With so many Bank Holidays coming up over the next month, many of us are scratching our heads as to how we might fill these extra days and make them memorable for our youngsters.
Here at Kensington Mums we’ve pooled our ideas to come up with ten great ways of filling the long weekends.
See London from an alternative viewpoint
Trialled by Kensington Mums last year, GoBoat is a fantastic way of travelling up the canal in Paddington. A GoBoat adventure is the perfect social experience to share with up to seven friends and/or family members. Feel the freedom of being on the water and explore London from a new perspective. You are the captain and can drive your own boat. Perfectly paired with a picnic.
Take a Thames Clipper up the River. The most exciting (in our opinion) form of public transport in London, there are 20 high-speed Thames river boats, offering services from all major London piers every 10-20 minutes. And kids go free! See our experience here.
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Enjoy a ride on the IFS Cloud Cable Car, which crosses the River Thames between Greenwich Peninsula and the Royal Docks, just five minutes’ walk from The O2 and North Greenwich Underground station. Spanning just over 1 kilometre across the Thames, it takes up to 10 minutes each way and offers unique views of the city. As you fly 90 metres above the River Thames, you’ll enjoy spectacular views of the Capital including. See our trip here.
Experience afternoon tea with a difference on Brigit’s Bakery Classic Afternoon Tea Bus London Tour. The vintage routemaster buses drive through the streets of Central London, taking in some of the City’s best sights, whilst you indulge in the fabulous Brigit’s Afternoon Tea on a double-decker bus! Watch our review on Instagram reel here.
Get Outside!
London has so many beautiful parks and if we’re blessed with good weather for at least one of these bank holidays, we’d recommend visiting Holland Park. The largest park in the Royal Borough, it has an absolutely amazing adventure playground as well as a fabulous cafe and the famous Kyoto Gardens…oh and it’s home to a few fabulous peacocks.
Immerse yourself…
Visit Frameless London in Marble Arch, where they are redefining the experiential immersive art world. Frameless features four galleries and showcases some of the world’s greatest works of art presented in ways never seen before. See our experience here.
Or head to the BBC Earth Experience in Earls Court. Experience an unforgettable journey through the natural world and explore the unique and extraordinary diversity of seven unique continents on the most epic scale. Featuring bespoke narration from David Attenborough, BBC Earth Experience showcases breath-taking footage and music from the BBC Studios Natural History Unit television series Seven Worlds, One Planet, projected on multiple multi-angle screens using the very latest digital screen technology. See our experience here.
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Hit the museums
Kensington is home to three of the country’s best and most-visited museums (so we’d recommend that if you do decide to go, you book in advance). Entry to all of the museums is free, although there may be a cost to visit specific exhibitions.
The home of human ingenuity, The Science Museum is great for anyone interested in how the world ticks. The upper floor of the museum, The Wonderlab, is like a scientific indoor playground with learning facilities for all ages. There’s also Exploring Space, where there’s a full-scale Apollo 11 Eagle module; Flight, where they host history’s most important aeroplanes; The Garden, which is a fabulous indoor playground for small people and the Imax Cinema.
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London is the world’s leading museum of art, design and performance with collections unrivalled in their scope and diversity, spanning 5,000 years of human creativity.
The Natural History Museum is both a world-leading science research centre and the most-visited indoor attraction in the UK last year. With a vision of a future in which both people and the planet thrive, it is uniquely positioned to be a powerful champion for balancing humanity’s needs with those of the natural world. The major draw for most is the focus on dinosaurs and the museum is currently hosting an exhibition entitled Titanosaur: Life as the Biggest Dinosaur.
And if your children are particular fans of dinosaurs we’d also recommend visiting the Ampersand Hotel, who have a fabulous Jurassic-themed afternoon tea. Expect a mix of exciting and curious dishes including a Volcanic eruption, a Jurassic mountain and a Dinosaur egg basket. See our delicious dino adventure here.
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Staycay…
Finally, if you’re planning to get away from home, we’d highly recommend reading our reviews of some of our favourite staycations including at the Royal Crescent in Bath; The Other House in South Kensington and at The Four Seasons in Hampshire.
For coronation-specific things to do please click here and if you’re looking for other exciting ways of passing the time in May, please go to our May edit here
