I will be traveling overseas with my boyfriend this winter (first time for both of us) thanks to my parents, who have given us a week at a time share. We are awaiting confirmation, but believe we will be staying in the southeast part of England (Kent/Sussex/Hampshire).

We have a week at the time share and had originally thought about doing a whirlwind day tour of Paris (seeing sites from the outside without taking tours). Upon reading some of the other posts, I am leaning towards perhaps leaving the states on a Thursday, flying into Paris (because of the exhorbitant taxes on flights into London), spending the night there Friday night and taking the Eurostar over to London on Saturday evening to check into our accommodations for the week. We would book a return train trip and fly back out of Paris as well the following Saturday or Sunday. I know 2 days is still probably not enough for Paris but a trip to Europe is not an everyday occurrence for me and I want to see as much as I can, even if it means not seeing everything!

Can anyone provide some affordable lodging options in Paris that would allow us to get the most out of 2 days in the city? I also welcome any suggestions of what is most important to tour and what is best to just read up on and visit on your own (without pricy admissions).

We have 2 sets of friends here who have spent time in Europe and offered many suggestions for our time in England and for Paris as well. I have heard that there is a TON to keep you busy in London proper, but my boyfriend is a photographer/artist and wants to see the countryside and soak up as much of the European experience as possible so I would also welcome any thoughts on day trips to get us out of the city.

We are thinking - since we will have around 6 days if we do Paris seperately - of maybe spending 2-3 days in London and the rest touring the country. I looked over the train map on another site and found there are extensive trains. Does anyone think it would be necessary to rent a car or can we travel fairly well with a train pass?

Any advice??

Sure that's doable. You could take the last train from Paris to London on Sat night (but do book it well ahead) and have about 1.5 days in Paris - though the first day will be fairly jet lagged.

But - if you time share is out in the country (as most are) you wouldn't be able to get there by any sort of public transport. If you rent a car upon arrival you need to make sure the rental locationn is open late on weekends (or open weekends at all).

By winter the Eurostar will go to St Pancras and Ebbsfleet instead of Waterloo. So I'd try to fly out on Wed, leave Paris on Friday night, spend Friday night in London (Priceline a hotel to save a LOT of money), and then Sat afternoon head to your timeshare.

But - be sure you get a confirmed timeshare first - the exact location will make a LOT of difference re your transport options.

There are no taxes on flying into London.

There IS a high tax (£40 ordinary, £80 premium classes) on an intercontinental flight OUT of London. But that's it, and it makes no sense of any sort to route yourself via Paris (to which, on balance, fares average out slightly higher from the US as there's less competition) just to avoid this, since the Eurostar will more than wipe any saving out.

There is, of course, an excellent case for combining London and Paris, and overnight stays in Paris are generally cheaper than their London equivalent. But don't route via Paris, or incur unnecessary hotel costs, to avoid pollution tax. Apart from anything else, the French are the strongest arguers for making this compulsory worldwide, and who knows what they'll have introduced by the end of the year?

As for your plans in England. Practically all the suggested timeshare locations require you to travel into London and change stations to get to most places you might like to visit: train travelling within SE England is generally tricky, for all the region's density of railway tracks, unless you're going into London. As Janis says, you shouldn't make any plans until you know where you're going to be. But don't underestimate how long it will take to get from the Kent or Hampshire countryside to anywhere else, whether by train or car. IN the few daus available, you're not going to see very much.

Timeshare almost certainly requires you to have a car. This will probably be the best way to get round places in SE England outside London. IN all probability, you'll get litle out of a rail pass, unless you (sensibly) want to commute into and out of London each day.

Oh - flanneruk's post reminds me that I missed addressing the trains vs car question. W/o knowing which timeshare (I've stayed at several in southern England and know the locations/amenities of most of the others) we can't really answer for sure. But the VAST majority would require you to have a car to see/do much of anything. And few if any would be reasonable bases for visiting London. There are a couple of properties IN London itself, but they tend to book up years in advance.

janisj and flanneruk have some good suggestions.

I guess I would find it too time consuming to go back / forh to / from Paris. I've noticed that some U.S. carriers are flying into Stanstead.

The train costs might be more expensive than staying in London for the night. Add in the hassle of the traveling.

It's a mess getting out of Heathrow, but you can have good access to the motorway, that is, once your find it. Gatwick being slightly better for in and out, but has its problems also. Nail down where you're going and check alternatives.

If you want to get anal about which airport is best, find each airport's website and check 'arrivals'. This will help you pin down what airline is flying where and when. A bit time consuming, but the results might be very helpful.

Agree with all of the above. Find out where the time share, then check if trains even local, then car etc

You might even be better off using one of the low-cost airlines if you are near Southampton, Bournemouth, Biggin Hill airports etc.

You really need to know where you're staying to bein planning.

Hi J,

If you really want to "soak up" the culture, you certainly aren't going to do it with 2 highly stressed days in Paris.

I suggest that you save your time and money and stick to the UK this trip.

If you put away $50/month, you will be able to visit Paris for a week in under 4 years.

I'm sorry if I missed this, but I'm wondering if you can't fly into Paris and out of London? That would make the idea workable, IMHO. Otherwise, returning to Paris to fly home would waste precious vacation time. I suggest you look into 'open-jaw' , also called 'multi-city' fares.
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ttt

If this information helps anyone wishing to respond, we have one week total at the time share in England and anything else we want to do (ie: Paris) is going to mean lodging costs and additional time off work for both of us. I know 2 days is not nearly enough to see Paris, but it would give us a taste. We would like to spend most of our time in London and in the English countryside and that is what I was referring to when I was talking about "soaking up" Europe. I am prepared for a 2 day trip to Paris (should we decide to do that) to be quite rushed but at the same time - while I definitely want to walk around the city and see the sights - I think we could try to keep it relaxed. I would not want to tackle things like seeing the Louvre when I know that would take up an entire day for us. Paris has always fascinated me and I just can't fathom the thought of being a few hours away and not going to see the city at all. I'm sure we'll make it back someday to spend a greater amount of time there but for now, I will be happy to have simply been there.

I had not really thought about "open jaw" tickets because I have read so many horror stories about taxes in/out of London airports and found for myself that the same airline round trip from Tennessee to Paris was about $300 less that the flight in & out of London. Considering that is $300 per person less, it would cover the majority, if not all, of our added expenses from the Eurostar tickets and a hotel room in Paris for a night. I will definitely look into a multi-city flight, though, thanks to many suggestions leading me down that path.

As for sightseeing, I know we will probably be 30-60 minutes out from London wherever we are, but we didn't have the option of staying in the city. I am hoping that wherever we end up does indeed have a direct train route into London as I can certainly see how that would make train travel easier. We are primarily interested in seeing things like Stonehenge, "Shakespeare country", Bath and other areas, hoping to get somewhat off the beaten path and away from the tourist stops, although we will be going in low season so that might help.

Thanks to those who have already posted and I welcome anyone else's input as we have plenty of time for me to think about your suggestions between now & when we leave the country. I will continue to update as our plans take shape.

Though England has a pretty extensive rail network, Kent is one of the few counties that doesn't have great rail links, so I would say you'd be better off with a car for that part of the country.

In Paris, you'll be able to see a lot in two days, and it's definitely worth the trip. A hotel I like is the Passy Eiffel - 3 star, marble bathrooms, basic breakfast with the hotels homemade honey, nice helpful staff. Lovely safe upmarket location in the 16th. Drawbacks - it's not on ligne 1 of the metro, though it's a very short level walk - 1 min - from a metro station.

http://www.passyeiffel.com/index-gb.htm

Top Tip - You'll probably save money on your Eurostar fare and hotel if you book it as a package, through someone like Eurostar, Lastminute.com etc

My must-do's would be the Pompidou Centre and the Sacre Coeur. Avoid the Champs Elysees which is touristy and tacky, and get a shopping guide to help you seek out the best independant boutiques, perfumiers etc. The big old dept stores are worth a visit though, for unusual French beauty brands and fab underwear wrapped with rose petals! - my favourite - Samaritaine - is apparently closed for renovation/conversion so try Galeries Lafayette or Printemps instead. I like window shopping in Place Vendome, where all the exclusive jewellers are, too.

You absolutely MUST nail down the timeshare. Your UK plans are pretty far flung and the location of the resort will be the determining factor re what you can/can't do as day trips. There are few if any timeshare resorts w/i 30-60 minutes of central London. And most are also not on/near rail lines.

The ones in Kent/East Sussex are much too far from "Shakespeare country", and the ones in Warwickshire (there is a popular one at Walton Hall near Stratford/Warwick) are an awfully blong ways from Stonehenge.

So wait until you know which place you are staying and then we can help you w/ itineraries.

In Paris, do try to see St. Chappelle with its beautiful stained glass windows. It's quite close to Notre Dame.

If you have any money left, get ice cream at Berthillion on Isle St. Louis and/or macarons at Laduree on Champs Elysee. If you go to see the Arch de Triomphe, you can walk down the street to it and be able to tell your friends at home you were there. Be sure to check out the beautiful ladies' room.

Consider visiting the Louvre on Friday night when it open late. We did this leaving the days free for other sightseeing. After 6.00 pm it is cheaper and there are fewer visitors. We then went out for dinner.

Okay folks - we have finally been able to nail down our lodging and here is the "revised" plan. Please give me any feedback you might have...

We will be departing the states on Dec 12 for a flight to Paris. We arrive there on Thursday morning & will spend Thursday night & Friday night in the city.

Saturday, we will depart for London via the Chunnel and will travel from London to our timeshare. We are staying at the Barnsdale Country Club on Rutland Water. Questions for me regarding this part of the journey are:
Should we rent a car in London & drive to the TS or take the train(s) to Rutland & wait until we arrive there to rent a car? (There is a car rental 4 km from the TS.)
Also, any ideas for day trips (max 2-3 hours travel time each way) other than Nottingham, Oxford, Stratford-upon-Avon and perhaps Cambridge? We do intend to rent a car so we are prepared to tackle driving in England and can hopefully manage to stay on the proper side of the road!!

We will depart the TS on Friday the 21st and travel into London. We hope to spend Friday night & Saturday night in London before flying back to the states on Sunday.

We are already prepared to freeze while we are there, but winter is "slow season" for my boyfriend so that is when we have to take extended vacations. I am just planning to bring my heavy coat!

I'm open to any suggestions for places to go, things to see and especially for budget friendly yet unique lodging in Paris & London.

I have already received a wealth of information from those of you who have posted previously and I appreciate all the input. Keep the ideas coming. I have many months between now & the time we leave so I am certain that I will have more inquiries for you all.

OK - I've stayed at Barnsdale. The car rental agency is likely in Stamford or possibly Oakham. There is a lOT to see much nearer than Oxford/Cambridge. However I suspect most will be closed in Dec. I'll check a few sites before recommending specifics.

For lOndon I'd recommend Priceline. Check out biddingfortravel.com.

..re car. You will not want to drive in London but you can pick up a car on the outskirts of London on a distant tube or train stop area. Book your car before hand...check multiple sites but I usually find autoeurope very good.

OK - just checked and most places are closed (Burghley House, Belvoir Castle, Rockingham Castle, and several others)

I did find these:

The Rutland Railway museum is open on the Sat. Dec 16 only for a "santa special"

Kirby Hall is open most days while you are staying at Barnsdale.

Rutland water is a big water sports area, but naturally that will be shut down in Dec.

It may be too late at this point - but was this the ONLY resort you were offered?? I've stayed in many others all over England and Barnesdale probably would be one of my bottom two for a Dec visit. Most of the accomodations are small A-frame chalets w/ small patios/terraces out in the grounds . . . .

PS It might be a bit cold in Paris for ice-cream in Dec, but you could go for hot chocolate at Angeline instead. This is quite a modern chain, so perhaps not an obvious choice, but the patesserie is lovely, and the hot choc comes the old fashioned way - cup of broken chocolate pieces with a separaate jug of warm milk for you to pour on!

If you are from the US, you might want to visit the 'other' Statue of Liberty.