London Bus Tour

[Green Moss]

I am taking my 3 boys aged 13,10 & 9 to London for the day & thought an open top bus ride would be a good idea - does anyone know which is the best / best value one to see the main sights? Or any other suggestions which would interest boys in London (thought of Science Museum if we have enough time).........Thanks

[Buenchico]

(2-part post):

I used to organise school trips (from Sheffield) to London, for 11 & 12 year olds and I've taken dozens of other youngsters there at various times, so I think I know what your family might enjoy. Here are my thoughts:

1. Give the open-topped tours a miss. Children find that the novelty of sitting on the open top deck soon wears off and they quickly get bored. (The tours are also very expensive).

2. The Science Museum is an absolute 'must'. I've had difficulty persuading some children to visit it but I've always had to drag them out of it, three hours, or even five hours , later ;-)

3. Most of the Science Museum is free but it's worth paying for the Imax cinema and the special exhibits:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/visitmuseum.as px

4. The Natural History Museum is just round the corner from the Science Museum. You might not want to visit all of it but I strongly recommend visiting the moving dinosaurs (at the far end of the dinosaur gallery):
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/galleries/blue-z one/dinosaurs/index.html

5. To do a bit of sight-seeing (but without boring your children by taking too long over it), take a river trip from Tower Pier to Westminster Pier. It takes around 30 minutes and you see lots of the major landmarks. (As far as I'm aware, you still get one third off your fares if you show a Travelcard). The boats leave roughly every 20 minutes. Timetables are here:
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1131.aspx# ************

6. There's usually some good, free street entertainment at Covent Garden

[Buenchico]

So here's my outline schedule for the day:
Take the Underground to Tower Hill.
Walk across the road to Tower Pier. (There are some good photo opportunities with the Beefeaters outside the Tower of London but I wouldn't bother paying the extortionate admission fees).
Take the boat to Westminster Pier. (Lots of sights to be spotted and photographed).
Walk along Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. (Sightseeing includes the entrance to Downing Street and the mounted sentries at Horse Guards.
In Trafalgar Square, take the obligatory photographs of your kids sitting on the lions.
Walk to Covent Garden Piazza. Explore the area, enjoy the entertainment and get some food and drink.
Take the Piccadilly Line, from Covent Garden, to South Kensington.
Visit the Science Museum.
Make a brief visit to the Natural History Museum.

Chris

[Buenchico]

Aagh!

I see that AB's censorship system has identified a 'rude word' in my link to the boat timetables. To get it to work, copy this link, paste it into your browser's address bar and remove 'DELETE' before clicking 'Go':
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/gettingaround/1131.aspx# westDELETEwaterloo

Chris

[nuoyg]

If they like boats this is good - although could be a bit more costly than the bus tour - it's a bus ride around london which then turns into a boat and you go down the thames. You pick it up from near the london eye.

www.londonducktours.co.uk

[Green Moss]

Thanks ever so much Buenchico & nuoyg, it's a real help, I'm going to print off your replies & will probably do what you suggest.

[nuoyg]

Have a great time! If the weather is nice you could always take a picnic and sit in one of the parks.

[aims1202]

Its true that the open top bus rides are expensive and last a long time, but when we went to London for the day my son really wanted to do this. So we asked the driver if we could just go to a certain place which was about 20mins away. He charged us �2 for each adult. It was excellent, got us to where we wanted to go and was just about the right length of time. Not sure if they are meant to do something like this maybe depends on the driver but its worth a try.
The museums are good for these ages both free and next to each other.
If you don't mind going then a visit to Hamleys is such good fun, just to play with all the toys! We go there just for this not to buy!
We went to the Tate modern when they had the tube slides there, i think it was a one off but its worth checking places like that to see whats on when you are there.
Have lots of fun!

[munchie63]

As a Londoner who has had many days out in the town as a lad, I was a bit aprehensive when my wife booked tickets for a family ride on teh Ducktours bus.
Quite good though.

The kids loved it.
you go past westminster, parliament etc, and you can see a lot during the 20-30mins you're on the river.
I'd recommend it rather than a normal tour bus.