London, UK - Must see museums with kids

You can spend weeks in London and still only see a fraction of what this city has to offer. So below is what in my personal opinion are the very best museums to visit with kids. 

1. Natural History Museum. This museum is huge and you can easily spend days here. So it is important to choose two or three main things you are interested in prior to the visit. One section that can't be missed is the dinosaurs (left off the main entrance). There is a moving T-Rex there as well as other life-like dinosaurs. The best way to plan your visit is to look at the timetable on the website below, choose the date you are visiting and see what is going on. There are workshops and special exhibitions, so it is easy to choose things that you like.

http://www.nhm.ac.uk

One thing that we haven't done yet but will absolutely do soon is a sleepover in the museum (called dinosnores). It is only available once a month and always appear to be booked, so need to plan well in advance.  

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit/whats-on/programs/nhm/dino_snores.html

2. National Science Museum. Actually this one is my personal favourite for kids. Permanent exhibitions are amazing and there are always special events going on. So best to plan with information about specific events, workshops, presentations, etc. on the day of the visit which is on the website. There is also a nice IMAX cinema showing a range of excellent educational movies. Visiting this museum, as NHM, require pretty much a full day, so don't expect to do anything major on the same date.

http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk

3. Saatchi Gallery. Wonderful not very big contemporary arts gallery. Probably the best, if you like contemporary art. This gallery is located just off Kings Road in Chelsea. This street has quite a few cool and expensive shops and great restaurants. Including one of my most favourite called Eight over Eight at the very end of Kings Road. You can have a nice day, starting with a breakfast in a lovely pancake place called My Old Dutch, go to the gallery, walk on Kings Road and have a nice lunch at Eight over Eight.

http://www.saatchigallery.com

http://www.rickerrestaurants.com/eight-over-eight/

http://www.myolddutch.com/

Another option for lunch or dinner on Kings Road is Bluebird Cafe which is great too.

http://www.bluebird-restaurant.co.uk/at/cafe-chelsea/

4. Tate Modern. Another contemporary arts museum. Huge and impressive both architecturally as well as from the exhibitions point of view. It is on the other side of the river from St. Paul's Cathedral, so can do both on the same day.

http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern

https://www.stpauls.co.uk

5. London Aquarium. We have been to a few aquariums around the world and this one is amongst the best.  I think the sharks are pretty impressive and for me is the best thing about this aquarium.  

You can combine the visit to London Aquarium with London Eye. You should prebook online to get the discount and to avoid the queues. There is also a Dali exhibition next to it but unless you are a big fan, I personally wouldn't waste my time.

https://www2.visitsealife.com/london/

https://www.londoneye.com

6. Tower of London. This is a good place to get a bit of history obviously...  The guided tours are really good and crown jewels are pretty impressive.

http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon/

7. Buckingham Palace. A lot of people like going and watching changing of the guard at the Buckingham Palace.  The ceremony lasts about 45 minutes and usually takes place daily at 11:30 from April until the end of July and on alternate days for the rest of the year, weather permitting.  

You can visit a part of Buckingham Palace (the State Rooms) for a couple of month a year (end of July until end of September).

https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/the-state-rooms-buckingham-palace

8. Where NOT to go.

My personal opinion and it is very very personal...

Madame Tussauds.  Well I do think the wax sculptures and their resemblance to real people are quite amazing but I really don't care for celebrities, so really personally don't see the point.

London Dungeons. Never been but sounds pretty horrid and pretty silly. Just doesn't appeal to me.

London Zoo. Small and really not worth wasting your time if you have been to other zoos. Whipsnade on the other hand is an amazing place but it is out of town albeit not too far.

https://www.zsl.org/zsl-whipsnade-zoo

9. Other places to consider visiting.   And there are plenty of other wonderful museums in London, such as British Museum, V&A, etc, etc.  One can't list them all...

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

http://www.vam.ac.uk/