Hi!
We are planning a 1 week visit to UK & Belgium in April. I have a few questions:
1. Is that trying to do too much in a week?
2. Should we limit it to UK?
3. If we limit it to UK, do we have enough time to visit, London, Scotland, Ireland, Wales?
4. My husband & I have been to London several times but the kids have never been.
5. None of us has ever been to Belgium.
Your feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
UK & Belgium Travel plans
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I think that if you try to visit four countries in one week, you'll spend most of your time on planes or trains.
Hi firstravel,
I see you're new here, so welcome to fodors!
i'm sure that there will be a lot of people who would love to help you, but we need a bit more info first:
1. How long do you actually have? for example, if you arrive at 6pm on a sunday, and leave at 10am on the following sunday, you actually only have 6 days, even though you have 7 nights.
2. Where are you coming from? - if you're from the US, you may suffer from jetlag, which may cut down what you can really do.
3. Who's in your group? Adults, kids, ages?
4. are your flights booked? where do you arrive at and leave from?
first reactions - in a week you would be hard pressed to see most of the major tourist sights in London, and you certainly won't have time to get to Scotland, Ireland and Wales.
as for Belgium, is there some particular reason you fancy going there? and will you have to get back to london to fly home?
Way too many places in way to little time.
Figure out what your 3 must sees are - and how long it will take to get from one place to another (very rarely less than 1/2 a day - even if you start at 6 am).
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With 7 days I would pick 2 locations at most so that you actually get time to see where you are. For example - London and Edinburgh, London and Dublin, London and Brussels or Bruges, or any other combination. Factor in about 1/2 lost to the process of transit every time you move (packing,checking in and out of hotels, getting to airport/train station, flight or train, finding your hotel...you get the picture). So the more you move the more costly it is, and the less you actually see of the city you are visiting.
You could also spend the whole time in one location and do day trips. From London there are tonnes, just check out www.walks.com for some ideas. Each city would good day trips.
Hope this helps!
"3. If we limit it to UK, do we have enough time to visit, London, Scotland, Ireland, Wales?"
Nope. London and one other place (not whole country) in a week. You have to account for jet lag, and travel time.
Or just London if you want the kids to see/do a lot.
London will have tons of stuff for the kids. Belgium is a beautiful country but as others have pointed out it'll cost you (time to travel)
you can make London your base and using the Eurostar to reach Brussels or Bruges for a daytrip
We did London and Bruges Belgium in two weeks last fall and did not have enough time in either location. I would suggest spending the week in London with a day trip or two. Perhaps a day out to Hampton Court Palace or a bit farther afield to York, Rye, Canterbury or even Paris for the day.
Depending on the age and interests of your children they might enjoy the London Transport Museum and the new Harry Potter/Warner Bros Studio Tour. The latter was on my to do list last fall but we ran out of time (and we don't even have kids!)