appletea

Hi Everyone,

I've been combing through the boards and think I'm kind of ready to post to ask for advice.

Here's are preliminary itinerary.
Sept 1-4 - London
Sept 4th-8th - Paris, staying at Henri IV Rive Gauche
Sept 8th - 15th - ???
Sept 15th - 16th - London

My husband and I will be flying in and out of London for the first time! (We went to Italy for our first time last year for about 10 days and loved Rome, Florence and Venice.)

We were thinking about going to Provence, but I couldn't find any cheap airfare that goes there? What would be the best way to get there? Is there another city you would suggest as a good 3rd city to visit in Europe? We were also thinking about Spain, but not sure if it's too far.

Also do you think it's worth it stay in Paris on a Saturday night? The hotel we booked didn't have it available.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Best,
~appletea

janisj

My suggestion is to spend more time in London and more time in Paris w/ maybe a day trip out of each one.

By the time you get over the jet lag and leave for Paris you really only have 2 days free in London. The 15th/16th really only adds about 1/2 a day for London when you figure in travel time.

I'd split your time 50/50

yk

I agree with janis. I would just spend the entire time in London/Paris, with 1-2 daytrips per city. It's very easy to spend a whole week (or more) in both London and Paris.

If you really want a 3rd destination, how about the Loire Valley for 3-4 days?

tata823

Hi Appletea,
I think 4/5 days in London is a good amount of time for your trip. I was there recently for a week and had a great time. Like any exciting city, there's so much to see and do but I was ready for a change of scenery by day 5.

Not sure if this would interest you, but while planning my trip to Amsterdam I think I recall that the train connects London, Amsterdam and Paris regularly. I haven't been to Amsterdam yet (I'm going soon) but I've heard so many great things about it - and not just about the coffee houses, etc. But that the Dutch are friendly, the canals are beautiful and live music is really big there. So, it may be an option if you haven't thought about it.

I haven't been to Paris so I hope you have a great time!

Good luck!

JoeTro

I would agree for more time in London and Paris. But, perhaps Nice or Strasbourg or the Loire, all accessible by train.

AisleSeat

Amsterdam would be great to combo with L & P.

appletea

After doing hours of research, and looking at transportation between cities, I am now exploring Barcelona. (I was really interested in Amsterdam, but the train is $300 for the two of us which seems really expensive?

Here's are preliminary itinerary.
Sept 1-4 - London, booked Sumner Hotel
Sept 4th-9th - Paris, staying at Henri IV Rive Gauche, need a hotel for the 9th
Sept 9th - 13th - Barcelona???
Sept 13th - 16th - London

Thinking about taking the train from London to Paris and then from Paris to Barcelona, taking easyjet and then easyjet from Barcelona back to London.

I am still just *thinking* about it though and maybe now as I'm writing, leaning more towards just sticking to Paris and London and taking day trips to Versaille, Stonehenge, etc?

Also cuz we are staying at Sumner Hotel at the beginning of the trip, where would you suggest to stay in London?

Ummm please advise. I'm feeling a little lost in all this research.

travel_buzzing

big yes for barcelona (as always). vueling.com are flying 10 euro flights at the minute. look, if you can base your itinerary around where the cheap flights are at you will be sorted. i think its better than trying to get some chronololgical order and then shopping for flights. i just bought rtn barcelona to rome for 50 euro, also rtn bcn to madrid for 20!! its worth looking at before you get your itenerary set in stone and if you have a general idea and timescale you're cruising.
what is your budget for accomodation, also a factor.
look at the area guide for Paris and Barcelona here for info on the monuments, museums, what to see etc:
BCN- http://www.way2stay.com/area-info-Barcelona-en-52.htm
PAR- http://www.way2stay.com/area-info-Paris-en-109.htm
they do great vacation apts which will cut down on your eating-out budget.

i wouldnt stay more than four days in london as it is a rip off (but a very cool city) and i wouldnt recommend using it as a base for travelling because getting to and from the airport everytime you take a trip will probably cost you more than the flight.
ok- first 4 days in london, then (and this depends on where flies cheap, to where) 4 in paris/4 in Barcelona/3 in another city? why not. fly back to london only to make the transfer to the airport in the day or stay the night (however your flights work out).
London is worth being around for the weekend, Barcelona is good any night of the week, paris not sure.

by the way sorry for throwing in the "extra additional destination" idea in the air. but i think single flights in a loop back to london will be better, and will mean less time travelling. what about berlin! or amsterdam! or dublin?
chack cheap flightc on vueling.com, clickair.com, ryanair.com

travel_buzzing

i'll give u an example- vueling ams-bcn 12th sept 77 dollars all. incl., ryanair bcn-london 16th sept 70 dollars ish (ryanair like throwing on little extra fees)

travel_buzzing

i am getting quite involved in this itnerary now, did you know that you can also fly paris-amsterdam on the 8th sept for 35 euro (50 dollars?). single flights in a nice clean circle back to london.

travel_buzzing

sorry that last flight also vueling

appletea

oooh ok thanks. i'm going to look into this some more. maybe we will go to barcelona then!

appletea

For a first timer to Barcelona, do you think it would be better to take the 2pm flight to barcelona from paris or the 10pm flight? Would it be hard to get around Barcelona from BCN airport to the hotel so late at night? Ideally I was thinking I'd want to stay in Paris til the evening and then go to Barcelona. What do you guys think?

mlaffitte

I don't think you'd have a problem getting from BCN airport into the city if you took the 10 pm flight, but on the other hand you wouldn't really have an "evening" in Paris. If you are staying in the 4th, you would need to leave for Orly airport at around 7, which means you would have to grab dinner on the run (easyJet won't give you much of a meal!) Personally, I would take the 2 pm and then have dinner and a stroll on the Ramblas in Barcelona.

travel_buzzing

hello,
you can get in fine, the airbus runs all night and theres the train also (about half an hour journey for both)
i would look at it in terms of check-in in barcelona(and possible late check-in fee).
do have a look at apartment options in barcelona- due to the low wage in spain, vacation apartments are really cheap and decent. you also get your own lounge & balcony.
yeah i would prefer the 2pm flight, meaning you could arrive, throw your luggage down, shower and go for a nice walk in the sunshine and dinner in the evening.

appletea

thanks for the response. i think that's what we'll be doing. so here's our revised itinerary.

Sept 1-4 - London, Sumner Hotel
Sept 4th-8th - Paris, Henri IV Rive Gauche
Sept 8th - 12th - Barcelona
Sept 12th - 14th - Amsterdam??
Sept 14th - 16th - London

was thinking of a side trip (per travel buzzing) is this too ambitious or too much travelling? they are only 2 hrs flights . . .

any advice? thanks!
also the flight from amsterdam to london is kinda exp- could only find easyjet . . .

appletea

sorry i can't figure out how to delete the prior post, so here is the most recent.

Sept 1-4 - London, Sumner Hotel
Sept 4th-8th - Paris, Henri IV Rive Gauche
Sept 8th - 11th - Barcelona
Sept 11th - 13th - Amsterdam
Sept 13th - 16th - London

Do you think sept 8th 6pm til 11th 6pm is enough time in barcelona? also 11th evening through 13th 3pm for amsterdam and then back to london? or maybe til the 14th in amsterdam then back to london.

Thanks again for everyone's opinion!

travel_buzzing

well i said that i think you should spend more time in the others and come back to london just for the night or your return flight. reasons include double your airport-city journeys and general extra expense. 2 nights in Amsterdam is still 2 nights in amsterdam. i would give both bcn and ams an extra night (they deserve it!) because you'll already have been in london for 4 already.

JoeTro

I would personally do only one of Barcelona or Amsterdam, so that you have more time in London and Paris and reduce your travel. You won't have as much time in London and Paris as you think as a result of all the travel already.

namaka

so let me get this straight?

You are flying on Sept 1st? If so, then you most likely are not arriving until Sept 2nd- and with jet-lag to boot.

So now you have part of Sept 2,
all day Sept 3 and are flying out on Sept 4?
London= basically 1-2 days.

Sept 4 -fly into Paris (part day)
Sept 5,6,7-all day Paris
Sept 8- leave Paris (part day?)
Paris= 3-4 days

Sept 8 -fly into Barcelona (part day)
Sept 9,10,11- Barcelona
Sept 12- Leave Barcelona (part day)
Barcelona- 3-4 days

Sept 12- Fly into Amsterdam (part day)
Sept 13- Amsterdam
Sept 14- Leave Amsterdam (part day)
Amsterdam- 1-2 days

Sept 14- Fly back to London (part day)
Sept 15- London
Sept 16- Fly home (part day)
London- 1-2 days

What about having to pack/unpack every couple of days. And more importantly, what about the time you lose each time you have to trek back and forth to the airport?

Then there are the hours spent on check-ins and security at the airport and even checking into your hotels. I personally think that although you'll be going to 4 different countries, you won't really have a chance to get much of a feel of any one of them. Just my opinion!