KidZania London

An amazing day our for over 4s in London! My kids loved it!

I visited Kidzania with my two children who are aged 5 and 3 and they both had a great day. One thing to note before going is that most of the activities are for age 4+ and any under 4s will not be able to take part, this did mean I had a tricky time watching both my children as they had to do different things and I was on my own, so I advise 2 adults if you have an under 4. Upon entering you are all fitted with a safety GPRS watch, so that if you do lose your children the staff can help locate them, luckily we didn't need to test this out! Over 4s are then given some Kidzos (KidZania Currency) and a hair net, which is to be used when taking part in any of the activities involving food! It’s truly magical when you enter the city, there are vehicles heading left and right, shops, restaurants and emergency service stations, a city tour bus operates which is a great place to start, in order to get your bearings. As there are so many activities the children don’t often end up having to wait too long for a turn, which is great, although I’d recommend doing the most popular ones first! Typically, the fire station, delivery service, ambulance crew and hospital seemed to be the busiest, although this may also be because they’re quite in depth and the children spend a while longer playing those roles. There are food places dotted around, some activities involving food too, which are mostly on the 1st floor, including smoothy making and chocolate making with Cadbury’s. A lot of the shops are sponsored by real businesses, and where possible good lessons are being taught, for example H&Ms recycling plant and the Library holds events such as polling day (it was politics week when we were there!) which is a great introduction into these parts of life for the younger ones and a good talking point for older children. I obviously stayed with my children as they are young, but I did see lots of older children going round in groups with their friends and the place felt really safe. It would be a fabulous place for a party too and we did see a couple going on. The overarching game, is to decide if you want to spend all your time earning more Kidzos, or spend them on the recreational activities, like drum lessons. The more Kidzos you have left at the end the bigger/better gift you can purchase in the shop on the way out. My son worked pretty hard at trying to earn them but then didn’t really want to part with his hard earned cash at the end so we will be visiting again soon to earn some more! There was also a soft play area for the smaller ones, and my daughter could take part in a few other things, she had her face painted, which was good value at £2 and she rode on the city tour bus on my lap. She obviously can’t wait until she turns 4 so she can do all the other activities. My 2 top tips would be first of all to eat lunch at GBK and get the kids to prepare their own burgers for a health discount on your meal! Secondly, if your child wants to earn loads of Kidzos, head to the window cleaning place on the 1st floor - it’s the highest paid job!

11:16 AM December 3, 2018