Half term in London runs from Saturday 24 October to Sunday 1 November 2026, and for Greek and Cypriot families it has a bonus this year: Ohi Day falls on Wednesday 28 October, right in the middle of the week off. So the question is how to keep the kids busy without spending a fortune, and where to find a proper souvlaki once everyone is tired.
Londonist has pulled together a long list of things to do in London in half term, and we went through it with a Greek eye: which outings are free, which ones sit next to a Greek List member, and how to fit the 28th into the week.
Most London schools break up on Friday 23 October and go back on Monday 2 November. Halloween lands on the Saturday, so expect pumpkin trails and dressing up everywhere, and plenty of it costs nothing.
Each of the five ideas below comes with a Greek stop nearby, because a day in the cold with children goes a lot better when lunch is pastitsio and not a sad sandwich. If you are planning half term in London around the community too, the Greek events are at the end.
The 30 Victorian dinosaur sculptures in Crystal Palace Park have just come out of a multi year restoration that finished in July 2026. The cracks are mended, the lakeside paths and lighting are new, there is a dinosaur themed playground and a new visitor centre, and the whole thing is free to walk around. For a child who has only seen dinosaurs on a screen, a 170 year old Iguanodon the size of a bus is a serious moment.
Give it a full morning: the trail, the playground, the maze and the sphinxes on the terraces. Bring wellies, the lower lake gets muddy in late October.
Getting there: Crystal Palace station (Overground and Southern), then a five minute walk to the Penge Gate. Free entry, open daily.
Greek stop nearby: Kamari on Westow Street in the Crystal Palace Triangle is a ten minute walk uphill from the park: Greek coffee, pies and proper souvlaki, and it opens at 6:30am. If you are coming by car from the Croydon side, Grand Cafe 241 on Selhurst Road is a good breakfast stop before the dinosaurs.
From Tuesday 27 to Thursday 29 October the Royal Parks run their Hair Raising Halloween discovery days in Hyde Park, 11am to 3:30pm, and they are free. There is a nature trail, feely boxes, spooky stories and a lot about the bats that actually live in the park. Fancy dress is encouraged, booking is through the Royal Parks website.
Then walk across to Kensington Gardens, let the kids loose on the pirate ship in the Diana Memorial Playground, and come back along the Long Water to the Italian Gardens by Lancaster Gate. It is one of the prettiest free walks of half term in London, and it ends a few steps from two Greek List members.
Getting there: Lancaster Gate (Central line) or Paddington for the north side of the park, Hyde Park Corner for the south. Free.
Greek stop nearby: Halepi on Leinster Terrace, Bayswater, is literally across the road from the Lancaster Gate exit of the park: a family run Greek Cypriot taverna, open from noon. Towards Paddington, It’s All Greek To Me on Praed Street does gyros and grills for a quicker, cheaper lunch with children.
The British Museum stays free, and during the school holidays it adds family trails and activity backpacks you can pick up at the desk. For a Greek family there is an obvious route: the Greek galleries and Room 18, where the Parthenon Marbles sit. Explaining to a ten year old why half of a temple from Athens is in Bloomsbury is a conversation every Greek parent here has at some point, and the week of 28 October is the time to have it.
If the children are seven or older, the Charles Dickens Museum on Doughty Street runs a Dickens Haunted House storytelling session on Thursday 29 October, a ten minute walk away.
Getting there: Tottenham Court Road, Holborn or Russell Square. The museum is free, the family trails are free, special exhibitions are ticketed.
Greek stop nearby: Nostimo at 9 Brunswick Centre, a seven minute walk from the museum past Russell Square, is the easy family lunch in Bloomsbury: big plates, space for a buggy, open from 11:30am.
Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is still the best free playground in east London. Tumbling Bay has rope bridges, sand and water play, and a family swim at the London Aquatics Centre costs less than a cinema ticket. The park is huge, so pick one corner rather than trying to see it all with a four year old.
New this year is V&A East at the edge of the park, with The Music is Black: A British Story running until 3 January 2027, half price for under 26s. Older kids into music will get more out of it than toddlers.
Getting there: Stratford (Central, Jubilee, Elizabeth line, DLR, Overground), then through Westfield Stratford City into the park. The park and playgrounds are free.
Greek stop nearby: EPIC is inside Westfield Stratford City, so it is on your way in and on your way out: souvlaki wraps and loukoumades that children will fight over, open from 10am.
Because the 28th falls inside half term in London, Greek families have two options. The first is to mark the day here: cook the lunch, tell the story of 1940, and check the Greek List events page for the commemorations the Greek schools and churches announce in the days before. For the grown ups there is also a Greek wine tasting at Franklin’s Wine in Notting Hill on the evening of the 28th, and Christos Dikeakos in conversation at the Hellenic Centre on the 29th.
The second option is to fly out. With the children off school anyway, a week in Greece over the 28th means parades in the sunshine, the grandparents, and Athens at its best temperature of the year. Late October flights are far cheaper than Christmas, if you book now.
Planning it: most London schools finish on Friday 23 October, so a Saturday flight out and a Sunday 1 November return gives you nine days in Greece.
Greek stop nearby: Vozis Travel is a Greek run travel agency and tour operator in Milton Keynes that books flights, hotels and packages for the UK Greek community, so you can sort the whole trip in Greek, over the phone.
If the budget allows one big ticket for half term in London, Londonist rates Halloween at Kew (16 October to 1 November) and the Wallace and Gromit exhibition at the Young V&A (until 15 November) as the standouts, and the Natural History Museum has Jurassic Oceans until January. Everything else, with prices, is in the full guide.
For a slow day, our guides to Greek bakeries in London and to free things to do in London cover the rest.
Greek List keeps the most complete list of Greek events in the UK, and listing an event is free. Here is what is on in the next ten days, before half term in London even starts:
The businesses featured in this guide are Greek List members. More than 100,000 Greeks and Cypriots in the UK read Greek List every month, on the site, in the newsletter and in the Ellines sto Londino Facebook group, and Greek List listings rank first on Google for searches like “Greek restaurant near me”. If you want your business in front of them, there is a plan for every budget.
Where are you taking the kids this half term? Share your plans in the Facebook group Ellines sto Londino.
