Guides · Family days out
Days out,
already planned.
Whole days worked out for you: where to start, when to stop for lunch, how to get between places and what to do if it rains. Every stop links to its own page with opening times, prices and a map.
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LondonThree free museums on Exhibition Road
South Kensington
Dinosaurs in the morning, a garden picnic at lunchtime and hands-on science in the afternoon, all within a five-minute walk of each other and all free to enter. Because everything is indoors except the V&A garden, it holds up in any weather.
The Natural History Museum → Victoria and Albert Museum → Science Museum
One dayAll agesFree- London
Dinosaurs, rowing boats and a pirate ship
South Kensington / Hyde Park
A morning with the dinosaurs, then a walk up into Hyde Park for lunch by the Serpentine, half an hour in a rowing boat or pedalo, and an afternoon on the pirate galleon in Kensington Gardens. A good shape for a dry day with under-8s who need to burn energy after a museum.
The Natural History Museum → Serpentine Bar & Kitchen → Hyde Park Boating on the Serpentine → Diana Memorial Playground
One dayAges 3–7Sunny dayCost ££ 
LondonGreenwich: tea clipper, market and the hilltop
Greenwich
Walk beneath the copper hull of a Victorian tea clipper, graze the street-food stalls at the covered market, peek up the spiral stairs of the Queen's House and finish by climbing Greenwich Park for the view across to Canary Wharf. Everything is in one compact riverside town centre.
Cutty Sark Clipper Ship → Greenwich Market → Queen's House → Greenwich Park
One dayAll agesCost ££
LondonGreenwich to Canary Wharf, by river or DLR
Greenwich / Canary Wharf
A morning on the slopes of Greenwich Park and lunch at the market, then a hop across the Thames to Canary Wharf for the free London Museum Docklands and its Mudlarks play gallery. Ends with a short wander in the covered roof garden above the Elizabeth line station.
Greenwich Park → Greenwich Market → Uber Boat by Thames Clipper → Museum of London Docklands + 1 more
One dayAll agesCost ££
LondonUnder the Thames: Mudchute farm and the foot tunnel
Isle of Dogs / Greenwich
Start with the goats and pigs at one of Europe's biggest city farms, picnic-gaze at the Greenwich skyline from Island Gardens, then walk under the river through the Victorian foot tunnel and come up beside the Cutty Sark. An afternoon in Greenwich Park rounds it off without spending anything.
Mudchute Park and Farm → Island Gardens → Greenwich Foot Tunnel → Greenwich Park
One dayAges 3–7Free
LondonCanal day: Little Venice to King's Cross
Camden / King's Cross
Follow the Regent's Canal towpath from the moored boats of Little Venice past the edge of the zoo to Camden Lock, eat your way round the market, test the 50-metre zip wire at Gloucester Gate and finish among the converted coal stores at King's Cross. Best for confident walkers rather than buggies.
Regent's Canal Walk: Little Venice to Camden → Camden Market → Gloucester Gate Playground → Coal Drops Yard
One dayAges 8–12Cost £
LondonRegent's Park: three playgrounds and a boating lake
Regent's Park
A loop of The Regent's Park built around its playgrounds: a three-zone playground with a willow tunnel, a pedalo or rowing boat on the lake, a picnic on the grass, a treehouse sand pit and a zip wire to finish. Short hops all day and only the boats cost money.
Marylebone Green Playground → The Regent's Park Boating Lake → Hanover Gate Playground → Gloucester Gate Playground
One dayAges 3–7Sunny dayCost £
LondonHighgate woods, Waterlow Park and Kenwood
Highgate / Hampstead
Ancient woodland with a big fenced playground in the morning, lunch at a 16th-century house overlooking a hillside park, and an afternoon at Kenwood among Rembrandts and sweeping lawns that run down to the Heath. Free from start to finish.
Highgate Wood → Waterlow Park → Lauderdale House → Kenwood
One dayAll agesFree
LondonRichmond Hill, Pembroke Lodge and the deer park
Richmond
Climb from Richmond town through the sloping Terrace Gardens, take in the long view from King Henry's Mound in Pembroke Lodge's gardens, lunch on the tea-room terrace and then spend the afternoon on the open grassland of Richmond Park looking for red and fallow deer. A big-sky outdoor day.
Terrace Gardens → Pembroke Lodge → Richmond Park → Pembroke Lodge
One dayAll agesSunny dayFree
LondonA full day at Kew
Kew
One ticket, one big day: Victorian glasshouses for a showery morning, a picnic on the lawns, and a long session in the Children's Garden, a play space for 2-12s built around how plants grow. Child tickets are heavily discounted.
Kew Gardens → Kew Gardens → Kew Gardens
One dayAll agesCost ££
LondonWest London parks: Gunnersbury and Walpole
Ealing / Gunnersbury
A big parkland morning at Gunnersbury with a free local history museum in the old Rothschild mansion and restored Victorian kitchens, then on to Walpole Park in Ealing for its playground, walled kitchen garden and lake. Free entry everywhere and a museum to duck into if it rains.
Gunnersbury Park & Museum → Walpole Park
One dayAges 3–7Free
LondonToddler morning in Hyde Park
Hyde Park / Kensington Gardens
Three stops and no rush: the Peter Pan pirate ship playground at opening, a lakeside lunch with proper baby changing, and a short pedalo on the Serpentine. Done by early afternoon in time for a nap.
Diana Memorial Playground → Serpentine Bar & Kitchen → Hyde Park Boating on the Serpentine
Half dayToddlersSunny dayCost £
LondonSouth Bank and Westminster with a wheel ride
South Bank / Westminster
A riverside playground in the shadow of Parliament, a slow turn on the London Eye, the log-and-net playground behind it, then over the river for lunch in a church crypt and a gentle afternoon in the National Gallery's family spaces. Iconic London, sized for younger children.
Horseferry Playground → London Eye → Jubilee Gardens Playground → Café in the Crypt + 1 more
One dayAges 3–7Cost £££
LondonCovent Garden to Coram's Fields
Covent Garden / Bloomsbury
Street performers on the piazza, paper toy theatres in an old-fashioned toyshop, a pocket wildlife garden off Charing Cross Road, then a long lunch and play at Coram's Fields, the Bloomsbury park where adults can only go in with a child. Ends next door at the Foundling Museum if energy allows.
Covent Garden Market and Piazza → Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop → The Phoenix Garden → Coram's Fields + 1 more
One dayAges 3–7Cost £
LondonOlympic Park and the V&A East Bank
Stratford / Hackney Wick
A morning of big playgrounds and riverside paths in the 2012 Olympic Park, a picnic, then two very different V&A spaces: the new East Bank museum and the Storehouse, a walk-through working store where you can peer into conservation studios. Free unless you add a paid venue in the park.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park → V&A East Museum → V&A East Storehouse
One dayAges 8–12Free
LondonWalthamstow Wetlands and a Victorian steam engine
Walthamstow / Tottenham
Reservoir paths, bird hides and herons in the morning, lunch in the cafe inside an old engine house, then a short walk to Markfield Park where volunteers fire up a huge Victorian beam engine on steaming days. Free all day, and built around the engine's open Sundays.
Walthamstow Wetlands → Markfield Beam Engine and Museum
One dayAll agesFree
LondonHackney toddler day: farm, market and park
Hackney
Pigs, goats and a donkey at a small free city farm, a weekend street-food lunch on Broadway Market, and a flat, buggy-friendly afternoon in Victoria Park with its play areas and boating lake. Three stops, short hops.
Hackney City Farm → Broadway Market → Victoria Park Tower Hamlets
One dayToddlersSunny dayFree
LondonHorniman, a hidden wood and Dulwich's gallery
Forest Hill / Dulwich
A free museum famous for its giant stuffed walrus and playable instruments, with a small aquarium and butterfly house, then a scramble through Sydenham Hill Wood to find a Victorian folly, ending at the world's first purpose-built public art gallery, where under-18s go free.
Horniman Museum and Gardens → Sydenham Hill Wood → Dulwich Picture Gallery
One dayAll agesCost £
LondonRotherhithe: farm, hilltop and Brunel's tunnel
Rotherhithe / Bermondsey
Feed the goats at a riverside city farm, climb a man-made hill on an old dock for a free view across London, picnic in the woodland strip beside it, then go down the shaft where the Brunels dug the first tunnel under a navigable river. Small, low-cost and away from the crowds.
Surrey Docks Farm → Stave Hill Ecological Park → The Brunel Museum
One dayAll agesCost £
LondonTower, docks and a secret City roof garden
Tower Hill / City of London
A long morning at the Tower with the Crown Jewels, ravens and a Yeoman Warder tour, lunch overlooking the boats at St Katharine Docks, then a free lift up to a wisteria-covered roof garden and a stroll through a painted Victorian market known from the Harry Potter films.
Tower of London → St Katharine Docks → The Garden at 120 → Leadenhall Market
One dayAges 8–12Cost £££
LondonCentral London rainy day: paintings, a crypt and the Foundling
Trafalgar Square / Bloomsbury
Indoor almost all day: the National Gallery's family spaces in the morning, a warm lunch beneath St Martin-in-the-Fields, a browse among toy theatres in Covent Garden's covered market, and the moving story of London's first home for abandoned children in the afternoon.
The National Gallery → Café in the Crypt → Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop → The Foundling Museum
One dayAll agesRainy dayCost £- London
Free London: playgrounds, paintings and street performers
Westminster / South Bank / West End
A day in the middle of London that costs nothing but your packed lunch: a Thames-themed playground by Parliament, the timber playground behind the London Eye, a picnic in the National Gallery's family space, the Covent Garden street performers and a hidden wildlife garden.
Horseferry Playground → Jubilee Gardens Playground → The National Gallery → Covent Garden Market and Piazza + 1 more
One dayAll agesFree 
LondonRainy toddler half day at Canary Wharf
Canary Wharf
Two dry stops a few minutes apart: the free Mudlarks play gallery for under-8s at London Museum Docklands, with lunch in the museum cafe, then a gentle wander under the covered roof garden above the station. Home before nap time.
Museum of London Docklands → Crossrail Place Roof Garden
Half dayToddlersRainy dayFree- London
Teen day: the Tower, Borough and the graffiti tunnel
Tower Bridge / South Bank
Gory Yeoman Warder stories and the Crown Jewels, a graze around London's best-known food market, a walk through the Waterloo tunnel where street artists repaint the walls daily, and a late-afternoon London Eye ride for the skyline.
Tower of London → Borough Market → Leake Street Arches → London Eye
One dayTeensCost £££ - London
Christmas in the West End: toy theatres and ice skating
Trafalgar Square / Covent Garden
A winter day in the West End: the National Gallery's family tours and drop-ins, present-hunting among toy theatres, a warming lunch in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields, and an afternoon skate in the courtyard of Somerset House. Only for the skating season, 11 November to 10 January.
The National Gallery → Benjamin Pollock's Toyshop → Café in the Crypt → Somerset House + 1 more
One dayAges 3–7Cost ££ 
LondonChristmas Steaming Day at Crossness (6 Dec 2026)
Abbey Wood
A one-date special: fossil hunting and abbey ruins in Lesnes Abbey Woods in the morning, then the ornate Victorian pumping station at Crossness with its giant beam engines in steam for the Christmas Steaming Day. Great for engine-mad and history-minded children.
Lesnes Abbey Woods → Crossness Pumping Station
One dayAges 8–12Cost ££
LondonSummer water-play day in Chelsea and Hyde Park
Chelsea / South Kensington / Hyde Park
A hot-weather day built around water: ground-level jets in Duke of York Square, a paddle in the V&A's garden pool with a picnic, a rowing boat on the Serpentine and a long late-afternoon session on the pirate ship playground, which stays open into the evening in summer.
Duke of York Square → Victoria and Albert Museum → Hyde Park Boating on the Serpentine → Serpentine Bar & Kitchen + 1 more
One dayAges 3–7Sunny dayCost ££- London
Sunny day: Olympic Park to Victoria Park
Stratford / Bow / Hackney
Two of east London's biggest green spaces in one dry day: playgrounds and wildflower gardens in the Olympic Park, a picnic, then a walk across to Victoria Park for its boating lake and play areas, finishing with a weekend snack on Broadway Market.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park → Victoria Park Tower Hamlets → Broadway Market
One dayAll agesSunny dayFree - London
Weekend in London: Tower and Greenwich, then South Kensington
Tower Hill / Greenwich (Day 1); South Kensington (Day 2)
Day one goes east: the Tower in the morning, lunch by the boats at St Katharine Docks, then a river bus down to Greenwich for the Queen's House and the park. Day two stays west with free museums and a boat on the Serpentine. Two separate, walkable clusters joined only by public transport.
Tower of London → St Katharine Docks → Uber Boat by Thames Clipper → Queen's House + 5 more
WeekendAll agesCost £££ - London
Three days in London: Greenwich, the river and South Kensington
Greenwich (Day 1); South Bank/Trafalgar (Day 2); South Kensington (Day 3)
Three compact days, each in its own walkable patch: maritime Greenwich, the South Bank and Trafalgar Square with a London Eye ride, and the Exhibition Road museums. Indoor options on every day mean it survives a wet spell.
Cutty Sark Clipper Ship → Greenwich Market → Queen's House → Greenwich Park + 8 more
Three daysAll agesCost £££ 
LondonEltham Palace and Well Hall Pleasaunce
Eltham
An Art Deco millionaire's house wrapped round a medieval great hall where Henry VIII grew up, complete with a gold bathroom and a pet lemur's heated cage, then a free historic park with a Tudor barn cafe, moat, ponds and a play area.
Eltham Palace → Well Hall Pleasaunce
One dayAll agesCost ££
LondonToddler day at Deen City Farm and Morden Hall Park
Morden / Merton
A small city farm with sheep and goats to feed and a wooden playground, then the flat meadows, boardwalks and rose garden of Morden Hall Park beside the River Wandle, with a cafe for lunch. Two stops, a 13-minute hop, and free entry.
Deen City Farm → Morden Hall Park
One dayToddlersSunny dayFree
LondonHampton Court: maze, Magic Garden and Tudor kitchens
Hampton Court / East Molesey
Henry VIII's riverside palace as a full family day: the hedge maze, the Tudor kitchens and state apartments, and the Magic Garden, a large themed play garden for under-12s with towers and a dragon that comes with a palace ticket.
Hampton Court Palace → Hampton Court Palace → Hampton Court Palace
One dayAll agesCost £££
Written by Tumble from each place's own published information, checked October 2026. Times are suggestions, not bookings. Opening hours and prices change, so check each place's page before you set off.