My family has a day and a half in London coming up.

My thoughts were to hit the following:
- Tower of London
- Churchill War Rooms
- Picadilly Circus
- Buckingham Palace

Not a lot of time, so not a lot on the schedule.

Anything to add/subtract/revise? Been about 20 years since I was last there.

Just off the top of my head...

Westminster Abbey
If your kids like Harry Potter the area that Diagon Alley was filmed on. Gringott's is not far away.
Go to the Theater district and see a play

Borough Market for a **** ton of great food vendors. Go early before the crowd.

We were just there at the beginning of June.

Churchill War Rooms - definitely pay for the guided tour, if it's available.

We LOVED our early entry tour of Tower of London with Walks, here:
https://www.walksdevour.com/london/tours/tower-of-london-guided-tour/

The closing ceremony tour looks really cool, too.

We also did Westminster Abbey and Changing of the Guard with them, but it wasn't as interesting/engaging as the Tower of London. We did enjoy Changing of the Guard, but be aware the ceremony start to finish takes like 1.5-2 hours. We just watched the first part with the parade.

Also enjoyed the river cruise we got as part of one of the tours, but I would pay separately to do it, too. We rode all the way from Westminster Abbey to Greenwich (we were meeting someone there).

We also really enjoyed the self/guided tour of Tower Bridge. Walking across with the glass floor is fun.

Borough Market is a good place to get lunch, if you want something quick and your group has diverging tastes. Nothing we had really blew me away, though. It was fun to walk around (although very crowded).

We opted not to do the Harry Potter studio tour as a coworker said it's basically an all-day event. Quite a lot of travel time on a bus to get there and back.

If there on the weekend skip Borough and go to Maltby in Bermondsey. Less crowded and better food.

Leave time to walk the city. Having lived there for 5 years, I miss just walking around and exploring. Walk Carnaby Street and Seven Dials and places like that that are just so distinctly London. Pretty much all the Thames Bridges between Tower and Vauxhall Bridges offer stunning views of the City and again… just are so distinctly London.

Agreed that changing of the guard is a bit of a waste of time to see and we did the Harry Potter tour because we lived there with kids but yes… it's way out of town and a full day affair.

Go walk the parks or even rent a bike and bike around them… they are really nice and the London does a great job keeping them pretty. If you only have a day and a half, I think an hour to go to Hyde Park is worth it. When we had visitors, they always loved walking past The Serpentine through the park and by the Albert Memorial and Kensington Palace.

If you like things like the War Rooms, don't sleep on the Imperial War Museum. Churchill Rooms have a lot of Churchill items and exhibits, but the Imperial War Museum isn't near as crowded and has way better military exhibitions in my opinion.

Don't sleep on the British Museum if you are into antiquities and world history. A lot of neat things to see in there.

Agreed on going to theatre when you are there. It's not cheap but way cheaper than NY and just as good.

ATM9000 said:

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If there on the weekend skip Borough and go to Maltby in Bermondsey. Less crowded and better food.

Leave time to walk the city. Having lived there for 5 years, I miss just walking around and exploring. Walk Carnaby Street and Seven Dials and places like that that are just so distinctly London. Pretty much all the Thames Bridges between Tower and Vauxhall Bridges offer stunning views of the City and again… just are so distinctly London.

Agreed that changing of the guard is a bit of a waste of time to see and we did the Harry Potter tour because we lived there with kids but yes… it's way out of town and a full day affair.

Go walk the parks or even rent a bike and bike around them… they are really nice and the London does a great job keeping them pretty. If you only have a day and a half, I think an hour to go to Hyde Park is worth it. When we had visitors, they always loved walking past The Serpentine through the park and by the Albert Memorial and Kensington Palace.

If you like things like the War Rooms, don't sleep on the Imperial War Museum. Churchill Rooms have a lot of Churchill items and exhibits, but the Imperial War Museum isn't near as crowded and has way better military exhibitions in my opinion.

Don't sleep on the British Museum if you are into antiquities and world history. A lot of neat things to see in there.

Agreed on going to theatre when you are there. It's not cheap but way cheaper than NY and just as good.

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I did not think about the British Museum in my original musings, but I agree, don't dismiss it. It has so much history to see.

The National Gallery /Trafalgar Square

Only 1.5 days in london?
Im going to assume like most of us Americans you don't walk everywhere (or much at all.... not a slur just being honest and this will come into play.....)

I recommend not trying to cram everything in.
I suggest the national gallery; get to see some amazing art and its free. Expect to spend 2-4 hours there.
Maybe same day walk along the south Bank of the Thames.

For your half day, just relax. Maybe find a good place for breakfast/lunch and make sure to get to the airport with plenty of time.
My wife and I take ether the Elizabeth line or the Piccadilly line to the airport instead of the more expensive ways, so this would give you family a chance to see the underground and a bit of the surrounding areas.

Between travel in itself and all the walking y'all will do, I think its best to pace oneself and not overextend.

Another thought - do a private tour in a Black Taxi Cab. I booked mine on Viator for our first full day in London. Was a great way to see a lot of sights without tons of walking.

We saw people doing tours in classic/old Mini Coopers. It looked like fun!

I would definitely endorse your top 2 over the bottom 2. Depending on how deep you want to dive in the details, those 2 and possibly the tower bridge, could be a day. Check the day of the week and operating hours for events you plan to attend. Crowds can have a heavy impact on your schedule.

Forgot to mention the hop on hop off is a good way to get a comprehensive city view and allows you to quickly exit if you want an up close.

Carpe D1em said:

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I would definitely endorse your top 2 over the bottom 2. Depending on how deep you want to dive in the details, those 2 and possibly the tower bridge, could be a day. Check the day of the week and operating hours for events you plan to attend. Crowds can have a heavy impact on your schedule.

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I'd agree with you on Buckingham and Piccadilly Circus.

Only other thing I wanted to add is yeah I'm advocating walking a lot… but also most of what you might want to see in a singly day in London is all really close to each other, other than Tower. And the Tube in intertwined enough and incredibly easy to use that it's fairly easy to get anywhere you want to go in central London really quickly.m

I wouldnt do a hop on hop off in London. The Tube system is so intertwined and connected in central London that it's so easy to get around whenever you want.

And the walking isn't that bad. A lot of the stuff you'd want to see is all near each other. You can stop in the War Rooms and leave and then in like 60 minute loop walk see Parliament. The Abbey, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and then go through St. James Square to Buckingham Palace and walk through St James Park back to where you started.

TXTransplant said:

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We saw people doing tours in classic/old Mini Coopers. It looked like fun!

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London traffic was just awful when we were then in June. It is less and less car friendly so a car tour may not be very efficient.

Lots of good ideas here. If it's a nice day down round trip UBER boat to Greenwich and back. Great way to see the river and the city. Book tickets directly on your uber app.

Most museums are free