How to Make the Most of 24 Hours in London with Kids

If London is part of your upcoming travel itinerary to the UK or Europe, but you only have a short amount of time to spend there, you’re in the right place!

This blog post will cover how our family spent 24 hours in London on our recent 15-day trip to Europe.

London is one of my favorite family-friendly travel destinations. It’s so easy to get around using the Tube, if English is your first language you won’t have a problem with communication, and there’s so much history and culture to take in!

Truthfully, 24 hours is not enough time to explore London. You need at least 4 days to see the highlights, and even spending an entire week in London will leave you wanting more.
Read my London with Kids blog post to see everything we did on a week-long trip to London several years ago!

But if you’re like us and you’re just passing through, but you still want to make the most of your time in London, keep reading! I’ll share what we prioritized on our 24 hour stopover, and how we fit everything in.

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by the London Pass. Thanks to the London Pass for providing passes for our whole family on our short trip to London.

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on a link and make a purchase I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Why We Only Had 24 Hours in London

We only had 24 hours in London, which is not nearly enough time to see it all, as I mentioned! But the funny thing is, London wasn’t even part of our original itinerary. Our plan was to spend two weeks exploring Germany and Austria.

Since we were using Chase Ultimate Reward points to book our flights, I started searching for the best deals to anywhere in Europe about a year in advance. As a family of six, even a good points redemption adds up quickly, so I was on the lookout for any promotions that could stretch our points further.

About nine months before our trip, I noticed Chase was offering a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic. Normally, Chase points transfer 1:1 to airline partners. But with this bonus, 100,000 Chase points would become 140,000 Virgin Atlantic points—a huge value boost!

I ended up transferring 74,000 Chase points to Virgin Atlantic, which gave me 103,600 Virgin points after the bonus. That was just enough to book six one-way flights from Chicago O'Hare (ORD) to London Heathrow (LHR) for 102,000 points total, plus $437.40 in taxes. A crazy good deal for six people!

So we decided to spend one night in London!

Now, my parents were joining us on our Europe Adventure, and my mom’s Mum (my Nana) was born and raised in London. In fact, that was the reason for our first visit to London in 2014, to honor my Nana after she passed away, and to see her old apartment, visit family, and see where she grew up.

With our family’s ties to London, I felt like it was so important for our kids to experience this place that meant so much to my Nana, and that holds a special place in my own mom’s heart. To see that together as a family was a dream come true.

Regardless, London is a perfect destination for a multigenerational trip, as it has something for all interests, from history, to the royal family, to soccer (football), shopping, architecture, and more.

From London, we took the Eurostar train from St. Pancras International to Brussels, then caught the overnight European Sleeper train to Berlin to kick off the rest of our adventure.

Where We Stayed

With only 24 hours in the city, we knew location was key. If we were staying longer, I wouldn’t have minded saving money by staying farther from the city center, but for such a short visit, being central to the attractions we wanted to see was a top priority.

We chose the DoubleTree by Hilton London Kensington because it checked several important boxes: a convenient location, a reasonable price (for London), and the option to book connecting rooms.

If you're a family of five or more, Hilton is a great hotel chain to consider—especially when traveling abroad. When booking online, they allow you to check a box requesting connecting rooms, which is a big deal when you're headed to destinations where occupancy rules are stricter and it's harder to find rooms that fit larger families.

Yes, you’ll likely still need to book two rooms—but knowing they’ll be connected gives you peace of mind, especially if your kids are still too young to be on their own.

With this hotel we were a block away from the Gloucester Tube Station, and we had several cafes and a pub within walking distance.

Breakfast was not included, but they do have a restaurant that serves breakfast if you want to dine at the hotel. They also have a little pastry stand where you can purchase a croissant or another small pastry if you need to grab breakfast on the go.

They also have a little play area for kids in the lobby that came in handy when we were checking in and out.

Check current rates for the DoubleTree by Hilton London Kensington here!

London Pass

When we visited London for a week in 2014, we used the London Pass to save money on all of the museums and attractions we were visiting.

We had such a great experience all those years ago, so I knew I wanted to use the pass again to maximize our short visit.

I reached out to London Pass to see if they wanted to work with us to put together the perfect family-friendly London Itinerary in 24 hours, and to my delight, they said yes! I always love a partnership where I get to promote a product I truly use and believe in!

London Pass provided our family with the 1-Day London Pass Plus. The London Pass Plus includes attractions like the Big Bus Tour, the London Eye, and the Shard.

How the London Pass works is that you purchase either the London Pass or the London Pass Plus for as many days as you want or need.

Over 95 London attractions are included in the pass, and you can save up to 50% on entry fees by using the pass. You don’t have to choose ahead of time which attractions you’ll visit, unless you need to make a reservation ahead of time (like for the London Eye).

Then download the Go City app on your phone, and sync your London Pass with the app. When you visit the attractions included on the pass, you’ll scan the QR code in the app. Once you scan your first QR code on your first day, the pass is activated.

We had a 1-day pass, so once we checked into our first attraction, we had until the end of that day to use our London Pass.

You can find your London Pass here!

24 Hours in London with Kids Itinerary

Our flight landed around 10:30 a.m. at London Heathrow, but by the time we went through customs and immigration, changed into fresh clothes, and caught the tube to drop our bags off at our hotel, it was already early afternoon. Here’s how we used our time with the London Pass:

Tower of London: 2:40 p.m.

We arrived at the Tower of London around 2:40 p.m. and snapped a few photos with the iconic Tower Bridge in the background before joining the next Yeoman Warder tour at 3:00.

The last time I visited the Tower was back in 2014 with my extended family—when we had just one child, and she was only 14 months old. I vaguely remember chasing a toddler around while trying to listen, but I also remember the tour being surprisingly funny and incredibly informative. Based on that memory alone, I knew I wanted to bring my kids back now that they’re old enough to actually enjoy and understand it!

Yeoman Warders—also known as Beefeaters—are the royal bodyguards of the Tower of London. They live on-site and one of their roles is to lead guided tours for visitors. They share dramatic, sometimes gruesome stories about famous prisoners, executions, royal scandals, and more.

As intense as that may sound, the tours are engaging, family-friendly, and packed with humor. Both kids and adults will be entertained and walk away with a deeper understanding of this iconic piece of British history.

The best part? The Yeoman Warder tours are included with your admission ticket and run about every 30 minutes. I highly recommend making time for one if you're visiting London with kids!

There is so much to do and see at the Tower of London, including seeing the Crown Jewels, the Torture at the Tower exhibition, and more. You could easily spend an entire day here, but we had more we wanted to see in our short time, so we moved on.

Tower Bridge: 4:00 p.m.

The Tower Bridge is located right next to the Tower of London, so we walked over around 4:00 p.m.

You start your visit at the North Tower where you can watch a video about the making of the Tower Bridge.

Kids receive an activity booklet upon entrance, and throughout your visit you can look for stations to stamp a page of the book and learn a fun fact about the Tower Bridge.

You can climb the stairs to the top of the bridge or take the elevator. Once you’re up there you can walk across the walkways and look through the glass floors.

After the walkways, you’ll descend through the South Tower, exit, and look for the Blue Line that commemorates those who worked on the Tower Bridge.

It’s a quick and fun experience that’s included on the London Pass, and worth a visit if you’re already in the area!

Uber Boat: 5:15 p.m.

The Uber Boat is included on the London Pass Plus, so when we finished up at the Tower Bridge, we decided to catch a ride to our next stop, the London Eye.

We could have walked, but the kids were starting to get tired after our red eye flight, so it was nice to sit down enjoy London from along the Thames River.

You can use the Uber Boat as transportation, or as a relaxing activity to see London from a different perspective!

London Eye: 6:00 p.m.

The London Eye is another activity that is only included with the London Pass Plus, but it’s one of my favorite things to do in London!

I know it’s touristy, but we’ve done it both times we visited London, and I truly feel like it’s worth it. You get to view the iconic London skyline from above in a large enclosed capsule.

You can sit on the bench, or stand by the window, and because the pod is shaped like an oval, you’ll have different perspectives throughout your journey.

If you have kids, they will really enjoy this activity. You can bring your stroller on if it folds up, or leave it at the ticket office and pick it up on your way back out.

Big Ben + Westminster Abbey: 7:00 p.m.

The London Eye is near Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, so if these iconic spots are on your London bucket list, you can walk right over to see them after your scheduled time slot on the London Eye.

If you want to go inside Westminster Abbey, it is included on the London Pass, but the last entry is around 3:30, so it didn’t work for us this time around.

Big Bus Tour: Day 2, 9:00 a.m.

My youngest daughter’s one request for our time in London was to ride on top of a double decker bus. Well, one of the benefits of the London Pass Plus is that it included a 2-day pass for the Big Bus Tour!

We didn’t have a lot of time to ride the bus on our first day, but we did make sure to check in and get our tickets printed so that we would be able to use them on our 2nd day! Even though our London Pass was only for one day, as long as we checked into the Big Bus Tour, we could ride it again on our 2nd day.

So on our last morning in London we checked out of our hotel and left our bags with the front desk, then walked over to breakfast, grabbing some coffees and hot chocolates to go.

We climbed aboard the Big Bus Tour and got seats on the top deck right in the sunshine. It was a gorgeous morning in London, and we sat back and relaxed, listening to the audio guides and sipping our beverages as we saw the highlights of London pass by.

The Big Bus is a hop-on hop-off tour, so feel free to get on and off, or just sit back and listen!

Buckingham Palace: 10:30 a.m.

We ended up disembarking the bus near Buckingham Palace, and happened to time it just right with the changing of the guards. It got incredibly crowded at that time, so I almost wish we had arrived at a different time, but it was cool to see anyway!

Eat at a Pub: 12:30

It was almost time to catch our train to Brussels, but before we picked up the bags from our hotel, we grabbed lunch at a traditional London pub nearby.

Get a pint (for the adults), try some fish & chips, or satisfy the kids with a cheese toastie and chips (fries).

Lunchtime is a great time to eat at a pub so you can avoid the more adult nightlife in the evenings.