Donald Jenkins

Hope this helps others in my situation in the near future. Recently I came to London for a month on pretty short notice to play house dad with my 2 year old son and 3 month old daughter.

This is Day One of my post and will keep updating it as we go.

Transportation

Lets start with transportation… If flying into Heathrow airport you will need to get to London and there are a few ways and this link http://www.heathrow-airport-guide.co.uk/transport.html.

I found the Heathrow Express to Paddington station was the most convenient and very quick at 15 minutes.. with a few exceptions its little bit more exspensive and Paddington station is shit if you have a lot of luggage and kids. No elevator nor escalator…. it was a mess of stairs. However like the US you are always surprised by the helpfulness/kindness of other people.

For getting around in London on the Tube and buses check out this site http://www.tfl.gov.uk/modalpages/2625.aspx.

I would suggest if you have kids to use the bus its above ground to save you from lifting strollers up and down stairs depending on your stations. If you look on the map for the wheel chair sign on the tube map. These stations all have some type of assistance for people in our situations. 

Things to Do

Parks - Google Search: Hyde Park, The Green Park, St Jame`s Park, Regent`s Park, Ranelagh Gardens, and Battersea Park to name a few.

There are tons of parks in London some closer then others but most on major bus or tube lines. I had a problem with location being based in Chelsea which put us near enough to walk but its still 30 mins away which really wasnt what I was looking for and to be honest I really didnt need a big park so I walked around looking for something a little bit closer with a playground. What I found was a lot of private gardens which were really nice but *private and could not enter. If you are looking for a play ground you will be a bit out of luck. However if you are willing to look around a bit in your area I would suggest looking near a church! For example near this church I found a great play ground Map

Also see Museums, they have a lot of cool kid rooms with fun stuff for all ages.

Museums - Google Search: Museum of Instruments, Science, History, Victoria and Albert Museum (all in South Kensington and most are free) also British Museum, Cartoon Museum and Ripley`s north east of Hyde park. I will look for more but each one is massive and can you can spend over a day at each one. For example we did the Science museum basement and 1st floor which took about 2 hours (the museum is 5 floors). I would suggest the Science Museum if you have kids 6 and under for an alternate play area. Free to enter and they have tons of play rooms in the basement.

Shopping

Food- Google: Sainsbury Local, Tesco

Kids Stuff - Google: Hamleys Toy Store, boots and MotherCare http://www.mothercare.com/ This place is really good and they have several through out London. There is one right next to Hyde Park on Oxford Street really close to the tube/bus stop.

Also we found a kids toy store in Chelsea map here. A little pricey but good selection.

Enjoy and more to follow. If you have any questions please post and I will be happy to follow up or go on a mission to find the answer!