Tolbert Travels

Trip Dates: Early June 2024 // Itinerary for 4 days

I think about our time in England often, as we spent the majority of last June abroad. My mom introduced us to friends that she made in college 30 years ago when she studied abroad at the University of Manchester. It was an extremely special trip, and it all began in London.

Looking back, I am so grateful that the trip was postponed due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, as I then got to go on the trip with my husband and son. I am finally sitting down to write about England on the family blog, so this first post is dedicated to LONDON…

Elias was 13 months old when he rocked his 5th flight from Dulles to Heathrow via British Airways on June 4th. It was his first experience sleeping in the infant seat while we ate a late supper. Their infant seats can be used by little ones from birth up to 24 months, who weigh no more than 27.6lbs. These seats are secured onto the carrycot position by cabin crew, and it was funny watching E smile at others who we couldn’t see. Here is a picture of him sleeping for a bit in the seat while I ate dinner:

We departed at 10:45PM and it was a 7hr 15min nonstop night flight, so he slept most of the time. We arrived in London on June 5th.

Our Itinerary:

Wednesday, June 5th

• Checked into our room at Comfort Inn hotel (a double room)
• Lunch at Leon’s
• Explored all of the FREE museums we could find (ex. Natural History Museum, the Science Museum, & Victoria and Albert Museum)
• Played at the Diana Memorial Playground in the heart of Kensington Gardens which is part of Hyde Park (it was built in honor of Princess Diana; play area covers 1.2 acres – amazing!)
• Dinner: Fortune Cookie (Yum!)

Thursday, June 6th

• Tower of London (10:30am timed entry) // We spent about 3 hours here and loved every minute! From seeing the Crown Jewels to meeting the legendary Yeoman Warders and ravens to learning more about the prisoners held here … I’ll never forget it & can’t wait to return one day.)
• Lunch – all I remember is we ate something yummy on a park bench overlooking the Thames River
• Tower Bridge (2:10pm Entry Timed Ticket) // Elias enjoyed following the Tower Bridge Cat trail because he loves cats! I did not know that bridge lift times were advertised, but we just happened to be up on the glass walkway when the bridge lifted. It was so cool. Elias was enthralled!! Click here to see a schedule of bridge lift times if you don’t want to leave it up to chance. Incredible day.

• Sky Garden // The views of London are incredible and the best part? The capital’s highest public garden is FREE and rivals the Shard. (Click here to reserve your FREE ticket!) We just went up/down the elevator to walk around the garden and enjoy the views. It will feel like going through airport security to go up, but it’s so worth it! 🙂
• The Monument Great Fire of London 1666 // We were the last people to visit on this day and because we were so close to closing the man gave us a discount. I think we arrived at like 5:40pm, so we climbed up/down the stairs pretty quickly.)

Friday, June 7th

• Horse Guards Parade at Buckingham Palace; Changing of the Guard at 11:00AM
• Walked by Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament
• Lunch: Seven Dials Market
• Toured Westminster Abbey (between 1pm-2:30pm entry) and showed Elias all of the statues and incredible stained glass

• Walked by Palace of Westminster (meeting place of Parliament)
• Dinner: Princess of Wales
• Played at a park & rode on the second story of a bus (E was very interested in our views from the front row of the bus haha)

Saturday, June 8th

• Toured St. Paul’s Cathedral (entry from 10am-12pm) & went all the way up to the Golden Gallery (see pic below of Elias looking out)
• Lunch: Pizza Express
• Harrod’s Department Store (walked through)
• Played at Hyde Park & ate dinner there
• Admired Kensington Palace on our walk 🙂

Sunday, June 9th – So Long, London

• Checked out of our hotel and rented a blue van through Turo (way cheaper than us going with a traditional rental car company – yay!) We had zero issues and highly recommend Turo.
• Drove to Stonehenge & saw it for free!! How? Read our blog post here.