This past Christmas break we took a trip to London and Barcelona! We split the time with 6 days for London and 6 days in Barcelona. Here are a few planning and travel tips that I thought I'd share after our trip. If you are new around here then you may not know but we are a family of 7 almost 8. Chris and I plus 5 kids and they are 10 & under with ages 10, 8, 6, 3 & 1 with another baby boy on the way!
Packing - We had all carry on luggage! Check your airline for exact dimensions. My kids rolled their own PBK backpacks and carried a small backpack while my husband and I each carried a larger backpack.
Tip - Use zip loc bags to contain smaller clothing items and space saver bags for larger/bulky clothing items (similar to these ones here). No vacuum needed you just roll the air out of them to get things to fit more compactly. Since it was winter the space saver bags helped a lot!
Parking - At JFK we paid to park our car in long term parking then took the airport tram to the terminal.
Tip - take a photo of where you parked and where you got on the tram.
(London Gatewick Airport)
Tip - bring an empty reusable water bottle for everyone. Once through security you can fill it and refill it on the plane. This haws helped us reduce spilling accidents with my little ones!
Airport - After arriving very late at night into LGW we took the airport tram out to the North terminal. This newer Premier Inn airport hotel was conveniently across the street from where the airport tram dropped us off and you can check it out here.
Getting into London - the next morning we took the airport tram back to the terminals and purchased a one way train ticket at the kiosk for the Gatwick express to Victoria Station.
Tip - save some money and buy tickets for the Southern line to Victoria Station. (We did this returning to the airport and it was only 10 minutes longer plus children 10 & under are free)
Once we got to Victoria Station we transferred to the tube to Pimlico Station and then walked about 10 minutes to the Double Tree Westminister.
Tip - Don't hassle with buying/returning an Oyster card if you have a credit card with contactless payment capabilities and NO foreign transaction fees. Use the same card and when you have reached the max for the day (4.50 pounds bus travel and 13.20 pounds for the tube zones 1-6 or less if only traveling in certain zones) then rest of your public transit is free for that day! Check their website for more information here.
(Victoria Station)
Tip - request the playpen/rollaway with your reservation since there is probably limited availability. Ours were set up in our room when we checked in!
London Pass - I purchased the 3 day pass for 2 adults and 3 kids because there are also free things to do in London. We also only had 5 days to site see so it didn't make sense for us to buy a longer pass.
Tip - Download the app and save the pass to your phone. I did not see that option at the time and chose to pick up in order to save on shipping. Their pick up location was easy to find and was clearly labelled near the National Gallery.
Strollers - We chose not to take our Baby.Jogger city select double stroller on this trip. We chose instead to take the Doona car seat/stroller for our 1 year old and the Graco Jetsetter for our 3 year old. Knowing we would be using public transit a lot these two individual strollers would make it easier to get on/off.
Tip - Check where you are going to see if there are any restrictions on baby bags, strollers, food, bottles, and etc. If there were I made sure to leave what I could at the hotel so we wouldn't have to find a storage locker for our backpack.
I hope you found this information helpful for when you plan your next trip to London or wherever you may go!
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