London Travel Forum

i am researching about what to do in london for 4.5 days with teens ages 17 and 14. suggestions of good hotels/appartments are great. thanks

And also if we should spend more time (or less)thanks

You can never spend too much time in London.

I went to London last summer with a grandson who was almost 14. We did the hop-on-hop-off bus (including a boat ride on the Thames and I recommend the Big Bus), and I took him to three performances. We saw Shakespeare in the park which was Midsummer Night's Dream. He had seen a production of this in school so he didn't enjoy it that much because he said he knew how it came out. I would like to see the Reduced Shakespeare, but it wasn't playing when we were there. I took him to "We Will Rock You" because he's really into rock music, and he liked that. And he liked The Mousetrap which I took him to because my mom took his dad to see it on a similar trip many years ago.

We went to Harrods because he was missing playing his guitar and went up to the music department and he tried some out. He would have liked to do the London Eye, but we didn't have time. We toured the Tower of London (on a Beefeater tour), and went up in Tower Bridge. We also went to Mdme. T's waxworks and could really have skipped that. We didn't get to see the Changing of the Guard.

It depends on what your teens are interested in - dungeons? There is a Jack the Ripper walking tour and other walking tours. I couldn't do that because of somewhat limited mobility. There are Harry Potter tours - basically there's a tour for whatever interest you have. I haven't been, but I understand the War Museum is interesting.

When I went with my husband, we went to the British Museum to see the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles. We also went down to Greenwich and toured the Maritime Museum and went to the observatory where the Prime Meridian is. We came back on a boat to the Tower. I have not yet gotten to the V&A museum or the science museum. My daughter on a trip with her grandmother did some rubbings and I did one at St. Martin in the Fields. My third daughter took her children to the Transportation Museum.

thanks maybe skip london...this time. and spend more time there when we do go there.

I wouldn't skip London. I would do it at the end rather than the beginning though. I find that I wear out with traveling after awhile, and London is a good place to revitalize.

When I was traveling with a grandchild this last time, I asked him to pick one thing that he wanted to see or do in each place.

well my dad said that we should just go to london and paris this year and maybe next year we can go on the "all around europe" trip.that way this year we will have more time to visit london and paris and next year we will have more time to spend during the "all around europe" trip. but its never too early to plan for a trip

Well personally, I'd do a combination of what your dad suggested and what you are planning for this year. I've been reading over the letters written by my 2nd daughter who went to Europe with my mom when she was in 8th grade. The trip was from the 19th of September to about October 29th and by the end of the tour they were both on each other's last nerve. So it was too long a trip. I think three weeks is probably about the maximum. I used to be done after 4 weeks and now that I'm older I can't do that much sustained traveling.

Is there a reason that you've left out Italy?

I suspect that if I were doing it, I would try to find some kind of family tour group for two weeks, and then take a couple of days at the beginning and end without the tour. For instance the trip I just did with a grandson, we started in Barcelona before the tour started for a couple of days and then went to Rome, Naples, Venice and then back to Madrid.

Maybe this time you could do Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Poland, and finish up with London.

Then next year do Spain, Portugal and France.

In any case, figure out what the easiest transportation options are between the places that you want to visit first - see if it is possible before you set the itinerary. In the trip above, the trip from Venice to Madrid was VERY overpriced because I couldn't get anything except business class tickets. It would have been cheaper and more sensible to have done it differently.

thanks i will take that into concideration. good idea. i will figure out the order and transportation better. thanks.
oh and we just came back from italy last november. it was awsome.

We found that the GPS-Guide which we hired out kept them really entertained and I actually think they learned some stuff too! Roadtour I think it was called- it covers hundreds of locations and some of the best pubs. You don't have to go in a specific route but can just listen to it as you wander the streets.