During our trip to London over the summer of 2024, I really wanted to bring some history to life for the kids, and a good friend of mine suggested a Henry VIII theme which included seeing Six, the musical, and venturing out to Hampton Court Palace the next day for more context. Additionally, you can’t skip The Tower when you’re in London for the first time, so these activities all put together in one short itinerary really made history seem cool.

The Tower of London is most well known to be an old prison, and it also houses the Crown Jewels. This attraction is extraordinarily busy in the summer, and you really need to get tickets online prior to showing up. There are a ton of options for tickets, but I would suggest just getting the base ticket to the Tower which costs 34.80 pounds for adults and 17.40 pounds for kids 5-15. The great thing about the Tower, is that it’s really easy to walk around yourself and see everything they have to offer. As always, I recommend getting there when it opens. If you do get there when it opens, head straight for The Crown Jewels for the least amount of waiting and lines. The queue is extremely long even an hour after opening, and is not shaded, so you’ll be waiting in the hot sun for quite some time. If you’re coming to The Tower, you really can’t skip seeing the Crown Jewels – they are extraordinary, and the exhibit is really well done.

After the Crown Jewels, head back towards the entrance for a tour. The Tower offers free tours about every half hour or so guided by the Beefeaters who work there. These free tours are about an hour long, and attract a couple hundred people, but don’t worry, these Beefeaters are really loud, informative, and entertaining! This is how you learn about some of the most famous captives at The Tower, including Ann Boleyn and Catherine Howard, two of Henry VIII’s six wives. In London, you will definitely get tourist fatigue and burn out from too much information. These Beefeater tours are the perfect length and enough information that you may actually retain a few facts. If you learn only one thing here, you will learn that the bridge pictured at the top of this article is actually called The Tower Bridge, NOT London Bridge!

Following the Beefeater Tour, make your way around the rest of the area, exploring the White Tower itself, with all the armor displays, as well as recreations of some of the torture devices they used to use. If you get here at open, you can probably be done walking around by lunch time.

That evening, I highly recommend getting tickets (in advance, of course) for Six, the musical in the West End. You can get tickets way in advance, (I purchased over six months in advance!) and theater tickets in London are not quite as expensive as they are in the United States. It’s a fantastic show, and there are no bad seats in the Vaudeville Theater, as it’s a relatively small theater. The show is intimate, yet raucous, and really gives you a solid history surrounding Henry VIII’s six wives, putting some of what you saw at The Tower into context. It’s tough to choose what to see in London, but Six is an easy choice. You’ll be chanting the line, “Divorced, beheaded, died; divorced, beheaded, survived,” throughout the rest of your London travels!

The next morning, head out to Hampton Court Palace, Henry VIII’s home for the vast majority of his reign. Don’t be intimidated or stressed by the fact that it is outside London, it’s extremely easy to get to. There are trains that go directly to Hampton Court from Waterloo Station about once every half hour or so, and the train line ends in Hampton Court, so you really can’t screw it up. You don’t even need to buy tickets in advance for the train. Just head straight to Waterloo station and grab tickets from a kiosk, or go to a live person if you’re not sure. Or, you can just tap in with your credit card. The train ride itself takes only about 35-40 minutes with a few stops on the way.

For the Palace itself, I would, again, recommend buying your tickets in advance. They cost 27.20 pounds for adults and 13.60 for kids 5-15. The palace is about a five minute walk from the train station, and is pretty well marked. You really can’t miss it once you walk over the river. The place is very large and looms over the surrounding countryside, and is definitely an imposing place. Indoors, there are lots of things to see, including various apartments, kitchens, galleries (with two disputed Caravaggio paintings!) and great halls. They do a great job of telling the story of Henry VIII’s six wives here, and you start to get the feeling that the primary thing that Henry VIII is known for anymore were, indeed, his wives! We were actually there on the anniversary of his marriage to Catherine Parr, his sixth wife, which felt pretty cool.

The Palace also has some epic gardens, with lots of areas to check out all around. I really enjoyed walking through the kitchen garden and the rose garden. There is also a large hedge maze, but there was a big group of schoolchildren there at the time, so we opted not to go in. They were even staging a jousting tournament outside while we were there!

We spent the entire morning at Hampton Court Palace, and that was plenty for us and the kids, although there is enough stuff here for several more hours, especially if you end up taking a guided tour. There is a really good gift shop towards the front of the palace, and there are lots of good Henry VIII and wives themed merch there, and I’d recommend checking it out before you leave. Afterward, we had lunch directly across the main road from the Palace at the Mute Swan, which was a charming pub with really delicious food, and surprisingly not too touristy considering the location, although do make a reservation in advance. We really enjoyed our meal here, and I’d highly recommend it. It was a great place to rest our feet and refuel for the rest of the day. Once you’re done, simply check the train schedule back to Waterloo station (again, it’s the end of the line, so impossible to mess it up) and head back the five minutes walk to the train station to go back to London.

Henry VIII is such a well-known historical personage, that a trip to London wouldn’t be complete without walking in his footsteps. But decide for yourself – is it he, himself who is worthy of fame, or is it just the fact that he had six wives in his relatively short lifetime that makes him famous?