We are heading back to the US from London tomorrow, and I wanted to give a short summary of our experience! It was our second trip in Europe, last year we went to Ireland. It was our third international trip with our son, who is almost 3. I never went to Europe before this, so I was excited to see some of the iconic sites from this world city. I would say it was very fulfilling, but very tiring! Our son is a great sleeper and eater, so we weren’t like super fatigued, but we did have to spend most of our trip wrangling him off and on public transport and leading him through the throngs of tourists. And there were so many tourists! Maybe it is recollection bias but I dont think Dublin had that many tourists walking around. Granted, in Ireland we rented a car, and we spent some days going outside of the city, versus here we were in the city limits the entire time. I would say this, if you are in your 30s and this is your first chance to see Europe, drag your kid along and go. However, if you have sene it before, go somewhere easier.
Our family favorite- tower London! We got there right at opening, so we beat the crowds. I liked the Crown Jewels, my son liked the armory, there was a lot of space to run around, win-win.
My son’s favorite- the transport museum. He loves everything that goes (he also loved riding the transport, something we don’t have at all where we live at home). I loved shopping around Covent Garden (again, we got there super early right when everything opened), but the museum is not really a stand out for adults.
We also went to the British museum- which my son was surprisingly into! But it was so crowded and hot in there it kinda ruined the mood. Same idea with the Winchester abbey- it would have been awesome with out a toddler but I spent most of my time trying to scurry him along the line rather than actually taking in the environment.
The big plus was the parks though- we went to Hampstead Health (my favorite, just to get into some nature and away from crowds), Regents Park, and Greenwich Park. I wish we could have stayed more in Greenwich, but the commute was pretty far, so we only had some time for the park playground and not the museum.
Overall, I think I enjoyed it? But with a three year old, everything is stressful. I hope somewhere in the corners of his young mind he remembers this trip .