Itinerary coming together - few concerns though
 

So our May 1 - May 18 is coming together so far with a few reservations:

May 1 - 4 London
May 5 Transition day
May 6 - 9 ?
May 10 Transition day
May 11 - 13 Nice
May 14 Train to Paris
May 15 - 17 Paris
May 18 Fly back

I'm starting to think we are trying to do too much especially having a child with us. Maybe ew need to collapse the trip a bit. We've both been to London/Paris several times. And we like to go back as we each love the cities...

The wife is set on Nice. I'm not sure how many day trips we can do with the little one so I thought less time in each city would give us variety.

The May 6-9 is a hole regardless if we stick to 4 cities. Someplace with a direct flight from London and then direct flight to Nice. We had hoped to stick to training to Nice, but the options are far more limiting.

I'm open to suggestions at this point.

<i>I'm starting to think we are trying to do too much especially having a child with us.</i>

What age? As a general principle, this trip is a slight mess for traveling with a small critter UNLESS the hobbit is still in potted plant phase (7-10 months) and you can keep up a decent routine for him/her.

<i> I'm not sure how many day trips we can do with the little one so I thought less time in each city would give us variety.</i>

This is the exact opposite of optimal.

Hub and spoke - pick a couple of hubs and take day trips. If that means lengthening the stay at the hubs, good.

Why do you need to fly??? Are you only considering large cities that will keep you busy for 4-5 days??

First of all, I would spend more time in Paris & probably London too.

Consider taking the 8:58 train to Amsterdam that arrives at 14:42. One train change in Brussels. Then fly to Nice from Amsterdam.

London, Nice, and Paris would suite me fine - especially with a kid-in-tow. The most "efficient" itinerary would be:

6 nights in London
Train from London to Paris.
6 nights in Paris
train to Nice
Remaining nights in Nice
Fly home from Nice or connect through Paris if you already have tickets.

However, I might prefer breaking up the two BIG cities with relaxed time in Nice.

Stu Dudley

If you're wanting to fly to another city after London prior to going to Nice, pick from one of the following cities with direct flights into Nice on EasyJet.com:

Barcelona, Berlin-Schonefeld, Bordeaux, Bristol, Brussels, Hamburg (begins 30 March 2014), Lille, Lisbon (begins 1 April 2014), Liverpool, Lyon, Nantes, Naples, Rome-Fiumicino, Toulouse, Venice-Marco Polo.
Seasonal: Belfast-International, Edinburgh, Marrakech (begins 1 April 2014), Newcastle upon Tyne, Olbia, Palermo (begins 6 July 2014)

You can also get back to Paris on EasyJet.com inexpensively from Nice.

I would limit my stops to London, Paris and Nice and do day trips from those 3 cities. With a child, depending on its age, you may want to consider apartments.

Hi uscun,

is May 1 arrival day? in which case you have only 3 days in London - barely time to show the little'un the Tower, Buck house, [for the soldiers] and Hampton Court.

I suspect that you already know the answer to this - london first, Paris last, and a "nice" sandwich in the middle.

Are sites closed on May Day in London????

Stu Dudley

<<Are sites closed on May Day in London????>>

Thursday 1 May is a normal working day in the UK. Monday 5 May is a public holiday.

Are sites closed on May Day in London????

Shouldn't think so Stu - the Bank holiday is on Monday 5th May. May 1st should be a normal day.

The little one will be 10 months. So she'll be happier when we walk through a park or something.

I've debated one time travel to the middle city vs day trips out. The wife wants to avoid day trips to be closer to the home bAse hotel. It's a wash to me. Getting out for a day trip w her will mean packing what we need for the day. Moving to a new city means enough to do in area to keep us near the hotel.

London and Paris stops are simply cause I love london and our anniversary makes paris a great memory to be in.