janis

As Dale said - a cottage in the country IS much cheaper than a flat in London. But since you specifically asked about London, that is what most of us addressed. You can get a lovely 2 or 3 bedroom cottage in Kent, Sussex, the Cotswolds, the New Forest, etc for £150 to £400 per week. <BR> <BR>While some city flats will rent for shorter periods, almost all cottages require 7 days rental. If you have enough time, spend a week in the country, 5 to 7 days in London and maybe a few days in Paris. The biggest expense will be the airfare - which will be the same whether you take 7 or 17 days. <BR> <BR>In the country you would need a largish car for a family your size - so you need to add £250 £350 for a week's car hire plus petrol at approx $5.00 per imperial gallon.

Nano

Splash, did you ever tell us the ages of your kids? We just returned from taking our three kids to Paris, Brussels and Dordogne at ages 12, 10 and 6. I would highly recommend Paris. It turned out to be our favorite place, contrary to my assumptions. I just got our credit card bill and our hotel (Champs de Mars in the 7th arrondisement) was $132/night for our TWO rooms for 5 nights. Our total bill was $660. We put all three kids in one room (a double plus a cot) and we had a separate room. They were witin earshot, but they also called us on the phone a lot. It worked out well. We generally skipped breakfast, grabbed sandwiches baguettes) for lunch and ate at nice restaurants at night. A typical restaurant bill was $100 for five of us at dinnertime and about half that for lunch, if we were at a sit-down restaurant. We can't eat that cheaply in Maine!! We took the metro or walked everywhere. We did a few museums. The kids adored the Eiffel Tower. <BR> <BR>I love London, too, and one day we'll take the kids there, but Paris was a much bigger hit with the kids than I ever imagined. <BR> <BR>Either way, you can't go wrong, but I did think our dollar seemed particularly strong this time in Paris. I'd go back tomorrow if I could. Feel free to e-mail me.