London with kids, and the discount for visiting families
London with children from about four. Why under-11s travel free, the 50% discount visiting families are never told about, and what to skip.
Photo · Ben Kirby · Pexels
London is the cheapest major European capital to visit with children, and it is not close. The best museums charge nothing, under-11s travel free, and the parks are the finest in Europe.
The expensive London exists too, and it is almost entirely optional.
The one thing visiting families are never told: there is a free 50% travel discount for 11 to 15 year olds that has nothing to do with residency, and you have to ask a member of staff for it in person.
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Under 5: free on everything, no card, nothing to arrange.
Aged 5 to 10: free on the Tube, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line when accompanied by a fare-paying adult, and free on buses and trams regardless. Up to four children under 11 per adult simply walk through the wide gate with you. No card, no photocard, no paperwork.
Aged 11 to 15: this is the one worth reading twice.
One more thing worth knowing this year: TfL's daily and weekly caps are frozen until March 2027, even though pay-as-you-go singles went up in March 2026, when a Zone 1 peak Tube fare moved from £2.90 to £3.10. That means the more you move around, the better the cap gets, and the arithmetic now favours using the network hard rather than rationing it.
The free list, which is most of the good stuff
Five of the best museums in the world, and every one of them charges nothing for entry.
The Natural History Museum is the one to lead with, and it works from about three. Dinosaurs, the blue whale in the entrance hall, and a building children find as interesting as the exhibits. In school holidays it operates a booked free ticket, so get one the night before rather than joining the Cromwell Road queue.
The Science Museum is next door and better for seven and up. Note that the Wonderlab gallery charges while the rest of the museum does not, which is the one place the free rule breaks, and it is worth it for a curious eight-year-old.
The V&A has an entire children's trail and the best café in a London museum, which matters more than it sounds at three in the afternoon.
The British Museum works from about eight, with the mummies as the anchor. Below eight it is a very large building full of glass cases.
The National Gallery is a forty-minute visit with a child, not a two-hour one. Pick five paintings, find them, leave. Everyone is happier.
And the parks. The Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens has a full-size pirate ship in sand and is free. Coram's Fields in Bloomsbury has a rule we love: adults are admitted only if accompanied by a child, which makes it the calmest seven acres in central London.
The bus, which beats the attraction
The single best-value thing to do with a child in London is sit at the front of the top deck of a double-decker.
It is sightseeing that happens to be transport, the fare is already inside your daily cap, and under-11s are free on buses without qualification. Route 11 runs Chelsea to Liverpool Street past Westminster, Whitehall, Trafalgar Square and St Paul's. Route 24 crosses from Hampstead to Pimlico through the middle of everything. Route 15 still runs heritage Routemasters on part of its route at weekends, which for some children is the whole trip.
Compare that to the price of an open-top tour bus and the decision makes itself.
What is worth paying for
The Tower of London. Adults £37, children aged 5 to 15 £18.50, under-5s free, and a family ticket for two adults and up to three children at £96.50. It earns it: the Crown Jewels, the ravens, the armour, and the Yeoman Warder tours that are included in the ticket and are genuinely entertaining. Take the first tour of the day, then the Jewels, in that order.
The Warner Bros Studio Tour at Leavesden, for anyone in the household who has read the books. It is not in London, it needs a train to Watford Junction and a shuttle bus, and it needs booking months ahead. It is also, on the evidence of every family we have spoken to about it, the thing the children remember.
A Thames Clipper east to Greenwich. It is a commuter boat, it goes under Tower Bridge, and it is the only way to see London from the water without buying a cruise.
The buggy problem, stated honestly
London's Tube is not step-free. Only a minority of stations have lifts, the signage tells you far too late, and the ones that do often route you through long passages. This is the single biggest practical difference between London and, say, Tokyo.
What works instead:
- Buses are fully accessible. Every bus has a ramp and a buggy space, and
they go everywhere the Tube goes, more slowly and with a view.
- The Elizabeth line and the DLR are the step-free parts of the rail
network and are worth routing around.
- Check step-free status before you plan a route, not when you arrive at
the top of a staircase with a sleeping toddler.
Rush hour, roughly 8 to 9.30am and 5 to 6.30pm, is manageable with a buggy in a way Tokyo's is not, but it is not pleasant. Move between ten and four.
Where to stay with kids
South Kensington is the obvious answer and it is obvious for a reason: three free museums within a five-minute walk, Hyde Park at the end of the road, and a station on three lines. You pay for it.
Bloomsbury is the value version: walkable to the British Museum and Coram's Fields, well connected, and a lot of family rooms in the Georgian terraces around Russell Square.
Southwark and Bankside put you on the river, walking distance to the Tate Modern, Borough Market and the Globe, and it is a shorter walk to the Tower than people expect.
The London-specific catch: family rooms are genuinely scarce and many hotels cap rooms at two adults plus one child. Check the occupancy rules before the price, not after.
Eating without surrendering
London is easy here. Every museum has a decent café, the market halls (Borough, Seven Dials, Mercato Metropolitano) let everyone choose separately, and the pub lunch is a genuinely good option: most family-friendly pubs serve children until early evening and half the country's Sunday roasts are eaten by six-year-olds.
The thing to avoid is the sit-down restaurant at 7pm in the West End, which is expensive, slow and aimed at theatre-goers.
The one-day and three-day versions
One day, ages five to nine. Natural History Museum at opening, lunch in the V&A courtyard, Diana Memorial Playground in the afternoon, bus route 11 home from Knightsbridge in the front top-deck seats.
Three days. Day one as above. Day two the Tower of London first thing, then a Thames Clipper to Greenwich for the park and the observatory hill. Day three the Science Museum, or the Studio Tour if you booked it in time, or a day trip out of London to Oxford or Windsor, where the same free-travel-for-children rules do not apply and you will want the Network Railcard.
What to skip with kids
The London Eye. Expensive, half an hour long, and the queue is often longer than the ride. Sky Garden is free with a booked slot and gives you a better view of the things a child recognises.
Madame Tussauds. Long queue, high price, and a room of waxworks of people a child has mostly not heard of.
A London Pass for a family. Run the numbers before you buy one. The five museums a family will actually spend its time in are free, so the pass has to earn itself back on the paid attractions alone, and most families do not visit enough of them.
Oxford Street. There is nothing there for a child that is not somewhere else with fewer people in the way.
Trying to fit two paid attractions into one day. The same rule as everywhere: the constraint is the child, not the timetable.
Short tourist stays only. Checked 21 Aug 2026; rules change without notice and the government page is the source of truth.
Check your own passport →Checked 21 Aug 2026.
Everything we check for United Kingdom →Before you book
Day trips from London covers what to do with a fourth and fifth day, including the railcard that gives 60% off children's rail fares outside the city. The London city guide has the neighbourhoods and the United Kingdom country guide the practicalities. The rest of the family guides work the same way, age band first: Rome with kids is the European sibling and Tokyo with kids the one where the transport is easier and the museums are not free. Thinking of pairing London with Paris? The Paris area guide starts there. When to go matters mostly for daylight: London in December is dark by four. Ready to look at rooms? London stays are here, and the things to do shelf has what is bookable, including the Studio Tour.
Fares, admission prices and the travel discounts checked September 2026 against Transport for London and Historic Royal Palaces. TfL's caps are frozen to March 2027 while singles are not, so the arithmetic above favours using the network rather than rationing it. Here is how we research and re-check guides.
