Our college-age son James and I took a trip to London over his spring break in early March. He’d brought up the idea. My initial thought was that we’d been there a few years back, but then I realized that the last time he’d been to London, he was 7 years old. My, does time fly!

Admittedly, sunny beach destinations are more common than London for March spring break. But, London’s tons of interesting cultural attractions more than made up for it to us. It’s easy to spend a week exploring London and still run out of time to see things. As a bonus, the weather ended up cooperating for us with dry days all week, albeit with typical overnight rain.

Here’s our plan, and how it went-

The Plan

The plan was to travel from Saturday to Saturday – and for simplicity to base ourselves in London for the whole week. I took the daytime Saturday flight from Boston, while James arrived early Sunday, coming from Chicago. We picked a hotel in Russell Square, near the British Museum – arbitrary, but found a good deal with breakfast included.

We largely didn’t plan activities much in advance. This worked in March though probably would work less well with the peak summer crowds. That said, we ended up doing two day trips:

• Paris via the Eurostar train – the train ride is 2.5 hours each direction, making a day trip possible (though on the long side). I’d ridden in the “Chunnel” once before, year ago, but note that, like airline tickets, the fares are better with advance purchase.
• Cambridge – we wanted to see this famous university town.

We’d also considered day trips to Bath + Stonehenge, Oxford, and for that matter, nearby Greenwich. But like London, it’s easy to have too many choices for too little time.

We debated booking timed tickets, but mostly skipped this and were fine in March. A few like St Paul’s or the London Eye, we bought on the walk to the attraction. We did buy Westminster Cathedral tickets a couple days in advance, but mostly because Commonwealth Day celebrations meant that it was closed for a couple days in a row.

Day 1 (Sunday): Orientation/Arrival (Changing of the Guard, Westminster Area/Thames/Covent Garden/Hyde Park)

Since James came straight from a red-eye, the plan for arrival day was low-key exploration rather than grinding through a long list of sites.

After breakfast at the hotel, we started walking towards Buckingham Palace and made it to Buckingham Palace just in time to catch the Changing of the Guard. It was the day before Commonwealth Day, which meant there were flags set up all around Westminster – James was particularly taken with those. Honestly, the Changing of the Guard was decent but on the crowded and slow side; James got a little restless, so we moved on fairly quickly. Worth seeing once, but probably not something I’d plan a whole morning around.

From there, we walked towards Westminster and Big Ben, took a few photos on the bridge, and strolled past the London Eye. We skipped the Eye that day – it was a bit cloudy and debatable whether the views would be worth it (we ended up going later in the week, and I’m glad we waited). We then wandered through Whitehall and Trafalgar Square before making our way to Covent Garden, where we grabbed lunch at a focaccia spot. Good food, nice tea.

After lunch, James went back to the hotel to rest – reasonable, given the red-eye – and I used the time productively, booking the Paris Eurostar for later in the week along with a few other tickets, including a show. James had mentioned Paris early in the trip; I’d floated it a while back and it had kind of sat there as a vague idea. Now that we were here, it made sense to do it.

In the late afternoon, we took the train to Hyde Park, and walked through for a while since. We attended an evening church service nearby at Holy Trinity Brompton – this is something we try to do when traveling, and found a modern worship service in a beautiful 1800s church. After the service, we had a really good Lebanese dinner nearby, walked past Harrods, and eventually made our way back to the hotel via Green Park. A full first day despite the slow start.

Day 2 (Monday): Tower of London, St Paul’s, the Millennium Bridge, London Eye

Monday, we started with breakfast, headed on the bus to the Tower of London.

The Tower was fun, though the grounds included plenty of school groups. The highlights included the Crown Jewels (try to see these earliest to avoid lines), the ravens, a walk along the wall, and some interesting trivia. We learned that in the 1250’s, the King of Norway gave the King of England a polar bear, and they apparently let it swim on the Thames while attached to a long rope.

After the Tower, we grabbed burgers at an Honest Burger nearby, and then briefly stopped at Leadenhall Market on the way to St Paul’s Cathedral. We spent over an hour in St Paul’s, including walking around the dome at several different levels. I’d been there before, but apparently never climbed to the very top – it’s a beautiful building with excellent views from the top.

From St Paul’s, we crossed the Millennium Bridge, walked by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, and then walked along the South Bank towards the London Eye. We booked tickets on that walk, and I’m glad we waited until Monday – our capsule only had one other party, and the clouds had started to burn off. There were nice views of the city.

After the Eye, we crossed at Waterloo and walked through Trafalgar Square and St James’s Park before heading up to dinner. We had made a reservation at Din Tai Fung in Covent Garden, which has good Chinese dumplings. After that, we wandered through Chinatown, additionally grabbed McDonald’s shakes near Leicester Square, and took a long walk back to our hotel via Covent Garden.

After fact, we realized we’d walked 30k steps, I supposed in our excitement we hadn’t paced ourselves, but had a lot of fun!

Day 3 (Tuesday): Westminster Abbey, Natural History Museum, Matilda Show

Westminster Abbey was our first stop Tuesday morning. It’s a must-do with the notable graves and memorials at every turn, though feels more like “crowded tourist museum” than church. Given its popularity, we booked this timed ticket a couple days in advance.

For lunch, we’d went to Dishoom, which is a popular and well-rated Indian restaurant chain in London. It had good samosas and a nice atmosphere. James learned about it from a friend, and when walking by later in the trip, saw a long line out the door. Get a reservation if you go.

In the afternoon we headed to the Natural History Museum, which James suggested going to. The whale skeleton, the dinosaurs, the polar bears – it’s a well-done museum. As a bonus, entrance is free.

We took the tube back to the hotel for rest. For the evening, we’d booked a show – Mathilda the Musical, which was James’ suggestion. As we were running short on time, we ended up getting a quick bite at Five Guys before the 8pm start time. There are a ton of theaters around Covent Garden, it’s always fun to see a show there.

Day 4 (Wednesday): Day Trip to Cambridge

Wednesday was the day we’d planned to go to Cambridge. We caught the 9am train from St Pancras station, arrived around 10, and walked from the station into the town centre to the market square.

Cambridge is a beautiful historic university town, we really liked it. We ended up following the “Rick Steve’s” tour route from his book to see the town, After walking by a couple of the colleges, we saw the gardens and old stonework, and stopped into the archaeology museum. For lunch we found a Japanese noodle bowl place. Then in the afternoon, we visited the famous King’s College Chapel and booked ourselves onto a punting boat for a trip along the river. Our boat had seven people from three different groups; it was a relaxed way to see the colleges from the water.

After punting, more wandering, more bookshops, and a matcha tea stop that James spotted in a window. We ended up taking the 4:30 train back rather than the planned 6:30 – a good call, since Paris was the next morning and we both needed rest. James fell asleep on the train on the way back. We had Pizza Pilgrims for dinner near the hotel, which his friends had suggested, and is recommended.

Day 5 (Thursday): Paris Day Trip

This one was a long day, but fun. Since our hotel was only a 20 minute walk from San Pancras Station, I figured that our 7am train would let us leave the hotel around 6:20 or so, but I got an email advising us to get there an hour early to handle passport control. So 5:30am wakeup it was. Keep this in mind.

With the time change, our 2.5 hour train arrived in Paris at 10:30am and we made a full day of it:

• Notre Dame: Closed for 5 years after the fire, it recently reopened. I was eager to see it restored, and made this our first stop, taking the metro. They restored it well, the architecture is is always impressive.
• Luxembourg Gardens: A quick wander — always a lovely spot.
• Lunch: We grabbed a very quick lunch (at least by French standards), there’s a bakery near Luxembourg Garden that I remember from having spent a week near there years ago.
• Les Halles / Centre Pompidou / Louvre / Tuileries Garden: Pompidou is under renovation, which we learned on the train. We took an (admittedly long) walk by this core tourist area, deliberately skipping the museums, but mostly taking in the atmosphere, and stopping at the pyramid.
• Orangerie Museum: Intended to pop in this one (in the past I’d just walked in), but due to renovations it was reservations only that day. Oh well.
• Angelina Tea Room: Sitting by the Louvre Pyramid, James and I talked about going to a cafe, but then saw a “tea room” on the map app. I’d learned about the “Salon de Thé” eons ago in French class, so we went. It was somewhat posh but fun. Their hot chocolate is more like drinking chocolate sauce.
• Eiffel Tower: We went to the summit, which I hadn’t done before. The previous times, it just didn’t work out, or I’d only gone to the mid-level. Clear enough to see far, and great views of the city from the top.
• Trocadéro: Crossed the bridge from the tower and took in the classic view. It’s a great spot in Paris for a photo.
• Arc de Triomphe: Walked by before jumping on the train to Gare du Nord.

Dinner before the train back was at a “Quick Burger” near the station prior to our 8pm train. We’d considered a baguette, but sitting down was the right call given how much ground we’d covered. We picked up a Starbucks mug (a travel tradition in our family). Then it was the Eurostar home, tired but happy.

Day 6 (Friday): Churchill War Rooms, British Museum, Regent Street

It was hard to believe that the week was almost over! We then tried to pick what to see the final day.

The Churchill War Rooms were a great visit – the underground cabinet war rooms are preserved well from WWII, and the attached Churchill museum is thorough.

We had lunch at Shake Shack in Covent Garden (James’s call), and then we stopped into the London Transport Museum right nearby (he preferred this to the National Portrait Gallery), which was had an interesting history of the transit in London.

From there, the British Museum was our main afternoon stop. It’s huge, you could a ton of time there, and it has impressive artifacts appropriated from around the world. I really liked the Assyrian stone reliefs – enormous carved figures. Bubble tea on the way out, then back to the hotel for a rest.

After an afternoon rest, we took the train to Regent’s Park for a quick walk, and then along Oxford Street, Regent Street, and Carnaby Street – good shopping area. James picked up a sweater and socks. We also wandered into Fortnum & Mason, which was unexpectedly mobbed – apparently a popular stop for tea.

For our last dinner we went to the Urumchi Uyghur restaurant, which serves Central Asian food. It was pretty full so we sat outside — not the warmest evening, but worth it. An interesting and different option from the usual London dinner rotation.

Day 7 (Saturday): Windsor Castle and Goodbye

James had a noon flight back to college, while my flight home was at 5pm. We had a final breakfast together, took a short walk around the block, and then took the Piccadilly metro Line to Heathrow. I saw him off at the security gate.

For my own departure, I had booked a morning entry slot at Windsor Castle, which is relatively close to Heathrow – both on the west side of the city. I stored my baggage at the Excess Baggage Company, then took a Bolt car (local Uber competitor) to Windsor, arriving just in time for my 11:30 entry window. Windsor is worth the trip: the rooms are beautifully maintained. Afterwards, I had fish and chips in the town, and took a walk around the town center. After hanging out for a while, I took a taxi back to the airport.

Good end to a good trip.

A Few Practical Notes

• UK ETA: As of 2026, many countries, including the US, need an Electronic Travel Authorization before entering the UK. It’s straightforward to apply for online and inexpensive, but don’t forget to do it before you travel.
• Transportation: We used a mix of Tube, bus, and walking. If you have a contactless credit card, you can just tap it to pay, rather than buying a special transit card (though need a separate card for each person in your party). It will cap charges on a given day/week if you use more than the daily/weekly limit.
• Paris day trip: If you do this, book the Eurostar well in advance if you can — prices go up closer to the date. Account for the passport control at St Pancras and arrive at least 45 minutes before departure (the gates will not accept tickets less than 30 minutes prior to departure). A 7am train is efficient but requires a very early start.
• Cambridge: The 9am train from St Pancras is a good rhythm — gives you a full day without rushing. “Punting” on the river is worth doing; most of the operators work in a similar way and you can usually get on a shared boat without booking ahead in low season.
• Weather in early March: Rain is always possible, but we had dry days all week. Layers and a rain layer are still worth packing. Early March was roughly 50F/10C all week – which was warm coming from Boston – but not beach weather.
• Dining: Worth noting that most of our restaurant picks came from James, who’d crowd-sourced recommendations from his college friends before the trip (“where should I get my dad to take me?”). It worked well – Din Tai Fung, Dishoom (Indian), and the Uyghur restaurant were our clear favorites, and I’d trust the same approach again. Honest Burger and Pizza Pilgrims are solid casual options. Leadenhall Market is worth a stop if you’re in that part of the City.

Closing Thoughts

Traveling with a college-age kid is a different experience than traveling with younger children, and mostly in good ways. James and I walked a lot of miles together, talked about all sorts of things, and had a lot of fun in the process. It was good that only did light advance planning, since he came with many ideas and suggestions (many from his friends), which livened the trip and gave it more character. In any case, a week in London with a few side trips is a great trip with a young adult.