Europe Itinerary (with 2 toddlers): London

Arriving in London

After being apart for 6 months, this trip to Europe was so great for our family! When we found out Chris was getting a pass, and that we could plan to visit him, we decided to spend some time making memories with our kids that we wouldn’t have had the chance to do under different circumstances. Even though planning it was a little bit stressful, I’m so glad we went. I did have a lot of help from Jordan, who is a travel agent, which I was so grateful for! First stop: London!

I posted a blog about the flight to London, and there are a lot of helpful tips, along with some things to keep in mind. You can visit that here, if you need some ideas!

When we arrived in London, we met Chris in the airport. He had arrived before us, and was staying in the hotel that was attached to the airport. If you want to see our reunion, you can watch my reel here. It was so good to hug him again, and the kids were ecstatic to see their dad!

We landed a Heathrow Airport around noon, and decided to try to keep the kids up, so that the jet-lag wouldn’t hit them and mess their schedules up. It honestly worked pretty well. We had about an hour ride from the airport, to our apartment in King’s Cross, and they did great in the car right after getting off the plane. After arriving at the apartment and settling in, we kept the kids up until about 7:30. We put them both down, and Gracie slept until 9 the next morning (yay!). Hunter was up at 6:30, but that’s normal for him, so we were happy!

Day 1 In London

Our first full day in London, we got up and decided to visit Borough Market, which was so nice! It reminded me a lot of Ponce City Market in ATL! It was really big, and apparently, it’s one of the oldest markets in London. Which is cool! Some of the market’s buildings date back to the 1800’s, so it was really pretty! There were a lot of places to eat and shop. And the food was really good! We arrived around 11:30, and according to the locals, it wasn’t very crowded. I thought there were still a lot of people, so I could have skipped it because of the kids. But, it was nice! If you’re traveling without kids, it’s definitely worth visiting.

You can also walk to the Tower Bridge from Borough Market. They have an elevator you can ride to walk across the glass bridge. Then you can visit the museum on the other side! You can also purchase same-day tickets, if you decide to visit the museum last minute. If you’re not interested in visiting the museum, you can just walk the bridge!

When we were finished at Borough Market, we headed over for our London Eye & River Thames Cruise. The River Cruise came with the London Eye tickets, and I thought it was neat. Some people would say it’s scary, but I didn’t think so. You barely felt like you were moving. There is also a reasonably priced ($10ish) fast lane option to skip the lines. I would like to note that this is another attraction that the kids weren’t really old enough to appreciate.

After our River Cruise, we ate at a restaurant called Anchor Bankside, and the food was good! It had an outdoor eating area that was really nice and relaxing, so I would definitely recommend trying it if you visit this area of London!

Day 2 In Belgium

On our second day (which was my birthday), we took the tube to Brussels, Belgium. We wanted to do a Chocolate, Beer, Waffle + Whiskey tour that evening around Brussels. So when we arrived we just explored the city a little bit, and then met up with our tour guide that afternoon. The tour was supposed to be 6 hours long, and to be honest, I think there should be a more condensed version for the more casual beer/whiskey drinkers (like me). A lot of the tour was very in-depth and historical, which is great if you’re into that kind of stuff! It was interesting, I just think it drug on a little bit.

We did end up leaving early, because Belgium Beer is very strong lol. The best beer that we tasted was ____, and it was like $100 a bottle. I did get my favorite though, which is Hoegaarden (and even more delicious in Brussels btw)! But I didn’t get a waffle in Belgium, because we left early, which is just really a shame!

After we left the tour, we took the train (which is different from the tube) back to London. It’s only about a 2 hour ride, so we got to spend some good quality time together, even while traveling.

Day 3 In London

Because we had a bigger party, and lots of equipment because of the kids, we hailed black cabs (larger, private cabs) a lot. Trying to get transportation was difficult for all of us, so this was just the better option, because they are larger than regular cabs. 

We did decide to walk down to the Peppa Pig tour bus, which was a cool way to see the city! The bus did run a little late, which was fine. It was very cute! They had little tea snacks and a tea time for the kids. Peppa Pig acts as the tour guide while you’re on the bus, and they even play episodes for the kids! And there are assigned seats, so it doesn’t feel overly chaotic. One thing to note is make sure you don’t book during high traffic times, and make sure that Taylor Swift isn’t there. I didn’t realize that she was at the time, and I think it created more traffic than normal, naturally. Haha.

One cool aspect of the Peppa Pig bus is that you can add alcohol for the adults on their tickets. I also brought Prosecco to drink while we were on it. It was a nice way to pass the time that afternoon, but we did have to leave a little early, because we had reservations at Sky Garden. 

Sky Garden does have free tickets for kids, but be mindful of the time that you book your tickets for. The tickets are one hour time slots, but you can’t go in with kids an hour before closing. Basically, you need to book your tickets before the 5pm time slot because you can’t take them in after that. Ours were booked for 6pm, so we didn’t even get to go into Sky Garden, which was a bummer! So we ended up just grabbing something to eat for the kids and went back to the apartment to get them ready for bed. 

After the kids were settled in, we left them with their grandparents (highly recommend bringing the grandparents along lol). And we ate at a local Italian and steak restaurant called Ristorante e Macelleria Italiana. The area was very nice and we ended up really enjoying our evening!

Day 4 In London

We did plan to go to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace that morning, but we got a slow start that morning, so we missed it. You want to plan to be there around 8am, so that you can see everything clearly. Changing of the Guard starts at 10:30, so if you get there early and have kids, you’ll want to make sure you have stuff to keep them occupied. And it’s crowded, so keep that in mind.

 When we finally got out of the house, we went to the Natural History Museum. Make sure that you book these tickets before-hand. No one was there to check the tickets, so they weren’t that big of a deal when we were there. The museum was really cool for the kids! They had a dinosaur and mammal exhibit, and they had a realistic animatronic T-Rex, which was really cool to see! We didn’t stay very long, but I highly recommend visiting!

When we left the Museum, we walked to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground and let the kids play and get ice cream. The fountain was closed, but it was still really nice! When we left we did hail another black cab, but there was a lot of traffic!

Because of the traffic, we skipped dinner, because we had tickets to Hamilton at Victoria Palace Theatre. Which was SO good! If you’re visiting London, make sure you go see a show! It was so fun. 

Last Day

Our last day in London was a free day. We didn’t really have anything planned, so we decided to do a walking tour of the Churchill War Rooms. We got to see Big Ben on this tour. You’re not supposed to take strollers on the tour, and we had two, so I didn’t really get to enjoy the tour much. I would still take a stroller anywhere you go, especially if you’re walking, just because kids can’t hang! Haha. There were just a lot of stairs, so I sat with the strollers a lot of the time while Chris and his parents took Hunter on most of the tour. Gracie did get some really good stroller naps though, lol. 

When the tour was over, we did get to see the Changing of the Guards for the horses at Buckingham Palace, which the kids loved! So if you don’t get to see the normal Changing of the Guards early, don’t sweat it! You can watch the Changing of the Guards for the horses at 11am. 

After the Changing of the Guards for the horses, we ate at another local restaurant. I will say, other than the Italian restaurant, there wasn’t a lot of places to eat that I loved. When we got done eating, we took the tube back to the house, because the station was within walking distance of the house. 

Takeaways:

Always bring a stroller.

  1. I would map out eateries and things to do if you get off schedule for your itinerary.
  2. You have to PAY to use public bathrooms, so always keep some money on you lol.
  3. If you have a larger party, or equipment, be prepared to get black cabs.