At 4/5 "the sights" aren't really much cop

though you could try Trafalgar Square for ten minutes or so (Charing X tube). For free, there's the museums (South Kensington) - Natural History and Science are both great with lots of interactive exhibits/buttons to press and make things happen and so on. Then you can walk up to the bottom of Hyde Park by the Albert Memorial, out past the small lake and to the Princess Diana Playground in the NW corner of the park - again free and one of the best playparks in London. Or go boating on the Serpentine. If weather not good try the Aquarium, though it's a bit pricey - sharks swimming around you, you get to feel a manta ray, that kind of thing.

A bit older and I'd recommend Camden Market, the Dungeons or the Tower (both is too much for a littlun), see Big Ben and Buck House, that kind of thing, but as I say I'm not sure how interested a 4/5-yo would be in "sights", though depending on his/her constitution the dungeons might also be fun.

Everything at Covent Garden is ludicrously expensive but there's usually street performers and so on there as well as in front of the National Gallery (Trafalgar Sq), to a lesser extent Leicester Square too.

Oh and there's always the Eye.

Posted By: Old Man, Jan 15, 18:07:51