London is a must-see for all Harry Potter fans. Especially for the fans of the Harry Potter movies. The Warner Bros Studio, where all 8 Harry movies were shot is located in Watford just outside London.
But before you go to the Warner Bros Studio, you absolutely must visit Platform 9 and 3/4 at Kings Cross Station. Our hotel was quite close to this station, so we walked there on the first day. Platform 9 and 3/4, as you can easily guess, is located near platforms 9 and 10, so it is not difficult to find it. There is also a gift shop right next to it. On platform 9 and 3/4 you can shoot the mandatory photo (you get a scarf and a wand for the photo from the store employee, who also helps you creating the effect of running :)) Of course, you can buy various souvenirs related to Harry in the store: clothes, mascots, mugs, brooms, wands (over £ 30 each). Whatever you like. We planned to buy souvenirs for the children in the studio, because the store there is much larger, but unfortunately it turned out that the owls that the children wanted were only here, so as a result, we had to get back to Kings Cross at the end of the day 🙂

Tickets to Warner Bros. must be purchased in advance. Long time in advance. We had some adventures with the tickets, because when I wanted to buy them about 7 weeks before departure, it turned out that tickets for our date were no longer available. We managed to find some tour operators selling tickets with included transportation from London. It’s nice, because you don’t have to travel by train, but the price for our family of 4 was £ 356.40! After a short consultation and conversation with the children, we decided that only me and Gabriela would go to the Studio, and the boys would go to the zoo instead.
Two weeks before our departure, I started to check on the Warner Bros website if there were any tickets available due to cancellations. After a few days of checking, it worked! 4 tickets for our date were suddenly available and the price was £ 159 for the 4 of us. Even with the cost of public transport (the train from London Euston to Watford Junction was £ 32.15 for our family), the price was still half of the broker. We returned the tickets bought through tour operator without any problems.
We made it, but I recommend that you buy your tickets well in advance, and don’t count on a miracle 🙂

Before I tell you about visiting the studio itself, I will mention how to get there 🙂 As I wrote above, the best solution is the train from Euston station to Watford Junction. You can buy train tickets HERE. If you choose the Return ticket option, it is much cheaper than buying them separately. We had tickets for the specific hour just only on the outbound travel, and the return was open so it was perfect for us. Free buses run from Watford Junction to the Studio itself (of course, upon presentation of a ticket to the Studio). The buses run theoretically every 30 minutes, and the trip takes about 15 minutes, so you have to include this in your travel plan.

At the entrance to the studio, our tickets and the contents of any backpacks will be checked. There are also security checks as at the airport… Anyway, backpacks are checked at every museum, which was a novelty for us.
Before you even start your sightseeing tour, you will find yourself in a huge hall where a dragon is suspended above your head! It makes a really big impression! Children are given small books, in which they will collect stamps in various places on the route. Sightseeing is planned for about 3 hours and it took us exactly that time (but we didn’t have a long lunch break). In about 2/3 of the route there is a restaurant where you can have lunch or coffee (you’ll get information that it is in the middle of the route, but it’s not true;))

You start the tour with an introduction by a guide and a short film. Then your steps will be directed to the Great Hall, known to us so well from all the books and movies. Later on the tour you will see, among others, the fully preserved scenography of Gringotts Wizarding Bank, Diagon Alley, the Forbidden Forest, Dumbledore’s office, the room where potions lessons took place, etc. You can also see a lot of props (including collections of wands and brooms) and costumes worn by actors in subsequent parts the movie. In addition, you will find out how the game of Quiddich were shot and you will learn the secrets behind some of the special effects. You can even fly on a broom yourself! I will not reveal more details, because you have to see it with your own eyes.

As I was the only one who has read all the books and seen the movies, I had to answer countless questions asked by Gabriela (she is currently reading the 2nd book). And my standard answer to questions about movie content was “read the books!”. That’s the kind of mum I am 🙂 Gabriela liked it very much and I think it made her even more motivated to read the next parts. I regret that it is so long ago that I have read the books and watched the movies, because I didn’t remember many of the details, but I will soon have the opportunity to catch up on this together with Gabriela 🙂
Summing up, a great attraction for the whole family! Even Muggles will have fun 🙂