England August 2023

[Percycat]

My family is planning a 2-week(?) trip to England in August 2023 as a belated HS graduation trip for DS (19) and HS graduation trip for DD (17). I haven't been to Europe since I was 16 and I haven't planned a trip like this before. At this point our plan is to spend the first part in London and the second part outside of London. At one point during the second half, we plan to rent a boat and sail the K&A canal system for a few days.

I am looking for advice from those who know. Where's a good location to stay? Any tips or must sees? Should we book through a tour company or plan on our own? -- We're leaning towards planning on our own with a few pre-purchased tours for certain activities.

Here are some of our ideas after a brief planning session (not in order)
1. Changing of the guard and tour buckingham castle grounds/open rooms (it will be open to the public certain days while we are there) -- plan to purchase tour tickets to take care of logistics
2. See a play(s) (maybe moulin rouge, cursed child, or something light and fun)
3. Tower of London and bridge
4. Covenant garden and Neal's yard
5. Parliament
6. British Museum
7. Westminster Abbey
8. Harry Potter tour
9. Thames River boat ride
10. Royal Observatory Greenwich
11. London Eye

It would be nice to add some "fun" and not just have a museum type trip.

How soon do I need to start buying tickets and making reservations?

I'm sure I'll have lots of question. I hope I get lots of advice!!! Thanks
Percycat

[SnuggleBuggles]

Short on time but I booked our Harry Potter in February for our June trip and the morning time slots were already sold out. Don’t wait on those.
We skipped the London Eye in favor of dinner at the Sky Garden.


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[StantonHyde]

Here is my trip report for London with kids

https://www.fodors.com/community/eur...eport-1433634/

[nfceagles]

For a play, I would highly recommend SIX and maybe even do it on the same day you do the Tower of London (the Tower is a MUST do). It’s fantastic and so perfectly London themed (about the six wives of Henry the 8th). &Juliet is also light and fun and Shakespeare themed.

Stroll the south bank from London Eye or even start at Westminster Abbey down to Borough Market for lunch. Passing the Tate Modern, Golden Hinde, Globe Theater, the Millennium pedestrian bridge to St Paul’s (great photo ops), the Monument to the great fire along the way. You can keep going to London Bridge too but that might get a little far depending on your preferences.

Trafalgar Square, Fortnum & Mason, Piccadilly Circus

Afternoon Tea somewhere, lots of choices

Paddle boats on the Serpentine and feeding the wild parakeets in Hyde Park. (I can get you specific of how/where if that interests).

Churchill War Rooms is wonderful if you like museums.

If you like Harry Potter, the WB Studios Tour is a must and needs to be booked well in advance. It’s better than any HP-themed tour in London. It’s in Watford, not London. Accessible by train from Euston or by bus if you book with a third party.

The Premier League opens in mid August if you are soccer fans at all. But that will be very spendy.

Abbey Road Studios and crossing if you’re Beatles fans.

If I had to cut anything from your list to make room it would be 5, 9, and 10, but I could spend a month there and not see everything I wanted.

We lived there briefly so I don’t have as much hotel advice. We have used the Residence Inn near Earls Court and liked it. Since then, they opened another near London Bridge that might be worth considering too. We also stayed years ago at Pullman St Pancras which was convenient to Kings Cross Station.


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[lizzywednesday]

For a play, I would highly recommend SIX and maybe even do it on the same day you do the Tower of London (the Tower is a MUST do). It’s fantastic and so perfectly London themed (about the six wives of Henry the 8th). &Juliet is also light and fun and Shakespeare themed.

...

Those are absolutely the two shows I'd see if I were headed to the West End; I might also add Heathers: The Musical because I've heard most of the cast album ... and a friend who has similarly-aged kids took them recently & loved it.

If you're on the East Coast, however, & Juliet is ramping up for a potential Broadway transfer by playing the Ed Mirvish Theatre in Toronto, so you may be able to catch it in the US. (Same with SIX, which is currently running on Broadway ... and has two tour companies - the Aragon and Boleyn tours - criss-crossing the US.)

[Percycat]

Thank you for all of the great information! I agree --- SIX would be a fantastic play to see, and maybe we will -- the touring company of SIX is part of our "broadway package" this year, so at least my daughter and I will see it before we travel....maybe I will add DS and DH --- or maybe we just plan to see it again. Good idea. I will look into & Juliette.

Any idea on where to stay? We have 4 people and like moderate comfort. With short travels, we usually stay at places like Hampton Inn or Holiday Express. For week long stays, we usually rent a condo-type unit at a resort type complex or go to an all inclusive. I would like something that is centrally located to tourist areas, reasonably affordable, and convenient for public transportation. I probably do not want to do VBRO or Abnb --- but you all could educate me if that is the best option.

[SnuggleBuggles]

We stayed in a hotel because it was just us and ds2. We stayed near the British Museum.
But, there are a lot of aparthotel options in London. Citadines and Marlin are 2 recommended on Trip Advisor forums.
Definitely run a filter on air conditioning. They've had major heat waves this summer. I am so glad our hotel had a/c! We actually got bumped up into a better room because the a/c wasn't working in the room type we had. We already had a nice room booked but loved our large suite!

[nfceagles]

One other thought re Cursed Child. I’ve seen it in London twice and it was great. We recently learned that post-pandemic the NYC one has been condensed into one show instead of two. This is cheaper and less time consuming, but I’m guessing it lacks some nice touches. I don’t know if the same has happened to the production in London. Might be worth looking into as it may be your best chance to see the original two show production if that matters to you.


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[nfceagles]

We stayed in a hotel because it was just us and ds2. We stayed near the British Museum.
But, there are a lot of aparthotel options in London. Citadines and Marlin are 2 recommended on Trip Advisor forums.
Definitely run a filter on air conditioning. They've had major heat waves this summer. I am so glad our hotel had a/c! We actually got bumped up into a better room because the a/c wasn't working in the room type we had. We already had a nice room booked but loved our large suite!

Definitely check for AC! On a vacation in 2018 we had AC at the Residence Inn Kensington that I mentioned earlier and we were so glad for it as there was a heat wave while we were there. And the heat waves have only gotten worse. The British Museum is NOT AC’d as I learned the hard way. The Science Museum is.


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[StantonHyde]

Check out one fine stay--it's a property rental company. They did a great job with our London lodging. More details in the trip report I linked to above.