One upon a time I took the girls to London... with less than 24 hours until the train!

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It was a cold, dark February morning, a Saturday, the first Saturday of February half term to be precise. The girls were still in bed at the time, I knew my husband didn’t have the week off work and I was wondering what I was going to do to fill up the week to entertain them. I already had itchy feet, we’d not been anywhere since our big family trip to Florida the year before, and I needed to go somewhere and do something. So, I went online and started looking for something. Me being me and having ideas above my station, I started looking into Disneyland Paris, but last-minute flights were looking really expensive, so I came down a few pegs and settled on trying to find a budget…ish trip to London.

From where we live the cheapest and most efficient way to get to London is by train, two and a half hours and you’re there. When booking train tickets to get the best prices you need to book 12 weeks in advance, me doing the polar opposite of this, I was expecting it to be extortionate and my trip a no go. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to get me and the girls return tickets for the weekend for £150. Knowing the train tickets were a go, I then investigated hotels. When staying in London my first port of call is always Travelodge, somewhere clean, central, safe and cheap. I thought this was going to be my downfall but again I was pleasantly surprised to be able to find a room in a central London Travelodge for the duration of our stay for £150, this was fast becoming a magic number. £300 for a trip to London for me and the two girls for 3 days an absolute bargain, the reason it was an absolute bargain is because we would be leaving in less than 24 hours. Yep, our train was leaving 8.40am the next morning. Anxiety kicked in and I started to question myself, was it a good idea, could I be ready in time? Then I had a YOLO moment and remembered who I was, I am a trip planning Queen! Of course, I was going to be able to be packed, organised, plan an itinerary and leave in less than 24 hours. So, I booked it and got myself in the loft to find a suitable case to pack.

I am the ultimate overthinker, I plan for every eventuality. My friends always laugh at me on days out because I’m always the one with a full first aid kit and pharmacy in my bag. Thinking about navigating London’s tubes with a just turned 5-year-old and a 7-year-old and luggage was freaking me out. The girls are very well behaved, and I’d prepped them with the what if… they get left on the platform and the what if they get on the tube and I’m stuck on the platform, neither of these things were going to happen because I would never let it happen, but the scenarios were living rent free in my head none the less. It was only 3 days, so we didn’t need a world of clothes, but it was February, so it was cold, so we needed bulky warm attire. I decided to take one wheeled suitcase and my Tiba and Marl Elwood backpack for the trip, I also packed my Tiba and Marl Inka bag for the other days when a backpack would be too much for what we needed. I also looked at checked in luggage storage because I didn’t want to carry a suitcase round with me all day. They have one in Euston station, and it was £25 for the whole day, so that’s what I did on both the day we went and the day we were coming home.

Now it was time to plan what we were going to do when we got there. The first thing I did was google “what to do in London with kids” and a million things came up which I had neither the time or the energy to go through, so I changed my game plan and thought about what the girls enjoy doing. They love museums, so I booked the National History Museum for the Monday, they love to eat out so I booked dinner in novelty dining restaurants each night, we also love sight seeing so our last day (Tuesday) would be spent seeing the sights before our train home that evening. You can’t go to London without a trip to the theatre. I searched and searched for shows, we only had the Sunday to see a show because the theatres are closed on Mondays. I couldn’t find anything that was affordable and suitable for the girls. It was all coming in at over £70 a ticket which was totaling nearly more than the trip itself, so I gave in on that dream and decided to just have a chilled arrival day, with no plan.

Twenty-four hours flies by in no time when you’ve got loads to do, but I was ready. The bags were packed, the activities and restaurants were booked, I’d printed off paper copies of everything and we were ready to go. I’d woken up uncharacteristically early that Sunday, probably a mixture of trip anxiety and excitement. It was still very much dark outside, and I was the only one up in the house. I decided to have one last shot at theatre tickets. I logged onto Today Tix to see what last-minute ticket seats were available and I struck gold!!!! I got 3 tickets to see Disney’s Frozen in the stalls, we were so close to the front and the cost was less than our magic number! I got the seats for less than half price!! It was meant to be, lovers of Disney with bargain tickets to see Frozen the Musical, serendipity! I very quickly printed the tickets and got everyone up and ready to go.

We go to our local national train station; I picked up a Starbucks for me and we boarded the train. I packed breakfast for us, some pain au chocolat and juice for the girls. It was early morning, so we’d be in London for Lunch. The train ride was smooth and went by quickly as I’d packed the girls kindle fire’s and headphones and I had my phone and headphones with YouTube videos I’d saved for the journey. We got to London and checked our big bag in at the luggage storage and headed for the tube. I’d booked a matinee and the theatre was right by Covent Garden, so we grabbed some lunch at a sandwich shop and headed to watch the show. It was INCREDIBLE, my girls first theatre experience and it was Disney, it was the perfect introduction to the theatre for the girls and because you can never have too much musical theatre in life, I booked the Theatre Café Diner for dinner. It was a bit of a walk from Covent Garden (mainly because I’d walked us 10 minutes in the wrong direction to begin with” but I found my bearings and found the way. The staff that work in The Theatre Café are sensational, just wow! They sang everyone’s favourite show tunes and served up delicious food and cocktails (I had a mocktail because I was with the girls and needed my whits about me). We had such a great day, we finished up our dinner and headed into Leicester Square for a little look round, we hit the m&m store and just took in the sights and sounds of London. The girls were starting to flag at this point, so we jumped on the Tube back to Euston to pick up our case and headed to the hotel. The Travelodge was easy to find, and it was lovely, clean and felt safe. We were all tucked up in bed in no time, we watched random shows on the TV and drifted off to sleep.

National History Museum Day, we got up in the hotel, got ourselves dressed and ready for the day and headed for breakfast. Breakfast in the hotel was £9.99 for all you can eat buffet style and the kids ate for free, absolute no brainer! We filled our boots for the day. We were staying near Tower Bridge, so we wondered down to the river to take in the sites of Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. We didn’t stay long as we had the museum to get to, we jumped on the Tube and headed to the museum. We spent the majority of our day there, looking round all of the artifacts and enjoying the dinosaurs. When I say it was busy, it’s an understatement! It was full to the brim, we attempted to get some lunch in the café but it ended up being a quick hot chocolate stop and bailing. Being ever so organised, my bag was full of snacks, so we didn’t go hungry. All museum’d out we went to the shops. Jumped the tube to Oxford Street to have a mooch around the one and only Disney Store in England and soaked up some more Disney Magic. Then we got lost in Harrods, like really lost, that place is a maze and always throws me, I swear the staircases move like in Hogwarts. Time really flies when you’re having fun (and lost in an iconic department store), we found ourselves starving but it was too close to our dinner reservation to eat anything. We decided to ruin our dinner by going for tea and cake in the pinkest café I’ve ever seen. It was called EL &N, we shared a huge slice of cake and treated ourselves to a second hot chocolate of the day, and I went for a strawberry slushie drink. I’d booked the Jungle Café for dinner, (the former Rainforest Café) knowing it was a firm family favourite and exciting for the kids. As always it was a winner, although the portions were huge and we'd already eaten cake, we decided to skip dessert. Full to the brim and exhausted we headed back to the hotel, the girls are used to being in bed by 7.30pm so they were pretty tired and I was glad for the rest too.

Our last day, our train home wasn’t until 7pm and we had a whole day to fill. Our first destination was back to Euston to leave our luggage again. A slight mishap with the tube and which side of the platform we were supposed to be on meant we were a little delayed getting to Euston, but we got there. We grabbed a quick bite in the station, who doesn't love a freshly baked croissant? With our tummies full we headed off to see the sights. Pippa my youngest had be learning all about London in school and studying the book called “the naughty bus” and she really wanted to see the London Eye. I think if we’d booked in advance, it would have been cheaper, but we hadn’t so we just went to the ticket office. They had a deal on to ride the London Eye and go to the Shrek experience. This was an immersive experience where you travel to Far Far Away Land and get mixed up in all manner of shenanigans, it was really silly and we had such a fun time, I got squirted square in the face by a ‘burst’ beer barrel, which the girls thought was hilarious. The Shrek adventure is definitely worth doing with the kids, but not if you're not into being picked on by the cast. The London Eye was fantastic for pointing out Landmarks for the girls. My eldest Izzy is a little scared of heights but she’s a resilient character and ploughed on despite being petrified. She soon found her sky legs and enjoyed picking where to go next from the skyline, she chose Big Ben and Westminster. We wondered over the bridge to see Big Ben and the houses of parliament, one of the most iconic landmarks of London, we then walked to see No.10 and I explained to the girls who the current Prime Minister was and how they oversee the country. There is a lovely walk from Big Ben, past Westminster Abbey, to the horse guard and through the park to Buckingham Palace. The last time I’d seen Buckingham Palace I was carrying a newborn Isabelle in a sling on my random day in London on Maternity leave (I have a blog about this day, if you haven't read it, you should definitely go check it out). It was nice to take them both back to see. The royal standard was flying which meant the King was in. We were lucky enough to see the changing of the guard and lots of important people coming and going from the palace.

It was nearing our time to get the train home, so we headed from Buckingham Palace to Fortnum and Mason to pick up some fudge for the girls Daddy because he’d missed out on the trip. We didn’t really have time to go for dinner before the train, so we stopped in a Tesco express to buy sandwiches and snacks for a picnic on the train home. We retrieved our luggage in Euston and boarded the train. The train was really busy but I managed to get a table seat so we could have our train picnic. It was great on one hand having a late train home because we got another full day in London but the downside was both girls fell asleep on the train and I had to carry two sleeping children and a suitcase off the train when we got back home. My only option was to wake my eldest up and asked her to pull the suitcase and I carried the backpack and my youngest. Faith in humanity was restored when a lovely gentleman offered to help me, but just as he was getting our case off the train there, like two knights in shining armor was Daddy (Ste, the hubs) and Grandad (my dad) on the platform. The lovely people at the station let them onto the platform to help me. They both scooped up a tired girly each and I grabbed the bags .

We had a fantastic last-minute trip to London, and I will definitely be doing it again, there’s so many shows to see with the girls. I’ll never get tired of London.

Below are links to everything I’ve talked about in this blog. This is not a paid Ad, I also paid for the whole trip myself, this is just me sharing good products and places I like.

Bags – www.tibandmarl.com

Train tickets – www.trainline.com

Hotel – www.travelodge.co.uk

Left Luggage - www.left-baggage.co.uk

Natural History Museum – www.nhm.ac.uk

Theatre Tickets – www.todaytix.com

Theatre Café – www.thetheatrecafe.co.uk

London Eye and Shrek experience – www.londoneye.com

If you’re after a decent pocket guide to help you get around London I recommend this one https://amzn.to/48cxbry (if you buy through this link, I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you).