Making Memories at London’s O2: A Family Day Out

From IFS Cloud Cable Car and immersive football challenges at TOCA Social to climbing the dome and taking in 360-degree views over London, the day at The O2 is packed with experiences that thrill both kids and parents alike. Here’s how one family made the most of an unforgettable visit to The O2.

“It feels like we’re in a science fiction film!” our thirteen-year-old son tells us, as we float across the Thames in our neon purple capsule, and another passes us in the opposite direction.

He’s right, it does. Even The O2, where we’ve just enjoyed a full day of activities, looks like a UFO that’s landed in the middle of a glowing metropolis, with its lights dancing on the waters of the Thames 90 metres below us.

“Are we higher than the Shard,” our daughter asks.
“No,” I tell her, but it certainly feels as though we are each time a gust of wind catches our cable car and it sways from side to side.

There are plenty of ways to reach The O2, including rail, Underground, bus and UBER Thames Clipper – which we rode from the Palace of Westminster earlier in the day. But, arriving at The O2 – or leaving, as we’re doing – via the IFS Cloud cable car is easily the most breathtaking.

It’s the perfect way to end the perfect day, after enjoying a full programme of activities at The O2.

After arriving by boat we headed to iFly to watch the indoor skydivers. We do this every time we’re here – as we also do at Chill Factore in Manchester – because the instructors regularly put on acrobatic displays at the end of lessons that the kids love to watch. Once we watched the display the kids were itching to take a lesson, but I pointed out that they’ve already done this before and that we were here to try something new this time, TOCA Social.

TOCA Social is an immersive football experience that uses real footballs along with digital targets projected onto smart screens to create a unique take on the beautiful game. Our son, Harrison, is football mad and has been itching to try his hand – or should that be foot – at TOCA since he saw it on a YouTube video.

We were led to a private booth, and input our names, in a similar way to bowling alleys, and then ceased to be family for the next hour and became deadly enemies, all vying to outshoot the other while blasting the balls at the various targets. I won’t say who won and who lost to save the reputations of all involved, but will admit that I was closer to forth place than I was to first.

After we’d made up again, we headed for an early dinner. We could have stayed in TOCA Social and enjoyed food and drink there, but there are so many restaurants in The O2 where kids dine free that we decided to head to one of those instead, and settled on ASK Italian. We could just have easily gone to TGI Fridays, Zizzis or Las Iguanas as kids meals were free with paying adults at all of those, but I already had the ASK Italian app and the kids love pasta. It’s safe to say that if your kids don’t like pasta, you’ll still be well catered for at The O2, as we counted 34 different food and drink venues on the venue map.

We followed lunch with a spot of discounted outlet shopping, grabbing some bargains from the Adidas store for Harrison’s upcoming birthday. Prices in these outlets tend to be really good – we regularly visit a similar one in York – and we always end up walking away with more than we intended to buy because we can’t resist a bargain. There are almost 60 stores in The O2 Outlet, and I’m sure Ella and her mum would have loved to spend all day in them – they spent 30 minutes in Rituals alone – but I eventually managed to drag them out so that we could head to the most unique experience at The O2, at least in my opinion.

Up at The O2 is a guided climb to the top of the iconic O2 building, which was built to celebrate the new millennium. Our boy had already climbed before with his mum, but his sister was too young at the time, which gave me the perfect excuse to sign us up to a night climb. The starting point is right next to the entrance of The O2, which was starting to get pretty busy for the evening. The O2 attracts millions of nighttime visitors a year, with Mamma Mia: The Party having attracted 500,000 visitors alone since it opened at The O2 in 2019. But, as we visited on a Monday and Mamma Mia only plays on Wednesdays and Fridays, my guess was that these visitors were here for the Florence and the Machine concert in The O2 Arena. We brushed past the excited concert goers and headed to the starting point, where we signed in and took a safety briefing before being kitted up with harnesses and grippy footwear. Then it was outside and onto the 380 metre walkway that is suspended above the roof of The O2 building rather than being laid on it.

Because the walkway is suspended it felt like walking on a trampoline and was slower to get up than I expected. Along the way our guide pointed out sites of interest, including the IFS Cloud Cable Cars that would later take us across the river to our hotel on the Docklands. The surrounding area looks amazing, lit up in every direction and the IFS Cable Cars only add to the futuristic scene.

Once we reached the summit, 52 metres above the surrounding city, it felt strange to get off the bouncy floor; in the same way it does when you disembark a boat and have to get used to walking on solid ground again. But we had quite a bit of time once we were there to get used to it, while enjoying a 360-degree view of Greenwich, the Royal Docklands, Canary Wharf and the capital beyond.

Then it was back down the rear side of The O2 on that bouncing walkway again. At the foot of the dome, I noticed a paddle court, which shouldn’t be a surprise as these seem to be springing up everywhere. We’d not tried it out yet and I made a mental note to look into booking a session.

We also noticed a Clip and Climb, Immotion VR experience and a place called Boom Battle Bar, which looked interesting but more geared toward adults with activities like axe throwing, shuffleboard, augmented reality darts, beer pong and crazy golf.

But we’d already had enough fun for one day and the kids were itching to get onboard the IFS Cloud Cable Car, to float above the Thames to our hotel.