A Day Out In London with Teens - A review

4 posts
Clare (Admin)
Posts: 155
Joined: Nov 2017
Options:
Share this post on:

A Day Out In London with Teens - A review

Postby Clare (Admin) » Thu Aug 08, 2019 2:14 pm

Visiting teens or trying to keep teens off screens?  We’ve just had a fab day out in London with my teenage nephew & niece visiting from New York.  As children of the ‘The Big Apple’ and gorgeous as they are, they’ve pretty much done & seen ever-ry-thing.  Here’s what we did and by all accounts it was banging:    

Afternoon at Topshop.  Yes the whole afternoon and they want to go again and again and again, so that’s a win. 

We then headed off to The City and queued (forever) for the Sky Garden @sg_skygarden but it was soooo worth it.  All the bookable slots sold out ages ago but we queued (with snacks and sweets to hand) and made it just before the sun set.  Instagram heaven and selfie gold.  The virgin cocktails and live band were really cool too. 

We then headed off to Soho to Inamo @inamorestaurant for some pan-Asian bites at this award winning, techy restaurant.  The interactive menu is projected onto the table with pics of each dish, side order and dinks.  The sushi dragon is ultra-cute.  Everybody was totally absorbed exploring all the options and making their choices.  There’s retro games too plus a live chef cam so all in all a great vibe and everybody loved it.   

On the way home, we rounded off the evening with scoops of delicious ice-cream from the fab Jefferson Ice cream on Balham High Road @jeffersonicecream – thanks guys for serving us just as you were closing for the night.  

The result:  Huge smiles, chatty, engaged teens and bags of genuine thank yous plus requests that we do it all again when they are over next.


 
Attachments
London 5.jpg
London 4.jpg
London 1.jpg
Post Reply
Lili27
Posts: 12
Joined: Dec 2013
Options:
Share this post on:

Re: A Day Out In London with Teens - A review

Postby Lili27 » Mon Aug 12, 2019 10:20 am

All great suggestions many thanks but may I ask what they tallied up to in total? It doesn't strike me as a particularly cheap day...?
Post Reply
monaco
Posts: 310
Joined: Mar 2009
Options:
Share this post on:

Re: A Day Out In London with Teens - A review

Postby monaco » Tue Aug 13, 2019 7:28 am

So kind of you to take the time to share your ideas with us. Definitely keeping notes of those i didn’t know about. If you do more days do come back to share again!
For stylish family holiday ideas in hotels and villas with pools, visit https://fromthepoolside.com
Post Reply
Clare (Admin)
Posts: 155
Joined: Nov 2017
Options:
Share this post on:

Re: A Day Out In London with Teens - A review

Postby Clare (Admin) » Tue Aug 13, 2019 6:26 pm

Great to hear that the review has been useful.

The most important bit of info to know is that THE SKY GARDEN IS FREE to visit so ENTRY is FREE.  It’s at the top of the Walkie Talkie building which is 20 Fenchurch Street in The City.  The view is amazing and it’s London’s highest public garden.  It’s three storeys of lush, terraced, tropical gardens, observation decks, floor to ceiling windows and a huge atrium, 360 degree views across London, an outside terrace, bars, a restaurant and free live music in the evenings Wednesdays to Sundays (I think).  You can book ahead FOR FREE (if you are organised) but you can just rock up and wait.  Being August and FREE I knew that all the bookable slots would be sold out.  I did double check and they are.  We chatted to the kids about having to queue before we set out.  They were offered the option of mooching around Covent Garden enjoying the buskers etc but they opted for the Sky Garden.   We were armed with a bag of haribos, a bag of extra-large chocolate buttons and a tube on pringles.  Everybody had their own water bottle.  We waited ages:  more or less an hour and a half – but the teens wanted to see the sunset over London.  We spent the wait chatting and the kids spent ages on their phone loading their Topshop selfies onto snapchat / Instagram et al, tagging and hash-tagging.  As I said it was soooo worth the wait.  They loved the Sky Garden and went into selfie overdrive.    Here’s the link to the website:  https://skygarden.london/sky-garden   

I wasn’t doing this special trip on a budget as my nephew & niece only visit every 3 or 4 years and sometimes the gap between visits is even longer.    A visit to the Topshop flagship store at Oxford Circus was top of their must do list and totally non-negotiatable.  It’s all about the Topshop label and shopping.  They were beyond excited.  They’d saved pocket money for this and their parents were happy (given the exchange rate) to get them clothes as they don’t have a school uniform.  Having said that, my daughter can spend an afternoon in Topshop choosing hairclips for a fiver!

I chose Inamo restaurant for the experience not just for the food.  Everybody really enjoyed exploring the interactive tech and it kept the conversation going as we all explored together.   The teens aren’t that adventurous food wise so we stuck to 2 large sharing plates and rice – the Korean BBQ rack of ribs was something like £16 and were delicious.  It was coca colas or tap water for the kids and a large glass or wine for me!    Here’s the link:  https://www.inamo-restaurant.com/our-venues/inamo-soho/

Run by a local family, Jeffersons Ice Cream Parlour is in Balham and makes the most delicious ice cream.  They loved it so much that the teens opted for this as a dessert on their last night after a big family meal at my house.   It's £3 something for a tub of deliciousness.  Jeffersons is now available via Deliveroo but the teens preferred to amble down to the parlour.  Here's the website:  
https://www.jeffersonsicecream.com/our-menu

Time Out  and Visit London were both great website to look at as was googling London with teens.  Hope this helps and if you’ve got any top tips do let us know. 


Cx
Post Reply

Start a conversation
To create a new post and start a new conversation, please click on the button.