Next trip details: A long weekend in London and more Harry Potter

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Image (c) Andy Higgs, Grown-up Travel Guide

After a lot of solo travel recently I’m very pleased to report that all three of us are going to be taking part in our next trip – a long weekend in London. It’s been a while since we were last in the British capital and with Marmite supplies reaching a critical low again a visit is definitely overdue.

You can expect a number of articles from this particular family excursion too as we will be working with several companies along the way.

As usual we’ll have new hotels to experience and review and if they meet our tough standards we’ll be adding them to our list of recommended Grown-up accommodation in the Big Smoke.

We’re flying with SAS this time which means Heathrow and means changing planes en route – on the outbound we fly via Stavanger and on the inbound we have to stop in both Stavanger and Oslo. More hassle but then more airline miles and qualifying flights…

Upon arrival at the shiny new Terminal 2 we will then collect a car from our rental partner Sixt. I’m very pleased to work with these guys as I have rented from them privately several times in the past and been very pleased with their vehicles and service.

We’ll then motor off to stay with my sister and visit my parents who now live nearby.

On Thursday we hit the road and head into the city, checking in at the Hilton London Paddington.

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This looks like a very nice place to stay and it will be interesting to see how Hilton’s London properties compare with the ones I’ve used in other countries.

Then on Friday we drive to Watford for the Harry Potter Studio Tour. After the amazing time we had at Universal Studios in Orlando last summer we can’t wait for an even more in-depth look at the world of Mr P (now with the original Hogwarts Express, too). Check out the advert here:

 

On returning to London for our last two nights we will be staying at the Hampton London Waterloo – another Hilton property but one which is a big hit with families due to lower prices but good facilities and location.

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We loved the Hampton in Florida and are expecting this to be just as good.

Apart from all this we will of course be doing a little shopping, eating good food and I will certainly be continuing my lifelong research project into the best pubs in the UK…

Watch this space!

Andy Higgs
Andy Higgs

I know what it's like to go from being a crazy backpacker without a care in the world, via being a vaguely sensible parent to being an adventurer once more. In other words, evolving into a Grown-up Traveller.

Like everyone else, I love to travel, have visited a lot of countries and all that but my big thing is Africa.

I also own and run The Grown-up Travel Company as a travel designer creating personalised African itineraries for experienced adventurers

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