Category Archives: teenagers

22Aug/13

Beamish, County Durham

Durham, entrance fee, museum, teenagers, teens, young children
Beamish Museum is a huge open air museum just north of Durham in County Durham. It’s about fifteen years since I last went and it’s over a two-hour drive from our house, but we made a massive effort to get up and visit it because I remember it being such a good day out and I was sure our two older girls would love it. We left the younger children with grandparents and spent the day at Beamish.

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27Jul/13

Beaulieu National Motor Museum, Brockenhurst, Hampshire

entrance fee, Hampshire, museum, teenagers, teens, young children
The Beaulieu Estate, set in the beautiful surroundings of the New Forest, was first opened to the public in 1952. Originally it was the Palace House that welcomed visitors, until a small display of veteran cars outgrew the family home and led to the creation of a separate motor museum. Today at Beaulieu Museum there is lots to see – the Palace House and Gardens, the historic site of Beaulieu Abbey along with a museum, and of course the National Motor Museum which houses several motoring themed exhibitions. 

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24May/13

Dartmoor Zoological Park, Plymouth, Devon

Devon, entrance fee, teenagers, teens, toddlers, young children, Zoo and animals

From some very cute and playful otters to pacing wolves, and from sweet baby meerkats to full-grown hungry bears, Dartmoor Zoological Park has something for everyone and is great value for money. The home of book and Hollywood film ‘We Bought a Zoo’ (starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansen), owner Benjamin Mee lives on site and makes fairly regular appearances to sign copies of his book and answer burning questions from adults and children alike. 

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26Apr/13

Big Bus Tours, London

entrance fee, London, sightseeing, teenagers, teens, young children
Call me a geek if you like, but I love the London bus tours. They are a great way of getting your bearings and learning lots of new things about one of the  biggest cities in the world.
 
They are not cheap and you really need to do every bit of it to get your money’s worth, but I could honestly sit on them all day going round and round. Unfortunately, the day we went, we didn’t have the time to do it all (we interspersed our voyage with trips to The Royal Mews, and to have afternoon tea) but we ran like crazy to make sure we caught the last one and had a fab trip round London as the evening drew in, and the lights came up.
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25Apr/13
The Natural History Museum London

The Natural History Museum, London

free, London, museum, teenagers, teens, young children

The Natural History museum in South Kensington is huge. There are literally thousands of exhibits on dozens of different themes, all under the umbrella of our natural history. It is all housed in one of the most beautiful buildings in the capital and, best of all, is completely free to enter.

 

Natural History Museum exterior

 

With children in tow, you can’t possibly do the entire museum in a few hours. You need to be selective and do it in parts.

On our latest trip, we first visited the dinosaur exhibition. We queued to get on the gallery, where you can view the exhibits from up high, and walked round to the fascinating animatronic T-Rex. It’s very realistic (I imagine) and there were a couple of quite scared young children.

Natural History Museum T-Rex

 

Then back through the gallery and we learned all about bones, teeth, and eggs. There were things designed to let little hands touch them, and a wonderful display of cultural items stemming from our fascination with all things prehistoric, like film posters for The Land Before Time, and a collection of Zoids.
Natural History Museum dinosaur teeth
 
 
Zoids

 

 
Then we went to the Creepy Crawlies gallery where we learned all about what insects eat, and how they live and reproduce.
Natural History Museum
 
Arthropods at the Natural History Museum
 
 

Then we moved on to the large mammal room, which houses, amongst other things, an actual sized replica of a blue whale, a couple of real (but quite, quite dead) elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and antelope. You can also ascend to the gallery to look at them from above.

London museums

 

 
Then moving through to the small mammals exhibition, we saw everything from sloths to koalas and armadillos – trophies from a more exploratory era.

free museums in London

 

 
This time we spent almost 3 hours in the museum including a small stop at the museum’s cafe (top tip – unless you want to remortgage your home, take a pack-up and use the basement picnic area).



The Natural History Museum is ma-hoo-sive, and there is something for everyone. Not all is suitable for young children, and some parts will leave children hideously bored, but as its free entrance, its easy just to pick and choose which bits you want to do. 
 

There are a lot of floors and steps (though I did see lifts for pushchairs and wheelchairs). 

Be warned – we walked straight in, however as this is a free and very popular attraction, some days you may have to queue.

Nearest tube station is South Kensington, with quite possibly the longest subway ever between the station and the museum. 



Just next door is The Science Museum. Well worth combining a visit there too.

Guest writer Jennifer has also visited the Natural History Museum recently. See what she had to say here.

Things to do in London with kids

Check out our post – Things to do in London with kids