give yourself some extra time and treat it as a stop rather than just part of the route.
There’s a lake through the middle with a bridge across it that has a great view of the palace. The park is also known for its pelicans, which have lived there since the 1600s when they were given to the king as a gift from a Russian ambassador. They get fed in the afternoon and kids love watching it.
7. Ride the London Eye
The London Eye is a giant observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames. The full rotation takes about 30 minutes, giving you views across central London from the glass capsules. It moves slowly, so there’s no need to wait for it to stop. You simply step on and off while it continues moving.
Book online and choose a timed slot. Queues can be long if you buy tickets at the door, and waiting around with young kids isn’t ideal.
Go on a clear day if you can be flexible, and go late in the afternoon in winter, when it gets dark early and you get the city lit up.
This is one of the only spots in London with consistent air conditioning, so it’s also worth hopping on if you visit during a heat wave.
8. Go Up to Sky Garden for Free
Sky Garden is at the top of a building in the City with a public garden inside and a viewing terrace, and the whole thing is free. You book a slot online in advance and they release tickets a few weeks ahead, so this needs a little planning but no money.
The view takes in the Thames, Tower Bridge and the Shard, and because it’s indoors it works on a day when the weather has ruined everything else. This is one of the best things to do in London with kids that costs nothing at all, there’s no ticket queue and there’s space to sit down.
9. Take a Boat Down the Thames
The Uber Boat river service is proper public transport rather than a sightseeing cruise, which means it’s cheaper and you can use it to actually get somewhere. It runs the length of central London, so you can ride from Westminster all the way east past the whole skyline and get off wherever you’re headed next.
This is one of my favorite things to do in London with kids. They get the fun of a boat ride while you’re also getting from one part of the city to another. Everyone can sit down, and you get a completely different view of London than you would from the Underground.
Sit outside at the back if the weather allows. There is no air conditioning inside.
10. Visit the Tower of London
Of all the paid things to do in London, this is the one I’d spend the money on. It’s a real castle in the middle of the city, nearly a thousand years old, and there’s enough going on inside that kids stay interested for hours.
The Crown Jewels are here, and so are the ravens, which have their own keeper and their own legend about the kingdom falling if they ever leave. The Yeoman Warder tours are included with your ticket and they’re the best part of the visit. The warders are performers as much as guides, and they hold children’s attention better than any audio guide.
Book a timed slot online and go as early as you can. The queue for the Crown Jewels builds through the morning and is at its worst from midday onward.
Children under five are free. Do the Warder tour first while everyone is fresh, then the Crown Jewels, then let the kids run around the walls and the green at the end when nobody wants to concentrate anymore.
11. Walk Across Tower Bridge
Tower Bridge is the one people actually picture when they think of things to do in London, and walking across it costs nothing. It’s right beside the Tower, so the two go together naturally in the same day.
If you want more than the walk, the Tower Bridge Exhibition takes you up into the high walkways between the two towers, where there’s a glass floor you can look straight down through at the traffic and the river.
Ask about the Tower Bridge Cat Trail when you enter. Kids can collect stamps in an activity booklet or passport by finding Bella the Tower Bridge Cat along the high-level walkways and engine rooms.
The bridge still lifts for tall ships, and the schedule is published on the Tower Bridge website. If you can time your visit to catch a lift, it’s worth planning around.
12. Visit Borough Market
Borough Market is my favorite food stop in London with kids. It’s a proper working market rather than a tourist one, it has been on the same site in some form for around a thousand years, and it’s under a railway arch so it works in the rain.
What makes it good with children is that you’re not sitting still in a restaurant waiting for food. You walk through, everyone points at what they want, and you build lunch from six different stalls. There are samples everywhere, which handles the problem of a child who says they don’t like something they have never tried.
Turnips at Borough Market, which serves fresh, whole strawberries in a cup and generously coated with warm, silky melted Belgian milk chocolate from a fountain machine, is absolutely worth the hype. The lines are not as long as you see on TikTok. It costs around £8.50 to £9.50 per cup, but your whole family can share one. We got two, and it was a lot. You can find them at Stall 43.
Go on a weekday if you can. Saturday is shoulder to shoulder and harder with a stroller or a small child who wants to look at things.
13. Visit the Natural History Museum
The Natural History Museum is free and it’s the one I’d put first if you only do one museum in London. The building itself gets a reaction before you’ve seen a single exhibit, with a huge vaulted entrance hall and a blue whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling. There are even huge dinosaur fossil recreations outside before you enter.
The dinosaur gallery is what most kids come for, and it’s the busiest part of the museum, so go there first and work backward through everything else. The rest of the collection is enormous and you’re not going to see it all, which is fine. Because there’s no ticket, there’s no pressure to get your money’s worth.
Check the website the day before, because free timed tickets are sometimes needed during busy periods.
14. Visit the Science Museum
The Science Museum is directly next door to the Natural History Museum, which makes South Kensington the easiest area in London for a family day. This is the better of the two for kids who need to touch things rather than look at them.
Wonderlab is the interactive gallery and it’s the one part of the museum you pay for. It’s worth it if your kids are between 7 and 14 years old. There are live demonstrations, things to pull and push and set off, and it holds a wide age range at the same time, which isn’t easy to find.
If your children love interactive museums, this is the one you should choose!
15. Visit the British Museum
The British Museum is free, and it’s so big that going in without a plan is a mistake with children. The building alone is worth walking into for the Great Court, which is a covered courtyard with a glass roof in the middle of the museum.
With kids, I’d go straight to the Egyptian galleries. The mummies are the thing they’ll talk about afterward, and the Rosetta Stone is on the way. Do that, see anything else you happen to walk past, and leave before anyone gets tired of it.
This deserves its own morning rather than being added onto the end of a full day. It is a fifteen minute walk from Covent Garden if you want to pair the two.
16. Play at the Diana Memorial Playground
This is the best free playground in central London, in Kensington Gardens, and it’s built around a full sized wooden pirate ship sitting in an enormous sand pit. There are also teepees, a sensory trail and plenty of space to run.
One thing worth knowing is that adults are only allowed in if they arrive with a child, which is a safeguarding rule and also means the whole place is genuinely built for kids rather than shared with everyone else.
It gets busy in the afternoon and they cap the number of people inside, so there can be a wait to get in. From the playground you can walk on through Hyde Park to the Serpentine and rent a pedal boat.
17. Visit London Zoo
London Zoo is in Regent’s Park. It opened in 1828 and is one of the oldest scientific zoos in the world, and a lot of it has been rebuilt in recent years, so it doesn’t feel like an old zoo.
The walk-through enclosures are the parts kids talk about afterward, where you’re inside the space with the animals rather than looking at them from behind glass. Give it most of a day rather than squeezing it into an afternoon.
Buy tickets online in advance. They’re cheaper than at the gate and it saves you the queue.
18. Explore Covent Garden
Covent Garden was London’s fruit and vegetable market for around 300 years before becoming the area it is today. The original glass-roofed market building is still there, with the Apple Market stalls inside and shops and restaurants around it. The whole area is pedestrianized, which is especially nice when you’re exploring with kids and don’t have to worry about traffic.
There are street performers in the piazza throughout most of the day. They audition for their spots, so there are usually some really good acts, and the kids can easily spend half an hour watching a show. You’ll also often find classical musicians playing in the lower courtyard while people eat.
The London Transport Museum is here too. Kids can climb on old buses, trams and Tube carriages, follow a stamp trail through the galleries, and try the Tube train simulator. Adult tickets are valid for a whole year and children go free, so it can be a good option if you’re looking for something to do with kids in central London.
Covent Garden is about a 10-minute walk from Trafalgar Square, so it’s easy to add to a day exploring Westminster.
If it starts raining, this is where to go. The market building is covered, the Transport Museum is indoors, and you can get an entire afternoon out of the two without going back out into it.
19. See Platform 9¾ and the Harry Potter Studio Tour
If you have a Harry Potter fan in the family, there are two versions of this and they’re very different commitments.
Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross
This is the quick one. There’s a luggage trolley set into the wall at King’s Cross station, halfway through, with a staff member handing out scarves and helping with the photo. It’s free, it takes about fifteen minutes including the queue, and there’s a shop next to it. If you’re passing through the station anyway, it’s an easy win.
Warner Bros Studio Tour
This is the full version, and it’s where the films were actually made. The sets are still standing, including the Great Hall and Diagon Alley, and you walk through them. It’s outside London, it takes most of a day including the travel, and tickets sell out weeks ahead.
If you have a child who has read the books, this is the kind of thing you build a trip around rather than fit into one. Book the studio tour before you book anything else, including your flights if you can.
20. Take a Day Trip to Richmond
Richmond is about twenty minutes from central London by train, but it feels like a different place entirely, more like a village on the Thames than part of the city. There’s a huge deer park with actual wild deer, a riverside to walk along, and a much slower pace than you’ll find in central London.
If anyone in your family watches Ted Lasso, Richmond will be especially fun to visit. Many parts of the show were filmed here, including the pub that appears as the Crown & Anchor. The real pub, The Prince’s Head, is right on Richmond Green and you can actually go inside.
If you have more than three days in London, this is one of the first additions I’d make to your list of things to do in London with kids. I have a full guide to spending day in Richmond with kids.
21. Spend a Day at Kew Gardens
Kew is a short hop from Richmond, so you could pair the two if you had a long day, though each is comfortably a day on its own. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site and it’s enormous, with glasshouses full of plants you won’t see anywhere else.
For kids the draws are the Treetop Walkway, which puts you up at canopy height above the trees, and the Children’s Garden, which is one of the biggest play spaces in London. It is truly massive, and your kids could easily spend the entire day there. Each section has different things to do and a new type of play apparatus.
Kew also puts on a Christmas light trail through the gardens after dark in November and December. It’s a lovely option if you’re visiting London with kids in winter. If you’re planning a Christmas trip to London, I have a full guide with everything you need to know.
22. Take the Boat to Greenwich
Greenwich is the one I’d do if you want a day that feels different from central London, and getting there is half the fun because you can take the river boat all the way down instead of the Tube: the Cutty Sark is a real tea clipper you can walk underneath, which is a strange and brilliant thing to see from below.
Once in GreenwThe National Maritime Museum is free and has plenty for children. Up the hill in Greenwich Park, the Royal Observatory lets kids stand on the Prime Meridian with a foot in each hemisphere, and the view back toward the city from the top of the park is beautiful.
When to Visit London With Kids
London is great all year, and the free museums mean a rainy or cold trip (as London often is) is never a wasted one. But the seasons are different enough to be worth thinking about when you’re planning the best things to do in London with your family.
Spring
April through June is the best window for a family trip. The days are long, the parks are at their best, and the weather is as good as London gets. Prices haven’t climbed to summer levels yet and the crowds are manageable.
Summer
July and August are the warmest and by far the busiest. Attractions sell out, hotel prices climb, and the museums are packed. Heat is also a real consideration now in a way it wasn’t ten years ago, and most of London has no air conditioning, which catches American families off guard. Book everything ahead and use the free museums as your cooling break in the middle of the day, though check first which ones are actually air conditioned. Keep in mind that London AC doesn’t get as cold as American AC; you’re looking at a low of 74℉ with the AC as low as it goes.
Fall
September and October are underrated. It’s still mild, the city gets noticeably quieter once British schools go back, and hotel prices drop. If your kids aren’t in school yet or you have a fall break, this is probably the best value trip of the year. And if you happen to be there in October, you’ll catch all the Halloween decorations around the city.
Winter
November through March means short days and a lot of grey, but the free museums matter more than ever and the city does Christmas seriously from early November. The lights go up along the main shopping streets and stay until January. If you’re looking for things to do in London with kids in December, I have a full guide to Christmas in London with kids.
Final Thoughts
If you’re working out the best things to do in London with kids, the single thing that will improve your trip most is grouping by area. London is big enough that you don’t want to spend most of your day going between places instead of enjoying them.
A simple structure that works for us when we’re picking things to do in London with kids: one big attraction, one museum, one park, and one food stop. Repeat that each day and you’ll see the city without anyone melting down halfway through the afternoon.
If you want these best things to do in London with kids laid out day by day instead of as a list, I have a full London with kids 3 day itinerary.
If you have any questions, send me a message on Instagram. I’m always happy to share more tips. I’m also a travel advisor, and I’d love to help you plan and book your London trip! To get started, please fill out my trip planning form and tell me a little about the trip you have in mind, and I’ll be in touch about next steps. Happy travels!
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London With Kids: The Perfect 3 Day Itinerary
London is one of the best cities for an international family trip, and for good reason. Some of the city’s best museums are completely free, kids under 11 ride buses and the Underground for free with a paying adult, and there’s always a park or playground nearby when everyone needs a break. With three days in London, you can see many of the city’s biggest sights, mix in plenty of kid-friendly fun, and still keep the pace manageable for the whole family.
This London with kids itinerary is keeps each day in a single part of the city, so you’re not moving across the city in one day, which can be daunting: London is huge. Day one covers Westminster and the River Thames, day two is the museum district and Hyde Park, and day three is the Tower and the east side. If you have more time, I’ve added some of my favorite additional day trips to round out a 4- or 5-day stay across the pond.
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Magical Christmas in London With Kids: What to Do and Book Early
Christmas in London is a great option for a family trip over the holidays. The season runs about seven weeks, so you’re not forced into the expensive dates, and a lot of the best parts cost nothing. Ice rinks in courtyards, markets along the river, and lights on every main shopping street.
There’s one thing you need to know before you book, and it’s the part most guides leave out. London closes on Christmas Day. Not partially. The Underground does not run, the buses do not run, most attractions are shut, and so are most restaurants. If Christmas Day is in the middle of your trip, you need to plan for it.
Christmas in Europe has been on my travel list for a while, and London keeps coming up every time I look into a holiday trip. I’ve spent a lot of time researching what the city is like at Christmas, so I pulled together this guide with this year’s dates and prices, plus what needs booking ahead.
