myrrha

I'm trying to plan a trip to Europe with my family this summer, we want to go to London and Paris and stay about 2 weeks total. We will be traveling with my husband and I, our 2 daughters ages 7 and 11 and my mother and father in law. This is the 1st time any of us has been to Europe and I'm trying to figure out what we should see while we're there. We definitely don't want to rent a car, I don't want to deal with trying to drive there. What some things we have to see? Also, should we just concentrate on just staying within each city or are there a couple of places we should hit that are just outside the city that we could get there and back to our hotel within a day? Also, what is the best area to stay in each city that is convenient to public transportation? My mother in law can't walk very well and we were planning on having her in a wheelchair most of the time, how would that affect our ability to use public transportation?

Gretchen

A week in each place will be nice, and "maybe" a day trip for each place.
I think a wheelchair may be difficult, although there are spaces in the bus, for example, for them, as I recall. I think the Metro will be impossible.
I'd get some guide books and start reading. Also read threads here. There are probably even some that may include info for "handicapped" people that will advise you.
Can your MIL use a walker? Maybe one that has the seat in it?

Sassafrass

With six people, you are being smart to stay only a couple of places and not rush. London and Paris are both interesting with lots to do.

Get a good guide book for each city to figure out what most interests you.

Besides the museums, tower of London, Westminster, Globe Theatre, London Eye, etc. we love plays in London. Go early your first day to either the box office for plays you might like or the cheap ticket place (Leister Sq, as I remember) and get tickets for the rest of the week. They were pretty cheap at last minute. We also enjoyed a canal boat ride from Little Venice.

Paris and London being both big cities, do some day trips to experience some countryside. IMHO, Versailles is well worth a day and just a few minutes train ride from Paris. Another might be Giverny or Chartes. From London, there are tons of day trips: too many to list, but a good guide book will tell you which are good from London and how to do them.

European cities are not quite as wheelchair friendly as most US cities, so you will have to get more info from others on how best to handle that, which stations have elevators, etc. Your MIL & FIL might need to use taxis a bit more.

The HOHO bus in London is subject to being stuck in traffic with lots of fumes - not good, IMHO. I personally found the HOHO bus in Paris boring and would be especially so for the kids.

Boat trips on the Seine are fun though and you see a lot - nice especially in the late afternoon, early evening.

Apartments might work well for you as a group.

While a week in each city is certainly not too much (especially with MIL in a wheel chair), you might consider 4/5 nts in each city and 2/3 someplace else in each country, or even a 5/5/4 split so you have some time outside of cities.

nytraveler

First of all, you need to get a couple of good guidebook and check them out. We can tell you what WE wan to see and do - but not what YOU will.

Staying a week each in London and Paris makes a lot of sense - esp since you MIL has limited mobility. Can your MIL get around without it for short distances? If so, it may make most sense to have an apartment versus 2 or 3 hotel rooms - but you need to find a place with an elevator and no stair access from the street. If you give your budget, people may be able to make specific recos for a 2 BR apt with sofabed for your DDs. If your MIL needs handicap accessible lodgings then you will need to look for a hotel - and really need to give us a budget per night so people can make recos.

You will want to take the Eurostar between London and Paris - and you should book tickets as soon as you have your dates. If you buy tickets 90 days in advance prices will be MUCH cheaper than buying later. Also definitely get open jaws plane tickets - into London and out of Paris - to avoid back tracking - prices won't be any higher.

For visits outside London you can do Windsor Castle, Hampton Court Palace (consider taking the boat one way), Greenwich, Oxford or a host of other places. I would be hesitant to book tours - since they may not be able to accomodate a wheelchair. Instead I would do your own visits by train and cab.

Outside of paris definitely see Versailles - and consider a day in another part of France - there is now a TGV to Strasbourg which will give you a look at a totally different part of France.

Have never had to deal with wheelchair on tube or metro and snot sure how doable it is. Bus might be better - or cab. (For 6 people might not be much more to get a large cab as long s the wheelchair can be folded and your MIL can be helped in and out of cab.

pauljagman

Sassafrass echos my thoughts. Our family did London and Paris about 10 years ago. We didn't need to rent a car as each city has fabulous transit systems. We did do day trips to destinations outside the cities but did so with travel guides. You should be able to find lots of daytrips by googling.

Be advised that both cities are relatively expensive.

sofarsogood

Accesible London for wheelchair users from the visitlondon.com website

http://tinyurl.com/ahrnrv4

PalenQ

We definitely don't want to rent a car, I don't want to deal with trying to drive there. What some things we have to see? >

Trains are best if going to cities like London and Paris and the usual tourist destinations - large cities where cars are more and more a liability for various reasons.

And the European train system is so so fantastic - frequent and modern trains going everywhere.

For a fix on the European rail system and ideas of where to go by train check out these IMO fantastic sites - www.seat61.com (good info on online discounted tickets which however are sold in limited numbers and thus which must be booked weeks in advance to guarantee and typically cannot be changed nor refunded) and www.ricksteves.com and www.budgeteuropetravel.com - download the latter's free and superb IMO European Planning & Rail Guide for lots of suggested rail itineraries in various countries (http://www.budgeteuropetravel.com/id2.html).

Yes if you spend a week both in London and Paris you can easily take day trips by train to many nearby places - like from London to Oxford, Bath, York, Cambridge, Stonehenge, Windsor, etc - giving you a taste of a more real England than cosmopolitan London where in some places foreign tourist seem to out number the locals.

And from Paris day trip to say the Normandy D-Day beaches near Bayeux or to Reims for touring Champagne caves or to Chartres to see the world-famous Gothic cathedral or even to the Loire Valley for a day - or Monet's Giverny and certainly Versailles.

janisj

One week London, one week Paris, fly open jaw into one city and home from the other, Eurostar train between the two. That is an easy trip.

I would rent apartments in both cities. One large apartment will cost less than two hotels rooms and give you a LOT more space/comfort. Plus there maybe days when your MIL or others just want to relax/chill and having a comfy living room, kitchen etc makes that easier.

Forget about using the tube/metro. Even the stations w/ elevators often have loooooong walks underground to the platforms.

The buses are set up for wheelchairs. I'd use a folding chair (or a transport chair) just to make easier to use cabs.

PalenQ

One week London, one week Paris, fly open jaw into one city and home from the other, Eurostar train between the two>

Americans may not know the term Eurostar train - to most of us it is the Chunnel train, just in case anyone is confused.

annhig

myrrha, I found this website about disabled access to the eurostar train between London and Paris.

http://www.eurostar.com/UK/uk/leisur...assistance.jsp

if you google "London/Paris for disabled" you'll get a lot of good links.

sofarsogood

<<Americans may not know the term Eurostar train - to most of us it is the Chunnel train, just in case anyone is confused.>>

aggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh............

BigRuss

You have GOT to get on with the research. The Tube is NOT wheelchair friendly - go to the Transport for London website.

London has a LOT of discounts available. Go to the daysoutguide.co.uk website and print off every voucher that interests you. When you get to London, you, hubby and inlaws need to buy one-week Travelcards from a National Rail station (Victoria, Marylebone, Paddington, Waterloo, etc.) and get the paper travelcard, not the Oyster. Present said travelcards with vouchers at sites like the Tower, Cabinet War Rooms, St Paul's, Hampton Court Palace, more.

Saves big.

PalenQ

Chunnel trains do have some kind of special accommodation for wheel chairs I believe in Standard Class but you may want to go first class where the aisles are bigger and with fewer seats in each car much more spacious.

Havana128

<<Americans may not know the term Eurostar train - to most of us it is the Chunnel train, just in case anyone is confused.>>

In a parallel universe.

BigRuss

I'm with Havana on this - it's the Eurostar, not the "Chunnel train" even to folks in the US.

Gretchen

I have never been, but I had NO problem with "chunnel train" you probably won't find the schedules in a google search. Get a life people.

janisj

Gretchen: PQ is on a crusade to convince folks that all Americans are dumb a$$es and ONLY understand "Chunnel". He posts the same stoopid thing over and over again -- even on this thread where not one person mentioned the "Chunnel" until <u>HE</u> brought it up simply to muddy the waters.

PalenQ

I have never been, but I had NO problem with "chunnel train" you probably won't find the schedules in a google search.>

Well one does a Google search they will see, in American posts, Chunnel more than Eurostar - thus BigRuss is dead wrong when he says Americans do not in large call it the Chunnel train.

PalenQ

Chunnel Train Tickets - London to Paris. See Prices.
www.raileurope.com/Chunnel

Chunnel - trains, tickets, fares, booking for Channel Tunnel trains
chunnel.org.uk/Chunnel - take The Chunnel from England to France. Chunnel is the short name often used for the Channel Tunnel. The Chunnel runs from Folkestone in the ...
Chunnel Booking.

Note BigRuss that the American European rail agent RailEurope prefers the term Chunnel over Eurostar

and oddly note the www.chunnel..org.uk/Chunnel site - a UK site repeatedly uses the term Chunnel - even giving a definition of the word Chunnel - it mentions Chunnel much more than Eurostar and yes Stateside Chunnel is much much more known than Eurostar - thus RailEurope uses it for search engines to pick up.

The fact that Americans use Chunnel more than Eurostar is just not debatable and anyone who says Americans do not use it is simply wrong - to wit the above posts and many many more.

and yes the word Chunnel was first coined by a British newspaper I have read.

PalenQ

http://chunnel.org.uk/

this site should work for the site I talk about above - where Chunnel and Chunnel train tickets are used over and over - by a UK web site!