50 things to do in London with teenagers and tweens this summer
Teens: a hard crowd to please if ever there was one. Our advice? Give them this list and let them get on with it.
Hop on a Thames Rockets RIB speed boat tour for a high-speed adventure down the river that everyone will love.
Swat up on Roman History at the London Mithraeum and check out real Roman ruins.
While you're in a historical mood, walk the plank onto a Horrible Histories Live Onboard Terrible Thames Boat Tour. It's sure to make a big splash.
Climb The O2. Probably not if you're scared of heights though.
Challenge your mates to a board game fest by visiting either Draughts Waterloo or Draughts Hackney. With more board games than you could ever play in one session, this is a great one for regular visits.
Teeter along the Tower Bridge Walkway glass floor. Also not perfect for anyone scared of heights.
Catch a West End musical: check out Official London Theatre for some cool deals. We recently saw Harry Potter & The Cursed Child which is perfect for the tween and teen set.
Take yourselves to Covent Garden to check out the street performers.
Eat your way around London at the best dim sum restaurants. And then eat your way around again at the best burger joints.
Head to a country park for a spot of Geocaching.
Hurtle down the world's longest tunnel slide at the ArcelorMittal Orbit.
Pick up some vintage threads at all the cooler-than-cool independent shops around Camden and then explore Camden Market. Then head to Brick Lane and repeat.
Catch the Harry Potter Bus and Walking Tour with Brit Movie Tours. Magical.
With cabaret, comedy, drag acts and family fun happening at this summer's Underbelly Festival, you're going to want to round up some mates and book your tix once they're released.
Scare yourselves silly at the London Dungeons. Then continue the scares at The Clink Prison Museum.
Head over to Tottenham Hotspur for a Stadium Tour, then take things to the next level by climbing The Edge and then abseiling off.
Rainbows at the ready! Pride London is back and happening in all its colourful, fun glory on 1 July.
Go ape at, well, Go Ape: there are three locations in London - Battersea, Cockfosters and Alexandra Palace.
Get busy with your grinds and kickflips when you wheel over to a skate park: we love Southbank Skate Space or the Bay Sixty6 skate park.
Swing into action with spot of adventure golf
Have a picnic in one of London's royal parks.
Cast a spell and make your own wands at the Wands & Wizard Exploratorium.
Volunteer at a London animal sanctuary or animal shelter.
Shakespeare's Globe is a great spot for teens. Get thyself over for a show or tour, pronto, we say!
With locations in two huge shopping centres (Westfield and Lakeside), head over to an Upside Down House and go wild in this museum of illusion with plenty of crazy pics.
Shop-until-you-drop in a pop-up shipping container at trendy Shoreditch's BOXPARK. Make sure to also cool off with one of the best ice creams in town at Soft Serve Society.
Get a month's worth of 'Grams at God's Own Junkyard.
Get a further month's worth of 'Grams with some Tik Tok opps thrown in for good measure at The Selfie Factory.
For poetry slams, performances, festivals and a whole heap more, check out Young Creatives at The Roundhouse for a summer of fun.
Ride a cable car the London way on the IFS Cloud Cable (and get a discount if you have a Zip Oyster card).
Jump on a Santander Cycle hire bike and get busy exploring parts of London you never knew existed. It costs from £1.65 per hour.
Not feeling cycling? Then why not put your Zip Oyster Card to good use again and jump on and off buses all day with no real plan other than to switch it up and discover new spots. With 700 routes and 19,000 bus stops across London, this is the adventure that keeps on giving.
Eat at all the street eats at Borough Market: make sure to swing by Mei Mei for a delish cup of Asian teh tarik on your way round. It's our fave!
Discover all the street art around Brick Lane and the surrounds. This guide will give you a clue of where the best spots are to save you wandering aimlessly. Although wandering aimlessly is fun too!
Buy some flowers for your mum/dad/gran/grandad/girlfriend/boyfriend/yourself at Columbia Road Flower Market. We love this vibrant pocket of town!
Pick up a bargain or two at the second hand shops and antique shops around Portobello Road. There's stuff even older than us there, kids.
The streets of West London come alive every August Bank Holiday with the world-famous Notting Hill Carnival. Mark it in your diaries, people!
Get up close with your fave animals by becoming a Zookeeper for the day at ZSL London Zoo.
Tick off all the cool museums in London, many of which are free and are running some rather spiffy programmes over the summer for families.
Using Ripper-Vision - a new approach to this Jack the Ripper Walking Tour which uses handheld projectors to shine 5ft images on the dark streets and alleyways of Whitechapel - transport yourselves back to Victorian London and follow in Jack's silent footsteps around the East End. Kinda creepy but definitely cool.
Keeping it dark and dingy, for a fascinating look at just how bad London's prisoners had it in bygone days, pay a visit to the rather gruesome but utterly awesome Clink Prison Museum.
Sail down the Regent's Canal on a narrowboat with the London Waterbus Company. And don't forget, if you get the narrowboat bug then we've got a whole guide to narrowboat holidays!
If you're a bit - actually a lot - of an adrenaline junkie then book the ultimate daredevil experience in London: a bungee jump! This list has all the ones happening in London in the coming months.
Now here's a surefire way to tire those legs out: climb the 311 steps to the top of The Monument!
With locations at Southbank and Wandsworth, for the gaming fans amongst you why not give to step into an interactive digital room featuring projection mapping, touch screens, motion tracking and surround sound to enjoy a hyper-immersive 60 minute adventure at Electric Gamebox?
Take a sticky beak around His Maj's house and have a mooch around Buckingham Palace. Bonus points if you get one of his soldiers to smile... #impossible
While we're talking about His Maj we should also mention all his coronation happening in May. There's plenty going on to keep you teen lot busy.
Treat yourself to a massage in Chinatown: Reflexology heaven.
Walk the top-secret (but not very secret now) corridors of Churchill War Rooms and glimpse what life would have been like the Second World War.
Go on the ultimate VR experience at DIVR Labs - we've got a discount of 15% for you if you use the code TRACY15 at checkout,
You're all set, teens. Now go, go, go!
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