eurotrip_girl

Hi,

As posted earlier, me and my family are planning a trip to Europe this year wherein we are entering/exiting via London. Below is our itinerary and I would like to get your inputs specifically on places to visit and the arrangement of the cities. If there are restaurants, free walking tours and other sites that you would recommend, please feel free to do so:

Day 1: Arrival in London
Day 2: Take a free walking tour c/o Sandeman tours to Trafalgar Square, Nelson's column, 10 Downing street, Big Ben, House of Parliament, Churchill War Rooms, St. James Park, Buckingham Palace, Harrods
Day 3: Day Trip to Oxford, Stratford Upon Avon, Cotsworld via the English Bus Tour
Day 4: Notting hill, Piccadilly Circus, The Mall, Westminster Abbey, London Eye
Day 5: Tower Bridge, Tower of London, Borough Market, St. Pauls Cathedral
*** Option to take overnight bus via Megabus to Edinburgh***
Day 6: Option 2 to fly into Edinburgh if there is a promo fare. Visit Scott Monument, Royal Mile, St. Gile's Cathedral, Edinburgh Castle, Grassmarket
Day 7: Edinburgh-- Arthurs Seat, Calton Hill, Cockburn Street, Princes Street Gardens
Day 8: Travel via air to Paris; Visit Champs Elysees, Arc de Triumph
Day 9: Paris--Pantheon, Notre Dame Cathedral, Louvre Museum, Eiffel Tower
Day 10: Paris-- Sacre Coeur Basilica, Palace of Versailes;
Day 11: Take a train to Lourdes via TGV; Visit Our Lady of Lourdes
Day 12: Lourdes--Grotto of Massabielle, Our Lady of Immaculate Conception, Basilica of St Pius X
*** Travel Back to London***

Looking forward to your inputs

nytraveler

The fastest train from Paris to Lourdes is more than 6 hours so the earliest you can get there is about 1 pm. Not sure when you are planning on going and what the weather and crowds will be at that time.

Also how do you plan on returning to London. Will that be a flight back on Day 13 with a return home from London on Day 14? (I would be very hesitant to try to return to London and then leave for home on the same day. Have you looked into those flights?)

RM67

If you haven't already booked flights then look into flying open jaw.

If you want to visit Scotland, I might be tempted to fly into there (if its possible from your starting location), spend a few days, then train down to London (4.5hrs), spend a few days there, Eurostar to Paris (just over 2hrs), few days there, then fly home from Paris.

I would replace Harrods with Liberty - Liberty is more quintessentially British. I personally wouldn't visit Lourdes as this is a significant detour for one location and you have three amazing cities already which you won't struggle to find things to do in.

StCirq

I fail to understand why a round trip into and out of London makes any sense for this trip. If you haven't already booked it, get an open-jaw ticket.

And Lourdes is WAY out of the way for such a very short time.

bilboburgler

Just a few thoughts

1) This is some tight planning in a short period of time
2) Harrods (or Horrids as most Brits call it) is not the most interesting of shops, as RM says Liberty is far nicer and I'd also suggest Fortnum and Masons, though you could also try surfing for "special shops in london"
3) I'm going to assume that Lourdes is pretty important to you so I'd also look at flights within Europe and back to the states from Toulouse/Barcelona/Madrid, certainly openjaw helps a lot but you may find flying Edinburgh to Toulouse or even Bordeaux makes more sense.

Use skyscanner to get an idea of what is available or even rome2rio, neither tool is perfect but they give you some alternative ideas. Prices are generally good 12 weeks+ for trains and planes but stuff varies, look at seat61 to understand the train options

4) as a general time saving rule never go to the same place twice on the same trip

janisj

You have very little time in London really and you are taking a whirlwind tour where you will merely get a glimpse of the Cotswolds/Stratford/Oxford. Just the drive between London > Stratford-upon-Avon > say Bourton-on-the Water, Oxford and back > London will be at least 225 miles and more than 5 hours. That s the 'butts in seats time' . . . not seeing/visiting time. Total waste IMO.

How do you sleep on overnight buses? That could be one hellacious day in Edinburgh.

RT flights in and out of London really mess up your itinerary -- have you already purchased the tix?

I assume the walking tour ends at the Palace . . . if so Trafalgar Square, Nelson's column (which is IN Trafalgar Sq), 10 Downing street, Big Ben (which is ATTACHED to the Houses of Parliament), House of Parliament, Churchill War Rooms (absolutely nothing to see from outside and a free tour won't take you inside), St. James Park and Buckingham Palace are all close to each other. So the walking tour shouldn't take more than 90 minutes -- and that is only if the guide talks a LOT.

And when you are standing in front of the Houses of Parliament - if you turn around you will be looking straight at Westminster Abbey. I makes MUCH more sense to visit the Abbey when you are RIGHT there - not two days later.

Also the Mall runs between Trafalgar Sq and the Palace along St James's Park - an Piccadilly Circus is very close to Trafalgar Sq. and the Eye is a five minute walk fro Big Ben . . . All which makes day 4 pretty redundant.

>>Day 4: Notting hill, Piccadilly Circus, The Mall, Westminster Abbey, London Eye<<

To be honest - Day 5 is the only London day that works well. Those four sites are a very good combination.

eurotrip_girl

Hi All,

First of all thanks so much for all your replies!

Yes, we have already purchased our tickets wherein we need to fly in and out of London. Thats why I fixed the itinerary as such.

My parents really want to visit Lourdes that's why they are willing to go out of the way just to be able to visit it.

Given this, is London - Edinburgh - Paris - Lourdes - London feasible? Or should we go direct to Lourdes from Edinburgh?

When we go back to London on day 13, we have about 4 more days in London to see the other sites and go inside places to tour (including Harry Potter, go outlet shopping). Is it best to go outlet shopping in London? Or the one in Paris is better?

Thank you!

janisj

Oh -- so you have 4 additional days in London - 16 days total - right? That helps.

But I might consider rearranging everything a bit.

• Fly into London and immediately fly up to Edinburgh that same day. Stay 3 nights.

• Fly to Barcelona and either stay one night or travel directly on to . . .

• Lourdes - stay 2 nights

• Train to Paris - stay 4 nights

• Train to London - stay the rest of the time in London

sheila

The only direct (scheduled) flights to and from Lourdes related to places already in this itinerary are from Paris Orly and London Stansted.

Barcelona is hundreds of miles away and doesn't really work as a gateway to Lourdes. Even Toulouse is the guts of 2 hours drive.

I'd fly, since it's about the destination and not the journey. And be aware that Lourdes itself is nothing to write home about. The Sanctuary is worth the visit, if you are Catholic, and the main procession is at 9pm at night, and should be the focus of your trip there, assuming pilgrimage is the thing

eurotrip_girl

Hi,

Were currently finalizing our itinerary and we are looking at the following:

London (5 days)
Edinburgh (3 days)
Paris (5 days)
Lourdes (2 days)
London (since our flight enters and exits via London)

Was thinking, is there a middle city which we can stay in between Paris-Lourdes or Lourdes-London? Hope you could help. Thanks!

janisj

How many days are you planning for this 'middle city'? Up thread you indicate you have 16 nights . . . If that hasn't changed you don't have time for another city.

eurotrip_girl

@janisj We have about 3 days for another city.

janisj

How many <u>nights</u> total do you have on the ground in Europe? If your earlier post is still your schedule - you only have 16 nights (possibly 17 nightssince you keep mentioning 'days'). 6 days London (5+1), 3 days Edinburgh, 5 days Paris, and 2 days Lourdes already is more than 16 nights.

Or -- have you lengthened the trip?

It really is best to plan in terms of 'nights'.

eurotrip_girl

Just wanted to ask, we will be travelling from Lourdes to London. But since the date that we chose to travel does not have a RyanAir flight, I only saw one possible flight via Air France. The problem is it flies from Lourdes to Paris Orly then we need to switch from Orly to Paris CDG airport to catch our flight to London. We have 3 and a half hours to do this. Is it possible? Thanks!

janisj

>>Orly to Paris CDG airport to catch our flight to London. We have 3 and a half hours to do this. Is it possible?<<

Not close to possible.

This is confusing -- do you mean you will be in Lourdes and want to get to London to fly out the same day? You really want to be in London the night before your flight out, not in Lourdes.