Latest news with #familyadventure
Telegraph
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
The Goonies is an entire generation's favourite film. Shame it's not very good
When I started at university more years ago than I care to remember, one of the time-honoured ways of breaking the ice, after comparing what A-levels you'd done and where you'd been on your gap year, was discussing the films that you'd grown up watching as a child. For my generation, this meant pictures released largely in the Eighties and the early Nineties. Sometimes these were age-appropriate – Star Wars and Indiana Jones and the like – and sometimes they were not. (I was astonished at how many people had seen Halloween and Nightmare On Elm Street at very young and impressionable ages.) Yet one picture, above all, stood out. Everyone had seen – and apparently loved – The Goonies. When the Richard Donner -directed family adventure film was first released 40 years ago, it came out to an appropriate amount of hype and expectation. Although Donner was a well-regarded journeyman director who was best known for making the first Superman film – which is amusingly homaged in one scene – and would go on to be responsible for all the Lethal Weapon films, it was mainly promoted, and regarded, as a Steven Spielberg film. Although Spielberg is only credited as executive producer and originator of the film's story, his fingerprints are all over the finished picture and so many have considered it (along with Tobe Hooper's Poltergeist) an honorary entry into that director's distinguished canon. It was a decent box office hit on release, grossing $125 million on a budget of $19 million. Granted, this was not nearly as much as the other Spielberg-produced blockbusters of the decade – Gremlins made $213 million, Back To The Future a staggering $389 million – but it was intended predominantly as a children's film and promoted and marketed as such. It had no well-known actors in it – although several of the young cast would go on to become stars, including Josh Brolin and Sean Astin – and was not based on an existing book or television series, nor was it a sequel to anything else. Reviews were kind but hardly laudatory, and under normal circumstances it would have been fondly regarded but something of an also-ran. Instead, The Goonies has continued to lead an ongoing existence as one of the most beloved films of its decade, if not all time. A 2009 poll suggested that it was the Eighties picture that most fans wanted to see remade (followed by Labyrinth and Top Gun), and in 2017, it enjoyed the honour of being selected by the Library of Congress for the National Film Registry as 'culturally, aesthetically or historically significant.' It has had numerous pop culture allusions – most recently in Deadpool 2, when the antagonist Cable (played by Goonies star Josh Brolin) is sardonically referred to as 'One-Eyed Willie', the name of the legendary pirate from the picture – and the band the Fratellis named themselves after the film's bumbling villains. In February this year, after years of speculation, a sequel was announced, to be scripted by Potsy Ponciroli and produced by Steven Spielberg once again. One of its stars, Corey Feldman, recently commented: 'All I can say is, get us all together. Everybody is looking good. Sean's looking good. Josh is looking good. We're all looking good still, and we're all alive. Goonies never say die…There's hope.' But The Goonies has already been remade, really, in the form of the JJ Abrams film Super 8, the Netflix hit Stranger Things, or the recent Star Wars series Skeleton Crew, which sent four tykes across the galaxy in search of adventure. It is, in other words, an acknowledged and much-loved classic of cinema. So why, then, did a recent rewatch of The Goonies, to mark its 40th anniversary, leave me feeling not so much disappointed as indifferent, and bemused by the adulation that it continues to receive? There's nothing wrong with the picture as such, bar a mediocre sound design that means that it's often impossible to hear the dialogue of the various children shouting at one another. But it's also merely a serviceable, unchallenging piece of entertainment that seems bland and uninspired when compared to the other Spielberg-produced pictures from the same period. It nods towards the tedium of suburban life and how its youthful denizens look for adventure, but then does little with its own concept. It is not hard to see why it became a cult picture for audiences that grew up on it at an impressionable age, and hope that their own children would thrill to it, too. But in an era where we have far more sophisticated family viewing – The Wild Robot, Paddington 2 and Wonka, to name but three, come to mind – it may be time to accept that the nostalgic love that many bear for The Goonies is not based on any especial merits that the film has, but for their own childhood. And this is where a rather wider issue comes to hand. There are many films from the Eighties which have acquired a dubious degree of nostalgic affection over the past few decades despite not being very good. Sometimes, there is an ill-fated attempt to embrace this by remaking them; for instance, the dreadful 1984 Commies-invade-America action film Red Dawn was turned into an equally dreadful 2012 picture, proving that it was a poor idea in the first and second place alike. On other occasions, you have insanely belated sequels that manage to jettison most of what was charming or interesting about the picture in the first place. Beverly Hills Cop took cinema by storm when it came out in 1984 and made a fortune. By the time that the fourth in the series, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, was released last year, the kind of teenagers who had thrilled to the exploits of Eddie Murphy in the first picture would now be in their mid-50s, if not older. Sometimes, Eighties pictures are simply terrible, and have been misremembered as being better than they are because of the kind of tiresomely ironic nostalgia that sees people turn up at cinemas to shout out dialogue from mediocre movies while dressed up as the characters. Revisiting St Elmo's Fire recently, I realised that a dreadful, self-important and navel-gazing picture has been given undue attention partly because of a cast who (in some cases, at least) went onto better and greater things, but partly also because someone, somewhere decided that the film was worthy of memorialising with a high-profile documentary about its actors. It does not make the original film better, but what it does is to continue its prominence in popular culture. Actors are as prone to this kind of false memory syndrome as fans, too. When the Tom Cruise racing drama Days of Thunder came out in 1990, it was swiftly (and rightly) dismissed as a failed attempt to remake Top Gun with fast cars. Now, however, Cruise has decided that, rather than a boring and overwrought piece of flash, the picture is an underrated masterpiece that merits its own sequel, three and a half decades later. He is wrong, but like many of his other pictures from this period, there is a yawning gulf between the quality of the original film and the false memory that its admirers have of it. (What next, Far and Away 2?) There are genuinely great films from the Eighties and early Nineties that heartily deserve their cult status, and stand up extremely well today, from the Indiana Jones films and Back to the Future to Blade Runner and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. All of these are eminently rewatchable and worthy of all the plaudits that they have received, and continue to receive, because of their wit, originality and chutzpah. Yet even here, there has been an unwelcome tendency to besmirch the legacy – there was absolutely no need for the dire, Spielberg-less Dial of Destiny ever to exist – and persistent rumours about forthcoming remakes, spin-offs and the like just show what a dire state contemporary Hollywood is in when it comes to intellectual property. If and when The Goonies gets a sequel, no doubt it will send a whole new generation back to the original. They may well be underwhelmed by it. But this will not stop the first tranche of its fans believing – despite the obvious evidence to the contrary – that it is a great picture. For them, that is all that matters. As Thomas Wolfe so famously wrote, 'you can never go home again'. Perhaps rewatching this silly, loud and endearingly goofy film is as close as many of its fans will ever get to going home once more themselves.
The Sun
2 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
We swapped our UK home for an exotic beach where rent is just £166 a month, but paradise ripped my marriage apart
A COUPLE who swapped their life in the UK to live out their dream life, paying just £166 a month to live a stone's throw from the beach, have split up. Matt Dearing, 38, and his partner Carlie Donnelley, 37, left Manchester for Bali so their family could be " financially free". 5 5 But two years on, the pair, who also moved their three children – Lincoln, Delilah, and Adelaide – across the world with them, have split. As well as adding adventure to their kids' lives, the relocation was intended to bolster their bank balance after growing tired of ' living to work ' and spending cash on soaring bills. The family sold their three-bedroom home in Denton for £365,000 to 'escape the rat race' in favour of life on the idyllic Indonesian island. They exchanged it for a similar-sized home on the island that cost just £2,000 to rent for the whole year. Whilst living overseas, the couple planned to start their own construction firm, called Serenity Living Bali, and intended to build their own luxurious villa, as well as a number of two, four, and five-bedroom properties to sell or rent out. However, according to the Mail Online, the couple, who had been together for 15 years, have now split. Carlie, who has 11,000 TikTok followers, explained that things 'did not go to plan' but she is now 'trying to navigate this new life, on the other side of the world, on my own.' Despite 'living in paradise,' the single mum revealed that she is going through 'a really bad time' but doesn't have any regrets. Carlie said she would still recommend Bali to other Brits as 'the people are amazing' and they are 'striving to be their best selves and it's definitely a more positive way of life.' I ditched my retail job in the UK for island paradise…rent is just £225, dinner costs £2 & our poolside office has a spa She also mentioned that the kids are happy, but it is just Carlie, who continues to co-parent with Matt, finding the breakup hard. Carlie did not reveal details about the split, but both parents are remaining in Bali and are trying to continue to make a ' better life ' for their children. The mum has also deleted her former Instagram account, which was filled with pictures of her and Matt. Instead, she has a new account showcasing 'Bali living' and her life as a mum-of-three in her 'beach gal era.' Family thoughts The couple had bought one-way tickets to the country in November 2022, despite relatives thinking they were 'mad'. Matt – who claimed he sometimes worked ten hours a day, seven days a week in the UK – says his family had "struck gold" in Bali. Speaking previously, and prior to the split, Matt, who previously owned five houses in Manchester, said: "The return on your investment here is amazing. We sold the house we were living in [in the UK] for £365,000. "With that money, we were able to buy a 1,200 square foot plot of land to build two four or five-bedroom villas on. 5 5 "We have struck gold – this is everything we want. "For us, being financially free is literally freedom to do whatever we want with the kids, compared to working 10 hours, seven days a week sometimes. "I have always dreamed of dropping the kids off at school and picking them up – I can do that here. "The people here are lovely and show a lot of gratitude – it ticked all the right boxes." Signs your relationship is heading for a divorce Persistent Communication Breakdowns Constant misunderstandings, arguments, or a complete lack of meaningful conversation can signal deep-seated issues. Emotional Distance Feeling like roommates rather than partners, with a noticeable lack of intimacy or emotional connection. Frequent Criticism and Contempt Regularly criticising each other and showing contempt, such as sarcasm, eye-rolling, or mocking, can erode the relationship's foundation. Unresolved Conflicts Recurrent arguments about the same issues without any resolution can indicate deeper incompatibilities. Loss of Trust Trust is crucial in any relationship. If it's been broken and cannot be rebuilt, it may be a sign that the relationship is in trouble. Different Life Goals Significant differences in future aspirations, such as career goals, lifestyle choices, or family planning, can create insurmountable divides. Avoidance Preferring to spend time apart rather than together, whether through work, hobbies, or social activities, can indicate a desire to escape the relationship. Lack of Support Feeling unsupported, whether emotionally, financially, or practically, can lead to feelings of isolation and resentment. Financial Disagreements Constantly arguing about money, spending habits, or financial priorities can strain the relationship. Infidelity Whether physical or emotional, infidelity can be a major breach of trust and a sign of deeper issues in the relationship. Changes in Affection A noticeable decrease in affection, physical touch, or romantic gestures can indicate a loss of connection.
BBC News
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Bournemouth family who bought Bulgarian farmhouse have no regrets
It's been three years since Lewis and Jordan Vye packed up their rented flat in Bournemouth and moved their family to couple had bought a dilapidated farmhouse online for £7,000, only viewing it for the first time when they arrived with their two children and fond memories of home and now facing a new set of challenges, they insist they have no regrets."I really enjoy my life here and, the truth is, I don't think you could pay me to return - I enjoy it that much," said Mr Vye. The property in Haskovo Province included a two-acre (0.8 hectare) plot of land, a barn and a house but it had been abandoned for 20 years and, when the family arrived, it was uninhabitable, leaving them no choice but to live in their caravan."We've been working hard," said Mr Vye."It's in a better state now."It's been tough - I don't come from a building background and we had no choice but to renovate this property. That in itself has been stressful."The pair have been documenting their progress on social media, watched by hundreds of thousands of Vye said: "It's great for us because we get to look back and see how bad it was and how far we've come."I'm not going to lie and say there are things we don't miss [about England] but I'm definitely closer to the life I want." The couple say they were inspired after "binge watching" Ben Fogle's TV series, New Lives in the Wild, about people starting new lives in remote went full circle when, earlier this year, they appeared on their own episode of the Channel 5 show."Oh man, what a dream come true," said Mr Vye."We wouldn't be here without watching that because it gave us the courage to get up and go for it ourselves."We've lived the majority of our lives in Bournemouth - it's not that we've got a bad thing to say about it - but it was time for us to go on a different adventure." You can follow BBC Dorset on Facebook, X, or Instagram.
Times
7 days ago
- General
- Times
Canada's most beautiful train ride? It's not the Rocky Mountaineer
It was a good morning to leave Halifax, Nova Scotia. We'd enjoyed a spring Saturday exploring the harbour-front promenade of Canada's main Atlantic port. Our sons, 13-year-old Desmond and nine-year-old Victor, had indulged in the scones at the farmers' market, followed by an energetic parkour session in a playground that included a yellow submarine, massive anchors and a slide shaped like a whale's tongue. At the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic we'd wandered among lighthouse lenses and ocean-liner models, taking in exhibits about the rescue of Titanic survivors and the explosion of the munitions ship that levelled the city's North End at the end of the First World War. But the previous day's sunshine, which allowed sweeping views of grey-hulled naval vessels and gargantuan ships stacked with multicoloured containers, had yielded to an all-encompassing fog. Fortunately, we had an escape plan: we'd booked rooms on the oldest named train in North America, which has linked Montreal to Halifax via the tracks of the historic Intercolonial Railway since 1904. My wife, Erin, and I had ridden the Ocean from Montreal in the early days of our courtship and the laughter we'd shared on the upper level of the glass-domed Park car on that trip had helped to cement our bond. This time we'd be riding in the opposite direction — across three provinces, two time zones and 840 miles — with our two energetic boys, deprived of their electronic devices for the duration of the trip, along for the ride. Getting to the platform was easy: our hotel, the Nova Scotian, built in 1930 to accommodate Canadian National passengers, was connected to the train station by a covered passageway, which prevented a soaking in the driving rain outside. Half an hour before our scheduled 11.30am departure we wheeled our bags from the lobby, a concoction of marble, copper-leaf and brass railings, to the station's beaux arts atrium. A trio of employees of Via Rail, Canada's national passenger rail operator, were waiting at a podium to scan our tickets, and showed Desmond and Victor how to attach the baby-blue wristbands that indicated we had reserved spots in 'sleeper class'. Passengers with larger suitcases could have them checked into the baggage car for recovery in Montreal but we'd kept it light and packed everything in overnight bags. Desmond and Victor were delighted with their compact room, which included a toilet, a shower, a fold-down bunk reached by a narrow ladder and hidden compartments for stowing the cans of ginger ale they'd pilfered from the Via Rail lounge in Halifax. While they were settling in, I returned to the platform to get a good look at the train that would be our home for the next 23 hours. The Ocean was a motley museum of rolling stock, consisting of 18 cars of varied provenance. At the front were a pair of massively proportioned diesel-electric locomotives, fit for crossing Rockies and prairies on tracks shared with mile-long freight trains. The rear was made up of hulking stainless-steel carriages of mid-century vintage, most of which were intended for coach passengers. Sandwiched between the super-sized locomotives and the 70-year-old streamliners were our much smaller sleeper cars, whose compressed dimensions hinted at their original vocation: these were former Nightstar carriages, originally intended for overnight service to Europe through the Channel Tunnel, and picked up second-hand by Via Rail in 2000. Absent was the Park car where, on our first trip on the Ocean, plaid-vested 'learning co-ordinators' had schooled us in the significance of Nova Scotian tartans and the correct use of the lobster trap. For complicated reasons involving a change to the track layout in Halifax, the panoramic cars have been pulled from service. (They still run on the Canadian, Via Rail's Toronto-to-Vancouver service, as well the Skeena, which runs from northern British Columbia to Alberta.) Desmond and Victor were quite happy with the two mid-train lounge cars, especially when they learnt that their wristbands entitled them to unlimited soft drinks and hot chocolate. While we were still rumbling past the port's red-roofed lighthouses, our sleeper-car attendant poked her head in to remind us that we'd booked a table for the first sitting at lunch. Our sleeper-car tickets, which gave us access to the station lounge in Halifax, also entitled us to three meals in the dining car and I found the menus, which feature locally sourced products — haddock puttanesca, salmon cakes and Nova Scotia wines — a notch above the offerings on American long-distance trains, where the food is plated on plastic rather than china. (That said, Via Rail, unlike Amtrak, its counterpart in the US, charges passengers for wine and beer.) After dispatching huge squares of carrot cake, our boys set out to explore the train, leaving Erin and me to sip coffee and gaze out over a landscape of birch, white spruce and maple which, as we left behind the meandering shores of the Shubenacadie River, was increasingly patched with snow. The dining car was abuzz with conversation, encouraged by the easy-going staff. 'It's nice taking the train across Canada,' opined one of the waiters as he cleared a table. 'You look up and see a fellow chopping firewood in the backyard of his cabin and then you remember you're travelling in this luxurious metal tube.' After eavesdropping on a retired Englishman's animated account of his adventures on the Camino de Santiago, we chatted with the couple across the aisle, who lived in Halifax. He was a 12th-generation Acadian, a member of the Chasson clan, one of 60 families from France who in the 17th century settled in what is now New Brunswick. (Though I'm fluent in French, I was hard pressed to understand conversations between Acadian francophones in the lounge, who speak in heavily accented Chiac, a patois heavily peppered with English terms.) They were looking forward to a romantic getaway to Montreal; they'd scheduled a hockey game at the Bell Centre, a crash course in bagel-rolling and a visit to a luxurious spa in a riverside barge. 'Compared to the plane, this train is so relaxing,' she marvelled. 'We just drove up to the station 20 minutes before we had to leave. No announcements about seat belts. No sitting on a runway. The train just quietly leaves the station. We even got to watch our house roll by.' Returning to the sleeper car, Erin and I found that Desmond had folded down the top bunk, where he was enjoying an adolescent power nap, while below, Victor was absorbed in the latest instalment of the Dog Man saga. In our room, where the attendants would come to make up the beds while we were dining, I settled into a relaxing afternoon of hypnosis-by-scenery. The standard foreground of rail travel in Canada, a blurred scrim of trackside pines and listing wooden telephone poles, occasionally parted to reveal vistas of reddish-hued tidal flats and lakes dotted with Canada geese, newly returned from their annual southern exile. Every once in a while, when a stop was announced, I'd disembark to snap a photo at Amherst, Rogersville or another of the lovingly maintained brick-and-timber station houses along the way. Our northward route through the snow-shrouded highlands of eastern New Brunswick took us along the original line of the Intercolonial Railway, which was conceived to transport British troops, quickly, from Halifax to Quebec. The construction was managed by Sir Sandford Fleming, the creator of Canada's first postage stamp and a promoter of international time zones, who prided himself on building the line to a higher standard than competing railways, using stone and iron, rather than wood, for trestles and bridges. The rationale behind the Intercolonial was preventing the US from annexing Canada — a possibility that, for many Canadians, is once again top of mind — and when the line opened in 1872 it was pointedly sited far enough from the border with Maine to reduce the likelihood of seizure by belligerent Yankees. In the 20th century, the largest incursions came in the form of American tourists, who thronged fishing lodges to angle on New Brunswick's salmon rivers. During dinner, after crossing the iron bridges over branches of the Miramichi River, our pace slowed to less than 30mph as the train pitched and rolled over the uneven trackbed. As we passed through Bathurst, the sun set and we settled into the lounge car for a prolonged family tournament of crazy eights. That night, we were rocked asleep in our bunks by the clickety-clack of steel wheels and the periodic flashes of crimson-lit signs at level crossings. When I awoke, the Ocean was returning from a scheduled side trip to Sainte-Foy, on the outskirts of Quebec City, and the sunrise was flashing its golden light through the trusses of the Pont de Quebec. In the kids' room, Desmond was yawning and stretching, and Victor, who is fond of ranking every experience, declared that, of the top ten sleeps he'd had in his life, 'that was number one'. Waking up on a train, we all agreed, was a fantastic way to start the day. After a somewhat cut-throat stab at shaving, I decided to skip the in-room shower, and joined Erin and the kids, who were well into their lemon-ricotta pancakes and omelettes in the dining car. When our attendant told us that it was common to see wild turkeys and other fauna along the tracks in the morning, Victor got out his Polaroid camera and just missed getting a shot of a brace of white-tailed deer gathered for a post-dawn conference in a farmer's field. By 11am, the train was making the creaking turn into the tracks over the Victoria Jubilee Bridge, whose span still rests on two dozen ice-breaking piers built in 1860 under the supervision of Robert Stephenson, the son of George, the inventor of the Rocket, which ran on the world's first inter-city passenger line. The slow crossing of the St Lawrence River signalled our return to home in Montreal, half an hour behind schedule, and the end of the adventure. Well, this adventure, at any rate. Victor and Desmond, though deprived of screens, had clearly loved their first overnight train ride, perhaps even more than Erin and I had when we'd ridden the Ocean 20 years earlier. As the boys lugged their backpacks through the crowds of Monday morning commuters in Montreal's Central Station, their father was secretly scanning the Via Rail departures board, wondering where future rail excursions would take Grescoe was a guest of Via Rail, which offers one-way Comfort Class (standard seats, food for purchase on board) seats from £95pp or full-board Sleeper Plus tickets from £280pp on the Ocean from Halifax to Montreal ( and the Westin Nova Scotian, which has room-only doubles from £159 ( Fly to Halifax
Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
16 of the best things to do in London with children
Few cities are as child-friendly as London. From interactive museums to soldiers on horseback,Harry Potter filming locations to open-top buses, the capital has plenty to keep young ones enthralled. Throw in age-appropriate restaurants, hotels with plenty of family appeal and a skyline straight from the films and London is an adventure for children of all ages. Here are some of the best things to do in the capital with children, whether they love animals, white-knuckle thrills or simply eating as much cake as possible. This article contains affiliate links, which may earn us revenue Hold on tight for an adrenalin-pumping trip down the Thames that's guaranteed to appeal to thrill seekers of all ages. You'll be kitted out in life jackets to board a speedboat by the London Eye before cruising out towards Canary Wharf past the Houses of Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the Shard and Tower of London. An on-board comedian/guide means that bog-standard commentary as you sail is replaced by plenty of quirky stories and funny facts that kids will love. As the river widens, the boat's speed picks up and you'll race out to Docklands at up to 35mph, with the boat twisting and turning like you're escaping the villain in a James Bond film. • Discover our full guide to London History is way more interesting to kids if it's gory or spooky, so a trip to the Tower of London will fascinate them. This medieval castle and world heritage site was built by William the Conqueror and has served as a royal palace, a prison and the home of the Crown Jewels. Tickets include a tour with a Yeoman Warder — otherwise known as a Beefeater — which run every half an hour from the main entrance. Expect to hear tales of bloody executions, the exotic animals that once lived in the Tower and the ghosts said to haunt it to this day. You'll also see the room where Guy Fawkes was imprisoned, the famous ravens who live at the Tower and the priceless royal jewels watched by armed guards. • Best family hotels in London Great views can be hard to sell to kids, but a vista enjoyed from the top of a giant ferris wheel? Now you're talking. Situated on a stretch of the South Bank that also features Shrek's Adventure! and the London Aquarium, the London Eye's rotating pods provide a killer perspective on more stately attractions over the River Thames, including the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. Wow your family with this fun fact: 'Big Ben' isn't the name of the structure — known as the Elizabeth Tower since the Queen's diamond jubilee — but of the bell itself. • Best luxury hotels in London The ceremonial handover of the King's Guard is British pomp and ceremony at its best. Children will love seeing the marching soldiers — all wearing their distinctive red tunics and bearskin hats, some on horseback — enacting this centuries-old ritual. Troops gather at St James's Palace and Wellington Barracks before marching along The Mall to the sounds of the military band. Many visitors to London make the mistake of setting up camp outside Buckingham Palace, but a pre-booked small-group tour can offer superior vantage points as well as insightful commentary to help everyone understand what on earth is going on. • Best affordable hotels in London under £200 London's theatres are host to a wealth of child-friendly musicals, from literary spin-offs such as Matilda and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child to reimagined Disney films including Frozen and The Lion King. The latter has been running for nearly 25 years with good reason; inventive sets and imaginative puppetry and costumes conjure a convincing savannah dreamworld in a corner of Covent Garden. Elton John and Tim Rice's impossibly catchy songs, including the show-stopping opener Circle of Life and the life-affirming Hakuna Matata, mean all-aged audiences invariably leave the Lyceum humming along. • Best hotels with a view in London London was a port long before it became England's capital, and there's no better way for children to learn about its seafaring history than with a visit to one of its vintage ships. Built for the China tea trade, Cutty Sark was state-of-the art when she set out on her maiden voyage in 1870 and still looks chipper today — kids will love exploring the cabins and steering their way through a virtual voyage. It's a 25-minute journey along the river from Tower Pier (serving the Tower of London and Tower Bridge) to Greenwich, and travelling by Thames Clipper is all part of the fun. • Best hotels in London with pools A Rembrandt self-portrait and Van Gogh's Sunflowers are among the highlights of one of the world's greatest collections of paintings, and cherry-picking from its 2,300 works will help visitors of all ages stave off cultural fatigue. A one-hour highlights tour of the National Gallery is the ideal timeframe and a Blue Badge guide will steer visitors through the crowds to study a handful of key pieces in more detail. Top tip: bring paper and pencils so children can sketch their own souvenirs, and make a game of spotting animals in the artworks, from the dog in Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait to George Stubbs' Whistlejacket. • The best serviced apartments in London London is home to many Harry Potter filming locations, from the Ministry of Magic (Great Scotland Yard) to Hogwarts' spiral staircase (St Paul's Cathedral). A walking tour is a great way to engage the attention of older kids who can handle two to three hours on their feet; guides tend to be genuine fans, who know their Mandrakes from their Muggles. The itinerary ends at Platform 9¾ in King's Cross station and from here there are trains out to Watford and the Harry Potter Studio Tour (be sure to book tickets for this several months in advance). Even the most hardened museum-phobes can't resist mummies, and Bloomsbury is home to the largest collection of Egyptian artefacts outside Cairo. The galleries put flesh on the bones of these ancient relics, presenting clues to the lives of people who died between 3,000 and 1,800 years ago. Check out the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone, perhaps the world's most famous slab of rock, before time-travelling to see Anglo-Saxon treasure unearthed at Sutton Hoo and armour once worn by a Japanese samurai. In need of sustenance before going into battle? There's a family-friendly pizzeria on site. • The best dog-friendly hotels in London Any child who's ever watched a David Attenborough documentary will get a kick out of the Natural History Museum, a bewilderingly comprehensive institution that charts 4.6 billion years of planet Earth. Highlights include a skeleton of a mighty blue whale, an array of stuffed animals and birds, plus interactive exhibits such as the earthquake simulator and dinosaur gallery quiz. Admission to the museum is free, but one of the best ways to keep kids engaged is by booking onto a private tour with an experienced guide. The museum's occasional sleepovers sell out months in advance. • The best Airbnbs in London With central London's greenest fleet of hop-on hop-off buses, Tootbus also offers special kid-focused tours capped at 45 minutes which should wipe out those enquiries of the 'are we nearly there yet?' variety. Routes are packed with big-hitting stops, from historic Westminster Abbey to the neon lights of Piccadilly Circus, the prime minister's residence at Downing Street and the wax museum Madame Tussauds (home to an immersive Star Wars experience). Live commentary from guides helps bring landmarks to life, arming children with fun facts and trivia about the capital. ZSL London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo and is set within the northern corner of Regent's Park. Its menagerie includes everything from tigers and gorillas to penguins and pygmy hippos, but perhaps most thrilling are the walkthrough attractions, such as Monkey Valley or Butterfly Paradise, where visitors share space with wildlife. Be sure to catch one of the timetabled feeding sessions and talks — witnessing birds in flight over the display lawn is a particular highlight — or book an overnight stay in one of the Zoo lodges in the Land of the Lions habitat, within roaring distance of the resident pride. Just around the corner from Royal Mail's Mount Pleasant sorting office in Clerkenwell is one of London's best small museums for children. Diverse displays bring to life the storied history of correspondence, including a collection of unread love letters recovered after a maritime disaster and a tall (but apparently true) tale about an escaped lioness. Kids will love learning about the Mail Rail while riding a miniature train through a century-old network of subterranean tunnels, and there's also a postal-themed play space. Here, children aged eight and under can role-play being a postie, having a go at moving the mail through a series of slides and chutes. Part-sculpture, part-helter-skelter, the ArcelorMittal Orbit is the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park's red steel equivalent to Paris's Eiffel Tower. Bonus: this piece of architecture also contains the world's longest tunnel slide. Kids must be eight years old and at least 1.3m to ride its 178m length; yodelling on the way down is highly recommended. Next, mosey on over to the nearby London Aquatics Centre for an Aqua Splash session: the inflatable obstacle course is ludicrously good fun and sits right alongside the Olympian Tom Daley's diving academy. From wizards to dinosaurs, David Hockney to Willy Wonka, London's top hotels have drawn on diverse inspiration to tempt junior guests in for afternoon teas. But this Mayfair establishment requires no introduction: tea at the Ritz is the stuff that stories are made of. From the tinkling piano music to the solicitous attentions of liveried staff, children will enjoy the atmosphere as much as the endless rounds of dainty treats — from cucumber sandwiches to freshly baked scones, via countless jewel-like pastries. The kitchen is happy to accommodate fussy eaters, and everyone gets a box of their favourites to take home. • Best places for afternoon tea in London For a family day out in London, you can't go wrong in one of its glorious patches of green: eight protected spaces, treasured by locals and visitors. Richmond Park is the biggest, and home to more than 630 red and fallow deer, while Hyde Park is perhaps the most varied, with swimming and boating on the Serpentine, plus the Diana Memorial Playground, where play equipment includes a huge wooden pirate ship. Regent's Park's Open Air Theatre is the place to see outdoor productions every summer, while Primrose Hill is ideal for rolling down (although parents may prefer the view from the top). • Best things to do in London• Best free things to do in London
