London in 8 hours!

Train

When deciding on when to travel down to London for the day, we always base it off the price of train tickets. We luckily found train tickets from Runcorn to London Euston for around £85, for the 3 of us as a return, which was perfect.

We got the 7am train on a Saturday morning. Before we had the baby, we would always get the 6am train, to make the most of the day. But 7am was perfect time for Dexter. We got into Euston for 9.15am, so we could start our activities right away. Because of the early train, the baby just chilled the entire way – watched Toy Story and had some pancakes.

Our train back was at 4pm, so we just missed the peak crowds. Our carriage was pretty busy and quite warm. Rich went up and down our train for a little walk with the baby, only to discover an empty carriage, that was a lot cooler and had tables available – so if you’ve got a baby and feel a little claustrophobic, definitely have a walk down the train and check if there’s any cooler, quieter places to sit. The journey back consisted of eating snacks, watching Disney Plus and playing with toys. All in all, another successful train journey!

We also visited London in November 2021, and took a buggy with us, thinking its lighter – therefore easier to push and carry around the big smoke. However, we had major storage issues on the train with a long, thin buggy. So this time, we just thought we would take our normal pram – it’s heavier but half the size when folded, so all-in it was easier to manage. In general however, pram storage on trains down to London is atrocious.

Natural History Museum

Once arriving at Euston, we jumped straight onto the tube to South Kensington station so we could take Dexter into the Natural History Museum. It was perfect timing as Dexter is starting to get into Dinosaurs. We went straight to the Dinosaur section, to see the animatronic T-Rex – it was amazing, and the baby was in awe of it.

We spent roughly an hour here, as we were on a schedule – so we explored the ground floor and saw dinosaurs, giant mammals and sea life creatures.

This museum is by far my favourite all-round history museum. It’s how you imagine a museum to be, lots of rooms, lots of clutter. Its amazing. It is a perfect day out with the family, especially with children, and it is FREE! You just have to book yourself in a time slot.

Royal Albert Hall

The reason for our quick trip to London was that we had tickets to see Cirque du Soleil – Luzia. However, long story short, we arrived at the Royal Albert Hall, to find out it had been cancelled that morning. Due to…guess what…Covid.

We didn’t let this put a downer on our trip though. We LOVE London, so we just made the most of being there. So, we planned our next stop.

Hyde Park

The RAH is located right at Kensington Gardens, so we planned our next stop to have some food at Hard Rock Cafe. We went for a walk through the gardens, and then on through Hyde Park to Mayfair. This worked out perfect for us, as the baby was napping, and the weather was glorious – pure winter sun – so the stroll was well-needed and refreshing.

Hard Rock Cafe (OG)

We arrived at Hard Rock Cafe London for opening at 12. We tried to book a table because HRCs always get busy, but it was fully booked online so we decided to just turn up and we used our priority pass to get in (as we are members of the Hard Rock Rewards scheme) and I also had a birthday voucher of buy one entrée and get one free. So we definitely took advantage of the benefits of being a member.

If you are travelling with a pram, this restaurant is quite tight. We had to leave our pram outside, in a safe, secure and sheltered place. We got a table easy, had a great server – who was actually in training. We have had a few servers over the years in training, and they are all great. It means you get to either have the manager or a senior member at the table, which is always a perk and a great chat!

Rich got the mac and cheese – it is delicious. Mac and cheese with toasted garlic bread and the most amazing chargrilled chicken – it’s definitely recommend, it is really filling! I got the chicken tenders, and they aren’t just your typical chicken tenders, they are something else.

If you didn’t know already, London’s Hyde Park area Hard Rock is a special one. It’s the OG. The first one. And there is amazing history behind it.

Hard Rock Cafe Shop/ Vault

Unlike most restaurants that have the shop in the same room, the shop at this Hard Rock is located next door- across the road. But the best thing about this shop is that they have ‘The Vault’, which is essentially a Rock and Roll museum below the shop. I don’t want to give too much away, because if you are into music, you will LOVE this and the best part is that it is FREE. Just enter the shop and ask a member of staff if you can have a tour around The Vault.

We have done this before, but it was nice seeing the baby run around and touch all of the amazing pieces of history. At one point he was playing with Little Richard’s shoes – as you do. Then he was playing on Black Sabbaths drums, with good rhythm too!

Our tour guide was a good one. He was enthusiastic, and encouraged us to let the baby run around and play with anything in the room. It is a small, snug room so we could keep an eye on him.

We pretty much knew a lot of the history from being avid fans, but our tour guide took us through the history from the start.

It all started from two Americans wanting to eat a decent burger in London and George Harrison wanting to be able to wear jeans in a restaurant in Mayfair. Pete Townsend and Eric Clapton started the tradition of musicians handing over memorabilia to be displayed at the restaurants.

The Vault itself has a lot of history behind it, from royalty to rock legends. On display are Hard Rock’s most prized possessions, the main one being Jimmy Hendricks’ Gibson Flying V guitar. You can also find a chair that belonged to Freddie Mercury, Madonna’s pointy-breasted Jean Paul Gaultier outfit, memorabilia from The Beatles, Elvis, Queen, Kurt Cobain and lots more. It is definitely a must see, and I think it may make you fall in love with this fantastic restaurant chain. Just like us.

Buckingham Palace and Green Park

I love this part of London, because once you are here, you almost feel removed from the big city. It is still a pretty busy area, but there is something about being away from the towering buildings and being surrounded by trees.

Visiting this area gave the baby a good opportunity to stretch his legs and run off some steam. Green Park has a lot of open space, so Dexter was loving life. We walked over to the Palace and Dexter watched the guards and then again was running around at the front of the gates, drawing in crowds due to his cuteness – I think everyone could see the pure joy on his face.

Disney Store Oxford Street

We can’t go to London without a pit stop to the Disney Store. We didn’t buy anything, and didn’t plan to buy anything, we just wanted a few minutes of that Disney magic you get when you walk into a Disney Store.

This Disney Store is over three floors. The ground floor and bottom sells all of the main products, and the top floor is a Marvel/ Star Wars floor – you can find all the best merch up there for diehard Marvel and Star Wars fans.

Overall

Travelling to London and back in a day with an 18 month old seemed daunting. Mainly the idea of him having to be sat on a train for four hours.

But if you work as a team, have plenty of snacks, toys and games and keep his mind busy, it’s very doable. It was definitely a successful trip, which we will do again.

London is a great place to visit as a family/ and with young children. There is so much to do, and so much to do that is free, so you don’t have to break the bank. And if you travel by rail, check out Days Out Guide, as you can get 2 for 1 tickets at all the big attractions like the London eye. It is definitely a worthwhile trip!