December 2019
Our family decided that we were done with the big plastic or electronic Christmas presents that either broke or were abandoned shortly after they were received, for memories and experiences! So the day after Christmas, we hopped a plane to spend the post-Christmas lull somewhere amazing…and we chose one of my husband and I’s favorite cities in the world, London! I love London, but I’m now completely IN LOVE with the Holidays in London!
The overnight flight with 3 kids (in coach), was absolutely a breeze! We boarded in the evening, were served dinner and drinks, took a short nap, had LOTS of coffee and breakfast, and were on-time welcomed to London Heathrow (Christmas Miracle?). Pre-arranged transportation from our hotel had us comfortably on our way to the city in no time and off to our “home base” for the next 7 days: The Rosewood London!
Accommodations
The Rosewood London
I can honestly say, this may be one of my favorite hotels in all of Europe! Finding one room that will fit a family of 5 in Europe is incredibly hard to do, let alone an amazing property with all the amenities you could ask for and the perfect location! Here are a few pictures, but I promise they don’t do it justice.
Activities
Hyde Park Winter Wonderland
I’m not sure when this will return post-covid, but everyone the family absolutely loved this! It was essentially a huge Christmas market, Ice Skating Rink, Full size Roller Coasters, and just to top it off….an Oktoberfest party to rival some of the best in Munich! We skated, we ate, we rode rides, and then we ended the night belting out some Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline and John Denver’s Country Roads at the top of our lungs! The kids will never forget that fun night!
The Tower of London Tour
As this was the kids’ first visit to London, we needed to get in some sightseeing. Our hotel concierge put us in touch with Guides of Britain and I would give them 100% 5-stars for the service, tour, and value! Our guide was perfect for a group of 10 including kids ranging from 5-10 years old. We were picked up in a luxury 10 passenger van and our guide was so engaging, even on the short drive to our first stop…The Tower of London. Our tickets were pre-arranged (a must!!) and we got an in-depth walk around and tour before the standard crown jewels sights. Then we were out the back entrance (didn’t know that existed!) and on to the Tower Bridge where we were welcomed like VIPs up to the top glass bottom walkway. Not the best for people with some issues with heights, but our crew LOVED it! We crossed over, took some fun pictures, and then got a nice little lunch break on the South Bank before our driver came and picked us up for our ride back to the front door of our hotel!
Harry Potter Studios
I’m going to keep this short. It’s a long drive out to the studios (1.5 hours each way?), it’s hard to get tickets, and the tickets are expensive. As much as I am absolutely a Harry Potter super fan…I’d rather have been at Universal Studios. We had planned to be there the whole day and ended up cruising through the over-crowded place in about 2 hours. TONS of movie magic details, lots of places to spend extra money on a photo-shopped image of you on a broom, but my kids are still little and just want to be Harry Potter, not see how it wasn’t real. That said, there are a lot of people who love it, so just my opinion!
In fact, since we had the transportation for the day and the studio tour was so short…we decided to do the magical pivot and turned a so-so day into a lot of fun. Our driver took us to Windsor and dropped us off in the town. The lines to actually go in and walk the grounds were longer than we wanted to wait, but the little town 20 minutes west of London was adorable. We ate good food, had some good beer at a pub and did a little shopping. It was a nice break from the city for an afternoon and truly made the day so special!
The Theatre Studios
Going to the Theatre in London is one of my top favorite things. Unlike in NYC or other major cities, the theaters are smaller and the seating, although slightly terrifyingly steep makes almost every seat excellent. Since Hamilton was the impossible ticket to get anywhere in the US, we easily got tickets at the Victoria Theater (one of my personal favorites). The kids LOVED it, the adults thought it was one of the best shows we have ever seen, and just to offend a handful of people, I’m going to say the singing and acting were better than the original on Broadway! Whichever show you pick…and there are a lot, I absolutely always recommend getting tickets….you can find shows for any age!
London Eye
We wanted New Year’s Eve to be something special so we booked VIP tickets for the London Eye at 2pm so that we could be back to our hotel and out of the set up for the fireworks with plenty of time. To be honest, I think this VIP experience must be one of the best kept secrets around! Only 10 EUR extra got us entry into the lounge for a glass of champagne while we waited for our time slot, then we were escorted directly onto our “pod” with our bar tender leading the way! We enjoyed the views, toasted the New Year with another glass of champagne. Absolutely perfect!
NYE at the Rosewood London
We absolutely LOVE to travel with our kids, so we weren’t looking to leave them on New Year’s Eve…but we also weren’t looking to bring small children to a huge expensive party! Of course, our amazing Rosewood Hotel came to the rescue. We were booked in the outdoor (heated and enclosed) patio bar, served fun drinks and mocktails for the kids, and some yummy snacks to go along with it. Then a perfect firework ending from the rooftop of the hotel completed the night!
So I have to say, we aced the trip! The hotel was amazing, we did enough, but still had plenty of time to stroll the beautiful light-filled streets of London, and ate and drank at some of the best! Any season, I would head back to London without hesitation…and so would my kids! If you are thinking about going…GO!!! I’m happy to help with the details to make it your perfect trip!
Bon Voyage,
