A Day Out in Covent Garden, London with Young Children | August 2019

Living in Kent, we are lucky enough to be only a short drive or train journey away from many fantastic places. One of our favourite places to take the Littles is on an adventure to London; there's so much to see and do for children in the capital, plus it's only 45 minutes on the train so it's not too far away either!

So last week we decided to hop on a train and spend the day at one of favourite London spots - Covent Garden. Located in London's West End, Covent Garden is a must-see for anyone who enjoys shopping, theatre, restaurants, bars, history and culture. Our train takes us straight to London Charing Cross station, so it's just a 10 minute walk from there. I would absolutely love to stay overnight in the area though, and there are plenty of Covent Garden Hotels to choose from if we did decide to in the future.

When a lot of people think of London, they probably don't think of it as being a great day out for young children (our three are 5, 4 and 18 months). But this couldn't be further from the truth! Covent Garden is perfect for young children, as there is just so much to see and do in the area. We arrived around 11am and instantly stumbled upon the first of many street performers. Covent Garden is well known for it's street performers in the Piazza and Covent Garden Market - a mixture of circus acts, card tricks and interactive shows. We also saw a fantastic string orchestra later on in the day, which the Littles especially loved!

There are so, so many places to eat and drink in the Covent Garden area so we weren't stuck for somewhere for lunch. We ended up eating at Wahlburgers, which is located just off the Piazza on James Street, as they are currently offering 'kids eat free' during the Summer holidays! Owned by the Wahlburg brothers (as in Mark Wahlburg fame), the Covent Garden restaurant is the first to open outside North America. It's your standard burger and fries kind of place, but the food was really tasty and it was great for the children.

After lunch we spent the afternoon at the amazing London Transport Museum. We used the National Rail 2-for-1 offer, and as under 17s enter the museum for free, we only paid £18 for all of us to get in! One ticket is also a yearly ticket, so now we have somewhere to visit in the future too. While exploring we enjoyed following the free stamper trail, which makes sure you see every part of the museum. There were plenty of vehicles you can actually explore, as well as a fab family play zone called All Aboard (for children 0-7 years) that has a real interactive bus, tools, mini vehicles and uniforms to dress up in. There's also a Baby DLR which is a dedicated area for young babies.

After the museum, we made a quick pit stop for the yummiest ice creams we've had in a long time (we got ours from Venchi, which constantly had queues out the door), before heading to the Disney in the West End popup. Located just along Long Acre, the popup is a collaboration between two current and two future West End musicals - Aladdin, The Lion King, Mary Poppins and Frozen the Musical. You can see props from the shows, take part in activities such as kite making, and also take special pictures in a Frozen Photo Booth. It's only small, but definitely worth taking a look if you've got young children (or just love Disney!). 

All absolutely exhausted, we made the short walk back to the station and hopped on a train home. We had the loveliest day out in Covent Garden, and we only managed to scratch the surface on what's to offer in the area. There are more museums, places to shop and of course shows to see, that just means we'll need another day out in the future! 

Have you been to Covent Garden? What's your favourite place to visit in London?

This is a collaborative post. The spending money for this trip was gifted by Hotels.com, but all views are my own.