Frommer s London with Kids (Frommers With Your Family Series) 
Customer Ratings: - Good guide, not quite as well organised as the competition. I bought both this book and the Cadogan Take the Kids guide (Take the Kids: London (Cadogan Guides)) while planning a trip to London. If I was shopping again, I d probably still buy both, but I have a slight preference for the Cadogan guide. I think the layout is slightly better and it s easier to find things. The Frommer guide has a slightly more prose-like feel.
Both are still far better than the traditional guides if you re travelling with Children. - clear, simple and extremely heplful. My copy is BATTERED after a month in London with my wife and kids. So I m buying a new one. Going on holiday with your children (mine are three and four) is great but can be a nightmare. A guide is essential, and this guide has done everything I asked of it. Cheap, good food, interesting little visits to places I d never known existed (the Peter Pan statue for example), help with all the logistical pitfalls that exist when you re in a big city with little people... If you re coming to the UK with munchkins, you could do worse than consider this book. A gem.
- Relaxed London!. We have recently returned from one of the best holidays we ve ever had thanks to this London guide! I bought the book a month before we went and used it to plan and book stuff. It s easy to use, clearly laid out - with some lovely extras you might not expect like Kids Favourite London Events and The Best Rides . The guide to child-friendly accomodation gives a very comprehensive run-down of what s available. There s a huge choice of styles and prices. We went for a small (cheap)family run hotel in a superb location, (within walking distance in fact of most places we wanted to go), it had a lounge downstairs where you could read, or have internet access - perfect for those times when our son needed an early night. (We have sat in the half light whispering to each other in larger hotels where the lounge is just too far away from the bedroom to be able to leave him). The fact I was able to make such an appropriate choice for us was really entirely down to the guidebook which is full of the kind of detail which prompts you to think about these things.
The layout of this London Guide also tends to encourage you to explore alternatives you might not otherwise have considered - because they would just not have occurred to you, for example a Take me to the River highlighted box in the rides section and another on Park Life in the middle of the family friendly dining section - and although we didn t do it this visit I would definitely consider staying in one of the well described London youth hostels next time we go (I didn t even know they had family accomodation).
One of the biggest successes of this bbok for us had to be the restaurants - the pick of great places to go in the family friendly dining section is marvellous: we were on a budget but even so we ate in a place on the Kings Road with tables in the ceiling you had to cliimb a ladder to get to, took a picnic from nearby Harrods to the Science museum, and had a pre-theatre lunch (an expensive treat) in Smollenskys on the Strand on a kids day which included a clown, face-painting, a (hilarious) magician, a Harry Potter DVD and another game (which I have forgotten but no doubt my son still remembers - he had such a great time!). All this while parents sipped cocktails and ate the wonderful food (probably tasted better because we weren t getting hassled!) So relaxing! -And just think that without the guide we might have ended up in a run-of-the mill burger restaurant.
The information is all presented in a very chatty informal style which made for easy reading and although the title is London with Kids I used it again very successfully to find single budget accomodation for myself on a business trip to London last week.
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Frommer s London with Kids (Frommers With Your Family Series) (ID: 0470165456)
