London Help!!!!

[A_W]

We're so not ready for our little trip to London. Going to book the train in a minute. We'll be in London from about 12pm on Tuesday until 8pm on Wednesday night. Our to-do list includes the london eye, walking to buckingham palace and the natural history museum. We're staying next to the London Eye due to my sister's dh having millions of travel mile points so it's free. Yippee.

I have a million questions:
1. Can we get to Natural History Museum with a pushchair on the tube? We'd go from Westminster I think. South Kensington doesn't have a lift does it?
2. Where is good to eat at Natural History Museum?
3. When is the least busy time for the Eye?
4. Where could we eat our evening meal late on Wednesday before we catch the train at kings cross, nearby?
5. If we take the phil and teds double will it be a nightmare on the train from peterborough?

Hope some londoners are about today to advise me

[Rosie_t_Riveter]

*waves*

I don't know about the others, but #5 you may have to fold it down if you are on a busy train or come across a particularly fussy guard. Try to book seats near a disabled seat, if there isn't a disabled person using it you might be able to put the buggy there.

[Spanner]

4. Lots of places at st pancras station including carluccios.
I would take a picnic for the natural history museum.
My tip is free online booking so you can skip the queue for the dinosaur gallery but bear in mind you will have to queue for an hour or so to get in the front door beforehand.

[robyn]

Don't go to the front door of the nat history museum, go to the side door, on the right hand side as you look at the front, there's occasionally a queue there, but normally not, and its always shorter.
Take food with you to the museum.
There are steps at south ken, but not many.

[Spanner]

When i went the side door was just as bad!

[Mummyto1]

We were at the science museum today and the queue for the natural history museum was at both doors -neither too bad though. I would check both doors. Incidentally there was no queue for the science museum or the V&A so you do have alternatives right there if the queue is prohibitive, though I'm sure it is the NHM you want.

Agree with the others to take your own food.

I've never been on the eye but I would guess first thing would be best in terms of queuing, and if you are right next door that might work? Apart from that it will be weather dependant in terms of getting better views. My preference would be day time rather than dark evening (not that they are so dark now) as lights are pretty but it's nicer to see what you are looking at!

South Ken will be ok with a buggy if you have someone else with you to lift.

Not sure about trains but think RtR is probably right. And yes, st pancras definitely easiest for eating before your journey. I really like that station too.

ETA have a great trip! And I don't know whether you ended up organising a meet but when I replied to your original post about that I forgot I would be back at work was looking forward to meeting you! Maybe I'll have to come to Yorkshire instead one day

[Lily]

If lifting a buggy up the stairs at South Ken isn't an option, you could bus it from Westminster in about 45 mins. Or get the tube to Green Park, which is step free, then hop on a 74 for the last bit of the journey.

I was at the NHM with Iz this morning and the queues for the main building were shocking as usual, but we walked straight in to the Sensational Butterflies marquee on the front lawn with no queue at all. It's such a lovely experience, I can highly recommend it. No buggies allowed inside, but there's a buggy parking area by the entrance.

For lunch in South Ken, a nice quiet spot for a picnic is the garden behind Holy Trinity Brompton church, on the north side of Cromwell Rd just east of the V&A.

[robyn]

Sounds like we've always just been lucky with the side door! Only time we once had to queue there was over xmas/ny.

[RJandA]

I was at natural history museum yesterday. It opens at 10, we arrived at about 10.30 and walked more or less straight in, and straight into the dinosaurs. By the time we came out of dinosaurs there was a queue for it though. I actually like the restaurant there, I hate bringing packed lunches, and they do nice pizza, pasta, burgers etc and the kids menu is basically just small portions of some of the adult stuff. You can also get kids sides of peas, sweetcorn etc. which I like.

If you have time, I'd also recommend the London transport museum at Covent garden. It's quite pricey but here are 2 for 1 deals on entrance if you google it beforehand. The kids get to drive a tube train, collect stamps etc. big A loved it and there were plenty of older children there having a great time too.

[A_W]

Thank you everyone. We're off to Peterborough now. Will have my ipad there (new purchase!). So I'll try and let people know where we are in case any of you are about x