Toddler Chronicles: A Successful Trip to London 

My husband and I recently took our first international trip with our toddler—an almost two-year-old just starting to enter his “terrible twos” phase. I’ll preface this post with my tip for the longer flight—just expect the worst. This flight was not my son’s first plan ride, but as he is almost a year older than his first flight he obviously was a different child. I expected him to sleep on an overnight flight, departing at his bedtime. He didn’t sleep until the last hour. So this trip started with very little sleep—and thankfully improved from there! 

The purpose of our trip was mainly to see family and friends in England, while being based in an Airbnb in London. Despite all of these appointments, we tried to balance our activities slightly so our toddler could also enjoy something more interesting to him. Here are our recommendations: 

Playgrounds 

Playgrounds are an absolute no-brainer. Most communities have public playgrounds, and there are many in the big city of London. We took our son to two playgrounds: the playground at St. James Park and the Diana Memorial Playground.   The St. James Playground was convenient to where we were staying and also convenient to sites such as Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square. This playground had a few swings, a seesaw (a new novelty for our son!), chimes, and several bridges: wooden and rope ones, amongst other items. Our son enjoyed the wooden bridge, but the rope was too advanced for him at moment. 

The Diana Memorial Playground is much larger and located in Kensington Gardens, convenient to Kensington Palace, Notting Hill, and the various museums in South Kensington. It has several different sections and maps are posted around the area for navigation. Our son enjoyed the seesaw, teepee area, and the climbing section with a slide. There was also a sand pit area, etc. many items to choose from for a full half day of outdoor playtime! 

Take a Double-Decker Bus Ride

At my son’s age, sometimes the simplest things spike the most interest. My son is currently obsessed with cars and the color red. Completely obsessed. And London happens to have red double decker buses as part of its transport system! Cutting to the chase, my son enjoyed a ride in the top deck front seat and also managed to point out every red bus for the remainder of our trip! 

We also bought a small toy double-decker bus from Hamleys Toy Shop for a souvenir (my son’s current favorite toy!).

See Big Sights from Outside 

Also keeping with simple ideas, pointing out the big sights to our son was quite fun. Sights like Big Ben, the London Eye, and the River Thames are always good options. Pro tip: climb the steps to the bridge by the Embankment Station and take a good look at the river and Parliament. At night, this is a fantastic view with the lights on the Parliament building.  During the day, cross the bridge to the other side and enjoy a carousel, etc! 

Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace 

Another event to watch is the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. With music and soldier in uniform, it can be quite an interesting sight to a youngster. From a parent’s view, it’s great: no reservations needed and simply leave if your child isn’t interested. The only downside is that to get a really view you typically need to arrive quite early—not something we were going to do. However, our son watched a bit with interest from his seat on his dad’s shoulders. Once he lost interest, we simply headed over to the St. James Playground! 

You can check the Changing of the Guard schedule here.

Afternoon Tea at Reubens at the Palace

After the Changing of the Guard and some time at the playground, we actually took our son to a formal afternoon tea. Out of the many good options, we selected the afternoon tea at Rubens at the Palace, just down the road from Buckingham Palace. It seemed slightly less formal than other places and had a children’s tea menu—so it obviously catered to children too within a normal context. It also helped that a lot of the decor was traditional and red colored—I figured that maybe my son would at least be excited about that! I made an online reservation several months in advance.  

And our experience exceeded expectations! The food was good, and the staff were all very accommodating and understanding with our son. His “Little Prince” tea came complete with a sparkly golden crown—which he wore once the rest of us had modeled it! 

Also, this was the first afternoon tea that came with free sandwich and scone refills! Not that we had much room left in our stomachs… 

Natural History Museum

When I was a child traveling to London, I always loved to visit the Natural History Museum. I found the dinosaur exhibit fascinating, especially the selection of animatronic dinosaurs. Even though my son might be a little young for this exhibit, I’d thought to stop by and see how he reacted! 

Unfortunately, the exhibit has changed in the past decades since my childhood. It seemed smaller, more exhibit and info- oriented, and only on animatronic T-Rex. Even though my son was nodding off for his nap, he did seem impressed by the T-Rex and mildly impressed by the size of the triceratops fossil. However, I’d say the remainder of the exhibit would be geared toward older children. 

If you do have time and interest, however, I’d still recommend walking through part of the museum. Even for a relatively short period of time. Seeing the large fossils and many other interesting things in the museum may prove worth it to the entire family! 

All in all, I think we managed to balance our London trip reasonably well to include some age-appropriate items for the youngest member of the family. I hope these recommendations prove helpful for your family—happy traveling!