Gone With The Family

Adventures in Family Travel

Emma’s Favourite Things: London

Emma's Favourite Things, United Kingdom / by / 37 Comments

My 10 year-old daughter’s favourite things about London.

This is a guest post written by my 10 year-old daughter, Emma, who is eager to share her thoughts about some of the destinations that we visit as part of the series that we call Emma’s Favourite Things. 

Emma's Favourites - London

I have been to London twice (when I was 6 and when I was 10), and I had so much fun both times! I think it is an awesome city and I definitely recommend going there. Here are some of my favorite things about London.

Theatre

I love the plays and musicals in London a whole lot! Music Theatre is the thing I love to do most and I love seeing new shows, learning the music and just being entertained! In London, I have seen Legally Blonde, Matilda, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Mousetrap, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Billy Elliot, The Lion King and Mamma Mia!!! When I went to Legally Blonde, we waited outside the stage doors and I got to meet the stars of the show. It was very cool!

London-Matilda-the-Musical

 

Castles and Palaces

I visited both Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle when we went to London last summer. It was fun to see where the queen lives and all the pretty, fancy rooms she has. At Windsor Castle there’s a doll house that belonged to a queen that had lots of rooms and tiny furniture. It was so pretty!

England-The grounds of Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle

 

Museums

There are so many cool museums in London! We have visited the British Museum, the National Gallery, the Tate Modern and the National Portrait Gallery. They were all very interesting. At the British Museum we saw cat mummies, a whole room of stuff from the Parthenon and the Rosetta Stone that was used to translate languages. By the way, be prepared for the crowd if you want to see the Rosetta Stone. It took a while to get up close and I was able to squeeze between people because I’m small!

We also went on a tour of the National Gallery with a nice lady named Fran. I really like art galleries so it was so much fun to learn about the paintings and the artists. (Editor’s Note: Our National Gallery tour was one of the Family Walks offered by Context Travel called A World of Stories: The National Gallery for Families.)

London-British Museum-rainy day

Outside the British Museum

Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum

We went to the wax museum on our first trip to London and I thought that it was great! There are “people” like Daniel Radcliffe, President Obama, Prince William and Justin Timberlake that you can pose with and have your picture taken. I thought that the wax museum was really fun even though it was really crowded but my Mom said that we didn’t have to go back again when we were in London last summer.

London-Madame Tussauds-Prince William

I met Prince William at Madame Tussaud’s!

Harry Potter 

My sister loves Harry Potter so we have done Harry Potter things on both of our trips to London. The most amazing thing that we did was the Warner Brothers Studio Tour! We got to see the sets, the costumes, the creatures AND the models! Best of all, we bought a video of me flying in London on a broomstick!

Another thing that we did was go to Platform 9 34 at King’s Cross Station. There is a luggage cart in the wall there and people that will take your picture while you pretend that you are running through the wall to get on the Hogwarts train. There was also a shop that sells lots of Harry Potter stuff.

We went on a Harry Potter tour the first time that we went to London. That was when I was six, so I don’t remember it that well. I do remember that we went to many cool places and I thought it was very fun. I also remember our tour guide, Gordon, was very fun and we got to meet up with him again when he took us to Stratford last summer! That tour was very fun too!  

London King's Cross Station Platform 9 three-fourths

Heading to Hogwarts from King’s Cross station
Warner-Bros-Studio-Tour-London-spells-class

Learning to cast spells

Chocolate

ENGLISH CHOCOLATE is the best! I love the chocolate in England SO much! I love Ripples, Flakes, Galaxy bars, Minstrels, Counters, Bubbles, Cookie Crumbles, Twirls and Timeouts! If you visit London then you have to try the English chocolate – and bring me back some!

Stash of London chocolate

A few highly recommended chocolate treats

 

London Cabs

The cabs in London are so pretty not like the boring cabs at home. There are some that are extremely pretty and my mom and I tried to take photos of as many as we could.

London cabs - Cadbury Ice Cream

Shopping

Apparently people like to shop in London and I have a few favourite places too. Hamley’s toy shop is great because they have just about every toy you can think of especially Paddington Bear and they have a life-size Royal Family made out of Lego bricks. M&M World London is a fun place to shop for candy. I had to go there because I went to the M&M stores in Las Vegas and New York this year too. Covent Garden is also really fun to visit because there are lots of fun shops and places to eat – plus there’s a Disney store there.

London-Hamley's-paddington bear

Lots of Paddington Bears at Hamley’s toy shop
London-M&M World

M&M’s World in London

I LOVE LONDON!!! If you get a chance then you should go because I’m pretty sure that you will love it too!

London-red-telephone-booth

Emma is a 10 year-old grade 5 student who loves to be on stage performing almost as much as she loves to travel the world. Emma has visited 24 countries and plans to try and see them all!

Related Links

Emma’s Favourite Things: Chicago

London with Kids – 14 Favourite Attractions and Activities 

Citadines Trafalgar Square – Ideal for Families Visiting London

Kensington Garden in Photos

A Day in Stratford with London Taxi Tour

London Taxi Tour – Harry Potter

Cruising Along the Thames to Greenwich

London Landmarks on Instagram

The London Eye with Kids

London Cabs: Our Photo Collection

 

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kadri

    Galaxy bars, I love love love it, it’s a shame that we don’t have it here in Estonia.
    I think Emma has a big potential to be on stage, so lively and sweet. And her plan to see the whole world, it’s the good one. 🙂

    Reply

  5. Colleen Lanin

    I so agree on the chocolate! Cadbury is the best and there are so many varieties in England that we can’t get in North America! Thanks for sharing a kid’s perspective on London, Emma!

    Reply

  9. 1Dad1Kid

    Thanks, Emma. We’re heading to London in a couple of weeks, and it’s helpful to know from a young person what might be of interest for my son as well. I’m a big Harry Potter fan, so I’d really love to visit Kings Cross and platform 9-3/4.

    Reply

  13. Mary {The World Is A Book}

    I love reading all your recommendations on London, Emma. I can certainly see why London is a favorite city. It’s always wonderful to see what kids like and I can honestly say that you and my 11-year-old daughter will get along so well. We did many of these things in London last summer too. I’ll be sure to remember to send some chocolates your way if we make it back to London. Our family loves sweet souvenirs too. Great job with the post!

    Reply

  15. Cathy Sweeney

    Hey, these are some of my favorite things about London, too! The castles are big hits with me. Loved that doll house at Windsor Castle. How cool that you got to meet the stars of Legally Blonde. Can’t wait to hear about more of your favorite things.

    Reply

  16. Freya

    I love London as well and especially the theaters. My daughter and I often went for a weekend to London just to see a musical (it’s only 2 hours with the Eurostar for us). You got some excellent tips here Emma, I will definitely try to visit a few more things next time I’m in London. Great post.

    Reply

  18. Lance | Trips By Lance

    Sounds like you had a wonderful time. We took our then 5-year-old son to London in 2012 and he loved it. He loved the London Eye and just splashing in all the rain puddles. He’s not a fan of chocolate, but his mom loves it, especially the Kit-Kats. their version is much better than what we can but in the States.

    Reply

  34. Ray

    What a wonderful post about my home town. I agree with the Chocolate, there is no other like British Chocolate.
    Love the castles and palaces, and one of my favorites is Windsor, and I love to have tea at the crooked tea house just outside the walls of the Windsor castle. The Tate Gallery has always been one of my favorite places to go and get lost…. Drove my parents crazy doing that.

    I have a huge Paddington Bear from Hamleys, and he is very much at home here in the USA now. Lastly did you know it takes over four years of study and a very complicated test to become a certified London Black Cab driver…..

    Stopping by from SITSgirl ShareFest…. Have a great Saturday.

    Reply

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