Seven days in London - Is day trip to Paris worth doing?

Paris for one day-No! There is too much to do and see in and around London.There is an excellent book that I have used through the years called DAYTRIPS OUT OF LONDON.I believe the author is called Earl Steinbicker? Anyway, it gives you a city like Coventry or Portsmouth and shows you how to get there by train,bus or whatever from London.Then gives you a one/two pages of synopsis of the city and then restaurants,etc.It is an excellent resource and he has written several for other major cities.You can do Stonehenge on your own without the high prices.

You should understand that the Eurostar isn;t like other trains, whichh you just walk up andget on 5 minutes before it leaves. You need to check in with your passport in advance and I believe it has to be at least 30 minutes - plus the time to wait on line for check -in. If you really want to see several sight in Paris, then go for it - but I would never take a tous - just get the train and see the sights you really want to.

If you must go to Paris -- do it on your own. It is very easy and you can do what you want.

I personally wouldn't go, I LOVE London and I LOVE Paris and neither is a satisfactory day trip IMO.

But a day trip is not totally out of the question - the Eurostar is easy and fast. Just up to you if you want take the time away from London. If you do, don't pay someone to take you there.

Thanks, I guess I'll do Paris on my next trip to Europe. Thanks for the advice. I'll look for the book and consider some day trips near by.

Also check out www.walks.com for day trips and walks. They are very affordable and I always send my guests on the stonehenge/Salisbury day trip!

Did you book round trip tickets to London? If this is the case I think one of the lesson you get out of this time is a need to consider ground portion of the trip before committing to the airfare. If you have done multi-city trip into London, out of Paris, then visiting London and Paris would be more palatable. Of course, there are those who feel London visit must be at least so many days long and similarly for Paris. You should be the one to decide the satisfactory mix.

For your next trip, suppose you booked round trip tickets to Paris. And suppose after you booked your flight, you thought about visiting Amsterdam as a day trip. You will be back to the same issue again.

I know several people who have done London to Paris day trip. It is a long day but it can be done. They were glad they did it. You are not the only one who have asked about this in this forum.

really, I would want to do an overnight to make the most of a "day trip" to Paris, but then you are taking too long out of your time in London.

overall i would suggest leaving it until next time, and making it a whole trip.

If you did decide to do it you would need to be at St Pancras checking in at 5:30. To get there at that hour you would need to take a taxi or a night bus. Dont forget to add this cost/time into your considerations...

If you decide to do a day trip other than to Paris (haven't been to Paris but would tend to agree with your decision to save it), and you want to see Stonehenge, you can combine that with Salisbury and do it "on your own." Train to Salisbury, bus/coach tour called The Stonehenge Tour http://www.thestonehengetour.info/which picks up right outside the train station, few hours out to/at/back from Stonehenge, rest of day in Salisbury, train back. Or there may be a LondonWalks tour to Stonehenge while you visit; many recommend them. (Stonehenge from London really isn't a half day, but Salisbury is wonderful, too.)

My favorite day trip is to Oxford.

But you won't run out of things to do IN London, either.

The decision's up to you.

But thousands (?tens of thousands) of us happily take daytrips to Paris from the London area every week with as little fuss as New Yorkers going to Washington. Actually even less, since the journey's shorter and Paris has both a better climate (virtually identical to London) and a wider range of commercial, cultural and self-indulgent draws than your uninhabitable Nation's Capital.

Journey takes a tad less time (and isn't always much pricier) than the journey to Stonehenge. There's no law requiring you to get up at any time: Mrs F's a slugabed, so we'll pop over for a nice lunch and an interesting exhibition if we're flush, catching an 8.30-9.30 train.

What you're getting here is the absurd Fodor Girlie Dogmatism. If you go to Paris, these wannabe dominatrices insist, you MUST do x, y and z and that takes - well a lot more than a day.

It might well do. I've been popping over to Paris for the past half century, and I'm still scratching the surface. You can't "do" Paris in a day, any more than you can "do" it in a month. But you can - sorry, almost certainly will - have a lot more fun there that at Stonehenge, and in a lot less time.

There's absolutely no need for a guided tour. And if you can't get from Park Lane to St Pancras under your own steam, how on earth do you get round your own city?

What you're getting here is the absurd Fodor Girlie Dogmatism. If you go to Paris, these wannabe dominatrices insist, you MUST do x, y and z and that takes - well a lot more than a day.>>

flanner - I hope you are not describing me as a "fodor girlie" - old bag, possibly, girlie, never.

actually i agree that for people who are familiar with Paris, a day trip to see an exhibition, have a decent meal, wander along the seine, is absolutely doable, and can be a good idea. However for people who are not familiar with the city, who might waste a lot of time there grappling with the metro not actually seeing a great deal, AND who don't have a whole lifetime to see London, but only 7 days, i don't think that it is.

I'm with you on Stonehenge - with only 7 days in London, I wouldn't do that either.

>>Fodor Girlie Dogmatism<<

http://tinyurl.com/74dvaed

My DH and I had a good laugh over that one, PatrickLondon!

Ha, Patrick.

I have to say that I'd be tempted to pop over to Paris with a week to burn, if I had no other chances on the horizon. For lunch, even. And I do love both places.

I am willing to come out dogmatically (or is it girlishly?) against Stonehenge, just on general principles.

London is a city full of things to do. But if you wanted one trip out of the city, Paris is one that can be done, without feeling that you have to leave the moment you get there.

It can be done one your own, early Eurostar to Paris (5AM??). Just over 2 hrs.

I'd probably go mid-week to avoid crowds.

www.eurostar.com

Buy a pack of metro tickets. From train station go to Notre Dame area, could easily spend a day wandering that area, nice meal, maybe a Seine cruise, metro back to station (for 20:00) and home.

I am willing to come out dogmatically (or is it girlishly?) against Stonehenge, just on general principles.>>

welcome to the ranks of the old bags, Stoke! I for one am proud to be part of a group that includes you AND Maggie Smith.

Yes, Ann! Let's change it to "dowager dogmatism" and throw it around freely.

And now for the all-important question about how to protect one's valuables when in Paris:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyuoUwxCLMs&feature=related

I can't decide on which crusty dowager to model self in golden years. Maybe shoot for somewhere in between.

Bags i Judy Dench.

Why not consider the Hop-on-hop-off bus? I believe there's a stop right by the Gare du Nord. An early train in (is there a time change involved?) and an evening train out, would still leave quite a few hours to see the sights and whet your appetite for your next vacation.

I've done the day trip to Paris via Eurostar a number of times and have always enjoyed it. Don't forget that Paris is one hour ahead of London when calculating your times.

(Practicing in mirror, a source of innocent merriment. Surely even Evans, Dench and Smith had to practice.)

Surely even Evans, Dench and Smith had to practice.>>

sadly for all of us would-be thespians, probably not.

(Am hoping to use in real life and/or Fodor's.)

I have done it and enjoyed it but I know London somewhat well having lived there and my next visit to Paris would be my 17th or so. If this is your first trip to London I would recommend against it and do a more local day trip instead. You could for example, do a Stonehenge, Salisbury, Bath day trip or Cambridge or...and get a pretty good grip on those destinations in a day. Paris, on the other hand is much to big for a day trip. It would be like going to Disneyland and saying ok, we have 2 hours to experience the park.

I've done several day trips from London (actually starting around 5 am out in Berkshire) to Paris and to Brussels. A lot of fun. Some general advice: don't have too ambitious an itinerary. Relax, stroll, visit only one museum, don't have a heavy lunch. You may find your energy flagging around 4 pm, stop somewhere for a pot of Mariage Freres tea or coffee.

And, hooray, Paris now has a Nap Bar!! If you really start to droop, pop in for a brief snooze:
http://www.barasieste.com/

Everybody who has taken a day trip from New York to Washington, DC for fun please raise your hand.

I went for a day trip from DC to NYC once, for fun, during a 5 day visit. Call me restless. Call me usually in the Midwest and thinking of those towns as just around the corner from each other.

It was memorable because I got to sit across the plane aisle from the Dalai Lama and his entourage.

@Patrick

My parents, my husband and myself took a day trip to Paris, from the UK. As we aren't in London, we actually flew instead of the train. We ate and walked, then walked and ate. No museums. No shopping. Taxis to and from the airport to save time (but not money). It's definitely doable but only with the right attitude.