Well, we did it! This October we took the risk, packed up our bags, and made our way across the Atlantic Ocean to the UK – with our 18-month-old. I have always wanted to travel with our children during all life stages, and while we have done a bit of domestic travel with Carson, this was our first international trip as a family of three. So today I’m sharing our trip with you including all of the toddler-friendly things we did while there. I hope it can be used as a guide for others planning trips to London with littles.
Of course we had some hard moments on this trip. For example, Carson did NOT want to sit still during our nice Sunday roast and, on another day, he refused to eat his children’s afternoon tea that we ordered as a special treat for him. But we didn’t have any major tantrums at all, and his sleep (which I was worried about the most of all) was essentially unaffected by the time change.
London is one of the most baby-friendly places I’ve ever been to. There are changing tables in the women’s AND men’s restrooms everywhere, nearly all restaurants we went to had high chairs and kids menus, coffee shops often had toy nooks for kids, public transit nearly always had a spot to park the stroller, etc. It was a wonderful family trip, and I cannot recommend London enough as a place to take small children.
The Trip
Our trip ran from a Thursday through the following Saturday – two travel days, six days in London, and two days in the Cotswolds. I am going to break up our time in London into three posts and our time in the Cotswolds into a separate fourth post.
This was also our first time visiting Europe in the fall. London is stunning in October with the changing leaves, cool weather, and mild crowds. Of course, there was some rain, but we didn’t mind it for the most part and just made sure to dress accordingly.
The Flight
We booked our flight with United points (some points were transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards to United). We found such a great deal that we were able to book a separate seat for Carson, which honestly made all of the difference for these long trans-Atlantic flights. Unfortunately, booking with points meant we weren’t able to take advantage of the recently added direct flights between Austin and London, but our connection was in Houston, so it wasn’t too inconvenient. I can share more about how I find points deals on flights in another separate post if there is any interest – we’ve booked many free flights (domestic and international) over the past five or six years since I started dabbling in the world of travel hacking.
Carson honestly did so well on the flight both ways. He is not a huge fan of his car seat, so getting him comfortable for sleep was a little difficult. Our flight to London was overnight. Carson slept about four hours total before he was woken up by an elderly man the next row over who did not realize how loudly he was speaking to his wife in the row behind him. Carson wasn’t able to fall back asleep after that, which made for a long second half of the flight (think very sleepy parents trading off entertaining a toddler). However, there were no tantrums, blowouts, or screaming fits, so I took it as a win.
The flight back was completely fine. It was in the afternoon so Daniel and I had the energy to entertain Carson, and Carson enjoyed a couple in-flight movies, giving us some free time. Also, we had a really bad layover in Houston on our way back to Austin (long lines, extra grumpy TSA agents, and, oh, did you know that babies need their own separate Global Entry pass?), but Carson, by some miracle, was so happy and content to sit in his stroller while we dealt with everything else. I will definitely write a separate post about international flights with a young toddler, but that is not the focus of this post.
Lodging
For our first two nights in London, we stayed at the South Point Suites on Bermondsey Street, which was recommended to me by a friend. It was a great spot for our first weekend. The rooms were set up very nicely with a little kitchenette, and the bedroom was separate from the living area, so we were able to put Carson in his own room for his 7:30pm bedtime. The hotel provided a pack ‘n play for Carson to sleep in. The best part, however, was the location of the hotel. Bermondsey Street is full of wonderful-looking restaurants, bakeries, and coffee shops. We especially enjoyed the coffee from The Watch House, which was just a few feet from our hotel. Unfortunately, we ran out of time to try many of the restaurants. The hotel is about a 10 minute walk from the London Bridge Station, a major Underground and railway station that provides transit to nearly anywhere you want to go.
A glimpse into a Bermondsey Street restaurant patio
For the remainder of our time in London, we rented an Airbnb, which I’ll share about in the next London post.
Transportation
For transit within the city, we primarily took the Underground, railway, and buses. We got Oyster cards at the Customer Service counter in the London Bridge Station and filled them up as needed. All modes of transport offered designated spots for strollers, so we were mostly able to keep Carson in the stroller for our rides. Additionally, many stations in London offer elevators – there was only one instance when we had to wait a very long time in line to get on the elevator. We used the Citymapper app for our route planning, and you can filter for accessible routes in your search to eliminate stations without elevators. I’ll go into more detail about stroller-friendly public transportation in London in a future post.
Carson comfy in his stroller on a London bus ride
For our trip to the Cotswolds, we rented a car. And for our rides to/from the airport and between lodging locations, we hired Family Transfers. We were happy for the most part with our Family Transfers experience, barring one thing – the car seats provided were never properly installed and didn’t feel safe. The company says that you are responsible for ensuring the car seats are secure, but this can be difficult when you’re not familiar with the types of car seats they use. For our trip from the Airbnb to the airport at the end, Daniel just installed our own car seat that we had brought for the plane and rental car. Otherwise Family Transfers provided great customer service and timely, safe transfers. It’s nice to book private transfer to and from the airport, especially when traveling with a small child with lots of luggage.
Day-by-Day
{Scroll to the bottom of this post to see a map for the first couple of days of this trip.}
Day 1
Travel Day
On Thursday, October 17th, our flight left Austin around 5pm. We had a short layover in Houston and then we were off on our overnight flight to London!
Day 2
We landed in London about 11am local time, very sleepy but excited for the day ahead! We checked into our hotel, cleaned up, and settled in. Then we went out to walk Bermondsey Street for a bit, grab coffee, get our Oyster cards, and before we knew it, it was time to head to our dinner reservation in Convent Garden.
Dishoom
Dishoom is an Indian restaurant that was recommended to me by a friend who had lived in London before. I was so excited to try this place out because of her rave reviews. We loved the food and the environment, and we were really glad we had a reservation. There was a two hour wait already at 5pm! We ordered the house black daal, garlic naan, gunpowder potatoes, chicken ruby (favorite!), and chicken tikka roll. It was all delicious!
Carson was really tired from the long night of travel, so he spent most of dinner on his dad’s lap and shoulder.
That evening, we were shocked when Carson slept from 8pm until 8:30am the next morning, despite his dinnertime nap! Carson is a great sleeper, but I had fully planned on getting up with him several times in the night due to jet lag (at least the first couple of nights). However, we had zero issues with sleep on this trip, which was such a blessing.
Day 3
Vinegar Yard Flea Market
We packed a lot into Day 3, and it ended up being one of my favorite days. First, we picked up pastries and coffee for breakfast and made our way over to London Bridge Station. On the way, we noticed the Vinegar Yard Flea Market (separate from the famous Borough Market), and popped in for a few minutes. We picked up a couple delicious smelling candles at the Oh, James… pop-up shop and then headed to the station for our trip to Hyde Park.
Carson enjoying checking out the sights from the train window
Hyde Park
Hyde Park in the fall is stunning. We had the most wonderful time walking around and letting Carson roam free. The weather was gorgeous on this day, so we took our time on the walk to the playground.
We stopped at a couple of ponds, one before the playground and one after, and Carson got a kick out of watching the ducks.
Princess Diana Memorial Playground
One place I had seen over and over on lists of London recommendations for kids was the Princess Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, which sits just west of Hyde Park. It was the perfect place to let Carson burn off some pre-nap energy! The playground is fenced off, and only adults with children are allowed to enter. There are all kinds of things for kids to do – play on a pirate ship, slide, swing, run, etc. I love these photos of Carson playing alongside all the local London kiddos.
Pizza
After the playground, we went in search of lunch. We found a cute pizza place called Arancina just off the road from Portobello Market that had a corner table and high chair available upstairs. Carson loved his Roman-style pizza (and so did we)!
We then hopped on a bus to make our way over to our high tea reservation at Sketch. We saw that the bus was going to take over 45 minutes, so we headed over early and used the bus ride as nap time for Carson. It was a good thing we left with plenty of time because Brexit protests interrupted our bus route, forcing us to exit early and walk 25 minutes. Thankfully, we only ran into protest issues a couple of times on this trip.
Afternoon Tea at Sketch
Sketch is an adorable place to get afternoon tea in London. It isn’t your classic high tea that you’d get at Kensington Palace or elsewhere in London, but it was a neat experience for someone who had already had classic afternoon tea.
Carson was a bit grumpy because we had to wake him up from his stroller nap, but he was overall well-behaved. We didn’t really realize how nice this place was going to be since it had been listed on several child-friendly afternoon tea lists I’d found online, but it was fine. We made the last-minute decision to order the children’s tea for Carson thinking he’d enjoy the little bites and snacks, but he ended up having very little of it. It did come with a cute stuffed bear we got to take home though…. We ended up needing to be those parents who handed their child a tablet and pacifier in a nice restaurant, but we wanted to enjoy the experience. You gotta do what you gotta do!
Carson watching Peppa Pig and NOT eating his cute tea platter….
Daniel and I, however, fully enjoyed eating our selection of snacks and sipping on our tea. Once I got over the embarrassment of Carson with a tablet, we really enjoyed our time there.
I’d heard that I had to check out the bathrooms at Sketch, so I did. I felt like I was on a spaceship! Each of those pods is a little room with a toilet.
Hamleys
After tea, we made one more stop at Hamleys, a famous toy store just around the corner from Sketch. It was already decked out for Christmas, so we had fun wandering around, checking out the toy sections for Carson’s current favorite shows (mainly Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol, and Thomas the Engine), and getting some good photos. We also picked up a few adorable Christmas books to take home with us.
And that is the end of part one of our trip to London! Next week, I’ll be sharing our December Scenes from the Month, and the following week, I’ll be back with part two of this trip. Have a great Thanksgiving week!
This article is now available as a mobile app. Go to GPSmyCity to download the app for GPS-assisted travel directions to the attractions featured in this article.
{Thanks for reading! Want to know a little more about me? I’m a CPA learning how to balance a career with motherhood and regular travel while planting roots at home in the Austin, TX area. When I’m not exploring my home city with my husband Daniel and baby boy Carson or cuddling with my chubby orange cat Banana, I’m probably either out on a playdate with my son or planning, packing for, traveling to, or daydreaming about our next adventure. After all, my travel mug collection is never complete. If you have wanderlust too, be sure to follow me on Instagram (and InstaStories!), Pinterest, and Facebook, or subscribe to my blog!}
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