Ready to explore London on foot? There are some great London sightseeing walking map options to help your family see it all.
There’s so much to see and do in London that you would need months and an extensive budget to cover it all in one vacation. That’s why we love London sightseeing walking maps. They allow you to catch a glimpse of the biggest attractions plus some of the city’s hidden gems without fully investing time in each point of interest.
Walking through a planned route of the city is a great way to get an initial feel for London and find your way through the streets when you first arrive. You may also finalize your itinerary as you look at each attraction and determine which ones are of most interest to your family.
There are a lot of maps out there, but they aren’t all the best for families exploring London by foot with kids. But you’re in luck because we have a great resource that will put you in touch with high-quality audio tours suitable for adults and kids of all ages.
The Best London Sightseeing Walking Maps for Families
Thanks to technology, you don’t have to read an actual paper map to enjoy the benefits of a sightseeing map of London. Free Tours by Foot is one of the leading providers of guided tours in London, and they have created a quality app that allows you to access some of their tours free of charge from your phone, tablet, or another mobile device.
They recorded the voices of actual tour guides walking through London and then transferred the audio files to the app. What that gives you is a convenient route with a professional tour guide that costs you nothing. You can hit pause at any time to ensure you travel at your own pace, which makes this an excellent resource for families traveling London with kids.
The first step is to download the app. It’s available for iOS and Android devices.
The second step is to select a tour from the London sightseeing walking map options. There are seven options at the time of this writing, including a Harry Potter tour that is available in English and Spanish. The Rock n Roll London and Jack the Ripper tours may also interest teenagers and adults while not being great options for younger members of the family.
You can listen to samples of the tours through the website. That will give you an idea of the sound quality before you head off through London on foot.
Other Sightseeing Walking Maps for Families in London
Another great resource for family-friendly walking tours of London is Walk London. This London sightseeing walking map option offers a small collection of self-guided walking tours that you can print off in PDF format or pull up on a phone or tablet and follow on the screen.
These are all free sightseeing tours of London that allow you to move at your own pace, which is essential when sightseeing with young children. Some of our favorites for families include the following two London sightseeing tours:
- Queen’s Walk – This walkway runs along the Thames River and passes by many attractions that are popular with children. The route includes the London Eye and Shakespeare’s Globe. It will place you close to many paid attractions that are family-friendly as well, so you can hit pause and redeem those tickets while you’re in the area. You’ll start by going over the Westminster Bridget to the South Bank, and it ends near St. Paul’s Cathedral.
- Royal London Walk – Get away from the streets and slip into some of London’s best gardens and parks. This entire route follows footpaths through gardens and parks that deliver great views of select Royal palaces. It starts at St. James’s Park and ends at Kensington Gardens.
If you don’t want to look at these walking maps on your phone as you walk, print off the step-by-step directions before you head out. They’re detailed enough that you should find your way from one stopping point to another quite easily.
Creating Your Own Sightseeing Walking Map of London
In addition to following routes prepared by someone else, you have the London sightseeing walking map option of looking at a more exhaustive map of London and printing off sections. You can then use a highlighter or pen to map out your own route that takes you by the attractions of most interest to your family.
We recommend the interactive map created by City-Walks because it’s easy to use and gives valuable information like the hours of operations for many of the attractions. It may look a bit overwhelming at first because there are so many points of interest included, but you can narrow it down to look at one piece of the city at a time.
This interactive map of London is also printable. That’s important if you want to print and mark out your own route and then take it to London with you.