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Please help me plan a London-Paris-Monaco trip for my parents.

Please help me plan a London-Paris-Monaco trip for my parents.

Old Jan 4th, 2011, 11:34 AM
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Please help me plan a London-Paris-Monaco trip for my parents.

Hi Everyone. Hope you had a great holiday season. I'm wondering if you could help me out.

I got my parents 2 air tickets to the Europe from the USA. They have decided that they want to spend a total of 14 days going to London, Paris, and Monaco. Seeing that none of us have ever been to Europe, I figured that some of you might be able to help.

Looking at it, I think they want to spend the first 5 days in London, then the next 5 days in Paris, then the last 4 in Monte Carlo. My questions is, does that make sense, or should I have them start in Monte Carlo and then end in London?

As well, I'm clueless as to how to get them from one place to another? I know that the train goes everywhere, but if you have recommendations on specific trains or if flying is better, please do let me know.

They are going to want to see all the major tourist attractions and stay within those zones. As much as I would like for them to be adventurous, they wanna stay pretty conservative.

In any case, please let me know if you have any suggestions on how you would plan this trip. In the meantime, I'm gonna try and surf some other threads.

Thanks!
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 11:48 AM
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Trains let them see the lay of land like the gorgeous French countryside between Paris to Nice - just under five hours now on trains going up to nearly 200 mph.

From London have them take the Chunnel train to Lille-Europe station and transfer there to a TGV train to Lyon or to Nice - if one does not go directly to Nice from Lille then have them change in a place like Lyon - negates having to go into Paris and changing trains stations to get to Nice and saves time and money as well.

For going back put them on the TGV to Paris and then from Paris the Chunnel (Eurostar) trains back to London. Book them discounted PREM fares at www.voyages-sncf.com (French railways site) and get cheap but limited in number Chunnel tickets from www.eurostar.com.

Why Monaco for 5 days - many here have said that Monaco was worth about five hours of time not five days - there are lots of IMO more dreamy and better located places to stay, like in Nice itself or seaside towns like Antibes.

For an understanding of French trains try these IMO fab sites: www.seat61.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com; www.ricksteves.com

Anyway 5 days on the Riviera is super - can take public transports anywhere - like to fab hilltowns like St-Paul-d-Vence, Grasse, Biot, Vence or to Cannes, Antibes, etc.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 11:53 AM
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Have you already bought the airline tickets? If not, you should do an open-jaw ticket for this trip; since London and Monaco are not close to each other you'll just waste vacation time backtracking.

With regard to Monaco, 5 days there would just about kill me. A half a day or less and I'm ready to move on. Might as well be in Beverly Hills. Given all the other beautiful options in the area, I'd rethink that part of the plan.

Also, check www.whichbudget.com and other sites to see if there are cheap flights from Paris to Nice (or Marseilles); it might be less expensive than the train (though probably not, and the scenery IS lovely from the train).
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 11:53 AM
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Got ya. Thanks for the info. I just read a bunch of threads that said that Monaco isn't that cool, so I'll more than likely just keep them in Nice and stuff.

This is awesome. Thanks!
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 11:56 AM
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Your plan sounds okay to me, I don't see what difference it makes as to which end you start in, except the airfare could be slightly different. If that is important to you, you should check that.

One other consideration is how you are getting back home. It is easy to get a flight from London. However, if you fly back from Monaco, you are going to have to get from Monaco to some other large city with flights (I'm guessing Nice). Now Nice isn't really that far from Monaco, and there are probably car services or something, so I imagine that isn't that difficult. Here's some info on those type of arrangements
http://www.yourmonaco.com/airport

You won't have a choice of trains, there aren't competing rail companies in each country all laying their own tracks. Each country only has one railroad. The Eurostar train from London to Paris is easy and quick, I'd do that rather than flying myself given I think flying is a big pain (getting to the airports, the security, etc). And the French railroads are great so it is easy enough to get a train from Paris to Monaco, although that's a much longer trip. But it's still fairly easy. I don't think you'll find any great cheap fares to Monaco, anyway, so you'd have to get there from some other city if you flew (I am guessing).

I don't understand your saying you are trying to figure out itinerary but you already got them air tickets. Maybe you mean you just said you would as a promissory present and will figure that part out later.

This is actually a bit of a challenge for folks who have never done this kind of thing before, I think. It's not terribly difficult, just several trains and figuring out the end part of getting to the airport, but it sounds like none of you have been on a train.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 11:58 AM
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No, haven't got the tix yet. So far, the plan is US-London, 2 weeks, then Paris-US, and then they can fill their time with whatever in between.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 12:00 PM
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Actually, I do have tickets...let me explain.

I got them vouchers from United that allow then to fly in and out of any airport in Europe. Once in and once out.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 12:05 PM
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Also, any suggestions on sites to book hotels on? Or hotel recommendations in general? Need not be too fancy. My parents don't appreciate really upscale places.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 12:21 PM
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Just search here for hotels London or hotels Paris or whatnot. There are thousands of suggestions and recommendations.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 12:22 PM
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before anyone can recommend hotels-- we need to know their budget.

Also - is it 14 days not counting their flights to and from Europe, or 14 days total start to finish?

Also, also - how old are they and how fit? Transatlantic/overnight flights can take a lot out of some folks - and even healthy people can severely suffer from jet lag for a few days.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 12:49 PM
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It's 14 days, 13 nights. Get there on 10 april morning, go home on 24 april afternoon.

parents are like 70. That;s why they wanna stay primarily touristy and near the trains and stuff.

kinda like....walk out the door, take the train, see the Eiffel tower, walk to that other touristy thing over there, take another train, go back to hotel.

As for budget, is $150 USD a night reasonable?
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 01:11 PM
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Reasonable is a most ambiguous term.

The "average" room price is a bit higher - closer to NYC prices.

However, there ARE in rooms the city centers close to or below $150/night (especially Paris) - nothing fancy, but it sounds like that may not be an issue. You might want to - biyt don't have to - go a bit higher even for a budget hotel ($175 ?).

I would start with the links below. These are all well researched and actually stayed in by the editors of Eurocheapo website. More importantly, all are well located (I've only linked the most central zones):

http://www.eurocheapo.com/london/hoods/soho.html
http://www.eurocheapo.com/london/hoods/bloomsbury.html
http://www.eurocheapo.com/london/hoo...ensington.html

http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/hood...n-de-pres.html
http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/hoods/near-louvre.html
http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/hoods/chatelet.html
http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/hood...n-quarter.html
http://www.eurocheapo.com/paris/hoods/marais.html

Note: in all the Paris zones above, closer to the river is always better.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 01:31 PM
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My recommendation: stay in Nice(France) and then go to Monaco. It's far too expensive to stay in Monaco itself.

I reckon:
Paris, France - 5 nights (day trip to Versailles a must)
Nice, France - 3 nights (one day in Monaco should be enough)
London, England, UK - 6 nights

Reasons for above: Only 4 full days in Paris are needed, + it's easier to fly out of London than Nice (or Paris). However most will recommend the Channel tunnel either from London to Paris or the reverse, guess that's up to your parents.

The route from Paris to Nice is a vacation in and of itself.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 01:44 PM
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>

Says who? Maybe it's all you need, but some of us would happily settle in for weeks. And since this is a first trip to Europe, I think dividing the London-Paris time equally makes the most sense.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 04:24 PM
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OK -- time for a bit of a reality check. The entire trip is 14 days - 13 nights. That will make it pretty hectic for 3 major cities.

consider:
Arrive in London on day 2, get acclimated and try to recover from Jet lag.

Four more days in London.

Half a day spent packing, traveling to Paris and checking in to hotel.

4.5 days in Paris.

Day spent packing, traveling to the south of France and checking in to hotel.

Two days in the south.

One day packing and flying home.

Just London and Paris will be much easier and they won't be frazzled.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 04:40 PM
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I think London, Paris and Riviera makes sense - but not Monaco. It's a very small country (smaller than Central Park), for the extremely wealthy and with a limited amount to do. Better for them to base in Nice, which is a much larger and more interesting city, and has a ton more to do. Also, from Nice they can easily take trains or buses to other towns either along the cost or up in the hills to see a variety of museums and sights.

IMHO the best thing about Monte Carlo is to go to the casino one night when there are a bunch of large yachts in the harbor. Dress to the nines and go to the inner rooms of the casino and you will feel like you are in a James Bond movie. Just be sure you have proper clothes - and are careful you understand how much you're betting. We've done this a couple of time for a hoot - and then had a great dinner afterwards. But, it's definitely a budget stretcher.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 04:44 PM
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Sorry - if you can change the tickets I would fly into London and out of Nice. If not, send them to London, first then Paris, then Nice for a quick flight home the day they return from London to the US.

For hotel recos you need to give us a budget and what you parents expecttions are. I assume they don;t want 5* - but they probably do want what would be a 4* there (a US 3*, with private baths, elevators, AC and all the basic services). And yes, you do have to enquire carefully about AC - many less expensive hotels in europe do NOT have any.
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 09:24 PM
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@StCirq
I was only stating what was absolutely necessary. I'd advise a minimum of 15 nights to get the full Parisian experience.

Why do you assume it was based on what I reckon to be the appropriate amount of time? (rather than what is absolutely necessary)
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Old Jan 4th, 2011, 09:49 PM
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"stay primarily touristy and near the trains and stuff"....

If by train you mean the long distance kind, you might rethink your strategy on just what you want to optimize. For example Paris, they would use the long distance station twice. Say they stay 5 nights. Would they want to choose a hotel based on two events, going to hotel and back to the train station, which could just as well be completed by taxi but pay overhead in going to other places all through their stay?
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Old Jan 5th, 2011, 08:47 AM
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Greg, you beat me to it.

For goodness sake, if you travel 5000 miles, what's a $5 taxi to go one extra mile to stay in a charming area?! (hint: the charming areas are NEVER near the main train stations in Europe). It's a VACATION - stay somewhere pleasant!
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