Regardless of your reason for visiting London, this amazing place has got something to offer to everyone who visits. Be it history buffs who are looking to brush up their British narratives or art admirers, there are places like the Tower of London and National Gallery which can quench their cultural thirst. On the other hand, monarchy fans won’t be able to skip Buckingham Palace. London can be notoriously costly but we can’t deny the fact that it is also filled with both modern-day and historical attractions for even the most frugal travelers who are visiting on a tight budget.
So, if you’re ready for the trip or you’re almost there, what are the things that you should do and the places that you should visit? Read on…

British Museum
One of the top attractions of London is the British Museum. It is home to few of the world’s most noteworthy antiques and is also a piece of architectural beauty. From Lindow Man to the Elgin Marbles to Rosetta Stone, the British Museum is a treasure trove which contains countless artefacts. The British Museum is a destination in its own right and you could easily spend a whole day there, however if you’re tight on time and need to fit in other attractions you may choose to go for a coach hire and travel to some of the other attractions on the list.

Tower of London
Don’t allow it’s impressive and towering exterior in fooling you to think that the Tower is old fashioned and no fun; the interior of the London Tower is alive with activity. The tower comprises of multiple towers, among which 12 of them can be explored by visitors. If you’re a kind of person who is simply enchanted with the monarch’s history, you shouldn’t miss the exhibition of Crown Jewels. Little known fact: the Tower of London is officially Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and was built back in the twelfth century.

Buckingham Palace
Buckingham Palace is Queen Elizabeth II’s London home and it is a place which is open for visitors during summers. During this tour, you are allowed to access 19 State Rooms where the members of the royal family and the Queen host guests for state and official event. Besides the grand interiors, the State Rooms also speak a lot about its history. If you remember the Royal Wedding, you will also recognize the Throne Room which is the common backdrop for most official photographs. The changing of the guard is a great occasion to watch for tourists both young and old. Here’s me and Boo for the now obligatory selfie during our late trip to Buckingham Palace.

Westminster Abbey
This medieval church dating back to the eleventh century has been host to fifty five royal coronations; offering a splendid sneak peek into the far-reaching history of London. Westminster Abbey is a very busy place and the staff keep moving at a fast pace. It is also the final resting place of authors like Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer and Rudyard Kipling with over 300 people being laid to rest at Westminster Abbey.

If you are confused about how to commute throughout London, you need not worry as there are minibus hire London services from where you can get buses for traveling from one place of attraction to another. Giving you one less thing to worry about meaning you can get on with the serious business of discovering London.

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post.

Lists, my whole life is made of lists: book a haircut, pick up some food shopping, buy school shoes –there’s lots and lots of things that I have to constantly remember to book and buy, and I’m continually spending money from the housekeeping budget on things that are hardly exciting. Sorry, call me a diva, but I struggle to see my daily latte as exciting. However, what would happen if I told you that all your day-to-day family spending could earn you extraordinary rewards, such as flights to faraway places like Prague or even the States? Or maybe you would like to upgrade your stay to a 5* hotel? Well, say hello to Avios Travel Rewards.

Avios Travel Rewards programme allows you to collect Avios through your everyday spending, giving you the opportunity to spend them on flights and lots of different exhilarating experiences.
The team at Avios set me the challenge of recording everything I spent over an average week, which they then analysed to see how many potential Avios I could collect over a year if I were to shop via the Avios eStore and their other partners. They also showed me where this amount of Avios could take me and Boo.

Firstly, errmmmm it’s ridiculously scary to see your weekly spend in black and white – every single penny! Coming away from this I need to address my coffee shop spending, it’s insane; however the Avios team calculated that over the year and making minor changes to my spending habits i.e. booking my train tickets using a different website, I could potentially collect nearly 100,000 Avios – that’s enough for two return tickets to the Big Apple, with only the taxes and fees to pay. Suddenly all those boring purchases made throughout the year seem rather attractive to this wanderulust family.

There’s a multitude of ways to collect Avios: from your weekly food shop to booking train tickets, there’s an almost endless list of retailers available on the Avios website and it didn’t take me long to realise that there’s lots of small swaps you can do, to find a retailer to purchase from which allows you to collect and maximise your accumulation of Avios.

Signing up to Avios rewards is super quick and easy. After just a few minutes you’re set up and ready to go – the simplest way to explain how the collection of Avios works is it’s akin to the cash back systems that people are familiar with. By logging in to Avios website it allows qualifying purchases from partner retailers to be added to your account and before you know it, you can be sunning yourself on the beach or exploring a European city with a rewards flight using the Avios you collected. The only monies payable are taxes and surcharges. And redeemable flights start from 9,000 Avios. You can also use your Avios on hotels, car hire and experiences such as family trips out.

To help jump start getting you closer to your holiday goal, Avios are giving away 10,000 Avios to one lucky winner, plus two prizes of 5,000 Avios and 3 prizes 2,500. If you’re new to Avios or would like to top your Avios balance, make sure to enter!

Not everyday can be a travel adventure for me and Boo, but with Avios our everyday spending can allow us to travel the world – surely proving that my hefty coffee shop habit is in fact good for us…

Disclosure: I am a member of the Mumsnet Bloggers Panel, a group of parent bloggers who have volunteered to review products, services, events and brands for Mumsnet. I have not paid for the product or to attend an event. I have editorial control and retain full editorial integrity. I have received a voucher as a token of thanks for this post.

What do you get the Boo who has everything? This is a twice yearly conundrum that I face with me choosing to expose her to experiences rather than gifts, that way she makes unforgettable memories and we don’t drown under a mountain of toys at home.

Chessington World of Adventures seem to agree and invited Boo and me along for an unforgettable birthday treat. We’re lucky to live about a twenty minute drive so after the waking up as a six year old and all the cards and presents we set off on a surprise adventure; Boo had absolutely no idea where we were heading. It wasn’t until we pulled into the Chessington Hotel car park that Boo twigged we were spending the day at the theme park which was a thrill in itself. We made our way to the hotel reception at Safari Hotel where they directed us to the VIP experience desk – Boo still had no idea that we were about to feed the giraffes, I’d told her that I needed to pick the tickets up for the theme park and sort car parking out.

After I’d checked us in for our feeding experience it was time for the big reveal – I really regret not filming her reaction, it was the surprise of all surprises and after she’d stop squealing with excitement she kept asking if I was sure! Right on cue our VIP experience hosts announced it was time for us to head on over to the giraffe house to feed them.

It’s a short walk from the hotel to the giraffes and in no time at all we were walking in and saying good morning to Chessington’s five resident giraffes. We all know just how big a giraffe is (male giraffes can grow as tall as 5 metres!) but nothing prepares you for the sheer size of them when you’re so close to them. They are such beautiful and majestic creatures that you’re instantly captivated by them. Boo took an instant shine to Oscar and Napoli and once they had finished eating their breakfast it was time to try our hand at feeding them ourselves.

Boo was super excited to get stuck in, it was a dream come true as her favourite animal is a giraffe with her first ever soft toy being a giraffe called Necky which was the toy in NICU incubator! Oh and also she has a five foot plush giraffe which she got for her first Christmas, courtesy of Grandma!

The feeding experience was a great way to get up close to these amazing animals, the keepers were telling us such great facts about them – did you know that they are super sensitive to touch – and were also keen to answer any questions that we had, we learnt so much about the international breeding programme and how all the giraffes at Chessington are males.

The giraffe feeding experience is available to book throughout the day for different slots (although advance booking is recommended) and costs £20 per person and is suitable for 5 year olds and over.

Alas our time with the giraffes was up and we headed back to the hotel for a birthday breakfast before hitting the rides.

The weather was pretty pants but in my opinion that’s the best time to go as it’s quieter meaning shorter queue times. As regulars at Chessington it was lovely to go on so many rides that are so familiar to us and also try out a few new ones seeing as Boo has hit the height requirement for The Vampire and Cobra ride – what I can I say: Boo’s a thrill seeking daredevil when it comes to rollercoasters just like me.

Big thanks to Chessington World of Adventures for going above and beyond for Boo’s birthday, she had a blast… Because when you’re six, every birthday is a big one!

Disclosure: We were guests of Chessington for the entire day.