You may have noticed that I went to BritMums Live in London last weekend. I am terribly disorganised, and left everything til the last minute – so really I shouldn’t be surprised that I was disappointed by my hotel. I paid an extortionate price for what was essentially a characterless box with a window that looked out on an offensive amount of concrete. There was nothing inviting about that room, least of all the dodgy wifi that wouldn’t let me stay connected long enough to upload an Instagram! The horror!

When you’re stuck in a crappy hotel and unable to sleep, there’s only one thing for it: researching all the cool hotels you could have stayed in if you’d been more organised! There is a slight issue with this, in that I’m rubbish at geography and couldn’t figure out which ones were close enough to the venue to be considered a sensible option, but hey – this is make believe. If I can make believe a stay in a posh boutique hotel, I can make believe a flying unicorn to take me to the venue the next morning.

mini break in london

Actually, when you look at it, these prices are not as high as you might expect. Looking at them, and the wide range of hotels on offer, got me to thinking about maybe taking a short break to London with S. London is one of those places where there’s always so much going on – museums, Udderbelly, mini festivals, huge parks, massive toy shops, carnivals, one-day events…

I’ve found myself in London quite a bit lately, for various reasons – and every time I’ve been there I’ve found myself thinking how much S would enjoy the experience. Even simple things like riding on the Underground (not at peak times!) would be great fun for her, I’m sure. And while she’s still very young, a mini adventure needn’t cost a fortune in expensive entertainment. She’d probably be happy with the dinosaurs in the Natural History Museum and a run around a park.

I feel like we perhaps don’t make the most of the things available to us; we don’t travel much and tend to stick with the things on our doorstep. There is a lot to do around here, but it’s also fun to go a bit further afield at times. Since S still sleeps in my bed, we could get away with booking a double room, and she would go for free on trains and buses (as far as I’m aware) so really, it’s about time I bit the bullet.

I think I went to London approximately twice before I was twenty. In fact, in my entire life I’ve only been there a handful of times – and I’m not even sure why that is. But I think we should do something about it!

 

 


Vicky Charles

Vicky is a single mother, writer and card reader.

3 Comments

Tim · 26/06/2015 at 14:59

Where did you stay, Vicky? Many London hotels are ridiculously overpriced and make a shoe-box look large, even the posh ones – the price tag frequently is not reflected in square footage! That’s not such a big issue when you’re on your own, but with S you’d probably like a little space to spread out toys on. As ever, it’s worth checking apps/sites such as Tripadvisor.

London is such an exciting place for kids. My parents live in the suburbs and I usually take a day or two off during each school holiday specifically to take the boys into the city for a day of adventure. Definitely explore the museums – the beauty of (most of) them being free is that you can dip in for 45 minutes and duck out again if you want. I would also recommend riding on the top deck of a double decker bus (having a bit of patience and hopefully getting to the front), as it’s hard to see much in a crowd from a kid’s eye level. The DLR can also be quite fun because it’s overground – if you come in towards Tower Gateway from the Canning Town direction, you will see all London’s new iconic buildings as you approach, and then you can get off and look at the Tower of London, Tower Bridge etc

Sorry, I’m rambling now. But it’s well worth doing. Just don’t get conned into trading up to an expensive hotel with facilities that you won’t ever use.

    Vicky Charles · 26/06/2015 at 20:35

    I love the idea of going to the museums and just sort of hanging about for a while. At the moment S is still toilet training and avoids using public toilets while we’re out so that side of it worries me – unless we pack a potty in our case! That’s really the only thing that puts me off though – I think she’d have a fantastic time!

Silly Mummy · 27/06/2015 at 02:44

Sounds like a great idea! Bet S would love the dinosaurs! #weekendbloghop

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