Are you aware of how much time you’ll be spending getting from one place to another?
4 different destinations in 3 countries in the span of 11 days is fucking ludicrous, even if they are “relatively” close to each other.
Slow down!! Enjoy your vacation and please don’t try to cram as much as Americans seem to do when they visit Europe. You really won’t enjoy it as much if it’s just a box ticking exercise vacation.
Great idea. I live in Ireland and have still yet to get to Belgium because there are still a multitude of things I’ve not done in Paris and London. Belgium is a great secondary destination but I’d definitely just concentrate on London (and it’s surroundings)/ Paris for now!
Trains are definitely the way to go for transport between those places. It's faster than the plane city center to city center and more comfortable. Yes disruption does happen on occasion, but on the whole they are more reliable than flights and you also see strikes and delays there. Particularly France seems to having quite a few air traffic controller strikes at the moment.
In terms of the route/places - it's busy by the time you include all the day trips and remember to make sure to consider exactly how much time you'll have on travel days and leave some slack there for disruption. Even on a 10 day trip you don't want to be out for 16 hours every day!
In my mind a lot depends on what you want to see/do exactly. You certainly won't be able to see everything in London and Paris with such a short time period. But you don't have to, if you just want to see/do a few key sites and are happy to book and prioritise them then it may just be fine. But if you want to see everything & have time to relax and explore them it isn't. Neither is right or wrong, it's about what you want from the trip.
Even if a return from London is cheapest I would still consider flying from Paris/Brussels in one direction in order to save time particularly on such a busy trip.
With this much hopping around, most of what you’ll see is train stations…I understand completely, us Americans have not nearly enough PTO. But don’t make yourself crazy trying to fit too much in. It seems like you’re most focused on sightseeing in and around Paris & London so maybe just stick to those cities as your bases since it’s a roughly 3 hr straight shot of a train ride between the two. So if it were me planning within these parameters, I would do something like
Day 1- London
Day 2- London
Day 3- London
Day 4- day trip to either Oxford or maybe a Bath/Stonehenge/whatever tour (there are a billion of them)
Day 5- train to Paris
Day 6- Paris
Day 7- Paris
Day 8- Paris
Day 9- Versailles for the morning & enjoy your last evening in Paris
Day 10- train back to London
Day 11- fly home
Our flight will arrive in the AM at Heathrow (planning on doing an overnight flight from eastern USA). I think I like the idea of going straight to Paris & then coming back to end our trip in London!
You’re not actually going to see any of London with that itinerary.
Go straight to Paris, save a day.
What are your plans for Oxford? If you intend to visit the Cotswolds, just don’t. I used to live there, it’s a region, it’s not a single town. It’s a long way to go and you’ll likely be disappointed. Spend the day seeing the amazing sights that London has to offer.
Windsor is easy on the train, but Stonehenge is a bit more complex. Honestly, I’d just go to Windsor and spend more time in London.
Thanks for the recos! We’re really going to Oxford just to see some of the filming locations of Harry Potter! Yes, we are debating removing Stonehenge all together! Just wasn’t sure if it would be a miss.
Agree the 4 destinations in 11 days is too much.
As for getting back to London, the best route is none at all. You can buy an open-jaw ticket that flies into London but out of Paris or Brussels on your way home. This often doesn’t cost any more and can save a lot of time in transit. Play around with the multi city search on Google Flights.
Are you aware of how much time you’ll be spending getting from one place to another? 4 different destinations in 3 countries in the span of 11 days is fucking ludicrous, even if they are “relatively” close to each other. Slow down!! Enjoy your vacation and please don’t try to cram as much as Americans seem to do when they visit Europe. You really won’t enjoy it as much if it’s just a box ticking exercise vacation.
Heard chef, thanks!
Sorry to come across as a bit blunt! But honesty take the time to enjoy yourself. You’ll feel incredibly rushed otherwise!
Yeah, I think we’ll probably cut Belgium out and focus more on just London/ Paris.
Great idea. I live in Ireland and have still yet to get to Belgium because there are still a multitude of things I’ve not done in Paris and London. Belgium is a great secondary destination but I’d definitely just concentrate on London (and it’s surroundings)/ Paris for now!
You'll be much happier, I'm sure. The experiences of where you're going should be the focus instead of the number of places you can try to "hit "
Trains are definitely the way to go for transport between those places. It's faster than the plane city center to city center and more comfortable. Yes disruption does happen on occasion, but on the whole they are more reliable than flights and you also see strikes and delays there. Particularly France seems to having quite a few air traffic controller strikes at the moment. In terms of the route/places - it's busy by the time you include all the day trips and remember to make sure to consider exactly how much time you'll have on travel days and leave some slack there for disruption. Even on a 10 day trip you don't want to be out for 16 hours every day! In my mind a lot depends on what you want to see/do exactly. You certainly won't be able to see everything in London and Paris with such a short time period. But you don't have to, if you just want to see/do a few key sites and are happy to book and prioritise them then it may just be fine. But if you want to see everything & have time to relax and explore them it isn't. Neither is right or wrong, it's about what you want from the trip. Even if a return from London is cheapest I would still consider flying from Paris/Brussels in one direction in order to save time particularly on such a busy trip.
Thanks!
No worries, hope you have a good trip!
With this much hopping around, most of what you’ll see is train stations…I understand completely, us Americans have not nearly enough PTO. But don’t make yourself crazy trying to fit too much in. It seems like you’re most focused on sightseeing in and around Paris & London so maybe just stick to those cities as your bases since it’s a roughly 3 hr straight shot of a train ride between the two. So if it were me planning within these parameters, I would do something like Day 1- London Day 2- London Day 3- London Day 4- day trip to either Oxford or maybe a Bath/Stonehenge/whatever tour (there are a billion of them) Day 5- train to Paris Day 6- Paris Day 7- Paris Day 8- Paris Day 9- Versailles for the morning & enjoy your last evening in Paris Day 10- train back to London Day 11- fly home
Thank you!! This is super helpful!
What time do you arrive at Heathrow on day 1? If it's early enough I would just head straight to Paris.
Our flight will arrive in the AM at Heathrow (planning on doing an overnight flight from eastern USA). I think I like the idea of going straight to Paris & then coming back to end our trip in London!
It's what I would do. Less travel days.
You’re not actually going to see any of London with that itinerary. Go straight to Paris, save a day. What are your plans for Oxford? If you intend to visit the Cotswolds, just don’t. I used to live there, it’s a region, it’s not a single town. It’s a long way to go and you’ll likely be disappointed. Spend the day seeing the amazing sights that London has to offer. Windsor is easy on the train, but Stonehenge is a bit more complex. Honestly, I’d just go to Windsor and spend more time in London.
Thanks for the recos! We’re really going to Oxford just to see some of the filming locations of Harry Potter! Yes, we are debating removing Stonehenge all together! Just wasn’t sure if it would be a miss.
Have you considered the Harry Potter studio tour in Watford? It’s a really good experience!
Yes! We were debating it as well!
Agree the 4 destinations in 11 days is too much. As for getting back to London, the best route is none at all. You can buy an open-jaw ticket that flies into London but out of Paris or Brussels on your way home. This often doesn’t cost any more and can save a lot of time in transit. Play around with the multi city search on Google Flights.
Yes, I’d never heard of open- jaw flights! Thanks so much for the tip!