London Bridge is 30 to 40 minutes from Tonbridge station, which is fifteen minutes from the farm. Here is what works at each age, what is free, what must be booked, and how to get there without the car.
Checked 11 September 2026. Hours and prices change, so follow the links to the official sites before you set off. Distances are from Hamptons Farmhouse.
Drive to Tonbridge station, park, and take the train. Charing Cross drops you by Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery, Covent Garden and the theatres. London Bridge is the stop for Borough Market, the Tower, HMS Belfast, Tate Modern and the trains to Greenwich. Everything below was checked in September 2026. Prices and hours change, so follow the links.
Toddlers and under fives
Natural History Museum
The animatronic T. rex, the dinosaur gallery and the blue whale in the great hall. Free.
Big, buggy-friendly, and you can leave after an hour with no money wasted.
Science Museum: The Garden
A free basement play gallery built for under sevens, with the paid Wonderlab upstairs for the older ones.
Water, light and things to push.
Diana Memorial Playground, Kensington Gardens
A free playground with a seventeen-metre wooden galleon, a tree house, water play and a new under-threes zone, reopened in August 2026 after a three million pound renewal.
Adults only with a child, so it is calm.
Battersea Park Children's Zoo
Monkeys, meerkats, otters and farm animals at toddler height, in its 75th year.
An hour is enough, and the park is outside.
London Transport Museum
Real buses, trams and Tube trains in Covent Garden with a play zone for ages nought to seven.
Ten minutes' walk from Charing Cross. Under 18s free but need a ticket.
Coram's Fields
Seven acres of playground, sand, paddling and a pets' corner in Bloomsbury. Free.
No adult may enter without a child.
Uber Boat by Thames Clippers
The river bus from London Bridge to Greenwich or Westminster. Under fives free, buggies go inside.
The boat is the day out.
Young V&A, Bethnal Green
The rebuilt Museum of Childhood, Museum of the Year 2024. Free.
Hands-on galleries and a stage.
London Zoo
Penguins, gorillas, tigers and an indoor rainforest in Regent's Park.
Plenty under cover for a wet day. Under threes free but need a booked ticket.
Five to eleven
Tower of London
The Crown Jewels, the White Tower armour, the ravens and the Yeoman Warder tours.
A real castle. Go to the Crown Jewels first, before the queue.
HMS Belfast
A Second World War cruiser moored by Tower Bridge, nine decks of ladders, gun turrets and bunks.
Under fives free.
Golden Hinde
A full-size replica of Drake's galleon by Southwark Cathedral, April to October.
An hour of cramped decks and cannon. Check it is not closed for an event.
The Postal Museum and Mail Rail
A ride on the old underground mail railway and a big sorting-office play space. The ticket lasts a year.
Mail Rail slots sell out at weekends. Book.
London Eye
Thirty minutes round the wheel on the South Bank.
The first view of London. Book a timed slot online.
SEA LIFE London and Shrek's Adventure
Sharks, rays and penguins next to the Eye, and a walk-through Shrek show with actors and a 4D bus for about six to ten-year-olds.
Both in County Hall, both timed tickets.
Cutty Sark and the Royal Observatory, Greenwich
Walk under the tea clipper, stand on the Meridian line, and the National Maritime Museum next door is free.
Go by river boat one way and train back to London Bridge.
Horniman Museum, Forest Hill
Free museum with the music gallery, the walrus, an aquarium and gardens with views. The closest big museum to Kent.
Forest Hill is on the line from London Bridge. Natural history gallery closed until early 2027.
London Museum Docklands
Free museum of the port in a Georgian warehouse with the Mudlarks children's gallery.
The DLR ride there is half the fun.
Sky Garden
A free garden and viewing floor at the top of 20 Fenchurch Street.
Free but every visitor needs a pre-booked slot. Released on Mondays for three weeks ahead and gone in minutes.
Hamleys
Seven floors of toys on Regent Street.
Free to look. Busy at weekends.
Warner Bros. Studio Tour, The Making of Harry Potter
The sets and props at Leavesden near Watford, not central London. Charing Cross, Tube to Euston, train to Watford Junction, shuttle bus.
Book weeks ahead. From Kent it is easier by car round the M25, see our days out page.
Teenagers
Up at The O2
A guided climb over the roof of The O2, from age eight, with sunset climbs.
Under 18s climb with an adult. Book.
IFS Cloud Cable Car
Transport for London's cable car across the Thames from Greenwich Peninsula to the Royal Docks.
Tap in with a bank card. Cheap and high.
ArcelorMittal Orbit and the Slide
The Olympic Park tower with the 178-metre helix tunnel slide, run by Zip World since 2025.
Pre-book. The planned zip line had no opening date when we checked.
Lee Valley White Water Centre
The 2012 Olympic slalom course at Waltham Cross. Family rafting from age eight, wilder sessions from twelve and fourteen.
By car on the M25, no London charges. Under 16s need a parent on site.
Camden Market
Six linked markets of street food, vintage and music by the canal, open daily.
Camden Town station can be exit-only on weekend afternoons; use Chalk Farm.
Borough Market
London's oldest food market by Southwark Cathedral, Tuesday to Sunday.
Lunch, then the river.
Tate Modern
Modern art in the Bankside power station with the Turbine Hall and a free terrace over the river.
Free collection. The Millennium Bridge and St Paul's are outside the door.
Escape rooms: clueQuest
Secret-agent games at King's Cross, an hour or so, nothing scary.
Works on reluctant teenagers.
Flight Club and Puttshack
Social darts and mini golf with family sessions in the daytime. Ages twelve to seventeen play darts with an adult; Puttshack from about seven.
Under 18s must be out by early evening. Pre-book.
The Crystal Maze Live Experience
The television show recreated across four zones off Shaftesbury Avenue, ages nine and up.
Under 16s with an adult. Family tickets.
Tottenham Hotspur Stadium tour and Dare Skywalk
A stadium tour and a roof walk 46 metres above the pitch, from age eight.
Arsenal's Emirates runs a self-guided tour and museum too.
Abbey Road crossing
The Beatles zebra crossing outside the studios, with a live webcam.
Free. Busiest 11 am to 3 pm.
Grown-ups and over eighteens
Horizon 22
London's highest free viewing platform, floor 58 of 22 Bishopsgate.
Free timed slots that sell out in minutes. Sky Garden is the fallback.
Churchill War Rooms
The underground Cabinet War Rooms and the Churchill Museum under Whitehall.
Two hours. Best for adults and older teens. Timed tickets.
National Gallery and Tate Britain
The free national collections at Trafalgar Square and Millbank, with the National Gallery's bicentenary programme running from May 2026.
The Tate Boat links Tate Britain to Tate Modern.
Kew Gardens
The glasshouses, the treetop walkway and Kew Palace, and Christmas at Kew in winter.
A slow full day. The Children's Garden needs a free timed slot.
City Cruises dinner cruise
A three-hour evening cruise with dinner from Westminster Pier.
Check the last train home from Charing Cross.
Brixton Village and Market Row
Caribbean, African and South American food, livelier in the evening.
For a night out with the older ones.
Shakespeare's Globe
The open-air playhouse on Bankside with cheap standing tickets in summer and the candlelit indoor playhouse in winter.
Check the current season.
The Wallace Collection and Wigmore Hall
A free collection of old masters, armour and French furniture in Manchester Square, with the chamber music hall a few doors away.
Sunday morning coffee concerts at Wigmore.
Tickets and travel
- Free for everyone: the Natural History Museum, the Science Museum (Wonderlab charged), Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the National Gallery, London Museum Docklands, the Horniman, Young V&A, the National Maritime Museum, and in recent years the British Museum and the V&A. Special exhibitions are paid.
- Under elevens travel free on the Tube, buses, DLR and Overground with a fare-paying adult. Contactless cards cap the daily total. Check tfl.gov.uk/fares for eleven to fifteen-year-olds.
- Southeastern's Kids for a Quid takes up to four children for £1 each with an adult on off-peak trains from Tonbridge. A Family and Friends Railcard pays for itself in a couple of trips. southeasternrailway.co.uk.
- Sunday engineering works on the Tonbridge lines are common. Check the journey planner the week before.
- If you drive, the Congestion Charge and the Ultra Low Emission Zone both apply, every day. Chessington and Lee Valley are reachable on the M25 without entering either. tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving.
Questions we are asked
- How do we get from Hamptons Farmhouse to London?
- Drive fifteen minutes to Tonbridge station and take the train to London Bridge in 30 to 40 minutes, or direct to Charing Cross. Children travel for £1 with Southeastern's Kids for a Quid off peak.
- Which London museums are free for children?
- The Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, Tate Modern, Tate Britain, the National Gallery, London Museum Docklands, the Horniman, Young V&A and the National Maritime Museum are all free, with special exhibitions charged.
- What is best in London for a toddler?
- The Diana Memorial Playground in Kensington Gardens, reopened in August 2026, the Garden gallery at the Science Museum, Coram's Fields and Battersea Park Children's Zoo. All are free or cheap and none needs a full day.
- Is the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London?
- No. It is at Leavesden near Watford, north of London. From Kent it is about an hour and a half by car round the M25. Book weeks ahead.