Best Ice Skating Rinks in London

I have always thought of myself as a bit of a pro-skater, when in reality I have to hold onto the edge and pull myself around the rink at least 5 times before I am able to let go and skate about 2 metres, by which time my half hour slot is over and I am being told to leave. Anyway, despite me not being the ideal candidate for Dancing on Ice, I do enjoy ice skating and it is a really good activity to do around... (must not say the C word) Winter.
In London there are quite a few nice ice skating rinks dotted around, so I am going to share some of my favourites with you.

1) Natural History Museum
The main reason I love this ice skating rink is probably because they have a kid's smaller sized rink attached to the full sized one, I like to go into the tiny one and pretend that I am amazing just because I am better at ice skating than some toddlers who probably only learnt to walk the day before. They have the little penguin things here that you can hold onto if you're a really incompetent skater, but you have to be under 8 or something to be able to get one. Lame.
Once you're done ice-skating, you can head over to the Natural History Museum for some free culture and have a browse around the brilliant gift shop.

2) Somerset House

I actually haven't been to this ice-rink, but I am going this weekend so hopefully it's a good one. The prices are similar to those at the Natural History Museum, not too bad and they have a special student rate that stays the same off and on peak season. Somerset house is in a nice area and the rink is situated bang in the middle of it so it is quite big.

Watch this cute video here to get an idea of its good qualities (in case you are wondering, yes, the woman in the pink jumper who does a twirl, is me obviously.)

3) Winter Wonderland

These tickets are quite on the expensive side, even off-peak ones, but it is also such a fun place to go in general without even visiting the ice-skating rink. You don't even have to go skating, you can go on the equally over-priced rides and buy snacks that will make you bankrupt!

However, the ice-skating rink here is really pretty and, if you don't mind colliding with random kids every once in a while, it is another great place to skate in London. Plus the London Eye literally looks over the ice-rink (if you'll pardon the pun...)

4) Queen's

This place is not as classy as the aforementioned venues but it doubles as a super great bowling alley! So once you're done bruising your bum, you can show everyone what you're made of on the lanes. Unless you're like me and are hopeless at the whole bowling shindig as well... Oh well, they have nice chips there.

This is the only rink I have mentioned that is actually indoors so you don't have to worry about the whole it's-freezing-outside thing. Although, I recommend still wearing gloves as it does hurt your hands if you fall otherwise.

Despite the un-beautiful scenery surrounding you, it is rather pricey here and you have to pay a separate fee for your boots! What kind of person carries around their own ice-skating boots?

You may be thinking right now that this post is pointless cause you don't want to go ice-skating and are rubbish at it. However, just remember that there will always be one person that is worse than you. Me. And I love going ice-skating despite this.

All the same, I highly reccomend bringing a friend who is better that you and never letting go of their hand. (Pretend you are re-enacting Titanic or something)

M x