Two summers ago, Tim and I took an adults only holiday to England where we explored the countryside, a few smaller cities like Oxford and Bath, and of course, London! We loved it so much that we decided take Jackson along with us this time for a summer family trip!

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What makes London so great? It’s just a beautiful city with tons of history and a very easy public transportation system which means it’s pretty simple to get around and explore a ton in one day! Most of the museums are free and if you’re traveling with children there is an abundance of activities making London a memorable visit for the entire family!

We also have friends that live in the London area so of course visiting them is always a plus! We got some quality time in with them before exploring the city on our own!

I’m sharing our 72 hour itinerary in hopes this might help you plan out some of your own trip if you’re heading across the pond anytime soon! Make sure to save this for your future travels! And don’t miss the itinerary for our adults only holiday in England!

Day 1 – Warner Brothers Harry Potter Studio Tour

I was told it takes about 3-4 hours to explore the entire Harry Potter Studio, but we spent 6 hours in absolutely awe of the movie sets, the costumes, and behind the scenes looks at the special effects! While we had watched all of the Harry Potter movies as a family, I think getting a closer look at the Magic of Harry Potter properly turned us into Potter Heads!

Jackson especially was enthralled with the magic! They offer a scavenger hunt book to keep kids on their toes as they walk through the sets searching for things like the golden snitch. We got to experience everything from trying butterbeer to pulling our own Mandrakes to exploring the potions classroom!

It felt like an epic way to kick off our time in London and seeing the magic through Jackson’s 9-year-old-eyes was truly special!

Our Hotel

After saying a tearful farewell to our friends, we took the train into the heart of London to start our own adventures. We stayed at the Park Plaza County Hall which is located within 5 minutes of Big Ben and Parliament. In fact, our hotel room had a dreamy view of the London Eye, which was just breathtaking illuminated at night!

Day 2 – Southbank

After checking into our hotel, we immediately hopped onto this hop on hop off bus tour. We used this same company last time we were in London and the audio guide is entertaining and informational. We used the bus to navigate over to the Tower of London while enjoying some panoramic views of the city from the second level of the double decker bus.

We walked straight over to Sky Garden, a huge tower about a 10 min walk from the Tower offering a stunning view (and free) 360 degree view of the city while surrounded by lush gardens and an adorable cafe. Pro Tip: while your visit is free, you need a timed ticket which becomes available 2 weeks prior to your visit. Make sure you book this right as the tickets become available because generally they do not allow walk-ins on the day of your visit and tickets go quickly!

After Sky Garden we walked around the outside of Tower of London admiring the wildflowers and the Thames river. Tim and I toured the Tower of London on our first visit to the city, but we thought Jackson wouldn’t be as interested in it as we were.

We walked across tower bridge to the South Bank for lunch. I was so excited that we got to cross the bridge on foot and stopped to pose for some photos and breathtaking views of the river. The original plan was to visit Borough Market for lunch and feast on all of the delicious offerings like the sausage rolls and chocolate dipped strawberries. However, we had not realized that Borough Market is CLOSED on Mondays and we needed to make a new plan fast!

We ended up at a cute Italian restaurant called Tavolino around 2pm where we enjoyed delicious pizza and pasta while enjoying a view of Tower Bridge. Jackson ended up eating his entire lunch along with half of ours before finishing off a dish of pistachio icecream!

The South Bank is a section of London we had not explored the first time in the city, so walking along the river was lovely and relaxing. We walked through Hays Galleria which has a stunning glass ceiling and cute little shops.

To keep our schedule fairly relaxed I had not planned any afternoon and evening activities for us. We decided to hop back onto the hop on hop off bus and enjoy a ride around Kensington and Hyde park before ending up over in Leicester Square to visit the Lego Store – one of Jackson’s requests for this trip.

The Lego store is filled with London themed Lego builds such as Big Ben and Gringot’s Bank from Harry Potter so even if you don’t have a child with you, it’s still fun to have a look around.

We ended our day in London’s Chinatown for noodles and bubble cone ice cream, falling happily into bed around 11pm.

Day 3 – Royal Landmarks and Tea

Gail’s bakery was a favorite the last time we visited Paris and there just happened to be a shop close to our hotel. We grabbed some treats and coffee and headed for the green space by the London Eye to enjoy the river view.

After breakfast we set out on foot to cross the Westminster Bridge to take a closer look at Big Ben, Parliament, and the Westminster Abbey. Because of time constraints, we decided not to tour the inside of the Abbey. We will just have to plan that for our next trip!

From there it’s a leisurely 20 min stroll through the gardens – and shade! – to Buckingham Palace. I loved watching the birds and stopping to admire the flowers in the gardens. Shockingly, the Palace wasn’t very busy so we were able to walk right up to one of the ornate entry gates for pictures without a mob standing behind us!

We had an afternoon tea scheduled for 1:00pm so with about an hour and a half to kill, we took the tube to Kensington to explore a few charity shops close to our tea. I had read that the Fara and Royal Trinity Hospice charity shops were pretty well stocked, especially in the posh Kensington area. While we did find some beautiful items, the only things were purchased were children’s chapter books from the “book cave” at Fara.

With rumbling bellies we headed to The Ampersand Hotel for our afternoon tea. An afternoon tea will always be a requirement when we travel to London because they are just so much fun! When it was only Tim and I the last visit, we met a friend for tea at Sketch, the most Instagram worthy afternoon tea in all of London and it was fabulous! This time, because we wanted tea to feel extra special for Jackson, we chose the science themed tea at The Ampersand and it did not disappoint!

We started with choosing our own personal pots of tea AND lattes while Jackson was served warm milk with all of the ingredients to make his own hot chocolate! He was also given a beaker and test tubes filled with everything he would need to make his own fizzy, colored lemonade. This included pipettes with different flavorings from mango to strawberry.

The staff were absolutely wonderful with Jackson and it is clear this spot knows how to make kids feel special. When our food arrived, Jackson’s tiered tray was shaped like a rocket ship filled with a hotdog, a dinosaur shaped jam sandwich and a rocket shaped cheese stick. There were also planet shaped pastries and a tin of chocolate cookie “dirt” served with a brush to excavate chocolate dinosaurs! One of his desserts was even served in a petri dish! And to top if all off, they added dry ice to our trays for a thrilling burst of “smoke!”

The adult food was just as delicious as Jackson’s and they continue to bring you more of whatever you desire – all included in the set price! We were absolutely stuffed and highly caffeinated by the time we rolled ourselves out of the hotel and onto our next adventure!

I had booked free timed tickets to visit the Science Museum after our tea because it was right across the street. Pro Tip – when planning your London itinerary, make sure to include lots of inside activities in case it rains, which it often does! I thought we might skip the museum because the weather was gorgeous, but Jackson insisted he wanted to go. We also popped into the Natural History Museum because it was right next door. While the museums were not my personal favorite part of our trip, Tim and Jackson had a blast which made it a very successful afternoon. Plus the London museums are free so why not stop in even to only look at the stunning architecture?!

After the museums, it was a straight shot to Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park so we found a quiet shaded spot in Italian Garden to rest, process our amazing day, and Jackson even cracked open one of his thrifted books. We selected a nearby pub for dinner to wrap up our time in London.

The next morning, we checked out of our hotel and headed to Kings Cross to catch our train to Paris! Stay tuned to read about our Paris itinerary and leave a comment letting me know what’s on your dream list or even your favorite part of London if you’ve already visited!

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xoxo, L

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