campobasso

My husband and I want to travel to the above countries plus take a Riverboat Cruise leaving from (country to be determined) at the end of the land trip. We plan on traveling for three weeks in either September or October of 2015. At this point we are open to the length of time we will be staying in each country obviously wanting to see highlights and points of interest. We are trying to narrow down country to fly into upon leaving Phoenix AZ and then plan from there. We are open to train travel/ferry traveling& some driving. What is your experience on Riverboat Cruises and recommended cruiselines? Lots of questions....open for suggestions such as order in which to travel to these countries plus best Riverboat Cruiselines.

Thanks,
Campobasso

janisj

You need a bit more focus. Your title mentions two cities and one country, but the text says 'how long in each country . . . '

Two and a half to three weeks is close to minimum for just Ireland and London let alone Ireland, London, Paris AND a cruise. Something is going to have to give.

adrienne

You should check into Cruise Critic for cruises.

Paris and London - 5 full days in each. Then you have the entire country of Ireland to explore - several weeks at least. Plus the river cruise. You're going to need a lot more time for all this.

You'll have to choose your river cruise first and then work around that. Decide what country you'd like to see on a river cruise and choose one that fits your requirements/interests.

nytraveler

You can't do all of this in 3 weeks and actually see very much.

If you are determined on the river cruise you need to pick that so you can fit your start and end locations and timing into the rest of your trip. But I think London, Paris and a cruise would be a lot to accomplish. To add Ireland you need to add another 10 days or so. To see other parts of England and France is a totally different trip.

campobasso

Thanks to all of you for your replies so far. We will take all of this into consideration and begin our research concerning this trip. London and Paris are the only two cities within the countries of France and the UK that we plan on visiting. As for Ireland, no, we don't plan on seeing the whole country. We are just starting to do our research. Would it be that we had many months to travel t/o these countries we would. Thanks for the advice, I'm sure there will be many more questions coming up as we continue to make our plans. Will check into Cruise Critic also, thanks Adrienne.

china_cat

Ireland is really the outlier in your itinerary. You just can't see the highlights of Ireland in a couple of days, plus you have to fly to wherever, which takes a good 1/2 day from your sightseeing time. I would leave it for another trip.

and as others have mentioned, you need to zero in on what riverboat, how long, and where it starts and stops before we can help with the itinerary.

I agree with Adrienne that 5 full days in Paris and London would be best, but you might get by with 3 or 4 if you only want to see a few sights. Maybe you should lay out exactly what your top sights are in each of those places then decide how much time you really need. It is so dependent on your interests. If you tell us you hate art museums it makes a big difference. but if you love Monet and want to see every work of his in Paris, and go to Giverny as well, well that makes a whole different set of recommendations. There is no list of "must sees" that applies to every person. Only you can decide that.