London Eye, London

We live close to London and I think we take it for granted sometimes, so last month I decided to take the family for a 'tourist day' in London to see the sights! Our first stop was the London Eye...

About the London Eye

The London Eye is a giant big wheel/ferris wheel that was constructed in 1999 and first opened to the public in 2000. It is the biggest wheel in the world and is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames. The London Eye is 135 metres (443 feet) tall and 120 metres (394 feet) wide. It is a very popular tourist attraction and pulls in 3.5 million people every year. The London Eye has previously been called the British Airways London Eye, The Merlin Entertainments London Eye but since January 2011 is called the EDF Energy London Eye following a 3 year sponsorship deal with EDF Energy. The Eye is beautifully lit up by LED lights at night.

Our experience

We got off the underground at Waterloo which I think is the closest station to the London Eye (Charing Cross is also close). There were signs to the Eye so we knew where to go and it was only a few minutes walk away.

You can't miss the Eye, it's huge! We tried to take some photos but some stupidly placed trees were in the way, you can probably get a better photo from the other side of the river or from the Westminster Bridge. The London Eye is right next to the London Aquarium, Westminster Bridge and The Houses of Parliament. We visited in the half term holidays and it was very busy.

I had used Avios (formally Airmiles) to pay for our London Eye experience. Before we could board the Eye, we had to visit the ticket office opposite. We swapped our Avios vouchers for London Eye tickets - the queue was fairly long but went down quickly. Standard ticket prices are normally £18.90 for adults, £9.90 for children (4-15 years), £15.00 for seniors, £57.60 for a family of 4 and free for under 4 year olds. You can save 10% on single tickets and 20% on family tickets if you book online prior to your visit. Higher priced Flexi tickets, Fast Track tickets, Combination tickets and Champagne Experience etc are also available. In my opinion ticket prices are quite expensive, especially if you have a whole family to pay for. The London Eye is open all year round but it's best to check the website before planning a visit.

Inside of the ticket office building is a 4D experience which was included in the price of our tickets. We decided to give it a miss and we thought our daughter would get bored, although afterwards I was informed that the 4D experience is quite enjoyable - typical! It is also worth picking up a London Eye 360 View Guidebook (£1.00) which is full of interesting information and can be used to pin point landmarks, plus keep as a souvenir.

The queue for the London Eye was very big, we were dreading it. However we only ended up queueing for about 20-30 minutes and it seemed to go very quickly as the queue was constantly moving. There was also a lady selling snacks and drinks in the queue which helped! We also had to go through some security checks as we got close to the front of the queue.

The London Eye has 32 'capsules' (which represent the 32 boroughs of London) which comfortably fit about 25 people inside each. The capsules are completely clear (although there are some panels on floor if you'd prefer to stand on those!) to give you a full 360 view over London. They are air conditioned and have a bench in the middle for those wanting to sit down. The Eye moves very slowly and each ride (one whole spin) takes about 30 minutes - plenty of time to soak up the views and also allows visitors to enter and exit the capsules without the wheel having to stop.

At first I did feel a bit ill! It's best to look outwards rather than downwards if you're not fond of heights! However I got over my fear pretty quickly as I was busy spotting landmarks and taking photos etc. The views are stunning, we could see really far over London. Apparently on clear days you can see as far as Windsor Castle! We visited on a dry but cloudy day. Landmarks which we spotted without the help of the guidebook included Buckingham Palace, Battersea Power Station and London Bridge. The capsule had an electronic guidebook but we didn't use it as our guidebook was helpful enough. I didn't know how my young daughter would react but she really enjoyed herself and absolutely loved seeing Big Ben up close! Although the wheel took quite a long time to go round, it went really fast as we were so preoccupied.

On the way down (not far from the bottom) is where you automatically get your photo taken. Although only a small part of the capsule fits in to the photo, so if you want to be in the photo you have to make sure you're in the 'photo area' which is mapped out on the floor inside the capsule! We decided not to purchase our photo as there were so many strangers in it, although we did manage to take lots of photos inside the capsule so weren't too disappointed. After you exit the capsule you are greeted by a London Eye gift shop with all the London Eye essentials!

Overall we all had a lovely visit to the London Eye. It was great to be in the heart of London and see the city from a completley different perspective. We have some great photos and memories from our visit. I would recommend the London Eye to others, however I doubt it's something that we will do again... not in the foreseeable future anyway - it's more of a 'one time' thing, especially for the price charged!

Summary: A nice London tourist attraction.