6-day London Itinerary with an infant
Travelling to London with a baby? Here's a 6-day itinerary we followed with our 5-month-old and survived!
Travelling to London with an infant? Here is an itinerary we followed with our 5-month-old, and survived! It’s overwhelming, I know, but this is proof that it’s doable.
For accommodation, I strongly recommend The Bailey’s Hotel. We were able to get a pretty good discount from American Express Travel, so if you own an AMEX card, check that for offers. It cost us CAD1000 for 5 nights. I recommend it not only because it is right opposite Gloucester Tube Station but also because it is in a really walkable location. When you don’t have the strength to go far, walking around a safe neighbourhood and being in proximity to Hyde Park is a big advantage. The hotel is also very cute and vintage-feeling, which fed right into the hopeless romantic atmosphere I was craving. Their decor, large winding staircase, and huge doors are quite dreamy. Also, even their regular double room is quite spacious for London standards (25m2!), which we definitely needed with our little one. (This recommendation is not sponsored, although I hope it was.)
Some tips and tricks for roaming London with an infant
The Gloucester Tube station has an elevator only for the Piccadilly line, and it was not working most of the time, so if you're travelling by tube, baby-wearing and a foldable stroller is the way to go! Although some stations do have elevators, they are hit-or-miss, and it's better to be prepared than to lug a stroller with a sleeping baby up two staircases. Once we figured that out and put baby in the carrier, travelling by tube was a breeze and often preferable to a taxi or other methods.
I didn't find London streets as stroller-friendly as I found Vancouver, and most people had a really small collapsible stroller, so always be prepared for streets and stairs where a sleeping baby may be woken. Buses are also quite comfortable, but with a stroller, you will have to stand the entire time and also give up the space for a wheelchair if needed. It's better to fold the stroller and leave it in the accessible area while you head upstairs for a more comfortable ride.
To feed baby, parks will be your best bet, and the Momcozy bottle warmer saved our lives. It's quite useful for warming water for formula or breast milk on the go. (again, not sponsored!)
Keep a sunhat, sunscreen, jacket, and blanket with you at all times, as London weather is unpredictable, and you may need to change attire at any time.
A lot of places had baby-friendly bathrooms or at least baby-changing tables inside men/women's bathrooms, but if not, find a fancy department store near you, like Fortnum & Mason, and they'll be sure to have one.
We flew in from Vancouver and arrived at London Heathrow on Friday afternoon. Here is what followed:
Day 1: Arrival in London
Afternoon:
- Take a taxi from LHR to central London (The Bailey’s Hotel). It cost us CAD138 in total 😵💫
- You can also take the Heathrow Express, which gets you to Central London in 15 minutes for about the same cost as a taxi (~GBP52 for 2 people), but with the amount of luggage and baby items we had, the train wasn't a viable option for us.
- Hotel check-in and freshen up.
- Walk to Hyde Park.
- Relax and unwind in the park.
Anecdote: Hyde Park as never before seen (pun intended)
Half of Hyde Park was closed on the day we chose to visit it, just our luck, I guess, and, according to some local friends, that has never happened in their time there. We had to have our lunch at a nearby park called Princes Gate Gardens, before realizing that Hyde Park is huge and half of it was still open for us to visit. But it did give us a chance to walk through Imperial College London and get a good look at the Royal Albert Hall
Evening:
- Dinner at a restaurant in Knightsbridge. We tried Chai Chapati on Kingsbury and loved their burgers and paratha rolls. Costed ~GBP20/Person
- Head back, shower, change, wash bottles, and sleep (if your baby allows it).
Day 2: All the squares
Morning:
- Have brunch in Covent Garden - Christophers’ French Toasts are to die for.
- Walk through Leicester Square, Trafalgar Square, and Picadilly Circus.
- While there isn’t much to do at these sites, they are hallmark tourist locations, and it's nice to tick them off the bucket list.
Afternoon:
- Picnic, relax, and unwind in St James’s Park
- Walk to Buckingham Palace: it costs ~GBP33/person to go in if you buy tickets in advance, but it didn’t seem worth it to us, so we just walked around to get a good look and take some pictures.
- Pitstop at the hotel.
Evening:
- We ended the day with a night stroll and dinner at Flesh and Buns in Covent Garden (yes, I know we were just in the area this morning, but the food here was AMAZING. Highly recommend their sushi and bao buns.)
Day 3: Portobello market, Primrose Hill, and a disappointing fish & chips
Morning:
- Visit Portobello Market (only open on Saturdays!) and make some unnecessary purchases. We took a bus there (~GBP3/person), and seeing London from the top floor of a double-decker made the longer commute worth it.
- Roam the Notting Hill Neighbourhood and get some Insta-worthy photos with its colorful buildings and artsy shops.
- We stopped for overpriced but slightly underwhelming fish and chips at Harry Ramsden's (~GBP25/person). While the diner was quite aesthetic, I could have probably had a better meal for that price elsewhere.
Afternoon:
- Trek up Primrose Hill and take in the view of the city (protip: get a local friend to explain all the sights and what you’re looking at).
- Walk down to Regent's Park and spend some time bird/duck watching while your baby feeds.
Evening:
- Enjoy the prestigious feel of the Marylebone district
- We had dinner at Berut Bistro (~GBP30/person); their starters were quite good.
- If you have time, Selfridges, Oxford Street, and Bond Street are nearby on foot. Our baby didn’t give us the luxury to explore them at the time, but maybe yours will.
Day 4: A Royal day at Windsor Castle
Morning:
- Head to Paddington Station (~GBP9/person).
- Take the train to Windsor Castle by Great Western Railway (~GBP35 for two people). I recommend getting the off-peak anytime return ticket to allow for flexibility. You have to change trains at Slough, but that’s not a trouble at all, and it takes less than 30 minutes to get to Windsor.
- Spend the day at Windsor. We chose to splurge on the ticket that gets you inside (~GBP32/person), and it was worth every penny to us to witness the grandeur and the royal way of life. Also, the baby changing bathrooms in the castle were insaneee (they even had a bottle warmer!).
Evening:
- If you have the time, interest, and the strength, you can squeeze in a visit to Harrods.
- End with a nice dinner and dessert.
Anecdote: Never make a decision on a hungry stomach
After Harrods, I was so tired and desperately craving pasta (with chicken) that I phoned up the first decent place I found on Google Maps to ask if their chicken was halal and if they had space for two (because apparently, London has long queues during dinner, especially on weekends). They said yes to both, and we rushed over, only to realize, once we had been seated, by the way, that it was the fanciest place we had been in. It was too late to turn back, and we sifted through the menu where no dish was below GBP40. But at least they had pasta!
When the waiter came to take our order, I asked if they could add chicken to the pasta dish I had ordered, and he said, “No, sorry”. Gulp. This was great! To top it off, in a restaurant where posh Englishwomen and men clad in fancy clothing and jewelry with impeccable table manners were seated, we were there with our tired jeans, worn-out stroller, and a baby who decided this was the best time to poop. And no baby changing room!
Cue my husband and me taking our crying baby into bathrooms that had warm towels for each customer and such low lighting that we had to get our torch out to see the baby. Me: “Why don’t they have a baby changing room here!?” My husband: “Because everyone who comes here has nannies taking care of their kids.” We managed to change the baby on a closed toilet seat thanks to our portable changing mat, but then we speedily gulped down our food, said no thanks to the waiter's offer for dessert, and rushed out of there.
Moral of the story: Don’t make decisions when you're hungry
Day 5: Tube strikes won't stop us
London Tube workers were on strike, and so our day started quite late and was severely disrupted, but we still managed to do the following:
Morning:
- Relax and have brunch at a local cafe.
Afternoon:
- Take the Uber boat/Thames Clipper from a pier near you to the Embankment pier (Route Map). It would make sense to buy the hop-on, hop-off fare if you plan to travel by boat more than twice in the day. It’s also a smaller version of a Thames cruise, allowing views of major city buildings and bridges.
- Walk from the pier to Big Ben, stop at Tyburn Quay on the way to get a close, clear view of the London Eye, explore the Westminster district, and visit Parliament.
Evening:
- Hop back on the Uber Boat and get off at the Tower Pier.
- Tour the Tower of London.
- Uber Boat also has a stop at the London Cable Car, if that’s something you’re interested in doing before you head back.
Day 6: Let the nerd in you shine
Morning:
- My husband is a Chelsea fan (roast him, not me), so the morning was dedicated to touring Chelsea Stadium. The official tour is ~GBP30/person, but we just roamed as much as we could on our own and spent money buying merch instead.
Afternoon:
- Head to King's Cross station and pass by Platform 9 ¾ from Harry Potter - extremely underwhelming and not worth going out of your way to see. Thankfully, we had more to do in that area.
- Experience a floating bookshop; Word on the Water.
- Take the books you bought and head to The British Library to spend some time reading.
Anecdote: The letdown of the British Library
I was really hoping that the British Library would be the library of my dreams. I didn’t even look at pictures before going because I wanted to be surprised. However, I was quite disappointed in the lackluster interior and the absence of grandeur. It is quite a massive library and has a bunch of facilities, workshops, and a collection of books in which you can probably find anything you’re looking for, but, as the national British library, it didn’t live up to the aesthetic standards in my head. Also, there was a baby changing pad in the female and male bathroom, separately, but since there was no family bathroom, I had to awkwardly go into the men’s room with my husband to change my baby while confused gentlemen came and went. Super comfy.
Evening:
- Take in the awe-inspiring St Pancras International Train Station. It has a lot of retail shops and eateries, but in itself is a sight worth seeing. We wouldn’t have known about it if we didn’t have to catch a train (trains in England are quite nice, by the way), but definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area.
- Off to wherever you’re headed next, or back home!
All in all, it was quite a successful trip. I got on the flight apprehensive and scared, but came back home delighted and content to have taken the chance and checked London off my bucket list. "Don't let parenthood scare you away from an opportunity you would've jumped at before" is the advice I would give myself now. Children adapt, and you with them. Embrace the hiccups along the way, ask for help where you need it, and explore the world if you can. One day, you can tell and show your child all the memories you made with them when they didn't even have memories, and the hassle will be worth it.
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